Black Friday

For those of you who do not live in the US, you may wonder what Black Friday is all about. Although it sounds menacing, nothing ominous is intended. Black Friday was named by retailers to indicate the start of the Christmas shopping season, a season that will hopefully take them "into the black," i.e. make them profitable after a year of red.

In reality though, Black Friday is truly a dark day. It marks the beginning of a period of massive wasteful spending where people buy trinkets and gadgets that will soon end up in landfills all over the globe. The average life-span of an item bought in an American store is now well below six months. Within six months better 85% of what we buy ends up in the garbage.

Ecstatic consumers carting off stuff that will soon decorate the landfill

I will not be participating in this madness except maybe to sell some bike and computer related items that I no longer need. Christmas season is the best time of the year to do so because it is the time when everyone has to buy presents for their loved ones. So today, I will clean out the garage and find all those stems, handlebars, chainrings and other items I no longer need.

I will also be selling my new Easton EC90 (warranty replacement) crank. I have decided to stick to the tried and true -in this Campagnolo and forgo what may be well be the lightest crank around but is in reality a flawed design- at least for someone my size. I think this crank will work well for a lightweight individual so if you are under 150lbs and interested let me know. I have had issues with the crank before but Easton was kind enough to replace it with a new one after the axle partially detached from the spider. The detachment was not serious and invisible to the naked eye, but a persistent click with a small jerk while pedaling alerted me to its presence.

I will also be picking up the new Moots that Alistair will ride now that the Parlee is on its way back to the manufacturer for repairs.