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I was talking to a friend about my trip, specifically, about how I was trying to sort out my arrival in Pittsburgh (PGH), at midnight, on Amtrak, with my bike in a box, somewhat disassembled. My bike shop had recommended I let a Pittsburgh bike shop reassemble the bike and check everything out and I was telling him this. This way I begin the long ride confident of my bike (and I don't have to carry things like a pedal wrench). With the clarity that comes from thinking about it for 2 minutes, my friend said, "Why don't you just ship your bike to a bike shop in PGH instead of taking it on the train?" Brilliant! I wouldn't have to arrive at midnight; I wouldn't even need to take Amtrak. Greyhound is not only half the cost, but it's two hours faster and gets in at civilized times.
So I started looking into PGH bike shops that might be on/near a bike trail that leads to Homestead (where the GAP trail begins). You might think that'd be easy...turns out Homestead is more like a bedroom community from what I hear so far. One bike shop quoted me about $15 if no repairs are needed. The other closer one quoted me $45... the cost of a tune-up. When I said, "Oh, you'd be doing a whole tune-up?", he said, "no" -- that's just the cost to put the pedals back on and look it over. Hhmmm. Then I started searching the web for info about shipping the bike. There's a lot of consensus about not using UPS because it's too expensive. Then I found a FedEx Ground calculator and came up with an approximate cost of $50. I'll be making more calls since I'm not sure what direction to go. Right now I'm thinking $5 on Amtrak, it arrives with me, and $10-20 for a pedal wrench..surely I can learn how to do it and look over my own bike? I think I'll go talk to another bike shop tomorrow and see what they think. What would I be doing with my mind if I didn't have all this stuff to figure out?
So I started looking into PGH bike shops that might be on/near a bike trail that leads to Homestead (where the GAP trail begins). You might think that'd be easy...turns out Homestead is more like a bedroom community from what I hear so far. One bike shop quoted me about $15 if no repairs are needed. The other closer one quoted me $45... the cost of a tune-up. When I said, "Oh, you'd be doing a whole tune-up?", he said, "no" -- that's just the cost to put the pedals back on and look it over. Hhmmm. Then I started searching the web for info about shipping the bike. There's a lot of consensus about not using UPS because it's too expensive. Then I found a FedEx Ground calculator and came up with an approximate cost of $50. I'll be making more calls since I'm not sure what direction to go. Right now I'm thinking $5 on Amtrak, it arrives with me, and $10-20 for a pedal wrench..surely I can learn how to do it and look over my own bike? I think I'll go talk to another bike shop tomorrow and see what they think. What would I be doing with my mind if I didn't have all this stuff to figure out?