The search for bikes - not strippers

No riding last week due to travel for work and SNOW! So I took this time to find another bike that would work better than the fat guy fancy bike. I need a bike with fenders, cross tires and few or no gears at all. And because of the potential for theft and the probability of getting flattened by a taxi in Little Mogadishu. I'm looking for an inexpensive ride.

Now begins the search for a bike or parts. Drew and I go over to One On One bikes to look through the beaters they keep down in their basement. What happens next is pretty weird. The basement is a sea of parts, piles of frames and old beater bikes. Thinking I hit the mother load, I roll up the sleeves and say to Drew, "We have a man's work ahead of us today, buddy". Then this old dude appears out of some hole in the wall, I believe it is his hermit cave, and starts an unpleasant conversation full of non sequiturs and profane stories about strippers from Sex World next door. I didn't mind the stripper stories, but it just gets weirder.

I spot some Bianchi frames which he advises me are off limits. He is planning on welding them together... "This one time I welded a shopping cart to the front of a bike... That little stripper would ride in the front..." Dude, can you focus for a minute? So I move to the next section of old beaters. These apparently are off limits too. I'm not sure why because he starts telling us about what he did to this old racer from Belgium, back in Eddy Merckx's day, then breaks off into a story about, you guessed it, a stripper. The only sections left are the real expensive rebuilds and a pile of twisted metal that looks like a rack of bikes that went through a tornado. I don't want to ask, I'm sure half of a stripper story will come out. So we decide to leave. Easier said than done. First we have to hear about his buddy and this woman he married and how the old dude renovated their house.

The search continues.

It's Thursday and it's rush hour... And it's sleeting

WTF! When I rode in this morning, it was sunny.  It was cold, but sunny.  Now it's cold and it's sleeting on me.  My beautiful and always correct wife, told me not to ride to work today, because it might rain.  I looked at the weather and it looked fine.  My thought this morning was, if I'm going to do this, I have to put up with cold days.  I really want to be serious about this.  She reminded me I don't have rain gear.  She said, "Dan has rain gear."  Well isn't Dan special.  Also, fancy fat guy bike doesn't have panniers to carry gear.  I rode in anyway.

So, now, I'm sitting here outside the building thinking about my ride down Portland Avenue in rush hour getting totally soaked.  And there is still all that sand in the bike lane.  Wet sand spewing up from my tire onto my khaki pants and dress shirt.  That's right, fancy fat guy bike doesn't have fenders either.  I need to minimize the damage.  I get on the train and take it to the parkway and ride the bike trail to the house. 

More adjustments need to be made.  Fancy fat guy bike does not work for commuting.  It's too sensitive.  It doesn't have panniers.  And there are no fenders.  This is turning out to be harder than I thought.  Riding to work is easy.  Riding to work and meeting the dress code requirements is hard.  If I worked at Jimmy Johns, I could come to work filthy, and not bother with all that gear for my bike.

Sand, potholes and cars! Oh my

The day of truth arrived last week. It was time to ride to work. But what to ride. I'm a middle age guy with a little disposable income. I don't have the type of bike you leave locked up outside the building downtown. It would be minutes before all tha was left would be the handlebar tape and the clipless peddles. The building I work in has a room to lock your bike in. $65 per year. Per year, that's funny. Any reasonable or sane person will only see the window for riding as 4 months. The rest of the time is a whole new kind of experience. So I pay my $65 and get a key to the room.

I'm totally geeked. I have a place to put my fancy, middle age fat guy bike. I'm ok with wearing business casual on the bike. And I changed out my peddles so I can wear dress shoes. Nothing else to do. It's time to ride in. Wait a second. One more thing. My laptop, phone, blackberry, notebook and other shit I carry in my briefcase. What is amazing is how much crap in my briefcase I don't need. So, I just take my computer and my phone. Now I get to use that messenger bag my wife and daughter bought me last year.

Two paragraphs in and I still haven't turned a crank. Ok it game day. I get on my bike an ride. Shit. I forgot my lock, and a rubber band for my pants leg. Ok stop by the bike shop. Yes it's 10:00 am. I'm not riding in at rush hour on my fist day. So, I stop by Bikes & Pieces, a local bike shop. Pick up a lock and leg thingy.

Holy shit! The roads are full of sand and mega potholes! Normally I ride in the summer when potholes are fixed and the sand is gone. Fancy fat guy bike is not made for this abuse. Too many whistles and bells to get out of whack. There is the cycle computer with the many functions like cadence, average speed and timer. There's the cool 105 component package. And let's not forget the skinny little tires with no tread.

Well that took an hour to ride 6 miles. If I'm going to do this, I need to make some changes.

Made a decision to ride my bike to work

Winter came and went with me adding another 15 lbs. It seems every winter since moving to Minnesota, I add on 10 or 15 lbs, then only take off a portion of what I did to myself over the winters. This leaves me with an annual net gain. Every winter I dutifully get out the trainer, put the bike on it, and let it sit there collecting dust. Here it is mid April 2011. I'm 47 years old. I weigh 216 lbs. I have an arthritic knee. And I've just decided to cycle to work. Yikes!

I live 6 miles from the office. The office is in downtown Minneapolis. The commute is on city streets which have lanes for bicycles. Now, what to wear? Do I wear my work clothes? Do I wear bike clothes, carry my work stuff and change at work? NO! I can just see me riding the elevator in bike clothes. So, it's decided, I'm wearing work clothes. New questions come up. If I'm dressed for work, I shouldn't get sweaty. How the hell am I going to not get sweaty? I have some time before I have to worry about that, it's April in Minnesota. My second commute was in driving sleet. But i'll save that for another entry.