A Side Note

My Trader Joe's RRP Hummus wins the award for hardest to open.

The old plastic seal could only be opened by cutting a little slit with a knife, which was fine because I knew I would have to do that.

They have since upgraded this seal to include one of those little tabs that you pull and off goes the plastic...

I'm 5/5 for ripping the tab off and getting right back to where we started.

Can you see me? Try #1

It's OK, nothing special. The charitable brother-in-law Dan hooked me up with a pretty nice safety vest, and I've got two planet bike superflash blinkys hooked onto my v-racks. At least I won't be one of the many bike ninja's out there. (that's my favorite online comic) However, sometimes I get the feeling that the more visible I am, the more angry it makes those short tempered dudes driving their Mustangs behind me. Which reminds me of a great video I ran into a few days ago. Check it out. It's sad that people are proud of possessing these qualities.

The First Cargo

When I got to the bike shop to pick her up, the sales guy offered to keep the old orange Trek in there so I could come back and pick it up another time. How easy it is to forget the sole purpose of a utility bike.

Once you get rolling, it only takes a few minutes to forget there's anything back there (just don't forget about the metal poking out to the side when passing parked cars). It's really amazing how I don't have to think twice about bringing anything with me for the whole day when I leave the house. I feel spoiled because I can just throw things in the freeloader bags and go. They really designed those things to easily secure a whole bunch of stuff.

I decided to hit the town the other night and pick up cardboard boxes that were destined for the garbage. Well, I actually just got them from two places I work at. Regardless, boxes are a breeze for the Big Dummy.

I've never had a bike with fenders. Bring it on slushy melty snow.

The adventure begins

It's been my dream to have a bike with an Xtracycle on it for almost two years. Basically what it does is extends your bike's wheel base by connecting an extra piece where the back wheel goes and turns it into a cargo hauling monster. It can carry people, many many groceries and even surf boards, to name just a few things. While I surfed the web and drooled over pictures of this great invention, I learned that the company Surly was designing a new bike called the Big Dummy, which would make the whole system one long frame, making it a better, more sturdy ride.

When I got back from studying in Taiwan, I decided that I would be dreaming about this forever if I didn't finally act, so I decided on the Big Dummy and it's been glorious ever since. My goals are pretty much to do everything I do now on my bike. Biking is great for the environment and your health, and not relying on a car can save you some serious dough. I hope people will see the kid carrying just about everything on his bike and rethink why they needed their luxurious SUV. The suburbs aren't the most convenient place to use a bike as transportation, but it can definitely be done.

Winter biking is fun.