# My Fixie weeps for me.



## shill (May 8, 2011)

Just received my Mercier Corvus AL. This is my fourth purchase from the BD umbrella, two fixies (Moto Messenger and Windsor Clockwork) for the kids and a Bottecchia BZ78 Team for my wife. I bought it to keep up with the wifey, my SE Draft Lite fixie was starting not to cut it on long rides.

Unfortunately, the left shift/brake lever arrived broken. The bike is still ride-able, though.
I even managed to adjust the derailleurs myself, no rubs over 30 gear combinations. Yay me!

Filed my claim with bikesdirect. Waiting to hear...


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## Local Hero (Jul 8, 2010)

Hah. 

Sorry to hear about your brifter. Hopefully you'll get a quick turnaround. 

In the mean time, I'll commiserate with you: I used to be able to keep up with my girl on my track bike. She would ride her Specialized Roubaix with the full range of gears and I would do just fine with a 49 X 18, so long as we stayed away from big hills, up or down. We'd go on rides upwards of 80 miles. Even with some minor hills I could hold my own. Fast forward: I was racing at the velodrome last week and was too lazy to swap out the 15T and 14T sprockets. My overconfidence got the best of me. 49 X 15 was brutal on the mildest rollers. She whipped my tail.


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## shill (May 8, 2011)

Hard to get used to braking without using the pedals! I'm just about
to take the corvus out for a 18 mile ride. It's all on a curvy bike trail
so no chance to really go faster faster.

49 x 15? Yowza! I think I'd have to start on a downslope!

BD is shipping the replacement brifter lever. Fast customer
service, nice.


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