A nice ride, mostly to get away from the noise of roof replacement.
My pump strap, which is over 30 years old, is biting the dust. I sewed it a few times to hold it together, and then the strap material began to disintegrate, making the stitches pointless. I made some kludgy repairs with layers of duct and metal tape, which looked ugly and was barely functional.
Then I set out to buy a new one at a local bike shop.
I went to three different shops. None of them carried such an item anymore.
After my third shop, I gave up, went home, and searched for it online. Happily, Jandd Mountaineering, an established maker of bike and hiking bags and accessories since the early 1990s — and whose web site still looks like a 1995 web site — had some in stock, and was offering them on sale at less than $4 each. The postage was a little more than the item, but by then I didn’t care.
I gave it my best shot.
The internet killed local brick and mortar bike shops years ago. My online purchase won’t change that, any more than buying a single item locally would slow it down. That’s just the way it is. And next week, I’ll have a new pump strap to replace the one I wore out.
Some mountains are impossible to die on.
Happy riding.
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