Wednesday, February 29, 2012

WanaBike Review

Wanabike Twitter
Wananbike Facebook
Phone: 608-849-4997
200 W. Main Street
Waunakee, WI 53597

The only "Waunakee in the World" now has an established bike shop.  WanaBike was opened by John Marlow in 2010.    The location has changed several times due to the reshuffling and construction of Main Street in Waunakee.  The shop sells all kinds of bikes from kids, road, mountain, and bmx styles.  Wanabike also offers all type of bike maintenance services.  I've personally purchased bike parts, have had several bike tune ups, and asked for advice several times.  John has always been helpful and fair priced on everything.  The tune ups are competitively priced, it beats a drive into Madison.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Horribly Hillly Hundreds Part 1

Recently I signed up and won the lottery for the Horribly Hilly Hundreds bike ride out of Blue Mounds, WI.  This was the first year that the lottery was done on Active.com.  I was happy as I got selected.  Later that night, many "entry wanted" showed up on the local Craigslist.  Now that I'm signed up I did some research on what to expect.  Here were some of the more helpful results:
Lazy Marathoner
Learn Fitness
I Ride Courage
Epic Ski
Bills Magical Mystery Tour

After reading some of these blog posts, I need to get some better gear and get training!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Madison Bike Swap

This past January, I had the pleasure of participating in my very first Madison Bike Swap.  The event was put on by Brazen Dropouts, a local bike racing club.  I expected a bunch of easy going friendly bike hippies trying to sell me stuff.  I was spot on!

I went there looking for an upgrade to my road biking helmet, some "cheap" but quality clothes, and a new set of wheels to upgrade my carbon fiber Trek 5000 frame I had just picked up off of Craigslist.  The event cost $6 to park and $7 to get in.  If you are planning on going, you better buy something to recoup the cost of being there.  I showed up in the morning within the first hour of the doors opening and it was already pretty busy.  Several tables were 2-3 beers deep as well!

I roamed around all of the tables several times before making my first purchase.  I found a nice used white Specialized Road helmet listed at $40.  I talked to the woman at the table and talked her down to $30.  That's another key to this swap meet, never pay for anything at full price!  One seller had a nice set of brand new Ksyrium wheels that stated $400 or best offer.  I made an offer and he pretty much said no.  So I rummaged around and picked up a brand new pair of Bontrager Race Lites for a cheaper price.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Back Again

I will be getting back into writing some more posts in the near future.  Please check back for updates in the next week or so!

Ride on.