It was nearly 90 degrees outside today. This bothers me. Some deep part of my brain, the part that would make me hibernate if I was a bear, is very unhappy with this. In the north east, and the mid west, there are supposed to be 4 (1, 2, 3, 4) seasons. So far this year there have really been two, rainy and cool or hot and dry. I really hope it gets what we used to call “seasonably cool” soon.

To do my part in helping to bring the chill, I have been using a bicycle as my main form of transport for the last three months. I really want to ride all winter long, but the problem is my current bike has too many gears and stuff to get encrusted with ice and snow, the solution was to buy a much simpler bike. I brought home my new baby today and it is absolutely stunning.

It is a single speed/fixy (flipflop back hub) Specialized Langster 2007, “rust” colored with a black carbon front fork, and tiny skulls at the bottom of the front fork and near the cranks. It is so fast, and stiff and jumps like it wants to go fassssst (which it does). Without all the gears, and derailleurs, and cables the lines are super clean, and there is very little for ice and slush to glom onto. And the best part is that now that I have two bikes, I can bring non-bike having friends along with me for rides. Joy!

I have a couple pics now, but will get some better ones when it is light out.

I fill up my car about once ever two months. I used to put gas into it once every two weeks, with the price of gas (40 bucks to fill the tank), I should pay off the entire price of the bike in a year or less. Not a bad payback, and I really enjoy it. I have not tried the fixed gear yet, I am going to wait till this weekend and find a nice flat parking lot to try it out. If you have never ridden a fixy they are a little strange. If you pedal forward, you go forward, pedal back, you go back. If you are rolling and you stop pedaling, the pedals keep turning. I have seen people on fixies do some amazing amazing things, someday I want to be one of those people.