thoughts

Going well with the theme of National Bike Month, my car broke down on Tuesday.  I have an mid/late 90's Cutlass Supreme, given to me by my wife's grandfather before he passed away.  It was in OK shape when it was given to me, not driven much, and it needed some work.  I don't drive much, so it spends much of its time sitting, we spend more money on it because of that.  Well, the brake lines finally broke, and the cost of fixing them, only to find out if something else is wrong with it is causing us to think it is time to get rid of the car.  The problem(s) are that we still need a car for my running around, and we don't have the money to buy something.  Like I said, I don't drive very much at all, on a normal week 10 miles - more if I have to go to an away soccer game or can't convince anyone to drive me to go mountain biking 30 minutes away.  Or if I want to take the kids to the museums or visit mom at work.  So I need a car that is reliable for those situations.  That stinks. 

I have a bunch of cool bikes.  I have another cool bike coming soon.  I like to ride bikes, a lot.  I ride them all over the place, and hopefully soon, will be riding them in even cooler areas.  As for my bikes, the Tradesman takes care of most of my needs.  The soon to be revealed hybrid and singlespeed mountain bike take care of faster, longer distances by myself and riding off road, and the matt chester (whenever it gets here) will take care of all my adventure riding - including the reasons why I have the hybrid and mountain bike.  So I have (or soon will hopefully have) cool bikes to do every I need them to do, except get both of my kids somewhere.  My son Owen is 8, he can ride his bike most places, but some of the roads we have to go on are shaky for him.  My daughter Josie is 3, she rides in a Burley everywhere.  I can't really put a Trail-a-Bike on the back of my bike and attach the Burley to that, too long, drawn out, and kind of dangerous.  It would look cool.  I could get a tandem, and have Owen on the back, but in bad weather he wouldn't want to go out.  So I'm thinking of getting a Cetma Cargo Largo.  I've wanted one for a long time, test rode one and it was fun.  Although my son is getting to the stage of that being dorky, it would solve the problems of getting everyone to the places we need to get, and in the nice weather, Owen could still ride on a Trail-a-Bike, or Josie could use her trailer.  Downsides -

Expensive, have to sell a bunch of stuff to get one

I really like the Tradesman, and the Cetma would make the Tradesman obsolete

Would have to really do some convincing on the wife front.  It probably won't fly.

But in the long run, having a reliable car makes more sense.  For all the reasons in the top paragraph, it would be the smartest idea.  I just don't like it.  I'd rather not have a car.  Crud.

Just some thoughts.....

commute 05/02

Rode: Tradesman

Distance: 7.5 (and I plan on riding home)

Cool things on the way in: A big freakin' tree down across the bike path, saw a kingfisher on a downed tree in the river.

Song in my head: (NSFW)

rode today

Rode: Tradesman

Mileage:  1.8 miles

Song in my head: nothing, I was having an interesting discussion with my daughter about how scary "Monsters Inc" was versus zombies.

Ended up riding up to the store today with Josie,  put the Burley on the Tradesman and rode down to the supermarket.  Needed to get some stuff for dinner, and the wife needed artificially sweetened "diet" drink, I needed beer and soda.

Josie is in the trailer with some bread (been too lazy to bake this week), some fruit, and pizza sauce.  In the front basket of the Tradesman - 4 12 packs of cola, a six pack of my favorite beer in cans - 21st Amendment Back in Black - 5 pounds of sugar, cheese for the pizzas, quinoa, and my lock.   The rack is "rated" to 50 pounds, I estimate I had just above that. The ride was super stable, no issues with riding or turning, felt just like the bike usually does, except heavier.  When I got over some of the rougher patches though, I could see and feel the booms of the arms flexing.  No damage, but it will be a long time before I do that again. 

bike month

May is National Bike Month - so, like last year, I'm going to do daily postings of my riding.  Just like last year, its going to be pretty boring, but who knows, something exciting might happen.

Because I commute to work 95% of the time, I'll also try and give some tips and show some of my setups for using the bike as an useful tool to get around.  I'll also talk about the riding I do outside of transportation - mountain biking, road riding, and cruising with the family.  I'll have two new bikes to show you all, a new hybrid to ride around on, and an old mountain bike re purposed  to a single speed mountain bike.  Maybe even this:

(borrowed from mc's twitter feed)

See everyone this month.

tradesman updates again

I haven't changed much, but it have done a few things to what is now my favorite bike. 

From this post, you saw the new attachment to allow me to pull the Burley.  Still working great.

Also on the back of the bike, I switched around and added to the lights.

The light on the rack is now the Danger Zone from PDW. Why?  Well the burn time is a little longer, and I've added the Fenderbot to the fender, so I don't need a light with a reflector.  Plus, the flash mode plays "Take On Me" from a-Ha!.  What you can't see from the picture is that the holes are drilled crooked, so it is a little off to the side. 

I also moved the pump from the underseat bag to the front rack.

Its a Mini Charger from Bontrager.  A fold out foot peg and a hose allows me to fill the tires up faster than with just a regular hand pump.  I did this to use a smaller underseat bag, but then I had to use the smaller one for another project (more on that later) so I brought back out the big one.  I have a smaller one now at home, but have been too lazy to switch it over.

Besides the underseat bag switch, the only two changes I can see myself doing to the bike is possibly getting a rear rack light that operates off of the dynamo hub, and when the new Bosco bar becomes available from  Rivendell, add that to the front end to make the bike a little more upright. 

We'll see......