So Long PigBike

At least for this season. I put about 800 miles on the beast since December. I wish the total would have been double that, but I can't control the weather or way the streets are plowed.

I'm ashamed to say I have an abusive relationship with this thing. Last year I dressed it up with a new drive train to make it more appealing. Over the winter I rode it through the slop - snow, sand, salt - and that gunk covered PigBike. Sure I washed it off a few times but never really gave it a deep cleaning. Now that summer is here, PigBike will be ignored in the basement unless I'm going to do a long ride in the rain. Nice dry weather is for SS Deathstar. Come next winter though, I'll be crawling back to PigBike to get me through next year's slop.

This bike will probably be with me for the rest of my life. I bought it back in 1994 I think. Between 1994 and 2006 I probably rode it 150 miles. It sat in garages, basements and storage rooms for most of that time. In August of 2006 I finally got the beast tuned up (at Sunrise Cyclery) and started riding. Was that ever painful. I was fat and out of shape. I would literally turn the cranks about 10 revolutions and have to stop pedaling and coast. I couldn't sit in the saddle very long before my butt hurt. I kept plugging away. I started riding to work. At first my commute consisted of throwing PigBike on the bus rack, taking the bus to downtown St Paul and then huffing up Jackson St to Maplewood. One lovely fall day I mapped out a bike route home on Google and rode it. The bus/bike combo ended shortly after that. In February, of all months, I joined the Twin City Bicycling Club, aka Nerds on Bikes Parade. That showed me that winter riding was possible. A year ago, SS Deathstar showed up and I quickly put 3700 miles on it. Later in the summer I bought a fixed gear to fit in with the cool kids. Somewhere along the line after a combination of a couple of glasses of wine and eBay, I ended up with a single speed mountain bike. I hardly ever ride that thing, but I have big plans for it.

Are there any great lessons to be learned or can I turn this little personal history into some kind of metaphor for life? Naw. I'm still fat, albeit in shape fat. Sadly, I'm not riding as much this year as I did last. I do wish I had more opportunities to bike in groups. Most of my riding right now is solitary, which is fine, but it would be nice to get together with other folks for some rides. There are a few reasons why I don't meet up with others. 1) Family schedule. 2) Lack of TCBC rides starting close to home. 3) My hang-up about throwing my bike on the back of the car to get to a bike ride. It's o.k. to haul it around for vacations or "epic" rides like Ironman, but to do it on a regular basis? That just seems silly to me.

There are two benefits, present and future, I have received from hopping on the bike again. Future benefit? My vocation could be in the bike industry. What Jamie is doing at Sunrise is really cool, and I'd love to be a part of it, if it's viable. I never really imagined myself working in retail, but if you believe in the product, selling stuff doesn't seem so repulsive. Present benefit? Why it's the smug superiority I feel when I tell people I rode my bike to work today.