Justin Shullick's Friends

Ride Report--12/19/09
I don't normally do these, since I figure there aren't a lot of people in my life who really care too much about my bike riding, but Elaine has also been challenging me to ride more, so I've been trying to, and maybe writing about it will help me keep my enthusiasm up.

A lot of that enthusiasm has been helped by the fact that I received some money from my parents for a new bike this year. I'm still keeping my old bike (following the old cyclist adage, "The number of bikes you have = n; the number of bikes you need = n+1") but that's a road bike, and while it's fast, it's also got narrow wheels and a very forward-leaning position, so it's a bit treacherous to ride in poor weather.

So this past Thursday, I picked up a GT Traffic 4.0

It's a well-designed ride, I feel. It's what bike companies call a "hybrid," which just means that it's a general-use bike rather than something super-specialized. It has highly reflective paint, good derailleur, a top bar bumper so it can lean against things without getting scratched up, and so on. It's on the lower end of the GT range, but it's not a cheap bike by any means--I had thought about getting a higher-end bike from Target or Wal-Mart, but the problem with that is that, while the frames are usually pretty good (and usually heavy, since they're steel), the parts they use are really, really cheap, and they wear out fast. My dad took a Huffy I had for several years when they visited in September because it was so worn out that it would have cost about $250 to fix, and once you're spending that kind of money on a bike, you may as well save up for a new one that won't wear out as much.

Anyhow, after a day or so of toodling along the side streets, I figured it was time for a real inaugural ride, and what better day to do it than today?

Actually, the bad weather was one of the reasons I picked today, since it allows me to get a better feel for what I have to do if I want to winter commute, which is why I got the bike in the first place. So I bundled up, ate a burrito, and prepared myself for the trip.

See that chiseled jaw? Those shining eyes? That jaunty smirk that taunts the new day? Remember that, because it will be very important in just a bit. That, and I'm so pretty.

Anyhow, after preparing my water bottle and backpack, I took off. since this was the first time I was doing this, I took the ~~wuss~~ safe way and stayed on the sidewalk. The temperature about this time was 40 degrees and sprinkling a bit, so it was cold, but not freezing.

The ride itself was only about 3.5 miles according to Google, and since I stayed on the sidewalks the whole time, it wasn't very exciting. I stopped halfway to drop some movies off at Blockbuster, then proceeded to my real destination:

Oh, yes, the orange fortress of Homitude. Why? Well, because I needed a tarp so I could store my new bike outside. Obviously, the purchase of some stuff necessitates the purchase of more stuff.

Of course, the first problem I ran into is that no one really expects someone to come to Home Depot on a bike because, you know, you're probably buying pylons or rebar or something else really manly that needs a truck to haul it home. (PROTIP: One does not "take" stuff home from the Home Depot. One "hauls." If going to Home Depot wasn't work, bosses, wives, and other non-workman types wouldn't want us to go.) So parking my bike was a problem. Maybe I could find a small enough steel girder to wrap my lock around, a support beam or a fence or...

Oh, hey, that's convenient.

So I run in, grab my tarp, and head back home. Overall, it was a pretty ho-hum sort of ride, other than the conditions I was in, but I got to learn a lot about how to ride in less-than-pleasant weather:

One: I need a balaclava. You remember that glorious visage from just above? Yeah, it turns out that when people can see your face, the elements can also see it. It wasn't so unpleasant that I couldn't ride, but if the weather gets colder or wetter (which it will), I need to protect it. I also need a pair of gloves or mittens that are waterproof, and I have a pair of motorcycle goggles that one of my brothers got me last Christmas that I can use to protect my eyes--even on an overcast day like that, it would have been nice to not have to deal with flying cold water randomly stinging my face.

Two: UnderArmor cold-weather gear is awesome. I had a pair of thermal leggings on, and even though I only had jeans on over that, they kept me plenty warm. My upper base layer is a thinner exercise shirt, but if the UA shirt works as well as the leggings did, it may be worth getting. Don't get me wrong; I was warm enough, but we'll see.

Three: Upright biking is awesome in a totally different way than road biking. On my road bike, I feel in control because I can go fast. When you get in the higher gears and start pushing, or when you get a nice straight downhill slope and the speedometer hits 25 or 30 MPH, it's a pretty good feeling. Even on the flats when you can get 15-17 MPH, it's nice to cruise along at that speed using only your body as the engine. But all of that kind of riding takes energy and attention, and with this bike, I can ride in a way that reminds me of being twelve, when I was old enough to go lots of places on my own, but not old enough to think that I could drive soon. The bike is more stable, a little more cushy because of the wider tires and saddle, but it's more freeing as well. I don't worry as much about the ride when I'm on that bike.

There's also the fact that I like to be able to skip curbs and such on it. It's not great for that, since it's not a full-suspension mountain bike, but it can handle the bumps and jostles of urban travel a lot better than my road bike.

Overall, it was a good trip, and I'm looking forward to seeing what longer trips are like, especially a commute.

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