my streetcar by the bay
spring continues, a little moisture here and there, the breeze in and out. somehow i manage to get where i'm going, even if it is a bit of a job sometimes.
yesterday i had the rather unlikely experience of commuting to work on my track bike. no way, you say, it cannot be true, but yes. and get this: i wore a shoulder bag, and the track bike had bullhorns on it, i kid you not. no rolled-up jeans, however, and there was a hand brake on the front wheel. partly i was testing out the setup i think i will use on the ms-150 this year, something a little more comfortable for those six-hour days. and i think it will be more comfortable, although it was somewhat hard to tell while dealing with the realities of the morning ride, in particular the goddammit shoulder bag sliding around, and also the nuisance of clipping in and out from those one-sided dura ace pedals.
so i have never really gotten the message, so to speak, on so-called “messenger bags”. i was instructed, long ago, that it was best to let the bike carry any extra weight by using panniers instead of a backpack, although this is primarily for touring; certainly my school days involved no panniers. but the philosophical principle of letting the machine do the work (i’m not one to pass up a lever when it is available) appeals to me, and i find it far more comfortable to ride without anything on my back anyway. at the same time i don’t wish to second-guess the entire community of bicycle couriers, who despite a certain devil-may-care approach to life seem unlikely to, en masse, adopt the less practical solution to carrying things on a bicycle. there may be other forces at work in their daily activities, to be sure: keeping the bike light and nimble, getting in and out of destinations without rummaging through panniers, et cetera.
anyway i don’t expect to do much wearing of shoulder bags while riding, unless i get a new notebook computer and am compelled to carry it back and forth from work to home. a bouncing, vibrating bicycle is no place to attach a notebook computer; it will have to go in a bag. so at that point i am going to have to get some type of “messenger bag”, and risk being perceived as a caricature. note: there can be no such thing as a “posenger” in ann arbor because there are no real bicycle couriers here to begin with. second note: i don’t truly care if strangers think poorly of me because of what i wear, or what kind of bike i ride – it’s just that the bad energy is unnecessary, and i would prefer not to sustain it. anyway, let ‘em go.
the photos show the older son demonstrating his trackstanding prowess. those bullhorns are comfortable, as i said, but they make it feel a little like driving a bus, owing to their considerable width (i think 44 cm, although i have not measured them). yesterday i felt as though i was presenting a little too much surface area to that headwind, my arms as far apart as they were. so it was kind of nice to get back on the commuter this morning, with those narrow old french bars, barely 38 cm although i have not measured them either.
]\.0./[+]\.0./[+]\.0./[+]\.0./[+]\.0./[+]\.0./[+]\.0./[
anyway get busy.
yesterday i had the rather unlikely experience of commuting to work on my track bike. no way, you say, it cannot be true, but yes. and get this: i wore a shoulder bag, and the track bike had bullhorns on it, i kid you not. no rolled-up jeans, however, and there was a hand brake on the front wheel. partly i was testing out the setup i think i will use on the ms-150 this year, something a little more comfortable for those six-hour days. and i think it will be more comfortable, although it was somewhat hard to tell while dealing with the realities of the morning ride, in particular the goddammit shoulder bag sliding around, and also the nuisance of clipping in and out from those one-sided dura ace pedals.
so i have never really gotten the message, so to speak, on so-called “messenger bags”. i was instructed, long ago, that it was best to let the bike carry any extra weight by using panniers instead of a backpack, although this is primarily for touring; certainly my school days involved no panniers. but the philosophical principle of letting the machine do the work (i’m not one to pass up a lever when it is available) appeals to me, and i find it far more comfortable to ride without anything on my back anyway. at the same time i don’t wish to second-guess the entire community of bicycle couriers, who despite a certain devil-may-care approach to life seem unlikely to, en masse, adopt the less practical solution to carrying things on a bicycle. there may be other forces at work in their daily activities, to be sure: keeping the bike light and nimble, getting in and out of destinations without rummaging through panniers, et cetera.
anyway i don’t expect to do much wearing of shoulder bags while riding, unless i get a new notebook computer and am compelled to carry it back and forth from work to home. a bouncing, vibrating bicycle is no place to attach a notebook computer; it will have to go in a bag. so at that point i am going to have to get some type of “messenger bag”, and risk being perceived as a caricature. note: there can be no such thing as a “posenger” in ann arbor because there are no real bicycle couriers here to begin with. second note: i don’t truly care if strangers think poorly of me because of what i wear, or what kind of bike i ride – it’s just that the bad energy is unnecessary, and i would prefer not to sustain it. anyway, let ‘em go.
the photos show the older son demonstrating his trackstanding prowess. those bullhorns are comfortable, as i said, but they make it feel a little like driving a bus, owing to their considerable width (i think 44 cm, although i have not measured them). yesterday i felt as though i was presenting a little too much surface area to that headwind, my arms as far apart as they were. so it was kind of nice to get back on the commuter this morning, with those narrow old french bars, barely 38 cm although i have not measured them either.
]\.0./[+]\.0./[+]\.0./[+]\.0./[+]\.0./[+]\.0./[+]\.0./[
anyway get busy.
posted by cicadashell at
9:44 AM
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