A Partial Retraction Is In Order. Also, Bike Stuff.

On August 3, I noted that an order of glasses from Zeelool seemed to be taking an inordinately long time to arrive -- not due to shipment from China, but to delays in being put into domestic mail once they arrived at the firm's US warehouse, with an estimated delivery date of "by August 14."

I closed with "unless the glasses are just insanely great, I doubt I'll be ordering from them again."

They arrived seven days earlier than that crazy "by" date, which is good.

And while I don't know if they're insanely great, the lens prescription seems to be correct, the appearance is as advertised, and the physical manufacturing quality seems to be much better than that of the glasses I get from my usual vendor of choice. So I may, in fact, order from them in the future.

Finally got the Lifan KP Mini 150 to the 300-mile mark (well, 295), and changed the oil.

I had to go wrench-hunting to do that, because somehow not only is my 14-mm socket missing from my tool bag, but even the little nub it fits on in the socket set container is gone. I completely emptied the bag and thoroughly searched the only plausible area where I might have dropped it it (but not that nub, which is pretty much built in to the case). No sign of it. I went ahead and ordered a better (but still inexpensive) socket set that goes up to 17mm, since I do have a couple of bolts that big on the bike.

Hopefully I can get the new sprocket/chain done tonight or tomorrow. I may wait on the carburetor. Then again, maybe not. I'm getting a little bit of popping out of the new exhaust, indicating a slightly-too-rich fuel/air mixture, so if I need to tune the carb anyway maybe I should just replace it ... after the sprocket and chain change, which will presumably also affect things.