i convinced myself to try to take care of my bike stuff today since i had a bit cash so i biked to the local bike shop along Carson ST. asked them what i needed and they said it was a spacer. unfortunately, they just full headsets to replace the current one. i kinda didn’t wanna do that only because i wanted to keep the bike as original as possible (at least hardware-wise). since i didn’t go with that, i decided to bike back home to drink some water real quick and uploaded some Tetsuya Shibata music from Auto Modellista car game for PS2 (nothing beats biking to music that pumps you up).

after that, i hit up Jesse and told him i’d meet him over there since he needed to get some stuff there too. on the way there, i almost crashed into a truck because there was a lot of traffic at the intersection and i guess some truck decided to squeeze its way in between a pair of cars. not cool cuz i was dodging the cars then locked the rear brakes and skidded a bit when i had my sight on the truck. definitely a crazy experience but i was pretty zoned out with my biking, i just let it go. i could only imagine what the cars around thought of me when that happened. =P anyway…

so i finally got to Bikecology in Torrance and asked the guy who worked on the bikes for some headsets they offered. got a couple which ranged from $4.99 to $12.99. like i said, i didn’t want to replace the whole headset assembly so i decided to bring in my bike so he can see what i need specifically. brought it in and like the other shop told me, it is a spacer. but rather than offering me a plastic spacer like the other bike shop (FAIL), he offers me one for $0.75. and yes, it’s metal. i also asked him if i can get a stem i can buy since mine is stripped. i decided to get the “kit” which includes the stem stopper. scooped everything up for just a bit over $5.

got what i needed, took a quick pit stop at 7-11 for a drink, then biked to Jesse’s house to work on the bike. here’s the stuff i got from Bikecology. used most of the stuff i bought…

used the spacer, washer, and stem screw. didn’t use the stopper since it wasn’t as angled as the original one.

here’s the gap. not good feeling when biking and feeling vibrations and “clunk” sounds from the road and what not.

stripped stem screw. not cool whoever destroyed this. checked through Jesse’s tools and he only had a standard set of allen wrenches. xP fail. anyway, used a 1/4″ sized allen wrench, hammered it in the hole, and broke it loose.

that’s right. got you loose sucka!

after replacing what was needed, we have this finished product after realigning and readjusting the height of the handle bars.

the nut of the headset sits tight and the new stem replaced the old one. wish it had the same shape as the old one so it sits flush with the handle bars but this is better to use for adjusting the height if needed once more. eventually down the road i’ll get one for my anal OCD needs. gotta remember, function > form. both may be achieved someday but not now.

the bike’s almost done. with that out of the way now including my wheels getting trued my Fr. Bill, i just need to replace my derailleurs and it’ll be at it’s tip-top shape.