After hearing a car commercial for a fully loaded (V-8, turbo-charged, can talk to facebook, navigate, tell you pi to the four thousandth decimal place, do calculus whilst at a stop light, leather seats, speakers galore!, render you so spoiled you don't have to even think! its drives itself! and it gets 31 miles per gallon on the highway! can you believe it! (there are plenty of cars that do better than that with city driving, not to mention highway....)) vehicle I thought, with what is Charlie fully loaded?
Fully loaded with 2 wheels, 2 pedals, one saddle, one gear, and a girl who pedals! This bicycle is so efficient it runs on vegetables! you never have to fill it up at the gas station, it goes until the girl can't pedal anymore! Minimalist, fully loaded.
Well Charlie has other features, such as his bell with a pterodactyl on it (with which we attempt to communicate with pedestrians), sparkly blue handlebar grips, a lovely Brooks saddle (B17), vintage (and not matching) Campagnolo basket (toe-clip) pedals, vintage Motobécane crankset (probably from the bottom of a spare parts pile), Shimano front caliper breaks, coaster break in the rear, aluminum wheels (front is quick release), Gatorskin tyres. He has some blinky lights as well, and race blades (think fenders with commitment issues) by Planet Bike. I am Charlie's engine and I am powered by vegetables.
There was an ingenious chart showing the relative fuel economies from bicycles to airplanes which I will endeavor to find, the maker converts energy units across the board, and bicycles end up being the most efficient form, now to find that clever chart....
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Old roads, memory lane....
Charlie and I took the old road home on Sunday. We came back from my sister's home in Waltham along memory lane, my old commute route from Waltham. It was glorious in the sun and the miles went by like a dream of summer in winter.
Its a steady downhill grade as you go east (nothing you really notice unless you spent half the winter biking west home to that then slight-uphill-the-whole-way, with a north/west wind bearing down on you at more than 20mph when its only 17 degrees outside (or sometimes 14) and your eyes are about ready to fall out of your head from having the tears freeze dried away and by the time you get home they ache and blinking feels like sandpaper, even though you have eye protection....). It felt so easy, the last times I rode this route were in the deep cold and this felt like all my dreams from that time come true.
I still remembered each hole in the road, found some new ones, was delighted by some repairs that had occurred. I bike about a hundred miles a week even now so I took the miles in stride. We stopped off along Memorial Drive to see the nice people with the bike fix cart to use their floor pump (Farina's in Watertown Square doesn't have a floor pump you can use, what's the deal with that?) to top off the pressure I couldn't get much higher with my hand pump that I always have with me....
Sometimes the things that seemed so hard before aren't anymore b/c you've changed. Its only been a little over a year but life is so different and so much the better.
and on the 18th this blog had its one year anniversary!:)
Its a steady downhill grade as you go east (nothing you really notice unless you spent half the winter biking west home to that then slight-uphill-the-whole-way, with a north/west wind bearing down on you at more than 20mph when its only 17 degrees outside (or sometimes 14) and your eyes are about ready to fall out of your head from having the tears freeze dried away and by the time you get home they ache and blinking feels like sandpaper, even though you have eye protection....). It felt so easy, the last times I rode this route were in the deep cold and this felt like all my dreams from that time come true.
I still remembered each hole in the road, found some new ones, was delighted by some repairs that had occurred. I bike about a hundred miles a week even now so I took the miles in stride. We stopped off along Memorial Drive to see the nice people with the bike fix cart to use their floor pump (Farina's in Watertown Square doesn't have a floor pump you can use, what's the deal with that?) to top off the pressure I couldn't get much higher with my hand pump that I always have with me....
Sometimes the things that seemed so hard before aren't anymore b/c you've changed. Its only been a little over a year but life is so different and so much the better.
and on the 18th this blog had its one year anniversary!:)
Friday, June 3, 2011
Happy Birthday Charlie!
Happy Birthday Charlie!
We've spend 1 year and ~3,772 miles together.
For his birthday Charlie got a new front wheel (aluminum, quick release, and hand built (not by me, I don't have those kinds of ninja skills yet)) and a new chain.
Keep on rolling young man....
We've spend 1 year and ~3,772 miles together.
For his birthday Charlie got a new front wheel (aluminum, quick release, and hand built (not by me, I don't have those kinds of ninja skills yet)) and a new chain.
Keep on rolling young man....
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Hold that thought...
Please be warned the bicycle has been personified in this post:
Charlie's birthday is on Thursday...
...but he's having hip replacement instead, as it were- rather than the previous goal. I am under the impression that I was much more intelligent (as in knew more facts about things) when I was 17, because back then I would have known about the virtues of aluminum versus steel.
Anyway, Charlie is getting a new front wheel of aluminum with a sealed hub to replace the current steel one. Steel wheel says, "Damn you to hell, high pressure tires!" and has decided anytime the pressure in the tube is higher than 60psi that the tube will then explode. This happened when Charlie was parked outside one day some weeks ago, which I didn't dwell on much b.c I truly had been an imbecile and overinflated my tire that morning.
But on Friday, in the middle of Comm Ave: BOOM! sounds like a gunshot, the tube explodes, I run on the rim for a few feet and tube has exploded the tire right off the rim.... This is the second explosion, so I don't just change the flat out myself, this is going to take knowledge and experience. We go to the shop and we learn things. Learn things as in, steel wheel says "no thanks" at the least to high pressure tires, and in my case a resounding, "HELLS NO!". Aluminum wheel is ordered and we wait in anticipation. (Aluminum wheel also says, "Yes, I don't mind the rain, I will stop properly with these delightful caliper breaks you have.", whereas steel have always said, "Rain, means we don't stop, no how, no sir, not for anymore, even if this means you have to die or be injured." So we're really looking forward to aluminum.) In the meantime had another tube pop on Sunday too, not to mention the bearings on the front wheel are loose, so it feels like the entire front of the bicycle is running on pudding ...
And we're getting a new chain for good measure...
Charlie's birthday is on Thursday...
...but he's having hip replacement instead, as it were- rather than the previous goal. I am under the impression that I was much more intelligent (as in knew more facts about things) when I was 17, because back then I would have known about the virtues of aluminum versus steel.
Anyway, Charlie is getting a new front wheel of aluminum with a sealed hub to replace the current steel one. Steel wheel says, "Damn you to hell, high pressure tires!" and has decided anytime the pressure in the tube is higher than 60psi that the tube will then explode. This happened when Charlie was parked outside one day some weeks ago, which I didn't dwell on much b.c I truly had been an imbecile and overinflated my tire that morning.
But on Friday, in the middle of Comm Ave: BOOM! sounds like a gunshot, the tube explodes, I run on the rim for a few feet and tube has exploded the tire right off the rim.... This is the second explosion, so I don't just change the flat out myself, this is going to take knowledge and experience. We go to the shop and we learn things. Learn things as in, steel wheel says "no thanks" at the least to high pressure tires, and in my case a resounding, "HELLS NO!". Aluminum wheel is ordered and we wait in anticipation. (Aluminum wheel also says, "Yes, I don't mind the rain, I will stop properly with these delightful caliper breaks you have.", whereas steel have always said, "Rain, means we don't stop, no how, no sir, not for anymore, even if this means you have to die or be injured." So we're really looking forward to aluminum.) In the meantime had another tube pop on Sunday too, not to mention the bearings on the front wheel are loose, so it feels like the entire front of the bicycle is running on pudding ...
And we're getting a new chain for good measure...
Friday, May 27, 2011
Charlie's band?
So my friend Jenny took this with her iPhone, she thought it looked like we'd make a good band, with Charlie as the mascot. Its funny how much we all have adopted my bicycle as a mascot and refer to it (him?) by name....
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Happy birthday?
Next week will be Charlie's first birthday! Well, his first birthday with me, he is a mysterious gentleman with a dark past (read as: he was rescued from a dumpster) and so we really don't know his true age...
Birthdays seems to be a time of weighing in as it were, so in the past year Charlie has gone 3,687 miles, powered by yours truly. (About 1600 of those have been in 2011.)
For his birthday we're going to the land of the flip-flop hub. One side fixed, one side free. And for folks with opinions, no this does not mean Charlie will have multiple personality disorder or be the bicycle equivalent of transgender-Why describe it in those terms? Because cyclists are strange folks and you mention gears or lack thereof or a fixed cog and you're going to get a strong opinion about any of them or all of them....and so it seems a fitting comparison due to the passion these seemingly simple things bring out in their humans...
here we go....
Birthdays seems to be a time of weighing in as it were, so in the past year Charlie has gone 3,687 miles, powered by yours truly. (About 1600 of those have been in 2011.)
For his birthday we're going to the land of the flip-flop hub. One side fixed, one side free. And for folks with opinions, no this does not mean Charlie will have multiple personality disorder or be the bicycle equivalent of transgender-Why describe it in those terms? Because cyclists are strange folks and you mention gears or lack thereof or a fixed cog and you're going to get a strong opinion about any of them or all of them....and so it seems a fitting comparison due to the passion these seemingly simple things bring out in their humans...
here we go....
Friday, March 11, 2011
Too many directions...
Sometimes busy is too busy.
The only place where the world makes sense is where the tires meet the road,
riding down these busy streets-
yes, even in the wind driven rain,
and even in the cold, heart beating furiously.
I don't have to know, and honestly don't know, the answers
to all the whys and hows, but I
know that you keep pedaling, no matter what.
Eventually you reach
your destination
and the sun comes out.
But this place is mine
and I don't expect that it will
matter as much outside of
me as it does in my heart,
but it is
joy incarnate
joy on wheels
The only place where the world makes sense is where the tires meet the road,
riding down these busy streets-
yes, even in the wind driven rain,
and even in the cold, heart beating furiously.
I don't have to know, and honestly don't know, the answers
to all the whys and hows, but I
know that you keep pedaling, no matter what.
Eventually you reach
your destination
and the sun comes out.
But this place is mine
and I don't expect that it will
matter as much outside of
me as it does in my heart,
but it is
joy incarnate
joy on wheels
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