20 miles!

I accidentally biked all the way to Beverly yesterday! Backstory: Mike fixed me up an awesome little road bike.



Orange and blue!

I kinda just got on my bike and went. Mike took both boys to the Wenham Museum so I could nap, because I'd had a long sleepless night with a sick kid. But I couldn't sleep, so off I went, figuring I'd turn around after a few miles.

I made it to Manchester-By-The-Sea, and was ecstatic! I asked Mike to drive up 127 and meet me when he got out of the museum, so I just figured I'd keep going until I was really too tired and I'd wait for him. The great part was that 127 ends in Beverly, so the mile markers counted down, and when I got to Manchester it was at 5 miles left, and then I kept going and all of a sudden I saw this:



I was at Pride's Crossing, and Beverly Farms, and then in Beverly, and he happened to be waiting at a light right where 127 ends.

I won't lie, I stopped like 5 times, and walked up a few short but excruciating hills. And I know 15 miles is pretty much a cakewalk for most people, but I'm terribly out of shape, damnit!

Then, later, I took another bike ride around Wenham Lake with Mike, a shorter 5 1/2 mile ride. So, like, 20 miles! Woo!

In Which I Have A New Bike

The day has finally arrived when I have become One Of Them: like Mike, I now have more than one bike.

Crap.

I haven't posted a lot lately, but basically Mike's been picking up bikes from yard sales and fixing them up into ridable condition and selling them. This weekend he headed out to Beverly and Salem and I just went to a few in Gloucester for the hell of it with my sister, who was staying over, and Baby Gloucesterite. One about half a mile from our house had this great vintage folding bike out front. A early 70's Sears Tote Cycle.



The price tag on it was $85. It's cute and all, but I knew that they were asking too much for Gloucester. Not a lot of hipsters or bike nerds around here. It had a lot of rust, it's obviously going to be tough to replace parts, and it's heavy. So I snapped the picture above, sent it to Mike, and I told him to drop by later if he wanted to attempt to talk them down.

A little after 1PM Mike showed up with the bike. He'd gone to the yard sale right as they were packing up and offered the lady $25 for it - she took it. Wow. Score.



I love the color.

I took one ride on it and decided it was mine. Mike liked it as well, but there's an issue with the seat post not fitting right that needs to be fixed before he can ride it. I always ride with the seat at the lowest level anyway, so it's fine for me for now.



Tote is a total misnomer, because the thing could be used as a boat anchor. And uh, it doesn't fold like the modern bikes of this style, it just breaks into two heavy and unwieldy pieces. GUESS I KNOW WHY THERE AREN'T HUNDREDS OF HIPSTERS RIDING THESE AROUND BOSTON AMIRITE?



This is a picture of the shifter. Now it's hard to tell from the picture, but it's mounted on the right side underneath the seat post. So, to shift, I have to take my hand off the handlebars and reach under my right thigh WHICH IS TOTALLY WHAT EVERYONE IS ADEPT AT DOING. I'm amazed I didn't smash into a parked car just trying to downshift. Then you have to tap the coaster brake for it to switch gears. All just so you can ride and then lock it up somewhere and hope someone doesn't randomly steal HALF YOUR BIKE. Clearly this bike is just a misunderstood work of genius. I mean, who WOULDN'T want all these amazing, well-thought-out features?

It can't take a baby seat. It can't take a baby trailer. Clown music plays whenever I ride it.
But it's awesome, and I'm so keeping it.

Because We Totally Needed More Bikes.

A few weeks ago, Mike and I took a ride to a bike shop up in Ipswich that posted on Craiglist that it was throwing out some bikes. We picked up two, and some spare accessories. This is one, a French bike from the 60's. It needed some new parts, some of which we already had lying around. Mike wants to keep it, but he already has two bikes.