More bike adventures

I realized I didn’t provide a cycling update on my previous weeknotes, so I decided to write some more about my misadventures so far. I am yet to buy fenders and a rack, so I am yet to try commuting to work properly. Even so, I continue riding like so, as I don’t mind getting my back splashed that much during a weekend, washing my clothes is not too bad.

Anyway, I haven’t really gone to a lot of new places lately, but I have done and seen some cool things nonetheless.

Last weekend was the first time I put some air on my tires. They were already feeling low on my previous trip—I think that’s one of the reasons I couldn’t catch up to other commuters before—so I decided to check them today. In my country, there are quite a lot of vulcanizadoras. They are small workshops where cars can patch wheels, put air on them and some other basic car maintenance. They really can be super simple. The one I went to is literally just a roof, no walls, no nothing, just a couple of guys sitting on top of some wheels by the side of the road.

Something I realized about my bike is that the valves are different, and they have different stems. (I had to look that up, that’s the name of the hole through which you inflate them). I wasn’t sure if the place would have an adaptor, but things worked out in the end and it wasn’t even expensive, they let me pay whatever I wanted. I probably went beyond their expectations by at least a dollar or two, everything happened in just a couple minutes, and riding away felt so awesome with my wheels gripping much better and feeling swifter than before.

The streets were full of puddles and some mud too, but I went carefully—no fenders, remember?—and avoided most damage. There was another commuter there and I followed him up for a while, this time I managed to surpass them eventually.

I went through some big puddles rather slowly and got to stay balanced despite the slow spin, it was rather fun, to be able to do all that. I hope getting fenders gives me even more confidence in the future to just ride through it.

The ride was fun, went downtown again and even visited the shop where I got my bike from. I wanted to check right then and there if I could get the hardware I wanted, but they were closed. No big deal, I rode back home, following the same path I took the first time I got on this thing.

The bicycle culture I’ve gotten to see in my city has been rather pleasant. A week before inflating my tires, I wanted to go to the park downtown again. On the way there, I was among a cluster of commuters, three going my way, another two going in the opposite direction. It felt cool to be among so many bicycles for a brief moment, in the same street!

When I got to the park, I actually saw another bunch of bicyles parked together—none of them were locked. Even if they hadd been, they were leaning on the weakest possible fence ever, pretty much just wires. There was nobody around, nobody seemed to be worried at all.

I kept riding and saw the park was rather filled with people this time. Some were doing excercise, some people were jogging around the same road I cycled through, and there were a few other parked bikes inside.

I’m shameless and made sure to ride along every bicycle I see, I love to know, how many of them are fixies, how many of them have disc brakes, what brands are common, which ones are less known. My bike continues to be the only Fuji around. I have seen two Specialized, one looked like a mountain bike, the other was a city bike with a retro look. I have seen a bunch of Giant bikes too, with quite basic designs. There’s also Mercurio, Alubike, and some Green Plus—all of these seem to be Mexican bicycle brands. The latter is a bit of a higher tier, judging by the prices online.

After so many videos from Europe and the US, or about my own country, from Guadalajara or Mexico City and how bike theft is so abundant. Seeing my city be so non-chalant about it was a bit of a relief. I already had my suspicions this would be the case, as it feels like everyone here knows each other well.

As of now, I am yet to leave my bike parked for a significant amount of time without a direct line of sight, I don’t know if I’ll ever need to do that either way, but I feel confident knowing things are likely to go just fine.

After this many trips, I continue to be pleased by the culture in my city, the cars have been pretty respectful, although I’ve had a few close calls at slow speeds when I get careless. Nothing serious would have happened, other than the scare either way. Being aware of surroundings is still important, slowing down and looking at both sides of the road, stuff like that.

Still, the freedom of just going wherever I want by powering this machine, the spin of the wheels, the force of my legs multiplied and turning into motion. It’s all awesome, I love this. I want to do it more. I need to try that commute to work, I just fear getting sweaty at work.

Perhaps a change of clothes is all I need.

This is day 86 of #100DaysToOffload