finally!!!

I haven't seen chris in days but I have seen his car, so he's doing a good job of staying on two wheels. My big news is that yesterday I biked home from work for the first time (from this job)! That's over [pant] sixteen [pant] miles but it was worth it. It actually wasn't very enjoyable for a bike ride but it was more enjoyable than driving. For several hours before I left work, I tried to find a route that wouldn't take me on the roulette roads. Jeez, I'm not sure I succeeded. Mapquest crashed on me twice; google maps, yahoo maps, and some Austin bike maps I found to be a bit unwieldy. Anyway, I wrote down a rough route but never found a key backstreet and rode Metric to Rundberg to N Lamar. Metric is the quietest, traffic-wise but some fucking asshole got pissed I was on the road and revved up his engine to what sounded like 100mph and screamed past me, narrowly missing a car in the other lane. Where's a cop when you need one? On North Lamar I did something I really never advocate (aside from a few bridges over highways). I rode on the sidewalk. Bike research shows that riding on sidewalks is more dangerous than the road because drivers don't notice bikes in driveways when they are turning into businesses (in fact, I just heard about a guy that got hit in that exact situation in S Austin.) But my fear of the busy street with no bike lanes convinced me to take sidewalks until I got to this side of 183. The whole ride took an hour and a half. Notes for next time: change into shorts & tank top, ditch bag or bungee it to my rack, and if I want to do it frequently--get a road bike. Anyway, it was the longest direct ride I've done in Austin. The only bike ride that tops it was a 20 mile journey I had to take in Brazilian sands to track turtles--on an ill-fitting bike.

i can has bike to work day?

so i haven't updated lately because, when i started this blog i wanted it to be entries of only success stories, and my latest bike project was outfitting my dog's trailer. BUT i royally fucked up the retro-fitting and, well, have run into snags in fixing it. but whatever, i'll fix it, it'll just take some time. i'm moving right along. the best thing, bike-wise that has happened to me in the past two weeks is that i lost my job and got a new one much closer to me that doesn't care if i arrive all sweaty. yes. doggy day-care is the best bike thing to happen to me in a while. even despite the ridiculous early hours and the constant poop-scooping and the poor pay, doggy day-care is fantastic.

(dot dot dot) lest it go unsaid. (dot dot dot)

Bike Month

So much fun. Let's all go to everything!

http://www.austincycling.org/bike_month.html

bike shops

i had some more flats so i decided that there was something in my tires. i didn't really have time (or the expertise really) to look into it myself so i dropped my bike off with a flat front tire at bicycle sport shop yesterday before work. i explained to the tech that i was having flats on both wheels and i didn't really know why but i wanted them fixed as cheaply and as permanently as possible. i left my bike and picked it up. a patch on my front tire and $8 of labor and everything seemed aired up and good to go. i put it in my car and drove home. then when i went to get my bike out of my car and ride it to the bus stop, i noticed that my rear tire was flat. FURIOUS, i drove to the shop and presented my bike to the same bike tech, who explained that he only touched the front tire since that was the one that was flat. in my head i was sure that i had made it clear that i wanted him to look at both tires. but i didn't want to get angry about it; i just wanted it fixed. so he replaced the rear tire and tube. in theory i think the tire should have been patchable but i just wanted it worked out as quickly as possible because i was running late for work at this point. but seriously, i was angry at our communication problems. and i think the dude was a stoner and/or has aural comprehension difficulties. and i don't appreciate that.

this is not the first time a bike tech has minorly fucked up my service at BSS. but in the end they always get it right. and the only other shop i've been to, Southside, didn't give me a permanent solution to the problem i had at the time, but BSS did.

so is there some really awesome bike shop in town that i should know about?

Aesthetics.

On our way to Houston, Chris and Matt started talking about how beautiful road bikes are and how unattractive they find mountain bikes. I appreciate the efficiency of a road bike but I was shocked to realize that I've always found mountain bikes more attractive. But then again, I have an affection for all that is butch. Nonetheless, I have been thinking that eventually I'm going to have to get a road bike if I ever get serious about riding to work or doing the MS150 or the Hillcountry AIDS Ride. But a question came to mind yesterday. Doesn't it fucking hurt when you hit a bump on a road bike? Seems like your body is the only thing to take the shock. The larger frames and knobby mb tires are luxurious, where uneven roads and rough terrain are concerned...

fixing a flat

on monday i got a flat on my rear tube (in the rain). boohoo. today i changed out the tube and felt along the inner surface of the tire and found no sharp debris. so the cause of the flat is unknown. i even inspected the old tube and it looked pretty ok to me. but maybe the lighting is poor in the garage i don't know.... anyway, as an exercise i timed myself to see how long it would currently take me to change a flat, and all told, including frustrating and extraneous "fitting the wheel back into the dropouts" time, it was 27 minutes. not bad, but if that happened on my way to work i would pretty much be fucked. and i have one stray scratch from the derailleur cable. let this be a record to be compared against my next flat-changing experience.