Summer got a bike

I stumbled onto this list this morning, made by the League of American Bicyclists.  Alaska's at #47, wow!  That's pretty awful!  Washington, where I'm sort of considering moving to, is ranked #1. 

Click here to see where your state is on the list.

Vox says I haven't updated since the end of December... that's a long time!  The weather is finally back to bikeable, and I've been psyched to see SO many people out with their bikes lately.  And I've been thrilled to see how many of them are using them to run errands, too, which is kind of spiffy.

I haven't gotten mine out yet.  (For shame!)   Very, very soon.  Actually, maybe this afternoon if I'm feeling braindecent.  Not much with Radar, yet, though.  We haven't even been out walking much, and taking off on the bike for a while would not be very nice to him, paws or muscles.  Once again I'm pondering some sort of trailer for him.  I am muy poor for the moment, though, so it will have to wait.  Orrrr... hm.  Maybe I'll post on Freecycle and Craigslist, just to see.

Anyway, let's see.  Bike related things in spite of my not having ridden yet this year... I'm doing a bike swap on Craftster (hi Tess!) which I'm looking forward to and spinning up ideas for.  I've been reading journals on crazyguyonabike.com and dreaming about taking to the open road for a bicycle trip.  A little ridiculous, considering a lot of little things, but still...!  Maybe someday.  It's fun to daydream about, and really neat to read about. 

In the meantime, my goal is just to get so I can take my bike to run down to the store and stuff.  Which brings me back to the trailer thing; poor Radar's feet.  I'll work on that.

In the meantime:  Look!  Neato pictures of neato people on bikes!

First in Line
Originally uploaded by This is Zakka West.

I love this picture.

I'm really missing riding my bike lately.

I see folks around my (small) city now and then riding their bikes and I feel envious, and cheer them on in my head.  I'm too scaredycatty to jump out there with my bike this year, and wishing very much that time would fly by just long enough to let me go riding again.

There was a new DanielBeast video up today, and he was riding a bike.  That was the first thing I noticed, and it made me yay.  I miss riding, le sigh.

In the meantime, check this out.

Yay for bike rides!  I haven't been in a while.  Possibly not since my last entry, I'm not sure.  Seems likely enough since I know I haven't tested out my wastebasket thingermajig.  The weather took a turn for the worse, and I got very wimpy.

I've been missing hanging out with Gloria, though, and today the weather was pretty nice, so Radar and I headed out for a short ride.  :)  Short because while I've been going to Curves and walking on the treadmill, he hasn't been getting much extra exercise at all, so I didn't want to push him too hard. 

It was a really nice ride.  Once I'm actually *on* my bike it actually seems like a viable transportation option again, instead of just a fun toy.  Of course, today was beautiful, and snow is coming... I think that when I next think about where I'm going to move to, bikeable weather and roads is going to be a consideration. 

Radar's pooped.  :)  We were only out half an hour, and went what felt really slow to me, but kept him at a trot the whole time. 

Today we tested a new piece of gear - booties!  Radar's paws have proven to be really... sensitive?  tender?  soft?  At any rate, even when I'm uber careful he frequently comes home from bike rides with little bits of pad worn through, and the last two times Christi and I have taken him and Masil to play in the tennis court at the park, he's worn through them super fast and leaves blood spots on the sidewalk all the way back to the car.  Just from playing.  Christi remarked on it this last time, so I know I'm not crazy.  Anyway, Christi's dad is a musher, and Christi's mom sometimes works out with me and my mom at Curves.  A while ago it came up in conversation that Radar's paws seem to bleed at the drop of a hat, and she asked if I'd tried booties.  I said not yet, and she said "Well I'll bring you some."  So she did, and we tried them today.

Radar's new shoes

Guess what!  No blood!  Radar's paws don't even look worn!  Houston, I do believe we've found a solution.  YAY!  They're a hideously bright orange, too, which is good as hopefully it makes Radar a little more visible. 

He thinks they feel a little goofy, but doesn't seem to mind them.  I hope I'm putting them on right; Kathy showed me, but I've forgotten, and apparently "how to put on dog booties" is not something a lot of people post on the internet.  Who knew?  I'll ask Christi next time she's over.

I hope it doesn't snow for a while.  I'd like to ride some more this year, and I'm getting the idea that I may be too much of a wimp for winter riding in Alaska.

If I knew someone who could weld, I might be all over this. 

I'm trying to sort out a trailer for Radar to ride in.  Craigslist is yay, and has yielded emails from two people who have old bike trailers for kids that they want to be rid of.  One I think wants more than I can really afford right now, but the other only wants a sixpack of his favorite beer in trade.  That I can do!  He says it's a little frayed, and I'm not sure what that means for its condition, but I figure it's worth looking at.  Even if the fabricky part of it is all goofed up, maybe I can use the base, put a kennel on it or something.  We'll see. 

No bike riding in the last few days.  Spent the weekend with my Mom, and while today was beautiful and perfect weather for it, I knew I only had the energy for one jaunt in the outdoors, and I figured a long walk was better for Radar's paws than a short bike ride would be for my exercise attempts.  Maybe tomorrow.

I've been daydreaming about bicycle touring.  The journals at Crazy Guy on a Bike are almost entirely to blame.  Today a catalogue from Bike Vermont arrived in the mail; they have some neat tours that look like fun.  I've been talking to Mom about maybe doing our road trip by bike, too.  She's wary, mostly because she doesn't like the idea of riding in traffic, I think.  Also, she loves her motorhome very much.  So we've also talked about taking our bikes along with the motorhome, and just using the bikes for exploring, or having her take the motorhome and me take the bike, and meet up at set points in the afternoon every day. 

I wouldn't mind going on a short tour by myself, either.  (Radar along, of course.)  I doubt the weather is going to cooperate long enough for me to do it anywhere around here this year though.  Bummer.  (Summer being bummed about missing an opportunity to camp?  NOT. POSSIBLE. :O  )

Anyway, at the moment it's just a daydream sort of thing, and this bike obsession may have dimmed a little by the time weather or my travel budget has grown more accomodating.  But it's fun to think about.

The Great Wastebasket Experiment appears to be a success!  Took me about ten minutes to put together, seems to work like a charm.  We'll see how it goes with some use, but so far it seems just dandy. 

Materials for 1 pannier:
1 Wastebasket (12 qt) - $2.21
2 8mm Carabiners, which came with jump rings - $1.64 apiece, so $3.28
Screwgun, borrowed from my mom.
Before-sales-tax total:  $5.49

Where I heard about this:
See this post.

What I did:
Using my mom's screwgun, I drilled three holes in the bottom of the wastebasket, so if it rained or something the water could get out. 

Inside of wastebasket pannier

Next, I looked at my jump rings and eyeballed the distance from the rim that the holes needed to be.  When I thought I had it, I drilled a hole a small distance below the top edge of the wastebasket.  Then I checked to see if the ring would go in alright.  It took a little effort, but wasn't as hard as it could have been.  I didn't get overly frustrated with it, and I didn't get enough sleep last night, so it couldn't have been too bad!

Since that one worked alright, I eyeballed where to put the hole for the other ring.  Followed the same procedure. 

Then I took the carabiners and clipped them into the jump rings.  Now, when I want to attach the pannier to my bike, I just clip the carabiners to my rear rack.

Wastebasket pannier (ignore the garage sale in the background.)

Easy peasy!

What now?
Well, testing it out in real life, for one thing!  And probably I'll stick stickers all over it, because I hate to put them on my nice new shiny bike, but I love stickers, and the idea of putting them on my bike delights my inner five-year-old.  I think I'll probably make another one for the other side, too.

This afternoon Mom came in to town to drop some stuff off at the thrift store, so I said I'd meet her down at Wendy's.  I strapped the basket I wanted to return to WalMart on the rack, threw in Radar's coat, and he and I headed out.  He really loves the bike.  He thinks it's the bee's knees on wheels.  I definitely can go farther than he can, though.

We went down to Wendy's; kind of a zig-zaggy route, but better for safe riding (the more direct route has NO shoulder whatsoever on a road where nobody seems to know what the speed limit might be, nor do they really care.  And people zoom right down it without bothering to think about whether they can see what might be ahead.  It's not the safest route, in my opinion.  So I took the more zig-zaggy route that takes me down to the bike shop. 

It took me almost exactly twenty minutes to get to Wendy's, which I thought was pretty cool and handy.  This was the first time I'd gone down there on my bike.  I looked around, didn't see Mom's car, and figured she was still at the thrift store, which was just across a couple of parking lots.  So Radar and I headed over to find her.  There was a nice bike path running parallel to the parking lots at least part of the way (I can't remember whether it went all the way) which was nice, not having to worry quite so much about being invisible to cars.  Went over to find her; was going to lock my bike to a tree when she spotted us through the window and came out to wave us over.  Stuck Gloria in the back of the van. 

Radar was happy to see Mom, and happy and a little tired from the run.  I checked his paws - back feet looked totally fine, front feet had a couple of spots of wear.  I really need to order him some boots. 

I went in to check the thrift store, and found a seatpost bag, looks like new, for $1.50.  Yay!  I can keep my Very Important Keep With Me When I Ride tools and stuff in it... uh.  When I get them. 

Thrift store find! :)

A few other errands, and then we went to WalMart, where I returned the handlebar basket I bought the other night.  I spent far too much time wandering around, trying to find components to try putting together one of those wastebasket panniers.  Finally got pieces I think will work; I might try putting that together tomorrow.  Total cost was under $10.  Yay!

I wanted to bike home, but didn't want Radar to have to run on his poor paws anymore.  Solution: let Radar ride back to my house with Mom, and I took the bike.  (My own personal sag wagon!  Handy!)  Went back the same way I came, but this was the first time I've ever done it in this direction.  Those hills just about had me hopping back in the van.  They don't look that big!  I was huffing and puffing, and my thighs were not happy.  But I persevered, and the worst of it was over after a little bit.  Man was I appreciating Gloria's gears, though. 

It was fun going home, once I got past that part and got my breath back.  I can go faster without Radar, which was fun.

When I got home, I stopped to check the mail, and Mom let Radar out to ride across the parking lot back to the apartment with me.  She said he didn't me leaving him in the car, which didn't surprise me.  He was happy to get to go along beside me back to the house. 

Carried everything in, and finally got Mom to take a picture of me with my bike so I can send a thank-you note to Dad.

Poor Radar's tuckered out.  I put that leather balsam stuff on his paws - he seems to like it.  Who wouldn't like a foot massage after a bike ride, though?

Tuckered out Radar

Paw stuff.

This is neat.  A couple took an 8 week bike tour on a tandem for their honeymoon in 1979; there are journals and pictures.  Click here.

25 years later they did it again. :)  Click here.