I haven't thought seriously about the bicycle as a form of transportation for people in industrialized countries in about 14 years. It was a staple for me in high school, but since then, I can't think of a time I pedaled my way from A to B.
So, for some reason, something about Anchorage makes me think bike travel is a good idea. Perhaps it is that my bicycle commute is 4.5 miles on a nice paved trail through a greenway, from one block from my house to campus. Perhaps it is that a colleague claims to see a moose on said trail once a week. Perhaps it is that I am aware that, while I have avoided gaining the typical 5 pounds/year pre-tenure, I have only kept it to 3. Perhaps it is that Kirsten and Soren get the car, despite the fact that we pay megarent to be near both a gourmet market/coffee shop and a scenic lagoon, and the alternatives to campus are not good (there is an hourly public bus). Or, perhaps I am masochistic, deluded or insane.
The first step in the bicycling plan is: acquire a bicycle. Since I'm going to be here a short time, I want a cheap bike. Another job for craigslist. The bike ads on craigslist fall into four categories: 1) people advertising one or two old bikes from the garage for cheap 2) people advertising super high end bikes for between $2000 and $4000 3) people advertising lots (6-20) of newer bikes of uncertain provenance for really cheap and 4) people admonishing me not to buy bike X because it was stolen from them. I quickly realize I do not know enough about bikes (parts types, frame sizes, etc.) to buy myself a suitable bike, but I decide I want to avoid the bike fences and, after finding nothing that seems ideal, contact a few people selling a single old bike from the garage.
Now is when it is important to note that this means that I actually have to test ride a bike. Someone else's bike. At their house. While they are watching. When I haven't tried to ride a bike in more than a decade. It is true, what they say....
After some effort, I purchased an early '90s Novara Ponderosa (REI model) for $100 from a guy with a large house in the foothills overlooking the city and water and a Carrera coeval with the bike. It is a mountain bike his wife used and has the following features:
1. It has two wheels that spin
2. It is adult size
3. It has Shimano brakes, gears and derailleurs, and they made good stuff last time I knew anything about bikes (which is about when this bike was made)
I will not take a bet that it is not a women's bike, what with the teal and fucshia logo on a white frame and a woman's seat. However, the top bar is in the right place, and I'm already married, so I'll make do.
The second step in the bicycling plan is: acquiring auxilliary equipment, a helmet and gloves. When I last rode a bike, helmets were for racers looking to be more aerodynamic and safety nuts (he says through the three crowns holding the place of the front teeth he knocked out in a bike accident when he was 12). The local cyclery was happy to provide.
The third step in the bicycling plan is: riding the bicycle. I bought the bike and gear on Friday, and eagerly take my first ride up the bike trail towards school. I live on the coast, and campus is inland, but the ride is not noticably uphill. Unless you're on a bicycle. And haven't ridden one in 14 years. On my test ride, I made it about 3/4s of a mile toward school and was completely wiped; unfortunately, it is not noticably downhill back home. Things were not looking good for the first commute.
The final step in the bicycling plan is: commuting on the bicycle. Far from confident from my trial ride, on Tuesday I mounted the bike, determined to see if I could get to campus. Lacking a map, I made several wrong turns and added over a mile to the ride, but I did make it. After the first day, I learned three things:
1. I am not in good shape
2. Veer right at the third baseball diamond
3. The woman who rode what is now my bicycle had the front of the seat higher than the back; I needed the opposite arrangement
Today was my third day of commuting by bicycle, and after several seat adjustments, many parts of my body hurt. But I am pleased to say that I am feeling stronger with each ride. I am measuring my progress based on the ratio of people who pass me to people I pass on the ride home. On the way home yesterday, I passed another biker, er, cyclist, as we prefer to be called. He was towing a trailer with a kid in it. But today, on the way home, I passed five fellow cyclists, and none were towing trailers. Three were even adults. And only one person passed me.
Perhaps by next week I will be able to climb the big hill at mile 4 without getting off the bike and walking. Or maybe I'll spot a moose.
Friday, June 22, 2007
You never forget...
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5 comments:
Glad that you're improving with practice. :-)
As a kid I also heard the "Shimano makes good stuff" conventional wisdom. I don't know what their product line was like back then, but these days they have separate lines for road and mountain bikes, with 5 or 6 different grades of quality. The guy in my LBS (local bike shop) was trying to talk me into not buying a bike with the lowest grade of stuff, but then, that's his job. (The bike I ended up buying was used and had the mid-grade stuff.) I'm sure that if you're only riding 9 miles a day, and you take care of it properly (cleaning, lube, etc), the equipment will serve you well. It may even be more economical in your case to buy the cheaper stuff now, and replace it with cheap stuff again if it ever breaks.
Here's a few tips that might give you an extra 5-10% efficiency:
1) MTB tires already have a lot of rolling resistance because of the knobby tires, so be sure to inflate them to the maximum specified on the tire, so you don't also lose energy to sidewall deformation. The ride will be a little stiffer, but it'll be easier.
2) Consider toe clips (the pedal baskets you put your shoes in and strap down). They make it easier because you don't have to waste downward energy keeping your foot on the pedal on the upstroke. If you're really good, you can even pull up on the upstroke side while pushing down on the downstroke side, but that's a little hard to do with toe clips. Clipless pedal systems (which require the fancy shoes) would probably cost more than your bike.
Actually, I have a spare set of toe clips on my broken-down bike at home. I can give them to you next weekend when you are Back East.
We don't ride in San Diego because the bike "paths" are along the busiest and most terrifying roads, but Miriam and I both rode to and from work from Brooklyn into Manhattan on a daily basis. Her ride was about 8 miles, one way, mine more like 5.
Frankly, the bike quality for this kind of riding is nearly irrelevant. As long as the wheels spin, you keep the tires inflated, and the breaks and shifters work, you're fine. Miriam bought her bike on Craig's list for, I believe, $80, and it worked fine. My bike was left behind by one of Miriam's dad's tenants. The front fork has shocks that no longer work, but the bike rides fine and the guy at the bike shop told me they wouldn't be a safety issue. So really all I'm saying is good job not burning a lot of money on a temp vehicle.
When I started riding, I was kind of floored by how hard the hills were - the Manhattan Bridge kicked my butt the first day, and then the hill up First Avenue that I'd never noticed before suddenly seemed insurmountable. But a week later? I was passing people along my whole route. I think you can get into bike shape without too much problem.
Of course, the single worst thing that happens biking, aside from stupid automobile drivers, is rain. Do you have a plan for getting home when you've ridden to work and then it's raining in the evening? I've never been so soaked in my life as the time I rode home 5 miles through a drizzle.
I should clarify - we bike commute in San Diego, but we do ride to the farmer's market, a mere two miles along back roads and makes for a pleasant Sunday afternoon.
My bicycling vocab constists of 3 words:
1) Schwinn
2) Raliegh
3) pedal brakes
as I saw none of those words in your blog, I had a hard time following you. Here's a great idea...try clipping playing cards to your tire forks with clothes pins so they hit the spokes, they sound really neat the faster you go!
Chris - how is the cycling going? I recently got back on my bike after about a decade and I feel your pain. Those subtle hills really suck. I think I have a better chance of seeing a celebrity on my rides than a moose, but I'd much prefer the moose. More cycling diaries - those rebuses (rebi?) are way too hard!
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