September 7, 2021
48 dents
trampling roughshod over the Paris bike mechanic underworld
Today we visited 6 bike shops in our search for the One Ring to Ride Them All. Spoiler alert: we found a reasonable facsimile. More details on that below. It felt like the story simply had to unfold the way it did, but that's all in retrospect. It came very close to having an unhappy conclusion.
After some pretty exhaustive internet research, I found the one Surly dealer in town, Cycles Treiz, but they were way down in the 13th Arrondissement (talking as if I know more than diddly squat about Paris). A surfeit of bike shops along the Canal Saint-Martin (again, I had no idea what this waterway was called until I looked it up just now) made me hopeful that at least one of these fine magasins would have the Ring. Here's how it went down. Keep in mind that this is all clouded by a language barrier that was always present.
Cyclo-store: just a big fat NO
BIKE+ Cycle: this seemed like such an unlikely place, but we approached it and agreed that it would be irresponsible not to at least give them a try. A certain candidate for the nicest guy in Paris expressed his regret and referred us to Cycles Laurent.
Cycles Laurent: A symphony of rattling through parts boxes and cursing at the lack of success. This fella was really honest and earnest, and I appreciate his effort so much.
Cyclable Paris 10: I had a such a good feeling about this place that we returned there after finding them closed for lunch the first time around. As far as we could tell, the guy was telling us that they would normally have it but that parts shortages were to blame. He expressed disappointment for not being able to help us.
Cycles Treiz Rue Petion: aka the shop with no sign. I don't know whether this is a second outpost of Cycles Treiz that just hasn't gotten off the ground yet, or if it was the original location, they moved into larger digs, and another entrepeneuer took this spot over. It's a really cute hole in the wall. Seeing a used Surly among the bikes for sale, and hearing the lone shopkeeper, aka the second nicest guy in Paris, speak his peut-etre in a more upbeat tone than the others, gave me hope. Alas, he came up short, but he called another shop. Although he didn't get the call back from them he was promised, he gave us their card, which led us to the shop that I expected would be most likely to have it in the first place.
Cycles Treiz Avenue d'Italie: they didn't have it either, but the mechanic found a 46-tooth version and meekly offered it as a possibility. I was like, ARE YOU KIDDING?!? Of course I want this sparkling gift from the heavens on my bike RIGHT NOW! Of course I couldn't express this in the local language, but between Sunyoung's increasingly-effective French skills and my tears of joy, we got the point across. 20 minutes and 43 euro later, I was riding on a cloud and singing a happy tune.
Other succeses today were the withdrawal of cash from a bank (our first effort failed, making us think we might have a problem on our hands) and the installation of my headlight mount and steering stabilizer, tasks which were deemed unnecessary to accomplish during yesterday's airport follies.
Navigating city traffic could also count as a success. There may be a lot of new bike lanes somewhere, but all we saw were the well-worn ones that are only slightly better than the haphazard patchwork of infrastructure that flummoxed us in Spain. Traffic was chaotic, but there were no close calls. Enough bikers are on the roads to keep the deathbox drivers in check.
I wished we'd been able to log 48km today, or at least 46, as an homage to the new chainring. Ultimately time caught up with us, and we took the RER train back to our retreat, which was its own set of adventures that also reminded us of Spain.
We considered staying an extra day in Arnouville, both in order to conquer jet lag once and for all, and to spend a day in Paris just being tourists, but I think we got over the hump by pushing ourselves today. The city will still be there waiting for us in late October, although probably chillier and wetter.
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 1 | Link |
3 years ago
Today's ride: 37 km (23 miles)
Total: 51 km (32 miles)
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3 years ago