It Takes Three Bikes

Days 178 – 181, September 26 – 29, 2011 – It Takes Three Bikes

Route along River Road, Martinelli Road, and Hwy 116 – then South on Interstate 5 to Mission Bay RV Resort in San Diego, CA with Ruby.

22 miles, averaging 14.3 mph - bicycling

Worst Moment – The realization that West County Revolution Bike Shop didn’t do a good job.  I had so wanted to like this small bike shop in Sebastopol, and will probably give them a chance to fix what was wrong, but I didn’t discover their faulty work until it was too late to do anything about it before the Ride In.

While riding around Sonoma County over the past few weeks, I began to notice small stress cracks in the Mavic rear wheel rim of the Cannondale.  This further attests to my belief that my road bikes aren’t built for cross-country riding.  (I had been using this bike since Erie, ND when the mud road disabled my touring bike.  I had made the appointment to get the touring bike fixed in Williston, ND the day of the Big Crash.)

I stopped at West County Revolution to hopefully get a new wheel set, or at the least a new rear wheel that would be compatible with the front wheel.  After a very long time of looking for a Mavic wheel that would be available before we left Guerneville, the bike technician, and the shop owner decided that it might be better to see what they had in stock.  The owner had a wheel that he hadn’t used much, it was true and the tech said that my cassette could be placed on the new rim.  Great!  We had some errands to run in Santa Rosa and could pick up the wheel in about an hour. Super!

I didn’t think too much about the quality of the work when I picked up the new rim and paid the $100, but knew I wanted to get in at least one ride before leaving Guerneville.  My hand had been fairly stiff and not riding seemed to be helping the swelling go down – so I haven’t been putting many miles in on two tires.  Plus there are a lot of things that needed to be done around the house like unpack boxes and take out our dock.

Finally on Tuesday, I was able to get away for a ride.  It was absolutely glorious to be on the bike again.  However there was an intermittent rattling sort of noise.  I checked the frame, the headset, the wheels, and finally the cassette.  The cassette that had just been installed by the bike shop was loose.  I wouldn’t be able to take it on the final ride of Bills Big Ride.  I brought out the Klein that has been my California bicycle for a number of years.  I will ride it on Sunday into Phoenix – my third bicycle of the Big Ride.

Best Moment – Riding and being able to use my left hand to shift again felt pretty good!

So during this trip I’ve been able to see some really super customer service and realized how it makes me as a customer feel.  Well, there are two incidents from our trip from Guerneville to San Diego that illustrate the difference between a WOW moment and an OKAY moment. 

First the WOW moment.  During our stay in Guerneville, we rented an economy car from Enterprise to get around and to help get things settled at home.  As I was returning the car, I mentioned that the front left tire was worn out and should be replaced.  The agent was so concerned and mentioned that we should have called when we noticed it and someone from Enterprise would have taken care of things – even if it meant bringing a new car to us.  I tried to let him know that it was no big deal since we weren’t going that far or planned to use the car a whole lot during the time we had it.  He told me that they were reducing the rate of the rental by 25% and here was a coupon for a free upgrade the next time we rented from Enterprise.  WOW, I wasn’t expecting anything and was very surprised at their concern and willingness to accommodate me.  Will I rent from Enterprise again?  You betcha!  Every chance I get!  Not only were they the low cost provider, and they had superior service.

The OKAY moment.  We stopped in Lebec, CA on our way to San Diego.  We saw a Motel 6 a bit further from the freeway and we thought it would be less noisy than the other choices.  It was quiet, but our room did not have hot water.  I called Mike at the front desk when we discovered it as we were getting ready to retire after a long day of driving Ruby.  (Neita had enough of Ruby for the day and didn’t want to have to try to find a campground and get set up.)  Mike agreed to put us in a different room, but that they would probably have the hot water fixed by morning.  We didn’t want to move at that time and said we’d check the water in the morning.

Well, as I was having coffee in the lobby, there were several other guests who mentioned that there was no hot water in their rooms.  The clerk apologized, but did nothing for these guests.  There were a few Motel 6 employees standing around and conversing about the problem with the boiler and why it would take so long to fix.  The problem wasn’t new and they knew about it.  Why book these rooms???  To make things even more of an only okay moment was that when I went back to the room, I checked for hot water again. No - only lukewarm.  I called the front desk and they sent down the maintenance guy to turn on our water and verify it was only lukewarm.  Then they opened a different room for us to shower in. 

Our luggage now

The big difference – Enterprise didn’t check to see that the front left tire was bad they believed me and did something positive at the moment. 

Please join me for the Billsbigride In on Sunday Oct 2.  Wear yellow – it is Livestrong Day.    If you would like to donate to my ride, my link for the Lance Armstrong Foundation is http://grassroots2011.livestrong.org/billsbigride197.  I really appreciate your support.