Bike Commuting w/ Old Purple
Ok, so I’ve rediscovered an old love! I’ve had this OLD Trek mountain bike sitting around forever! It was my bike in college and really hasn’t been used much since. A few rides to work about 8-9 years ago, but nothing since then. I’ve gotten more into biking in the last year or so and have since picked up a couple of new bikes (road & tri). I’ve really been wanting to bike commute more. Although working from home poses a challenge to my desire to bike commute! 
I wish there was an efficient way to cart around my clients to look at homes, but I’m afraid they’d just think I was a total nut job if I showed up with some sort of bike rickshaw! Although I really want to be the rickshaw realtor! 
On another note, I’ve been afraid to regularly lock up my road bike cause I feel like eventually it will get stolen. I’ve puttered around town a little bit on it, but never leave it locked up alone for too long! So anyway, with my desire to have an el cheapo commuter bike, yesterday I decided to try to breathe life back into “old purple” - my vintage 1993 or 94 Trek Mountain bike. This thing had been pretty well thrashed so I wasn’t sure what I was in for. Luckily, it wasn’t in too bad of shape….cleaned it up (this took forever), oiled the parts, made some adjustments to brakes, shifters, etc. and picked up some cheap new slicks, a rack and a trunk and I was all set! I still need to replace a couple of frayed cables, and perhaps put on some fenders to keep the spray off, but other than that it’s working great!
I took the inaugural ride on my “revived old purple” this morning from a pastry shop in Ballard. And later I rode it to the gym and swung by the grocery store on my way home where I decided I was in love with the old bike again and it’s new luggage capacity! Not only did I have a backpack full of gym stuff, but I managed to put a large basket’s worth of groceries in the new trunk! I didn’t go lightly with my shopping….half gallon of milk, jar of pasta sauce, container of salad greens, loaf of bread and much more. I managed to fit it all in there! wahoo!
I’m hoping to do most of my running around town with this bike instead of my car. Now if only I had a real commute to work I’d be all set!
I need to come up with a much better name for my new old steed….any suggestions?
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 05/21/2008
- Time: 18:00:28
- Total Time: 00:45:00.00
- Distance: 9.5 miles
- Average Speed: 12.67 mph
Filed under: Cycle |
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