A visit to the bike shop

  You probably already know that I love to bike in hilly places. Titusville, NJ is perfect for it, and lucky for me I have a wonderful sister in law that lives on top of the hill on Pleasant Valley Rd. No matter where I bike, I have to get back up there. I had some friends  visiting from Sweden the other week. To show them how beautiful New Jersey is we went for a bike ride down to the towpath, followed it to  Lambertville then crossed over to New Hope and back on the Pennsylvania towpath. They loved it, but they were ahead of me in each hill and I was wondering what was going on with me. Feeling a little embarrassed too. I know, you should never compare yourself to others but I still felt disappointed with myself. But, I thought, in bad shape or no, it can't hurt to bring my bike in for a tune up it had been acting a little off lately. Turns out that not only did it need tuning, it needed a brand-new chain and a new freewheel. No wonder the hills were hard. Should have taken it in sooner, then I wouldn't have needed to feel so bad for myself. My husband and I take our bikes to Hart's Cyclery in Pennington NJ. It's an excellent bicycle shop. It's privately owned and local to my sister in law.  Ross Hart started it in 1988 and he and his staff are always helpful and accommodating.  In fact even though we live in New York City we have bought every bike we own, except for the ones we keep in our cottage in Sweden, from Hart's Cyclery. http://www.hartscyclery.com/ I had it all planned yesterday, I was going to ride down to Pennington, drop my bike off, go for a run and then pick it up when I was done. I must have looked utterly crestfallen when I came in and they told me that they were fully booked because Oscar who is the store manager there offered to do a safety check, lube it and adjust my gears and breaks. It's like a tune up but not quite as time consuming, so of course I said yes. That's  before they realized that it needed a new chain and freewheel but Oscar still offered to fix it for me. I got my run, could pick it up right after and  was a very happy customer that can ride again before I go back to the city on Tuesday!