Rant: My Bike...

I'd been planning to buy a bike for many years now, at least since my M.Sc. when I was living back in Vancouver. Not only does a bike seem like a good way to get around, but commuting to work is an excellent way to get some exercise and stay in shape. What finally pushed me over the edge though, was D.C.'s rather unreliable mass transit system. By any reasonable standard, I live quite near where I work, and according to transit schedules I should be able to make the trip in ~22 mins plus waiting times. There have been many, many times, however, where it's taken me > 45 mins (I think the record was 1.5 hours) because of frequent delays and constant weekend track maintenance. Furthermore, both buses and the metro are pretty much always packed, meaning that I can't sit down to read away the monotony anyways.

So back when I got my tax return, I bought a hybrid 'commuter' bike (a 'hybrid' bike is basically a mountain bike frame on top of tires that are more similar to those of a road bike):

  Here's the bike, notice all of the chrome colored spokes (see below). 

I find that I like biking a lot - more than I expected, actually. I know that it takes me 40-45 minutes to get to and from work in the morning, which gives me time to do things like listen to podcasts and generally think about what I want to accomplish. Plus, as I've said before on my previous blog, I think that exercise is pretty much the best thing one can do to deal with the stress associated with the scientific life.

Unfortunately, all is not rosy in bicycle town; I've had a lot of problems with the thing in the past few months - so much so that I fear I've bought a lemon. The very first time I took it out, a tire burst, then another two weeks later. About four weeks after I bought it, the crank (the device that holds the pedals and drives the chain, broke and had to be replaced. Soon afterwards, spokes started snapping. I've basically been snapping about 1 spoke every week to week-and-a-half since they started breaking. I've been bringing the bike into the repair shop so often that the folks behind the counter have been asking me if I've been using it to take jumps off of curbs. Every time I've explained that I only use my bike to ride the 7 mi to and from work along a mostly even trail with a few rough patches. I used to ride my bikes way harder when I was a kid, and I can't remember ever snapping a single spoke (incidentally, I weighed about as much then as I do now).

So after several months of seeing me in the store almost every week, the folks at Performance Bicycle are going to 'rebuild' my wheels, essentially replacing each of the manufacturer's spokes with thicker chrome ones. Hopefully this will finally solve the problem1. Also, I should say that while my issues with the bike have been many, the folks at the bike shop have been quite nice about the situation and have never complained, nor tried to charge me for any of the repairs. If I'm lucky, the only trouble I'll be having in the future are dodging inept drivers who completely ignore the existence of cyclists altogether2. I'd really prefer not to have to buy another bike in a few months.

1The technician is of the opinion that the black spokes that come with my bike are of inferior quality - he sees them break more often. He called the manufacturer to see if they would replace the wheels themselves, but they claim that they've had no issues.

 2This is worthy of a discussion in itself. A few motorists I've spoken to have complained that cyclists are dangerous because they ignore the rules of the road. I've seen this multiple times with my own eyes, and it pisses me off everytime. However, it's usually the same sort of casual cyclists who don't wear helmets who are the ones that ignore road signals. On the other hand, I frequently run into drivers who treat cyclists like they don't exist, despite my signalling and eye contact. Is it worth hitting a person on a bike because you're too impatient to wait a few seconds in order to make a left turn? Also, I wish I could avoid riding on sidewalks, but some areas near where I live are just too dangerous to allow it :-(