I am still trying to figure out where this blog is heading so if anyone is actually reading it, thank you for visiting, and bear with me.
As I have previously stated, I ride my bike to work everyday and love it. The ride and my bike. When it was decided that we would be giving up a car and that I would be biking to work I didn't really know what kind of bike that I wanted to get. I did know that I needed a few extras though. A light, fenders, and a rack for my stuff to name a few. I was under the impression that there probably were going to be a number of bikes that I could choose from, wrong. I quickly found out that there were not hardly any bikes that I was going to be able to get everything I wanted without having to add a bunch of extra stuff to it. I did finally find one though. And I had to drive to St. Joseph, Michigan to get it. The Breezer Villager. If your are at all serious about commuting on a bike, then you have to check out Breezer. http://breezerbikes.com/
Anyway, back to my trip:
My bottom bracket started to make some noise a couple days ago and I had needed some brake pads for a while so I rode to Summit http://summitcitybikes.com/from my workplace at the City/County Building.
I first checked mapquest and decided that I would go up Wells Street. Even though it is narrow and there would be a lot of traffic after 5PM, I felt that the cars are moving at a slow enough speed through the little commercial stretch, to have it be somewhat manageable. I left my office and traveled north on South Calhoun St until I hit the Rivergreenway. I decided at that point that I would avoid Wells for a while and continue north on Harrison. Harrison is an awesome little stretch up to Putnam where you must take a left to head west. From Putnam it was right onto Wells. It is a little narrow up to State Blvd., but not terrible. I continued through State and headed up the hill. As you get further north up Wells the sidewalk and curb disappears. It seems to me that the Right of Way is wider than the street is. You have a white line that you have to hug with very little room for error because the pavement drops off about 5 inches behind the line. You have to be careful, but even at that hour the traffic was fairly minimal. I rode past Edy's and took it to Fernhill where I turned right and took that to Lima. I made pretty good time because when I got to the intersection of Lima/Fernhill I recognized a few cars that had passed me back at Putnum and Wells. I then turned right onto Lima for about 100 yds and I arrived at Summit.
As usual, the guys at Summit treated me right and fixed the bike while I waited. I didn't need a new bottom bracket (thank goodness, those are pricey) and got new brake pads. While I waited I talked with David while he priced some socks or something. He said that it is too bad that there isn't a market for bikes like mine in Fort Wayne because they would love to carry brands like Breezer. He said that there just isn't the infrastructure that there are other places. Not yet anyway. I told him that cities like Portland, OR started 15 yrs ago with their bike infrastructure. He asked if I had seen the CBS Sunday Morning (here is the link because I am so new that I don't know how to embed it just yet) http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=4297826n
show last Sunday and I had. He spoke about how amazed he was that cities like Seattle are planning to invest hundreds of millions of dollars on bike infrastructure. I agreed.
I asked him if they were still selling a ton of bikes. He also said that up until they started road construction on Lima, that the sales at their shop were record breaking. I asked if it was people planning on commuting and he said he didn't think so. Oh well. At least they are on their bikes. It is a start.
I said goodbye to David and headed home. There is something about a bike repair/tuneup that makes the ride so much more satisfying.
Until next time....
No comments:
Post a Comment