manta ray monday

okay, so before i have to hunker down and spend a couple days packing and shipping shop shirts i figured i wanted to take something fun out on a ride today:

a schwinn manta ray i bought myself back in…i think…2007?

it’s a slightly more modernized of a design that’s (literally) as old as me:

fatter tires, less gears, probably less steel in the frame and less lead in the paint…more chopper bike like. it’s got some odd tire sizes, and it had been in storage in the house so long it took four attempts to get the front tire inflated because it kept popping the bead. but it’s still a fun ride, and got three honks and two thumbs up from people that saw me out today.

pretty good for a twenty-five dollar bike.

it was originally $150 and i had just won a fifty dollar wal-mart gift card from my dell job, so since i wanted to use it on me and my girlfriend at the time tended to snatch up such things i used it to put the bike on lay-a-way. but not being the lay-a-way connoisseur i didn’t know that when you do that around thanksgiving, but don’t go back till after xmas, even thought they SAY you have ninety days they actually release all stock on xmas eve or the day before.

so the bike i had put aside, and still owed a bill on, got sold to some kid just before xmas. why did i wait so long? because the aforementioned woman had high expectations around xmas and money was getting tight so it all went to her. i was taken aback when i went to pick it up to find it had been sold…but it worked out to my favor. ya see, they still had one in stock according to the computer, and because they hadn’t sold well that one was in the back, so it had never even been sat on by some snot-nosed punk, AND it was on clearance, marked down to $75. so they applied the $50 gift card i had already paid with and instead of owing $100 i only owed $25.

i rode the fucking thing out of the store.

and today, for the first time in years i took it out again. fun times, and what’s having to pass for “leg day” in our current situation. shit, i might take it out again later this week.

**article header picked since it’s star wars day and all**