Going-Outta-Bidness Sale at Devil's Gear II

If you find yourself in the Elm City (a.k.a. Pistol-Wavin' New Haven) today or tomorrow, swing by Devil's Gear II, on Audubon between Church and Orange. Sadly, that downtown outpost of the like-named New Haven bike shop on Chapel Street is going out of business (blame Hank Paulson), but the upside is that they are selling TO THE BARE WALLS, and everything in the store is 40% off.

Being the smaller sibling of the Devil's Gear, Devil's Gear II doesn't have a ton of stuff, but if you need tubes, tires, fenders, racks, stems, cassettes, cogs, bottle cages, or sundry other items, they have 'em, and 40% off is no joke. They're also selling their fancy workstands and a lot of tools (which would be a good jumping-off point for the awesome Hartford bike shop we keep talking about opening, but somehow I think none of us has the cash on hand to buy them out, put a deposit down on some retails space, and live the dream quite yet). I think they have some bikes too, but I'm not right now in a position to spend 60% of the cost of a bike, so I focused on the gear. I picked up a new 20"x1.75" tire for my Xootr ('cause after I tore the sidewall on my old one during The Eel, the only replacement at REI was a 1.95", the thickness of which requires me to set the wheel farther back in the dropout, which in turn makes the chain rub when I put it in the highest gear, and you know that a thoroughbred like me lives in the highest gear) and an adjustable stem for the Xootr (so I can more easily convert from suit-wearing, laid back geometry to hunched-over, hardcore pursuit mode), all for just $31. That is a fine deal.