Wanderlust

Thoughts on riding and the journey

April 26, 2007 at 3:19 pm gvblog 2 comments

It’s been interesting, as I settle into my travels, to realize how many different levels I’m traveling on.  There’s the most physical manifestation of the trip – the actual riding, and how my body feels, and whether or not Rhonda is working.  Then there’s the geographic manifestation – moving through space, trying to get to different destinations, trying or trying not to get lost. There’s an intellectual/ professional manifestation – the conversations with people who are doing interesting work. There’s the social manifestation – relating to people I don’t know, figuring out how I want to present myself, working out how to be at home on the road. And then there’s the emotional manifestation – the way that all of the journeys are changing me, making me feel. In a way it’s overwhelming to sit down and try to write about it because each journey is different and good and bad and funny and irritating and boring in different ways, and there is so much I don’t want to lose, so much I always feel like rushing to write down. 

 

Today I’ll start with Rhonda.  We’ve been rocking along pretty well, her and I, with one small exception. Before I left my friend Justin built me fabulous new wheels, and I bought new tires to go one them. They’re the same kind of tires I’d had for years – All Terrainasaurus’s, which had been very good to me. As I was putting the tires on the rims, I realized that although the tires claimed to be the right size, they were very tight.  So tight that there was a loud smacking sound when I finally got the tires on. "Oh well," I thought "I don’t get flat tires anyway…"

I’ve gotten three flats so far, all on the back tire, of course. The first time I was riding on a nightmarish section of Highway 9 in Connecticut – semis screaming by me as I rode through minefields of glass in the blistering hot sun. Lucily I was getting off the highway when I heard the telltale hiss. I rolled into a gas station and sat down to fix the flat. I stuck my tire lever into the bead, pushed down, and heard a SNAP. The tire lever broke. Well, I thought, this time I’ll be more careful. I tried again, and broke ANOTHER tire lever.  Hmmmm. This wasn’t looking good.

I looked around to find something that was sturdier than my tire levers, all of which were plastic. Luckily, I had four with me and another two on my multi-tool, so losing two wasn’t such a big deal. I finally struck on the metal shim that holds my flag onto the axle. Sure enough, it was stiff enough to pop the tire out. The last time I got a flat, though, I bent the flag shim almost in half, so I think it’s about time to get some new tires. I mostly got these tires because they’d been so good to me, and I’m now thoroughly unenamored with them.

Today I’m going to the Broadway Bicycle School to get new tires, I think. And do some basic repair stuff, just to keep Rhonda happy.

The first leg of my trip was very instructive, and I learned a lot that I hope to put into practice on the rest of it. One thing that was abundantly clear was that I felt too rushed. I didn’t leave enough time in between meetings, which led to a few days where I had deadlines by which I had to be certain places, which took some of the fun out of riding.   Second, that I need to eat before I get hungry. My stomach is literally like a bottomless pit these days. While it’s kind of fun to get to eat whatever I want, I also notice when I eat things that aren’t good for me. Eating lots of refined sugar, for instance, seems to give me heartburn.

I also learned that I LOVE biking to music. I got an Active Tunes iride Bike Speaker system, and it’s phenomenal. Of course, I managed to launch it off my bike and break it, and they’re replacing it FOR FREE. Doesn’t get much better than that. Thanks, Mick!

 

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