City Cyclist Sights

My bike still hasn’t been built.  However, last week I received a ‘loaner’ from the guy who’s putting it together.  Like most people who do piecework, he’s either in feast or famine mode.  In famine, you take all the work you can get, it becomes feast, and it takes a while to dig out of your commitments.  I understand this, Wife goes through it too.  So I’m being more patient than usual.  Still, I'm looking forward to getting my proper bicycle.

The bike he’s loaned me has bad brakes.  It takes around ½ a block to stop!  “Plan ahead,” he told me.  “Stop long before you need to.”  Unfortunately, in a city that isn’t usually what happens.  Tourists step into traffic without looking left, cars cut in and out of the bike lanes or around corners…

It’s been an exciting week for city cycling, but I’m riding pretty defensively.  I’m surviving, and the time I’m saving by not walking is really a bonus.

Also, riding to work this morning along Shuter Street, I passed 7 or 8 hookers.  Normally at this time of day, you might see one skagged-out ghost trolling for business.  But this many?  Wow – must be the humidity.  It really gives credit to “The early bird gets the worm,” huh?