The struggle of picking a bike is over the whole thing reminds me of something a wise man once told me about a similar problem I was having, "sounds like a luxury problem to me". A luxury problem of not only having a bike but having 3.
I'm ready to go, I have my bike prepared for commuting with new steel cap tires, a new crank ring and of course rack for the panniers. The the first day
for the bike commute could have not been more perfect and risky. Perfect as the weather was awesome, warm enough to ride and crisp enough to not break into sweat. Risky, as my boss was in town and our first meeting started at 8:00 am. Not that she makes me punch a clock, but as it is the end of the quarter all benevolence goes out the window, with a laser focus is on what contracts can be completed by months end. And seeing how I have 2 contracts hung up it would be wise to be at the meeting on time and ready to work. So picking today to take my first bike commute of the year, after having such a disastrous 2011 commute is pushing it just a bit. After all what can go wrong on such a perfect early March morning. Well I'll tell you... I was born without the ability to comprehend and track space and time, which makes judging how long it takes to do something challenging at best. Knowing this only makes what happens next completely expected by everyone that knows me, with the exception of me. 7 miles took 1 hour 10 minutes, arriving 30 minutes late to my meeting. How can this happen? It's never taken this long before.
To ride to work I have to pack shoes, pants, socks and shirt along with my computer all in my panniers. Put the panniers on the bike and get there with enough time to change clothes and get to my meeting. I know it takes 25 minutes to get to work by bike, door to door. A normal person would leave time for packing panniers, changing once at work and getting coffee. I decide to leave 30 minutes prior to my meeting because changing clothes and going to Caribou for coffee all takes less than 5 minutes, right? Its 7:30 time to pack my panniers. Holy crap! This going to take 10 minutes. I'm now rushing to get to the bike and off to work. I now have 20 minutes to do something that takes 25 minutes. Why the hell didn't I think of that when I was sitting around this morning doing nothing but waiting to leave. I start up the street when Cynthia calls making sure I'm wearing my helmet. Why would my wife call to make sure I'm wearing my helmet? I'm a grown man, I know wearing my helmet is necessary on city streets especially at rush hour. "Yeah, are you kidding me, I'm wearing it". I'm actually not wearing it. "Big deal she'll never know". I hang up and keep going, but I'm nagged by this strange unfamiliar feeling, guilt. "Fine" I yell out loud. I turn around and head back to get it, but I need to find it first as it is lost in the garage. Another 10 minutes gone. Back on the road, but have a new problem, why is it so hard to peddle? I'm suffering like I'm peddling through sand and going about as fast. Half mile into this I see why, my tires are almost flat. WTF? I put new tires on yesterday. I didn't fill them all the way. Who does that? Who puts new tires in and only puts in 20lbs of air? The thought process is amazing. I'm slogging up the street at 7 mph huffing and puffing like I'm towing a boat. I get to a gas station fill my tires and are off once more. I've ridden 2 miles and it's taken 30 minutes. It's 8:00 AM and I still have 5 miles to go. Well I'm late for my meeting, and the boss thinks I'm insane.
The next day got a lot easier. I actually packed my clothes before I was supposed to leave. I had plenty of air in my tires and I found a better route to work. The good news is I have the ability to learn.
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