today i rode 7 miles against a 20 mph headwind, i had to switch to a climbing gear for most of the way even across level terrain and an icicle formed in my beard. i went roughly twice as fast on the way back, but the lake was really choppy and waves were washing over the bike path. one of them splashed me and some water got on my pants, not enough to affect anything as i was pretty warmed-up. but going up a hill a few minutes later, i was unable to switch back to my small chain ring after that, i tried and the mechanism just made an odd noise. stopped at my neighborhood bike shop and had the guy look at it - freakishly, the wave had deposited a gnarly, gunk-encrusted little twig in just the right spot to prevent shifting
relying on a bike for transportation under these circumstances is really dumb and i love it
You can’t imagine how jealous i am watching this video. This kind of service, preparation and devotion to a singular topic is just unbelievable. Looking at my parked Motobecane because ut is just too dangerous when its dark, and since you just cannot trust the communal services to do their job here (even if it is just snowing a few times a year!)
that looks … very nice!
if a bit pricey 
got a flat a few weeks ago and some guy passing by told me to take it to this bike shop which was like the opposite of the bougie road cycling shops that i’m familiar with in the bay and MAN those guys know what they’re doing
i mean it’s not hard to fix a flat but i was worried that they wouldn’t have the right size tube and stuff and they had everything no problem like i would 100% go into the one i had in san mateo and they’d be like “we don’t stock any tubes smaller than 650b sorry”
the weather has finally been nice enough for us to get some consistency riding to ash’s daycare and it’s been nice to get that routine going on the big ebike, even if ocean parkway is a disaster - it’s led me to believe that you could 100% prove that induced demand works on a scale as small as an individual driver’s perception of how fast they should be allowed to go as directly proportional to how nice it is inside one’s car
i’ve also been able to take the brompton out more just to the grocery store and i forgot how nice and fun the brompton is, it feels really zippy and maneuverable compared to the bigass ebike so even though the grocery store is only half a mile away it still feels fun to mash it out down the one street i actually need to go fast on, and i’m trying to figure out a good day to take the bike into central park to do the loop…although i guess i should practice in prospect park because the one time i went up the prospect park hill on the brompton to hang out with @ellaguro it was a lot more difficult than i expected it to be whoops
Yeah, that’s why I got rid of my bigass ebike after I stopped commuting with it during the pandemic. It was soooo heavy it wasn’t fun at all to ride in comparison to my road bike.
there are some real nice ebike options in the 40 lb range still
yeah if I didn’t have to take my kid to daycare and if we didn’t move to the seemingly one part of brooklyn that requires me to go up a hill i’d consider switching the ebike out for something smaller
but i do like having it around here, now that we have the storm cover and everything it’s a legitimate car replacement and feels kind of like cheating in nyc, it’s become the mundane sedan that i use for chores and the brompton has become the fun bike even though i also use it for chores whoops
and it also helps that ash’s daycare is close to the bougie young family area in brooklyn (park slope) so like a bunch of other people have the exact same bike i do and makes me stick out less
that said i’ve also been eyeing a swytch kit for the brompton for whenever i fall into a bunch of money
it’s probably overkill? but also makes it so that nika can ride it up prospect park without too many problems - i guess it all depends on if we move from our neighborhood or not
people who own teslas in california had some real big “i don’t want to know you” energy even as the car was getting more popular but who in their right mind would willingly buy and own a tesla in new york when it is an objectively worse experience in every way that matters
that’s the real “i don’t want to know you” energy
I bet it winds up being insurance rates that drives more people to abandon car ownership.
it’s got me wishing I could
this is another thing that sucks unbelievably for anyone other than dinks
like if you have a lifestyle that works with one car between two people then that’s hugely advantageous and if you don’t well shit
Every now and again I try to gently convince Melissa we could be a one car family but she’s resistant. Which is vexing because she basically can’t drive anywhere without having an anxiety attack these days, so her argument of “what if I need a car in an emergency and you have the car” doesn’t hold much water.
if you live somewhere with any trains whatsoever (idk how far you are from an LIRR stop) I think it’s absolutely the right move… zero cars is unfortunately not realistic for 90% of people and I am not that adamantly anti-car for that matter, but two is a nuisance unless it’s the only realistic way you can leave your neighborhood. one car and a cargo/motor/electric bike and some transit is great.
6 or 7 blocks, as it turns out, an effortless 10 minutes that doesn’t even involve crossing any busy roads. If I had a job in the city I’d walk to the train every day like I did once upon a time. Perhaps one day I’ll win the argument.
If my car ever truly shits the best or gets wrekt I can just shrug and say we’re too broke to buy something new and the used market is bananas so we’ll just have to learn to live with a single car 
Flipping my car on an off ramp, as praxis
worth remembering that AAA prices the average cost of owning an individual car at $10,000/year
we have one because the buses here only run every 30 minutes but if we lived even a smidge closer to downtown dc we could drop ours. i only drive 1-2x every 1-2 weeks on average