Recent events have led to the repossession of my vehicle by my financing company, and I was unable to come up with the funds necessary to reverse this, so I am now without a car. I moved to the east side of Austin, however, at the beginning of July, and I'm in a pretty central location, so I figured maybe it was time for me to try biking! I hopped online, and subsequently purchased this little gem:
This is a Nishiki Modulus 12 speed road bike. It's from the 80s. I fell in love with it immediately, and have now been riding nigh-daily for about the last month and a half. I've had to do a little work to it; just simple stuff, like replacing the bar tape and the ancient tires. Everything else on it is in tip top shape, and I'm rapidly growing to greatly enjoy the life of cycling.
I've noticed a few things since picking up this habit. For one, the horror stories you hear from cyclists in Austin about being nearly run over multiple times a day are either not true, I'm cycling in a very bike-aware area, or these guys ride their bikes like a bastard would. I've certainly seen people on bikes very purposefully cutting off cars, swinging around them to blow through red lights, or hanging out in the middle of the road when they're obviously slowing traffic down. I tend to take the "stay out of the way of the 2 ton machines" approach to cycling. That doesn't mean I'm on the sidewalk all the time, but I stick to the curb when there are cars around. Exercising my right to the road is not worth decorating it with my bloody innards.
Anyway, I talk about this because I find that biking is easily the cheapest, funnest way to get around, particularly if you live central, north-central or south-central. Despite the fact that you may not have ridden one since grade school, you pick it back up remarkably quickly, and in no time you find yourself whizzing around corners and standing in the saddle, one hand on the bars and the other one smoking a cigarette, if it please you.
I've made many nights fun by grabbing a nearby friend and riding down to Hole in the Wall or over to The Parlor, or perhaps down to 6th for Shangri-La, and I can't think of a better way to spend an evening, these days. There are down sides, of course. You get sweaty as hell, and you probably smell most of the time, and road bikes don't exactly come stock with seats built for comfort. You also have to deal with road debris and flat tires pretty routinely, particularly if you're biking around on the east side, but tubes are so cheap and it's better than emptying your wallet into your gas tank.
Anyway, that's what I got. I promise I'll get back to the original intent of this blog one day.
