Hi, Dave! Great to hear from you, though sorry to hear of the ongoing job (or lack thereof) issue.
Well, been car-free for 9 months now. As cool as that sounds, it really sucks sometimes.
Sometimes, while dodging impatient city drivers up here, and negotiating dicey roundabouts (Grand Army Plaza, here, in Brooklyn, is notorious as a potential life-shortener, even though the DOT has made some improvements), I must say that things have improved quite a bit overall for cyclists. Not all the additional bike lanes are as well-executed as I'd like, but the fact that they are
there makes a statement that's hard to ignore. And, as a result, I'm seeing a lot more people on bikes.
But, as for learning a lot that I pretty much already knew but not firs-hand, I can tell you that the entire metro-Atlanta area sucks when it comes to bicycle-friendliness. There is no safe way to get anywhere once outside of my subdivision.
So I've been told regarding Atlanta. I'm hoping this is simply a matter of that city being behind the curve, and the the probability for change is considerable.
In the meantime, I am eyeing a more utilitarian bike for those ugly days when it is best to keep the high-tech CF bike at home...wonder how many people have more than one bike?
I've almost always had a "workhorse" bike for grunt work like commuting, shopping and the like. These bikes were, and are, purpose-built for the job, and while they're usually worn around the edges a bit, I don't regard them as "beaters" any more than I'd regard a well-used (but not trashed) Leica M as such.
Here's my current daily-driver ride:
Meet FauxFix.
The handlebar tape has since been changed to more-closely match the Brooks saddle.
It's a 70s Motobecane Grand Jubile (that's the correct spelling), with its original 12-speed drivetrain swapped for a two-speed automatic hub with coaster brake. Much simpler and trouble-free, always ready-to-go, and as elegant as your garden-variety fixed-gear ride, but without the usual baggage riding fixed confers. I've been sort of petitioning manufactuers (like Sachs/SRAM, who originally made the hub I'm using) to bring it back; Schwinn is having a two-speed hub made exclusively for them by a company in Taiwan, initially for use on their own models, but they're hinting they might offer them by themselves for public sale. I can only hope.
- Barrett