Look what my friends in the choir gave me over the weekend!
My friends Joan and Lee offered me this beautiful purple bicycle, which happens to be exactly what I’ve been looking for and exactly what I can’t afford. These things cost something over $500 these days. They bought a pair of bikes about 16 or 18 years ago, because they were living in a nice house near the canal, which has been turned into a miles-long linear park with bike paths. They said they only used the bikes a half-dozen times or so, and then the things became garage sculptures.
Well! Can you imagine?
I took it over to my favorite bike shop, where they dusted it off and fitted it out with new tires, mega-puncture-proof innertubes, and a sort of bicycle Barcalounger for a seat. The bike guys much admired it. They were amazed that it was in such good condition. One of them said he used to sell that model, and that it looks brand-new.
Check out this little doodad I found:
It’s a little bell for binging at pedestrians so as not to catch them unawares when you come up behind them. Cool, eh?
I’ve been wanting a bike with gears for a long time, to make it possible to ride along the canal. The bike path goes under the roads, so that to get out from beneath the underpass you need at least three speeds. On my old beach cruiser, I have to get off and push the thing uphill out of the underpass, which isn’t much fun.
So! This will allow me to go for miles and miles. SDXB rides in from Glendale following the canal; it goes all the way through Scottsdale into Tempe.
Now I’ll be able to get the exercise that has been so direly lacking in my life the past few years. If there’s a blood pressure problem (it’s beginning to look less likely), a few hours of long-distance riding a week in addition to the daily dog-walking should take care of it. My friends may have given me more than a bicycle…they may be giving me several more years of healthy living!
Thanks, Joan and Lee! ♥
SDXB was right: Money happens! Even if it’s not always in cash.
I have never owned a bike, but I assumed that they were $100 at most. $500!?!?!?!? That is crazy! I’m glad you were able to get this for free – and in such great condition!
I especially like the bell. My walking partner and I have finally gotten the people who regularly ride bikes on our route to say “beep beep” when they come up behind us. Enjoy!
Pretty! Enjoy 🙂
Incidentally, I’ve never had a bike with gears. Is that just like driving a manual (stick shift) or tiptronic car?
congrats! I hope you enjoy it!
@ Khaleef: Five hundred bucks is relatively cheap. These days, an ordinary beach cruiser–the kind of bike with no gears that we used to ride as kids–goes for around $325. Cheaper in a Walmart, but you get what you pay for.
@ eemusings: I don’t know. I’ve only driven a car with a manual transmission a few times and don’t really know how that works. Gears on a bicycle shift the chain to different…uhmmm…disk-shaped things with teeth on them in such a way that when you’re riding uphill you can set it so that your feet go around faster but you don’t have to exert so much force to move the thing up a grade. Thus gears make it easier to ride uphill or against a wind.
I rode it quite a ways into a nearby neighborhood and found that it is indeed easier to ride when you’re going slightly uphill. Have yet to try it on a serious grade, though.
@ Ellen2: It’s hard to understand people who don’t give pedestrians a little warning. Basic biker etiquette says you should say “behind you” as you’re coming up on the person, not a very hard thing to do. One SOB almost ran my German shepherd down on the canal, and then the bastard flicked me the bird when I yelled at him. He was mighty lucky she didn’t take out after him, because I was mad enough to let her go. She would’ve ripped his leg off if she’d caught him. LOL! One fewer menace loose in the park. 😉
Wow, then congratulations are definitely in order!
You’ve inspired me to drag my poor neglected bicycle out of the garage and take it for a spin! I’d forgotten all about it and I do love riding around the neighborhood. I don’t like riding on busy streets though, so I never use it to actually get somewhere.
I use my bicycle every day for most of the year, except in the worst of the winter. Last winter we had almost no snow, and it wasn’t very cold at all, which is unusual here although the winters are shorter and on the average milder than a generation or two ago. My bicycle (a lovely old 6-speed Raleigh Sprite, who has had a lot of upkeep and investment over the years) is my main means of transport, though I also live very close to three métro (subway/underground) stations and have buses even closer. I’m in my 50s and have never owned nor driven a car, but Montréal, despite its bitter winters, is one of the most cycling-friendly cities in North America, with many practical bicycle paths and lanes.
$500 is not expensive at all for a bicycle these days. If you find that too much to spend, you really will have to get a second-hand bicycle, but two caveats: be careful not to buy a STOLEN one (not only immoral, but actually a crime, receiving stolen property) and make sure you have a tune-up and checkover from a bike shop. Bad brakes can kill you or injure someone else. Bicycles from big-box shops are most politely referred to as “garage bicycles” as they are not worth anything in terms of actual use.
Athletes with real road or racing bicycles have spent a lot more than $500 on them – don’t assume that someone riding a bicycle is poor.
I wouldn’t own a bicycle without mudguards/fenders, but you live in a much more arid region. I’m amused about you bell comment – they are standard in the cyclocentric Netherlands and I think they are required by law (as are lights after dark), and very common here in Montréal now as we return to the old-fashioned upright urban cycling in normal clothing. Someone stole mine – I’ll have to remember to buy another.
@ lagatta: How marvelous! Does Montréal have a viable public transit system, too? I’ve only visited once but loved it — what a beautiful city. Great restaurants, too!
Hereabouts, it’s unsafe to ride on the public roads. Inside a neighborhood is OK, and I can get to the long bike trail that flanks the Arizona Canal by going over neighborhood streets, which is safe enough in the middle of the day, during the week, when most drivers are at work.
Drivers here are hostile to bicyclists (and to each other…). They highly resent it when someone on a bicycle blocks a lane, and it’s very dangerous to do so, since surface-street speed limits are 40 to 45 mph. If you might get killed being hit at 25 mph, you definitively will get killed at 40 mph. The city has painted a few bike lanes on a few out-of-the-way roads, but they don’t go far — they end after a mile or two and dump you onto a road with no sidewalks and no way to proceed safely.
People who bike for sport and exercise buy mountain bikes and truck them to the mountain preserves, where they proceed to tear up the hiking paths. Most of the built-up areas with paved roads are flat, so you don’t get much exercise riding on them.
Yes, we have an excellent public transit system. We have four métro (subway/underground) lines and the bus system has been much improved in recent years due to computer technology that can track late buses and provide much more accurate schedules. We are hoping to bring back trams/streetcars, which alas were removed in the postwar period as in most North American cities except Toronto and perhaps San Francisco? Modern trams are wonderful; they have brought tramlines back in Paris, where the much larger métro system is excellent but utterly saturated at rush hours.
I hope you become more bicycle friendly. Yes, alas some cyclists, especially certain (but not all) mountain bikers are eco-pigs as well. Here there are mountain bikers who ride down our so-called mountain, Mont-Royal (it is a stretch to call it a mountain, but it is a nice adornment for our city and a great park). These ijuts rip out bushes and other plants that manage to grow on the steep slopes. For shame!
Although a lot remains to be done, we have a bicycle path with a concrete separation from cars right through the downtown core, for people to commute to work and to the three universities in the area. There will soon be a bicycle path right along my street, taking me up to the Jean-Talon market in full safety. I live very close to the market, one of the gastronomic gems of the city. Yes, there are many good restaurants, for all budgets, from gourmet establishments to “bring your own wine” places, an interesting perk for the frugal but fond of the grape. No, I NEVER ride my bicycle back from such a meal.