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 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....

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....

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

There is no room for pretense on a bicycle,
there is just me and the road,
the wind and the sun,
or sometimes the stars,
here I cannot be other than what I am.

New digs, new route

New apartment means finding a new route to work. This morning's route ~5.7 miles, about 35 minutes...almost exactly half the old distance, but with a lot more stops. Its still faster than the T and the bus though!

New miles for 2011: 5.7 miles

if we continued adding on to the previous year end total from 2010:
Goal: 2,200 miles
Miles ridden to date: 2,077.7
Miles left to goal: 122.3
the totals won't add up as impressively as they did with the old commute, unless I make the journey farther afield...
...here there be dragons?

Home is where the bike is...

Charlie has been suffering from cabin fever, he's been stuck in the basement for almost an entire month because of all this snow. I haven't gotten him a bicycle plow yet so he's not exactly equipped for the blizzard ride...

Anyway as of sometime tomorrow Charlie will no longer be a resident of the city of Waltham (as delightfully post-apocalyptic as it may be...) he will instead be another snazzy cycle resident of Somerville. He's very excited about the move because no longer will he be a freak in the night in a town that doesn't know what the hell a bicycle is- he will be, at last, amongst his own kind, his people. Although I think the part of him that's a show-off will miss the notoriety. The commute will only be half the length it was before, but I've promised him that he'll still get to strut his stuff. (Can bicycles strut?)

Well next time will be broadcasting from a new home...here we go!