penelope

The other morning, after dropping the kids off at school, I walked to a nearby grocery store parking lot to see a man about a bike and half an hour later, rode home on Penelope. Last weekend we made the rounds to several bike shops, not actually for me, Evie was in more desepate need of a bike since the pedals of hers kept falling off and even with the seat on it's highest position it was still a good six inches too small (she ended up with a Trek 220, the same bike Briton has, as an early birthday gift from Nana and Poppa, and can now make it up the hill to our house in a flash instead of having to walk part of the way. Gears! They are miraculous! Thanks  Nana and Poppa!) But since we were there I got a chance to try out several Dutch and Step-thru bikes. I was totally sold on the internal hub (Thanks Dee, for the info on that!) and the upright position and the low bar and the style, everything except the price tag. Turns out a $1300 bike is the norm here in BikeCity when it comes to new bikes. And like I said, I get it. A good bike is worth the money. It just wasn't in the cards at the moment for me.

And then I got stuck on hold one afternoon and started puttering on Craigslist. I'd been popping in now and then to see if I could find a Vintage Raleigh Lady Sport since they are pretty darn close to what I've been wanting, but with no luck. Until that day, when Penelope popped up on my screen.

She's not actually a Raleigh. She's an Elite which, according to the bike shop I took her to yesterday, is either a random small European company who made Raleigh/Peugeot like bikes or she was made by Raleigh for a different company. The man I bought her from is supposed to be bringing me her original Antwerp license plate from the late 1970's so somehow she started life in Europe and then emigrated to Portland. So far the only think I know for sure is that the hub is a 1979 Sturmey Archer She has almost all the bells and whistles I was looking for, right down to the bell, and rides like a dream. Now I can shoot up the hill to our house without pumping, feeling like I'm going to die or having to stop to put the chain back on (enclosed chain, btw, BRILLIANT! I love it!). I have to put new brake pads on her and at some point I will probably want to switch the steel rims for alloy ones for better stopping in the rain (ah, the things I've learned about bikes), but other than that, she's good to roll. The kids are particularly fascinated by the magic of dynamo lighting, which I have to admit is pretty cool.

So between Evie's new Trek and Penelope, we are officially a happy bike family. Who's ready for a nice long ride?

in which I have become obsessed with bikes

I don't mean to sound evangelistic, but I think biking may have changed my life. I realized last week, when the kids were on spring break and I wasn't biking to school and back again twice a day, that I wasn't sleeping well. I have (and have had for years) a terrible habit of waking up in the middle of the night, worrying about things that, in the light of day, aren't really a big deal. I've been dealing with that less lately but it wasn't until my Spring Break bike hiatus that I realized riding helped with this. I don't think it's just the exercise, although I'm sure that helps. I think it's being outside, in all sorts of weather. And that little kid freedom of having a bike to go wherever you want to. And coasting down a hill.

But I also realized that my bike really, really sucks. I thought it was just me, not really in shape, learning to ride again. And then Will had to borrow my bike for the day while his was in the shop (let's just pause for a moment to picture Will riding through the bike crowds on a purple retro ladies bike with a basket that's way too small for his long ass legs. Yeah, you're welcome for that smile.)  He could barely make it up the hill to our house. My much more in shape, much better biker husband couldn't believe that I had been riding it all over town.

I doubt, very much, that I'll ever be one of those biker who wears spandex and reflector shoes and aerodynamic helmets. I'm more of a London Tweed Run kind of girl (the Portland version is coming up!) Upright, step through bikes and leisurely pedaling rather than racing. But I still need a bike that I don't have to stop and fix every time I ride if I'm going to ride every day.

So I'm on the hunt for a new bike. A good bike. A girly-ass bike (because I like them. And also I wear skirts a lot, so it makes things easier). And I'm all kinds of bike obsessed. Reading up on hub gears vs. a derailleur (I like the sound of the hub style) and lugged frames and skirt guards and following bike blogs about family riding and city riding and riding in clothes that aren't made mostly of lycra.

If money were no object I would run, RUN out and buy this.



Oh how I love that bike. And actually, I have no doubt that it's worth every penny of it's $1300 price tag. I know a really well made bike is worth the cost and that it would last me for years. Maybe forever. Never the less, too expensive. Most of the parents at our school seem to be riding some version of these.

Which are much more expensive and since I no longer have toddlers to haul around, not really what I need. In the grand scheme of things, for Portland, the Pashley is not an expensive bike. But still. Yeeks. Maybe one day. It is beautiful....

On a slightly more affordable scale I'm digging the Bobbin Bikes. The Birdie is awesome


But it's only a 3-speed. Granted, I can only ride my current bike in one speed, even though it's supposed to have 21, so 3 would be pretty damn awesome. But it also comes in a 7 speed, just not in the fun yellow and without a full chain guard thingie (see, I'm learning all sorts of technical biking terms) Which probably makes more sense. If I could find one locally to test ride I think I'd be sold. It's kind of an expensive purchase to make without trying it out though.

Anyone have a Bobbin? Do you like it? I've looked at Public Bikes as well, and Gazelle too, but I'm not as inspired to love either of those.

en vélo

I'm not a very athletic person. Actually, scratch that, I'm not at all an athletic person.  I hate sports. Watching them, playing them, listening to them. And  I really hate doing them. I'm the girl sitting in a corner reading a book during the Superbowl. Even then, I'd rather not even be in the same room. So it's been a little bit of a shock to find that I love to bicycle.

It's not that I've never bicycled before. I've had a bike almost all of my life. And it shouldn't come as that big of a surprise. I biked all the time as a kid. Around the neighborhood, in the snow, to school and back again.  My first bike was a purple monster of a thing with a long white banana seat that my parents found at the church rummage sale where I think it had once belonged to a succession of minister's children. It took me a long time to learn to ride it. In fact, I was so chicken of falling off of it that I traded it for a little while to a friend who loaned me her smaller (read: lower to the ground) bike until I was ready for the big dog. But once I had it mastered, I flew. It was a source of freedom, a way to go beyond the walkable limits of the invisible boundary that marked the difference between the known and the unknown. I rode it like a demon to my school one day to tell the parent of a teenager who had wrecked her car in front of my house what had happened (she was fine and I felt like a super hero). I fell off it trying to ride without hands and jammed my thumb so badly that I can still pop it in and out of joint on command. And when I outgrew it I got a shiny red 10-speed for Christmas which is probably second only to my cat old Nicholas in the category of Best Christmas Present Ever.

I rode my bike a little in college, and then later here and there in my adult life. But somehow I lost that love of biking. I'm going to say it has to do with that lack of athleticism I mentioned earlier. I don't like to get all hot and sweaty with exercise. I wish I did, but I don't. So the hills and heat and ice of the various places we've lived have turned me off to biking up to this point

But now I remember. I remember that old feeling of freedom. I know most people get that when they learn to drive but I hate driving. Even as a teenager I didn't like it. It feels like a chore rather than an escape. But on a bike?

I can ride here. Everywhere. Portland is a bike town and although I knew that, I never really got that before. Bikes are everywhere, and in so many different and weird combinations you almost can't call some of them bikes. It's not flat, not totally. But it's doable. Oh sure, I thought I was going to die of exhaustion the first time I rode up the hill to our house from school. It still takes my breath away, but I'm getting better. And even with the work, the fun of riding is worth it. I've ridden in the glorious spring sun and the typical Oregon rain and I'm sure the summer heat will make it harder but I plan to keep on biking. I see the city in a way I never did in a car. I see the stars and the bridges and the bright houses with their Tibetan prayer flags on the porch. Last night I rode down a street lined with blooming plums, so many that the scent was almost dizzying. When I have to get back into the car to drive somewhere further than I'm ready to bike (yet) I find that I'm grumpy and irritable. Who wants to be in a car? Give me back my bike. Beast-like, heavy as hell and (once again) purple, it's cheap and the gears suck and at some point I should get a *real* bike, but it has a basket on the front for my yarn and my book and it takes me where I want to go, or at least as far as my legs will carry me. Bike On.

Stalled Resolutions

Well, I'm sorry to say that my new resolution to ride my bike everywhere has not been adhered to very well this week. Although it hasn't really been my fault, so I still have hope. Part of the problem is the triple digit temperatures we've been enduring lately. And for a girl who is Oregon to the core, well, this hot weather is not for me. I heard the weather guy say the other day that we had more 90+ degree days in June than we normally have in A YEAR! So, yeah, it's stupidly hot. And there isn't really an end in sight. Sigh. I miss the rain.

But still, I was determined. Despite the wretched heat, I was going to plow on with the bike riding thing. That's what water bottles are for, right? Plus we could restrict ourselves to relatively short rides - to the library, to the museum downtown. Places we walk to all the time, except biking would give us a little bit of a breeze at least. Tuesday afternoon I loaded up the kids on their bikes, packed my bag, filled up the water bottles, climbed on and pushed off only to have something major fall off in the gear area while at the same time my seat tipped backwards, almost dumping Evie and I into the street. Humm.

Will had taken my bike out for a spin with Evelyn that morning and I was secretly glad he did it because I knew he would come home and tell me I needed a new bike. I've been saying it for ages but I think he thought I was being silly. And I'll admit that sometimes I am, but in this case, nope it's really tim, only 2 gears out of the 15 work, and something on it clicks, ALL THE TIME, and the breaks don't really stop. But you know, saving money and all, I'd kept on with it. So he did, in fact, come home an declare that I needed a new bike, in fact, I think he said something like "Why didn't you tell me it was that bad?" Uhhh.....

But I think he did something to make it worse because the seat was working just fine the day before and the gear thing that fell off, well to be honest, it may have been dangling by a thread for months and I'd never know the difference. But he definitely broke the seat. Or maybe not, I'm not the most technical of persons so who knows.

Because I was already hot and now totally frustrated I took Evie out of her seat, wheeled it over to the office window where he was working and declared "This bike sucks!" with true drama queen flair and threw it down dramatically. Although as it turns out he was in the kitchen when I did this and didn't see. When we came home from (walking) he asked why my bike was in a heap on the grass. All that drama, wasted on an empty room.

So if we want to do this bike thing, we'll be shopping for a new one for me pretty soon. Nothing fancy, all I really want is a comfy, working seat and more than two gears. In fact, I think I found one already that will cost less than replacing the gears, breaks, seat and fixing the clicky thing on my old bike. And this one has shocks on the seat, which is awesome. I don't need shocks on the wheels, but my rear end could certainly use some extra cushioning, so I'm on board. Honestly, tell me that a woman didn't come up with that one! Brilliant!