Bicycles

With three weeks until the time change not many more evenings riding my bike home from work 🏒 πŸ‘‰ 🚲 πŸ‘‰ 🏑

I always enjoy that trip. Gives me something to look forward to at the end of the day, the fresh air and the scenic gorge, even if it means that big uphill climbing out of the Norman’s Kill Ravine. But come the time change, it will be dark by the time I get out of work most days, so I won’t be able to ride home from work. That said, I do plan to ride on in on mornings when it’s still decent out and can take my bicycle home on the bus.

Bicycling Changes the Way You Look at a Map 🚡

Most roads and maps are built for automobiles.

When driving, you usually want the most direct route, or at least the route with the least amount of traffic, the highest speed limit, and the fewest stoplights and stop signs. In other words, the fastest route or the one that gets you to your destination with the least amount of stress from traffic.

But on a bicycle, your priorities are different.

For one, bicycles are allowed on bike paths and to take shortcuts that are prohibited, frowned upon, or impossible to take in an automobile. It is often acceptable to cut through the woods on a bike or through a parking lot. This opens alternative routes. But more fundamentally, what bicyclists want to avoid — namely busy streets with motor vehicle traffic, especially those without shoulders and complicated intersections with traffic lights. Bicyclists often want to avoid steep hills, and will choose a longer route to avoid hills. The quiet suburban subdivision might be the preferred route for the bicyclist, even if some of the side streets are a less direct way to get from Point A to Point B.

Rediscovering my neighborhood and finding optimal bicycle routes is bringing me great joy compared to using a car.

Researching high-quality bicycle U-locks annoys me πŸ”

I am fully aware I need a good quality U-lock for my new bicycle, Blackie, especially if I do plan to ride downtown to work from time to time, but the idea of spending $50-100 and carrying around a heavy lock just to ensure that criminals with bolt cutters don’t run off with my bike really pisses me off, because I worked hard to afford that bicycle, and I shouldn’t have to spend a bunch more money to keep criminals from stealing what is rightfully mine.