New Senior Bike/Bus Commuter
The gas prices made me nuts. The traffic made me nuts. And, at 62, I am enjoying being a little nuts and doinjg something about it that naysayers think is even nuttier.
Started out with a fifteen mintue walk to the bus....then got the rusty bike out when the walk got monotonous....and painful. Rusty, clunky bike and all it was GRAND! But the rusty clunky bike weighed WAY too much to lift to the bus bike rack and I had to chain it to the 7-11 chain link fence....not that I would have been heartbroken if it had been stolen but it would have been a hot painful walk home.
This past weekend I bought a 15" Trek 7.6 FX and it is a thing of beauty. I spent the weekend getting the lay of the land in exploring and learning how to put the dreamily light 19 pound bike on the bus bike rack. (I ignored the snotty driver who really didn't want to show me how the first time and jollied him into being helpful).
I pedaled around all day Saturday and although I never got out of 1st gear (thankfully Delaware is flat and I'm WAY out of shape) it was the best Saturday I've had in years. I'm feisty so dealing with traffic was a snap and I avoided troublesome areas.
The only close call I had was with heat stroke and pedaling up a very very small (but to me KILLER hill) in 95 degrees. There was lots of good news though. I had water with me, sat beside the road and doused myself, and contemplated how bizarre the beginnings of heat stroke feel. The other good news is that I was on the large grounds of the hospital at the time enjoying their landscaping and geese population and I laughed to myself that I was only a hundred yards from the emergency room! I don't care how heavy water is, the next time I'm taking twice as much water.
I'm now obsessing over panniers for grocery/errand shopping and have read all the reviews and suggestions here. Thanks! The grocery store is only a couple of miles away and nearly everything else I need is relatively close. The car sit quietly in the garage for the past few months and that makes both of us very happy.
With the minimal biking commute I'll be doing (compared to the bus part of it on the Interstate to work), I'm certainly not a hard-core bike commuter like some of you but I love the whole concept of it on so many levels.
It's nice to find this community to share experiences about biking!
Pardes
Thanks for the replies! More to the story....
I am situated between 2 LBS's. A high-end Bikeline and a mid-range Performance Bike. Last Friday I called Performance Bike for info on bikes, then went in at lunch to look them over, then called later in the afternoon to get info on higher-end bikes. The salesperson kept promising to call me back with the styles of a few Trek 7.6 FX equivalent in their brands. I called back much later in the day and he still hadn't walked the ten steps to get me the info. Saturday and still no call so I biked to the bus stop and went to Bikeline where within 10 minutes on a very busy store day, I had bought the Trek.
Today on a whim I called the manager of the Performance Bike store and politely told her of my bad service in their store which led me to drop $1000 for a bike and accessories at their nearby comptetitor, Bikeline. I could hear her gasp several times in a row. She thanked me profusely for taking the time to politely let the store know about the problem and she ended up giving me a free pannier.
Meanwhile back at the WalMart rusty clunker that I rode to the bus stop on Saturday on the way to buy a new bike. I don't have the space or desire to keep it since it's in such bad rusty cosmetic shape for anything but pedaling around a very limited area by someone who doesn't take biking seriously. It weighed a ton but was mechanically sound.
So, at the bus stop I didn't chain it up to an immoveable objust but instead laid it down on the ground like kids are prone to do. No one was going to steal it unless they they were desparate. Or a kleptomaniac.
When the bus pulled away from it, despite or perhaps because of it being an ugly child of a thing with incurable disability issues in the speed department, I felt a lump in my throat as I saw it get smaller and smaller as the bus pulled away.
A day later it was gone, of course. Just as I suspected. I suppose I should have put a "free bike" sign on it but I didn't. I'm not quite sure why. Instead I wrote a note and stuffed it under the seat where it wouldn't be found until much later if at all. It simply read, "I'm glad you have this bike. Apparently it was destined for you to find it. The only payment I would ask is that you would someday remember that once when you thought you were stealing something, you were actually receiving a gift from my heart to yours. Someday, when the time is right, please do the same."
