New Stuff Alert

On my ride home Friday afternoon, I was flying along on the SART and I suddenly felt some weirdness on my feet.  To my shock and horror, I'd broken a pedal on my ride home.  Since I likes to keep things positive, I looked at this setback as an opportunity to get more stuff for Serena so I headed to The Path Bike Shop on Saturday morning to upgrade Serena.

The pedals that came with Serena are plastic and were available at the store for twenty bucks.  But why spend $20 on something that worked fine for a year when I can go big and look like a huge cycling stud?  Instead of the plastic pedals, I opted for the awesomeness you see in the photo above.  These pedals are the Wellgo MG-1 Platform pedals with sealed bearings made out of magnesium.  I have no idea what any of that means but they were recommended, they look badass, so I forked over $69 and bought them.  This morning was my first ride with the new pedals and they kick ass.  Its tough to see in the photo but they MG-1s have little studs on them that grab your shoes so there's zero foot slippage.  Daddy likey!

In addition to needing new pedals, Serena's chain was well overdue for a good cleaning and lube job so I picked up this White Lightning easy clean chain cleaning brush kit.  This inexpensive little bit of gear made the job of cleaning Serena's chain and cassette much easier.  Highly recommended.

Last but certainly not least, for a long time I've wanted to get a bike stand so I don't have to turn Serena upside down and rest her on my kid's pool toys to clean the chain and do minor repairs and maintenance.  The only problem is, most of the bike stands I've seen cost well over $100 and I don't want to part with that much cash.  Fortunately for me, when I was at The Path Bike Shop, I saw this small stand for $24 that lets me get the back wheel off the ground so I can spin and clean.  For twenty-four bones, this stand was perfect and, combined with the brush kid, made the chain clean and lube job a 10 minute endeavor.  Money well spent!