I cycled to work today. No more excuses about the weather or the bike not being ready. Riding felt good. Spring is here and my goal is to ride to work 2-4 days per week, with a mix of driving or catching the bus for the rest, depending on what best suits our schedules.
When I lived in New York, I rode all the time. I lived in Williamsburg and rode a fixie. I worked in Manhattan, first downtown, for a few years, then uptown. Working in restaurants meant finishing late. Late meant trains ran less frequently. Often I could get home faster by riding. It also felt good not having to depend on other people.
Canberra isn’t as suited to fixie riding (and my knees are ten years older). Last year, I rode the fixie a fair bit while we were living in Kingston. Now we live in Belconnen and my work is in Dickson. There’s one mega hill, down on the way in and up on the way back. I’ve retired the fixie and use the road bike out now. It takes about 26 minutes for me to get to work and half an hour to get home. My best time last year on the fixie was around 22 or 23 minutes.
My bike, despite its American motif, is made in China. I bought it in June 2008, to get around Ho Chi Minh City, from an elderly gentleman who runs a specialist bicycle shop out of his house. He sold a range of stuff, from mid- to high-end, mostly road-oriented. From Vietnam, the bike traveled to New York and sat in storage while I spent another season on the Ice. A year later, it came with me to Australia.
travels in food / detours in ordinary 