bike

Sep 10 2010

A Ride on a Bike, a Run Through the Sprinklers

“I don’t want to get my fashions wet!”
— Lucy at the swimming pool

Two bikes in one week? Well…yep, I guess so. I got a good deal on a bike for Lucy last week. However, at this point in time the bike is a tad too big for the kid.

So hear I am, minding my own business, and I find another good deal ($10) for a bike with 12″ wheels, a better fit size-wise for the kid. So, to make a long story short…yeah, the kid now has two very girly-girl bikes.

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The kid took the new smaller bike out for a spin today. I think she’s starting to grasp the whole “pedaling propels you forward, steering keeps you out of the neighbor’s bushes” dynamic.

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The bike is definitely a keeper. I think she’ll be able to ride it around until she’s big enough for her other bike. Once that day comes, I’m sure we’ll be able to find another little girl in need of her first miniature bike.

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Though she was having a blast riding the bike around, once the automatic sprinklers came on, she was off the bike in a flash and running a crazed obstacle course between the sprinklers.

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Once the sprinklers stopped, the kid, now soaking wet, got back on her bike to finish her inaugural ride. All in all, I’d say it was a good day for being a kid.

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By mike • by Mike, The Kid • 1 • Tags: , , , ,

Sep 5 2010

Biking (and Walking) Around


Lucy: “Wubie wears a brown dress.”
Dad: “What does he do in his brown dress?”
Lucy: “Walks around like a cat.”
 — a conversation with Lucy

I took a bike ride over to my mom’s place this morning. For the ride back home, I decided to goof off a bit and take some pictures. I took a few shots at Piedmont Hills High School, about a mile from my mom’s place. I thought my older siblings might get a kick out of the pics. They all went there.

By the time my little sister and I were old enough for high school, school busing was in effect. We never got a chance to go to the school down the street. Instead, we went to Independence, which was about six times the distance of Piedmont Hills.

In addition to the school photos are shots of various scenes that caught my attention. I would have taken more pictures, but unfortunately my bike ride was cut short by a pesky thorn (yes, I took a pic of it!) that flattened my rear tire.

It figures that on all my previous rides I’d brought along a pump, repair kit, and spare tube and hadn’t encountered a single problem. So this time I thought, “Man, my bike is heavy enough as it is. Maybe I’ll just leave that stuff at home this time.”

So today I get a flat tire and wind up walking the bike home the last 2-3 miles on a hot summer day. Also, during the walk I figured out that once the flat lost all its air (which was about a mile from home) I’d have to lift up the rear of the bike so that the rim wouldn’t get all bent up during the walk home. Lovely!

Oh well, good exercise I guess. I ended up biking/walking about 15 miles all together. Once I finally got home I learned that I was six pounds lighter than I was at my trip’s outset. That’s a lot of sweat! I also learned a valuable lesson: I sure won’t be leaving my bike repair stuff at home any more.

By mike • by Mike, Misc • 3 • Tags: , , , , ,

Sep 3 2010

Cats and Pools and Bikes

“Tell me a story Daddy, but keep your eyes open so I can see them!”
- Lucy getting her sleepy dad to tell her a story

Here are some pics of the kid from the past week. Every time I look at pics like these it always hits me how fast the kid is growing up.

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We had a nice get-together at my mom’s place last weekend. My mom has a neat backyard, with lots of trees and plants, squirrels and birds. The neighborhood cats love it. These pics show one cat in particular who’s always lazing around in the yard. Lucy and her cousins gave the cat rockstar treatment. The cat loved the attention.

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Jill and I had never used this pool before. However, the kid had never been swimming, so we packed up our towels and flip-flops and made the trek. It was actually pretty fun (and very refreshing) so I think we’ll make regular use of the pool until the weather cools.

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I’ve written before about how I like tooling around on weekend mornings while the girls are asleep. Last weekend I hit a few garage sales. My dad took me to lots of flea markets when I was a kid. I loved going, even enough to get up at 7am on a Saturday (that’s pretty early when you’re 8 or 9.) He’d look at old hi-fi equipment while I was on the prowl for comic books.

One of my fondest memories involves my dad getting me a big box of a beat-up comics for $2. I had enough to keep me reading for the whole summer! Talk about heaven.

I think that’s why, to this day I love hitting garage sales, flea markets, and thrift stores. Anyway, at one of the garage sales I hit, I saw a neglected little bicycle. I immediately shifted into flea market mode:

(look at everything except bike; before leaving, look at bike and ask out of curiosity…)

Me: “How much is the bike?”
Seller: “$10.”
Me: (pause) “Would you take $5?”
Seller: “I’d rather have $10.”
Me: “Well, good luck with that!” (interest gone, turn to leave)
Seller: “Howzabout $7?”
Me: “I’ve got my truck right here. I’ll give you $5 and take it off your hands right now. You won’t have to worry about it.”
Seller: “OK. $5.”

My dad would have been proud of me. So I got the bike home, scrubbed a couple of years of grime off, and voila!—the kid has a bike.

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By mike • by Mike, Relatives, The Kid • 7 • Tags: , , , , , ,

May 8 2010

Bike Commute

Bike Commute from Mike C on Vimeo.

I’d always thought about biking to work. I’m lucky in that my commute is only 10-12 miles roundtrip, so physically it’s very doable. However, I’d never actually gotten beyond just daydreaming about biking because I knew my regular car commute involved some very non-bike friendly streets with lots of traffic.

Recently I discovered Google had added bicycle routes to Google Maps. For fun I popped in my home and work addresses and was greeted with a much more bike friendly route I hadn’t considered before.

“Hmmm. This looks very doable,” I thought. I tweaked the suggested route with a bit of dragging and dropping and soon had the best possible bike route to my work.

“Man, I think this could work!” I said to a nearby (and nearly comatose) Wubert. He breathed in and out a bit in agreement.

“Now all I need is a bike.”

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So I spent some time doing bike research. I went to half a dozen shops. I test-drove 6-8 bikes, and finally picked one up last week. I spent the past week doing a little riding around the neighborhood to get used to the bike. I also used the time to figure out what I’d need to make the bike (and me) ready for an actual work commute. Some of the extra stuff I picked up:

ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED

  • Side Handlebar Mirror (I realized I needed this the first minute I rode the bike)
  • Rear Rack (My work backpack would be heavy with a laptop, notebooks, gym bag, bike stuff, etc., and my research had turned up lots of backpack wearing bicyclists with back problems)
  • Milk Crate (w/ a cargo net the cheapest, easiest way to hold lots of stuff on a rear rack)
  • Helmet
  • Safety Vest (‘cuz I needed something to make me look awesome)
  • Patch Kit, Pump, Lock, Spare Tube, Multi-Tool (some of this stuff I already had)

NOT ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED (BUT I GOT ‘EM ANYWAY!)

  • Bike Computer (about the size of a pack of matches, displays speed, distance, elapsed time, clock)
  • Lights (though I don’t plan on riding at night, I wanted them in my backpack just in case)

Friday was my first commute (I figured there’d be less traffic). I even strapped my pocket camcorder to the back of my milk crate and shot some video (see above).

The ride went pretty well and was actually fun in spots, though I’m already looking for ways to lighten my 17+ pound backpack. I have a goal of putting a minimum of 500 miles on the bike by the end of the year (that’s how I justified getting the bike computer—to keep track of my miles.) I think I can do it. Wubert snores behind me in support.

Music Used:

By mike • by Mike, Misc, Video • 2 • Tags: , ,