70's in the afternoon. Sweet, I'm getting the bike out and making the commitment to ride to work this week. Next thing I know I'm frustrated over a simple choice of what bike to ride. This is the first hinge of doubt. Yes doubt. I sabotage any exercise in the most creative and deceiving manner. For example, if I announce my intention to go to yoga tomorrow, I will wake up that morning with a cold or some subtle nagging issue that will only get worse as the yoga draws nearer. So when I start wondering what bike I'm going to ride, I'm really allowing reasons take hold from why I can't ride that particular bike to why I can't ride at all. Ooh, I'm a devious one. So I start with the FFGB, (fancy fat guy bike). Yes this precision beauty engineered by the geniuses at Trek is way too sensitive to ride downtown. All the potholes and stops and starts could cause the rear derailure to get out of wack, Or my wheels to be out of true. Truing a wheel is expensive, and I just realized there are no brazons on my rear stays so I can't put a rack on to carry my clothes and laptop. Ok what about my mountain bike? That bad boy was made to handle all the death traps I'm imagining are waiting to destroy FFGB, (fancy fat guy bike). Yes but the gearing is too high, can't get a lot of speed. Besides the knobby tires are a tremendous drag. 2 bikes down and 2/3 the way to conceding to the universe's conspiracy to keep me off my bike. So I turn and look at the single speed. Yes the 48 year old hipster wannabe has a single speed. There are Brazons on the stays, so I have no excuse here. But wait how would a single speed look with a rack on the back. Yeah that's right, if I put a rack on a single speed I would be insulting all the real hipsters who suffer for the image. The student at the U with the ancient Schwinn tuned single speed to ride to school. Or the Jmmy Johns delivery guy on the fixie who is living his dream of being an unwashed messenger. You see this is not a bike, it's a style and I can't arbitrarily mix Homovelocommuterus with Homovelomessengerus. I might get looks and sneers. Almost there just a few more excuses, some feigned anger and I'm not riding to work. This isn't over. I'm not going to let lazy Chris push wannabe Chris around. I think, WWHD, what would Holtan do. John Holtan is a friend of mine who lives an awesome active life. He rides a bike to work. Not a FFGB, or commuter bike, but his wife's ancient pink and white mountain bike. John is like the Honey Badger, he don't give a shit. The death struggle between sabotage and courage comes to an end and I quietly go to work putting the rack on the single speed. Well for now I'm going to ride to work this week, let's see what disaster I have in store for myself.
Yeah - not much for a looker. You neglected to mention my circa 1992 REI Panier bags with neon accents. Of course, my Novara does nicely match my new bright construction orange windbreak.
ReplyDeleteMy quiet satisfaction comes from the fact that I-will-not-be-passed no matter how high the dork factor. Extra satisfaction for cruising by a single-speed hipster with skinny jeans...... Once I cannot rely on my cardio - time to pimp my ride.