buying a bike

i've done tons of city riding, but never with a bike that weighed 75lb (with a 30lb child on the back), and also never in los angeles, where the people/roads are bad.

luckily most of our daycare commute is going to be along a bike path by the river. just one insanely dicey intersection to start the day haha good times.

Ah okay. Yeah no special wisdom to share, I am just constantly paranoid and always expanding my library of threat models. I actually sort of enjoy that part of riding.

not dead yet. having a great time. we now go passed a park every day and my son has hidden a stick that we have to check on each afternoon. without that it would probably be a little faster than the car.

I bought a half decent bike! A late 90s Marin Pine Mountain rigid. Almost all my riding will be on streets & in alleys, with maybe a few city trails here & there, seems like a good all-rounder. It’s a damn sight lighter than anything I’ve owned before & is kind of a joy to ride.

It’ll replace the shitty shitty Schwinn I bought last year & have never enjoyed riding (& so, of course, I rarely rode it), which in turn replaced the $50 Peugeot I rode for years but which was stripped to the frame when my daughter borrowed it & left it at the train station inadequately secured.

I wasn’t looking for a bike but it was right there in an antiques/junk shop & it called to me. $300, which seems ok (esp as there’s a bike shortage cuz everyone & their new Covid dog wants one)

just put the 2000th mile on the GSD (used for an 8 mile round trip 3-4 times a week). been carrying two kids on it for maybe a year.

around about 6 months ago we reached the point here where people with kids on e-bikes stopped waving and nodding to each other because there are so many of them.