Rainy weekend
The high point of my week was on Friday when I was riding the second leg of my twice-a-week triangular three-leg commute. It was our second over-70° day of the year, the sun was shining and that section of road is level and has a bike lane. And I had a tailwind. I was diggin’ it.
Now, I ride the same way I walked—defensively. One of the things I do is listen for cars behind me. So I’m riding along, hearing no traffic and I nearly jumped out off the bike when suddenly a voice beside me said, “Hey, thanks for riding in the street.”
Naturally my head went immediately to thinking it was some asshole in a car. But no. To my open-mouthed astonishment, there was a guy on a roadie, in full bike shorts, jersey and clipless bike shoes regalia.
He smiled and continued, “If everyone rode here instead of the sidewalks, drivers would be more aware of us and it would be safer for everyone.”
I don’t recall whether I said “Thanks” or “You’re welcome”, but we wished each other a good day and off he rode ahead of me. At the next stoplight, there were three of us in the correct in-road positions waiting for the light. Me along the curb waiting to go straight, the guy who passed me in the left-turn lane and across the intersection also in his left-turn lane, an older guy on a roadie (in full regalia).
It felt good. And what kept me from feeling out-classed being a newbie in jeans, t-shirt and sneakers on my hybrid is that they were riding recreationally. I’m a commuter.
Still, I wasn’t quite ready for going knee to fender with cars through the quarter-mile section where I’ve nearly been hit dozens of times while walking. I bailed-out to the sidewalk. Maybe next time.
Second-best highlight of the week was when maintenance showed up on my fire escape to finally clean out the clogged downspout. I no longer have Niagra Falls outside my kitchen door.
They’re calling for rain right through mid-week, and fender-shopping didn’t go as planned, so my legs are getting a real break, just when I was getting comfortable in the taller gears. I never once used the granny gear all week. Even better, I spent most of the week in the big chainring.
The bike shop didn’t have street-style fenders that would mount on my mountain-bike style frame, so I’m fenderless through the rain and the bike will probably stay in the living room through Wednesday or Thursday. That sucks. If it’s dry on the way to work, I’ll ride anyway. It’s not a problem being wet and dirty when I get home.
The salesman who helped me last Thursday had reservations about recommending their in-stock mountain-bike style fenders for commuting in the rain, thinking that they’d be too short. They’ll have more coming in this week, so I’ll wait.
I’m questioning that particular salesman’s judgement, however, since the pannier rack he sold me probably isn’t going to work well on this bike either. I’m going to give it a go this afternoon, but the mounting hardware looks like it will only work on round seatstays (the diagonal frame tubes that go from the seat tube down and back to the rear wheel), and mine are oval.
And I didn’t notice until I got home that the weight rating on this rack is in pounds, not kilos. All the others were rated in kilos. Thirty pounds of groceries isn’t much. I routinely carry more than that in my backpack alone.
On the plus side, it has extra screws and holes in the rack deck. It looks like I could cut a plastic mountain-bike fender and mount it to the underside of the rack, thereby getting the extra length needed for street riding in the rain.
If I can get it mounted on the bike, I’ll keep it as a “beginner” part to learn with, and upgrade later.
