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July 29, 2005
all about bikes 
So. Ever since Cheesepuppet mentioned the Xtracycle, a Sport Utility Bicycle, I've been obsessed. Reading the website. Remembering seeing one (without any info or context) at Alder Creek and thinking, how cool is that?!?. Thinking, who cares if it makes my bike longer?, my bike is already too long for the public transit options. Man! It's too cool.
I've been rather obsessed of late on how I can do more non-car travel, using the scooter, maybe with a trailer, and the bicycle. The real trick, however, is that I need to become fitter so that traveling more by bicycle becomes a possibility rather than a tantalizing but far off dream. Right now, riding on flat areas is fine, but even slight inclines are tough.
I think about all the biking I did as a teenager on a single-speed cruiser. And then I realize, yeah. And I was running cross-country and track then, and I weighed 100# less. Sigh!
When I saw Hanna the other day, we talked about Bridge Pedal, which is coming right up. Damn! I really want to do it! And I'm really not in the shape to do it! Am I really going to be okay with walking my bike up the bridges? Somehow, I doubt it.
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Awhile back, I was trolling through the new riders' discussion at Team Estrogen and found a post called Listen up new riders... learn how to spin... and save your knees!, and I've been thinking about it ever since. Of course, you can't spin if you don't have clips or toe cages or something to keep your feet glued to the pedals, and of course, I don't have clips or toe cages on any of my bikes (note to self: take some to g00dwill).
Anyways, when I was exercycling while watching the Tour de Lance the other day, I got it. The exercycle has foot straps. I spun rather than mashing and it was really rather fun, and rather easy to go rather fast. Wuhoo! Now maybe that's an addition I need for the townie?
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My evangelizing about bike riding has caused (I like to think, at least) a coworker to get a bike, and today was her first bike commute to work. Wuhoo! I heard her in her office (across the hall) telling someone about my bike commuting, so of course, my interest was piqued.
By the time I got across the hall, she was demoing her bike tire repair kit, and her guest asked her if she really needed that. "Well, you have one, don't you, Vicki?"
Well, no. I went on to tell her that I have never in my life had a bicycle flat, and I've never carried a flat kit either. I've done rides across Detroit, more than half of a double century, and tons of training rides of 40 miles or more as a teenager, and never had a flat.
So. Talk me into it, guys. Tell me your bike tire horror stories, please!
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I mentioned Jonathan's blog the other day, and then he goes and moves it. Can you believe it? Yeah! I gotta say, he's moved to a much more superior situation. http://bikeportland.org/ is the new address, and it showcases his photography (how I know him) as well as his bike advocacy. Great stuff!
Posted at July 29, 2005
Comments
Bike horror story!
I was riding my bike (as a youngster) and came to a small homebuilt ramp in the road. Some other kids must have built it for jumping with their bikes. It was a log with a piece of plywood lying against it.
I decided to try it. I looped around and got a good hard racing start at it.
The next thing I knew I was landing chest first onto the asphalt and the bike was flying over my head. It landed 10 feet away and the pedal took a chunk out of my back.
I was in total agony and was rolling around on the street. An older couple was about 100 yards away and walking towards me. My chest and stomach was in incredible pain. Then I puked my guts out. the couple turned around and walked the other way. But I felt much better.
My front bike tire was like a pretzel and my leg and back and chest were all cut up. I had to walk the busted bike (carrying the front end) all the way home.
Posted by: Jon in Michigan at July 29, 2005 4:26 PM
Hmmm...there are so many.
Back in college I trained all year to get to the National Championships and after about an hour and a half of racing in the criterium, I was in a big pile-up on the 2nd to last lap!
I then spent the night in the hospital while everyone else partied at the hotel! Bummer.
Posted by: Jonathan Maus at July 30, 2005 10:21 PM
VJ,
I've only ever gotten one flat tire in 4 years of riding. I kinda don't really think they actually happen, or that I've got some sort of protective halo around me, to the point that I sometimes ride over glass shards and feel like a superhero.
Love that cycle. Love it.
I've been obsessing lately about ways to transport my bike on the scooter. There has to be a way. Here's the only idea I've seen (have I sent this to you already? feeling deja vu):
http://www.battlescooter.com/mediac/400_0/media/trailerruckus.jpg
Posted by: Megan at August 1, 2005 10:24 AM
Not a horror story, but here's just one typical story: when I was working in Bremerton, I was biking from the old Thomas Kemper brewpub on an early Friday evening to the Bainbridge Island ferry to get home to Seattle and I got a flat. I think it was from a piece of glass on the road. This was pre-cell phone, and I didn't have a patch kit (nor do I think I would have known how to use one), so I had to go door to door in a sparesly populated area until I found someone at home who would let me use their phone to call the one friend who lived nearby who would drive me to the ferry. I then had to call another friend to pick me up from the ferry and drive me and my bike home. I was lucky that I caught both of these folks at home or I would have been really stuck. If that happened to me today with my extra tube and patch kit in my saddle bag, in 15 minutes I'd have fixed it all myself and been on my way. I've been lucky and haven't gotten a flat in a while, but you never know when it will happen. I've had at least a dozen over the past 10 years of riding.
Usually a spare tube is enough, but it's easy (especially if one is new to replacing tubes) to get repeat flats if you haven't found the source of the flat (a little piece of glass can get stuck in the tire and puncture tube after tube) or if you pinch the tube when placing it in the tire.
REI here has a bike maintenance basics class especially for women, but any bike shop should have lessons in fixing flats.
Posted by: Tricia at August 1, 2005 10:29 AM