6 days in 6 years

I had some minor surgery a few weeks ago.  Nothing big really but of course I was off the bike and most everything else for a bit.  The first few days weren't bad and I lazed around the house for the most part.  Towards the end of the first week I went for a walk down the block.  20 minutes later I had passed 5 or 6 houses.  Maybe this recovery thing was going to take longer than the doc indicated :)  6 days later I went back to work.  In the car.  I wasn't clear to ride or do anything more than walk for two weeks.  So, for the 6 days of work left in that two weeks I drove the mile to work.  Wow, quite an education.  For 6 years I hadn't had to drive to work.  There was an odd day here or there when the situation dictated that the car get parked at the office but usually my wife picked it up on her way to get the kids or something like that.  I hadn't been forced to drive so much in quite a long time.  I went to lunch with a friend the second day back and drove the 5 blocks because I was too sore to walk that far.  It actually took me longer to get through lunchtime traffic than if I had walked.  I even had one evening when I ran an errand and got mired in rush hour.  I was beginning to see why friends complained to me about traffic in this town.  I honestly hadn't know it was this bad.  Geez, somebody should do something about this.  How about we get half the drivers on bikes!  Now that would solve more than one thing.

The whole driving experience was in some ways more humbling than recovering from surgery.  I saw the doctor at the end of the 14th day and was cleared to get back on the bike.  Needless to say I drove home, parked the car and aired up the tires on my trusty cross check and haven't wanted to get in the car since.  The next morning I felt like a kid at Christmas when I threw my leg over the top tube and teetered down the street.  The first hill did me in and I had to crawl up it lest the slightly healed surgery site would start hurting.   Despite my improved state of mind resulting from spinning the gears however slowly two weeks off did a number on my fitness.  It feels like I had the flu twice in a row.  But.....despite having to recover my fitness it's still better than being in the car!

Why buy from the little guy?

Have you ever noticed that when you walk into a bike store there really isn't any choice?  I mean as long as you want a Specialized, Giant or Trek you're golden.  If you want something off beat or built for the purpose bikes originally were built for then you have to start searching the likes of Rivendell, Peter White, Rene Herse or, if your wallet is more the size of mine, Surly.  Not that Surly is all that much of a one-off anymore :)  Seems like in my town they are plenty common.  I once read a comment about Surly vs Rivendell that was somewhere along the lines of "If you want lugs, buy a Rivendell.  If you don't, buy a Surly".  There are more similarities than differences between the two.

I ride bikes for a lot of reasons.  I also like to be somewhat if not very comfortable.  I have as many spacers as is safe on my road bike with a fairly short and tall stem.  My daily ride has albatross bars on it.  I have no qualms about buying a Brooks saddle for a titanium road bike (if I only had an extra $80).  All that said, utility is probably the single most prevalent reason I ride.  I stay active, I get where I want to go, I am happier when I am on and off the bike, the list goes on.  How does that all fit into the title of this post?  Well, if we don't buy from the little guy (or vote for them for that matter) then the reasoning that goes into the bikes we ride will be no more than dollars and cents.  There are a lot of changes in our society/country right now.  There are a lot of people out of work.  It is the time and place to assert our desire for smaller businesses.  I for one would love to see small bike builders like CETMA become commonplace.  I feel that if they were then the custom bike wouldn't be a thing reserved for the financially elite.  Bikes are after all the least expensive and more functional form of transportation I see available to us.  Why then should so much of the bike industry be so expensive?

 This article is a really good commentary on how the US business world has changed since the 50's.  In my mind it illustrates why mom and pop operations are both less common and more valuable.  It's worth taking the time to read Ben Schiller's excellent article about MBA's: Rise of the MBA's.

RWS

We've all done it.  Or, we've all done it in the car.  Riding (or driving) While Sick.  Yuck.  I've muddled through some bad colds, a couple of flu sessions and more bronchial infections than I care to remember at different times.  Normally it isn't a big deal.  You ride slower and pay more attention but for the most part you just spin and soon you start to feel better.  In fact, that used to be my cure for colds.  I'd put on all my warm riding gear, go ride 20 miles and sweat like the dickens and then get in a hot shower followed by bed for a long nap.  Turns out that when I was in my 20's it was probably more my age than the cure that was working because now in my 40's it not only doesn't seem to work but I can't bring myself to do it anymore.

I was felling a bit poorly the other week and realized it was the first time I was taking both kids to school while sick.  Our daughter has been in school for just under a year and our son only for 6 months or so.  We had the luxury of not having to send them too early and we're thankful for that.  Now we're quite happy to have them both in a home based Waldorf setting.  It's really good for them and for us.  Of course it means that I'm pulling the heavy trailer in the cold weather since it's been too cold in the mornings for the tag-along (Do trailers weigh more when it's below 20 or so? :).  Anyway, I found myself pondering if I was OK riding the kids to school when I wasn't feeling my best.  It's a strange internal discussion.  I had the same one before the kids were born during that last month of pregnancy....."oh, I better not drink that second glass of wine......labor could start any time." I used to say to myself.  I mean, who wants to remember the birth of any of their kids through the haze of too much wine?  Well, maybe the celebratory part after but for me not during labor!  So, the same thing really goes for bike commuting while sick.  "Do I feel well enough to be putting the kids in the trailer?".  Is it really that different than driving?  Sort of.  I guess I feel like the car is safer at bike speeds.  Is that true?  Now I'm wondering.  There are countries in Europe that on average have very little bike helmet use and also some of the lowest bike accident incidents.  Curious.