October 19th, 2007
Bike Me
Steph and I had our first anniversary recently and to celebrate the occasion we bought new bicycles. These will, of course, allow us to have memorable romantic moments for years to come. Soon we’ll be touring Europe, staying in quaint, enchanted bed and breakfasts, and taking trips through rural America where I will sit on the handlebars as Steph rides us through a field and I hold a frilly hat to my head, BJ Thomas crooning away in the background….
For now though, I just use my bike to commute to work. I got a 9-speed, bright blue Schwinn cyclocross bike. “Cyclocross” models, I now understand, are very posh and pricey. The only reason I purchased one is the bike store had it refurbished and it was on sale for half-off. Even then, it was more than I imagined a bike would cost, so I guess I should have known.
So, yeah, this bike is really nice. Like really nice. I actually feel guilty for owning it. You will develop an acute sense of how little I deserve this thing as you continue reading.
The last time I paid any attention to bicycles, I was in middle school. At that period, the 10-speed mountain bike was enjoying its rise to popularity and I was a boy possessed. Walmart had a model called the “Stone Mountain” by Huffy and I would make a “b.”-line for sporting goods each time we visited, and wile away the hours while the rest of my family was shopping, coveting it. The frame was a gray, stone-washed finish and the water bottle, bike bag, and brake and shifter cables were all neon green. It was, in my mind, at that time (which, keep in mind, was the early 90s), the absolute coolest means of transportation that would ever exist. Over multiple visits, it became clear to me that, being a pre-teen, I needed this pre-teen Huffy. My one-speed, brake by pedaling backwards, foam-pad with a fabric cover around the little bar between the handlebars type Huffy was a child’s Huffy…. When did these other bike companies come into existence, by the way? Last I remember there was just Huffy, and Huffys, it was widely-known, were awesome. These days you go into a bike store, ask to see the Huffys, and the employees shake their heads in disbelief. It’s all “Cannondales” and “Treks” and “Novaras” now. What’s up with that?
Ok, in case you can’t tell, there have been some changes since I was in the saddle regularly.
Some of them are good, I’ll admit. On multi-speed bikes, gears actually seem to change now. Smoothly and quickly, at that. I remember, after my parents finally bought me that Stone Mountain for Christmas, having to monkey with ol’ Stoney’s stiff, finicky thumb-shifters, actually trying to produce that horrible crunching noise, because at least that meant a change of some sort was occurring. There was no discernable difference in pedaling, from one shifter position to the the other. I was quite excited to find this is not the case anymore, and told the bike salesmen as much. (More shaking of their heads in disbelief.) And these newfangled gear shifters! My new bike has road-bike-style handlebars, which I’ve always identified as being scary as crap to use, as the levers are located down on the frame, requiring you to take your eyes off the road and to remove a hand from the handlebars to shift. They’ve solved this problem with these combination brake-lever/shifter mechanisms. I was skeptical at first, but they function quite well. The other problem with road bikes: those skinny tires that wobble on anything but the smoothest asphalt. The cyclocross has “hybrid” tires that are wider and knobbier and handle even gravel with ease.
Some new developments in biking though, I must say, I don’t get. The pedals that came with my bike are the clip-in type, that, in combination with special shoes, lock your feet to the pedals so they will only come off via a very specific, unintuitive movement of your foot. I understand, from some vaguely cultish salespeople and fellow customers who approached me when they saw me checking these shoes out, that once you get used to them you realize you’re getting a “fuller leg workout” and you just “fall in love with them.” Not the only “falling” that’s involved, I’m sure. You must topple over at least occasionally while using these. And the special shoes start at $70 a pair. I bought a $10 pair of plain platforms and put them on my bike, instead. Also, whatever happened to just being able to slap one of those big red, T-shaped bike pumps with a wooden handle on your tires and inflate them? The first time I took the valve caps off my bike, I had no idea what was going on. There’s some kind of space-needle in there! “Prestas,” they informed me with much disbelief-related head-shaking.
So yeah, I’m not exactly Lance de France. To my credit though, this was not an impulse buy. I have been riding an old Giant mountain bike around for the past year. (My dad and sister bought it for me at a used bike auction in Chapel Hill a few years ago. They got it for $1. Pretty amazing, considering you can’t take much of anything home for a dollar anymore, and this is a fully intact bike in fine mechanical condition. The deals are out there, if you’re willing to look!) This Giant was probably made around the same time my Stone Mountain was though, and, aside from quick-releases on the wheels, it’s lacking in any of biking’s nicer amenities. The rough gear-shifting and the body that is made of steel tubing that must be filled with cement for stability, just weren’t cutting it here in the foothills. It’s so bulky and heavy that I have trouble getting it up and down the stairs of our apartment building, much less powering it up an incline.
After biking to work, church, and a few other locations a handful of times, I convinced myself that if I had something better I’d ride more…. We’ll see how this works out.
I think an additional factor that will keep me motivated, is that biking is getting quite popular — at least it is in Raleigh. You can hardly glance out your window right now without seeing a cyclist or two go by. And it’s not just weekend warriors in $400 skin-tight designer bikewear who, one imagines, go home and fire up their Ford Expeditions when they need to run to the grocery store. It’s also hipsters in $400 skin-tight jeans who, instead of firing up their 10-year-old Nissan Sentras that their parents gave them, are getting on their bikes when they need to run to the grocery store. I feel this area is becoming more bike-oriented.
Which is not to say riding in Raleigh isn’t without peril. This is the south, and there are certain cross-sections of humanity here — mostly those capable of feeling physical lust toward lifted mud-caked pick-up trucks with deer-hunting decals on them — that think it is funny to harass people on bicycles. And even if these obstacles did not exist, pedaling along while a stream of 800-lb. behemoths lurch past, inches away from you, is still pretty awkward.
Riding on the street has been the biggest adjustment for me. When I was little, we hopped on the Huffs, took off, and, as soon as we got to a street with actual cars on it, we headed for the sidewalk. Technically, that wasn’t where we were supposed to be, but pedestrians never minded. They’d smile at us and stop to let us by. We were safe and warm up there, insulated from danger. It was a good life. But I can’t really do that anymore. I’m a growed-ass man.
There is one thing that has stayed the same about cycling, though. When you’re zipping along, propelling yourself with your own two legs, the wind in your face, it’s just as exhilarating as it was back in the day. I’ll give it that.
Now if you’ll excuse me, grandpa has to go lie down.
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