I'm On A Bike
Obviously I'm not on a bike right now,* but shortly before Memorial Day I finally got around to buying a bicycle, becoming I think the last human resident of Portland to have one of those, and as of this week I'm a bicycle commuter. This is a positive step towards me being the kind of person I want to be, in that I set myself the goal, "I should be the kind of person who rides a bike to work," and then, just 2.3 years later, achieved that goal. Please reread the title of this post, vesting it with the disproportionate braggadocio and glee of Andy Samberg's "I'm On A Boat" SNL short (feat. T-Pain). I too feel good about my change in transportation modality!
I did have this vague idea that buying a bike and commuting with it would instantly make me look like one of the hip, fit, admirably sustainability-minded bicyclists who effortlessly zip around the city, so there is some disappointment (of a hope I didn't even consciously realize before it was disappointed!) that I in fact feel tentative, wobbly, and like I'm breathing too hard through my open mouth on gentle uphills to attain any degree of hipness. (I bought a not-too-upright but still commuter-minded comfort/hybrid bike, so at least there weren't any illusions of joining the ranks of the serious-looking, tight-pantsed, monster-calfed road bike users.) This is a lesson I thought I'd completely finished learning in my early twenties but I guess it was worth a refresher course: There are many things worth my doing, but none of them will ever make me look cool.
* On further reflection it's not obvious, given the device-ridden future dystopia in which we live, so I will state my reasons for not blogging on a bike: lack of smart phone, lack of sufficient balance, lack of suicidal disregard for personal safety.
I did have this vague idea that buying a bike and commuting with it would instantly make me look like one of the hip, fit, admirably sustainability-minded bicyclists who effortlessly zip around the city, so there is some disappointment (of a hope I didn't even consciously realize before it was disappointed!) that I in fact feel tentative, wobbly, and like I'm breathing too hard through my open mouth on gentle uphills to attain any degree of hipness. (I bought a not-too-upright but still commuter-minded comfort/hybrid bike, so at least there weren't any illusions of joining the ranks of the serious-looking, tight-pantsed, monster-calfed road bike users.) This is a lesson I thought I'd completely finished learning in my early twenties but I guess it was worth a refresher course: There are many things worth my doing, but none of them will ever make me look cool.
* On further reflection it's not obvious, given the device-ridden future dystopia in which we live, so I will state my reasons for not blogging on a bike: lack of smart phone, lack of sufficient balance, lack of suicidal disregard for personal safety.
4 Comments:
Two bicycle commuters on the blog! Hooray! Just keep riding, Nate, you'll get your monster calves.
And then you can start to roll up your pant legs to, supposedly, keep them out of your bicycle chain, but you'll really know that you do it in order to show off your calves.
Also, another baby-step towards hipness will be taking the kick-stand off your bike, if there's one currently on there.
Aw, come on. I see plenty of people here biking and texting at the same time - you can do it!
Three bicycle commuters! I've been cycling to work (at least during nice weather) for a couple or three years now. Only way to go.
I use my kickstand all the time, and anyone who wants me to remove a useful part of my bike for some kind of hipster fashion statement can pretty much suck it.
To go ahead and summarize my plans here: Yes to kickstand, no to texting while biking.
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