Friday, March 7, 2008

Must Be Spring -- Love is in the Air

I've seen a ton of cyclist out this week. It was a long miserable winter and folks are ready to roll. I'm seeing roadies, commuters, kids. It's great. Liza and I think there are even more than normal for this time of year. Let's hope so.


I'm back on my waving/acknowledgment-to-other-cyclists campaign. I think some folks find the wave/head nod/pinky wave/acknowledgement of other cyclist annoying and unnecessary. It is. But I like to feel the love.


Although there's weird sub-categories of cyclists: commuters, roadies, mountain, huckers, fixies, freds, 30-y.o.-burn out BMX'ers, etc... when we're on a bike and we're on the road (I'm not counting sidewalk riders as cyclists; those are pedestrians and don't get the love), we have enough in common to share a brotherly/sisterly acknowledgement.




The blue bike here is a great bike I see parked down on Main all the time.

It's a Novara X-R. Sort of a hybrid done right from the 90's. LX components. Tange double butted steel tubing. I used to have one, but it was too small. This one is my size. With drop bars, this would make a great all rounder; trail-rider; CX'er; tourer. I once left a P2P business card on this bike that said "Nice bike."

This is the kind of under-valued bike you can find once a year or so at garage sales, or maybe on craigslist, or at Goodwill in Spokane for under $30. The one I had I found on Craigslist for $30. It had track bars and bar-end shifters on it. Nice. I rode it for a while, stripped it down, kept the components, and gave the frame to a friend. He ended up giving the frame to a woman in Seattle who intended to make it into a daily commuter, which is a great life for this bike.

1 comment:

Michael said...

Freds???


I went to the Seattle Bike Expo today, the place was packed! It was a great to see that many cyclists in one spot. Saw a Raleigh Sojourn and wanted to take it home with me. There was a Kogswell there too, but it wasn't done up old-timey :-(

I usually give other riders a smile and a pinky wave.