BICAS

You can see some more pictures of my casa's trip to San Diego on Jen's and Kaitlyn's blog. My stock of trip photos, however, was pretty much exhausted from yesterday's post. Which is why I'm digging through my camera to come up with today's photo of the inside of BICAS, or the Bicycle Inter-Community Art and Salvage, basically a bike shop co-op. Hands down, one of the coolest places in Tucson. (I'm not sure why saying "hands down" makes it more emphatic, but that's the effect I was going for, so there it is.) The staff here do not really do anything for you, they show you how to fix a flat, change a spoke, true a wheel. For example, they'll give instructions as you peel off the tire, inflate the tube underwater, and search for the puncture that gave you a flat. And it's cheaper, too - only $4 per hour, plus extra if you actually need a new part. BICAS definitely has an informal, garage-like feel to it, with some old tunes playing in the background and a dozen or so folks around the shop with bikes in various states of (dis)repair. Less than a mile from our house, it's a place I love to visit, and when I'm there I always wish I went more often. Also, it makes me never want to take my bike to a regular bike shop, where my bike disappears into some "back room" and comes out again, repaired. But I didn't get to see it! What happened back there?!