We went around to the local bike shops and got Tamara on a few bikes today. She tried out a Cannondale touring bike and some hybrid. She descided that she would prefer the drops (ram horn handle bars) to a flat one and that a proper touring bike would be better than a hybrid. Only one shop actually had bikes built in her size; another shop is putting one they had in stock together for her to try out.
My bike needs a new bottom bracket and cranks. There was a bit of play between the bottom bracket axle and the left crank, which is what I think used to cause it to "clunk" on occasion. When I got the clipless pedals they exacerbated the problem and the crank actually started walking off the shaft. So there's been more play in it since. I can't decide if I should fix it, which would be at least $100, or just get a new one alltogether. You know, one for which parts can actually be found, without having to replace huge chunk of the component group. I should see how much rust there is in the frame. Might as well chuck it if the frame is going to rust out from under me in a year. It wouldn't be bad to replace it. The top tube is a little bit too long for me anyway.
Some one was wondering where I got the term "brevet", which I also misspelled as "bivet" in my last post. The cycling use kind of lines up with the dictionary definition. From the Randonneurs USA site, I stole this definition:
brevet (bruh vay) - Literally, the word means "certificate", "patent", or "diploma" in French. In "randonneuring", it means two things: certification of having successfully done a randonné, --indicated by a small numbered sticker placed on a completed brevet card --, as well as, by extension the long-distance event itself (at least 200 kilometers in length). Completing a successful brevet means one's ride has been certified and registered in France, and the rider's name is added to the roll of honor, going all the way back to 1921. These challenging rides can also entitle the rider to enter longer events such as Paris-Brest-Paris or Boston-Montréal-Boston. As used in the "randonneuring" world, the terms brevet and randonnée are often interchangeable, but in common cycling usage, a randonnée might be considered to be less structured or formal than a brevet.
