This velocipede is the DiamondBack Kalamar LX 7 speed, my new ride into the office - 8-12 miles of biking every weekday. The story of how this came to be starts when Claire and I figured out how to make ridiculously good pizza a few weeks ago: pictured here:
One of the first things you realize when you try to do this is that you need a way to get the pizza into the oven without smushing up the pizza into a big ball of goey ingredients. Our first pizza "peel" as they call them, was a red-baron pizza box. This is not really a permanent solution so I went to check out a restaurant supply store after work. I was turned away by the owner, who had just had his showroom floor painted. Dejected, I turned towards home, and was smashed into by a Chevy. My 10 year old Toyota Echo was totaled.
We have two other cars, a Prius and an old Ford Ranger, so we decided to bank the settlement for savings and buy new bikes, since we're going to need a way to work off this pizza. Google maps now has a feature that allows you to select a bicycle instead of a car for directions, and it takes into account different bike trails, which is pretty cool. It takes about 30 minutes each way.
This has a lot of positive repercussions, one of which is mental. As anyone in the field of software development knows, there are often clashes of personality and culture between the "hackers" and the "suits" as I call them. This can be especially frustrating as a project grows in scope and success. Riding to work, I find that I just don't get as worked up about it all, no matter how dumb the suits are, even if they don't bother reading my emails. It's a zen thing.
But the story doesn't quite end there. Today I rode my new, previously unused, 1977 Miyata Frontier 10 speed into work. My kalomar was defective, and the pedals kept getting loose causing the chain to come off the gears. I probably put the chain back on a dozen times since getting it. Since Dick's sporting goods are jerks about taking back a bike that's been "ridden around" they said I'd have to leave it with them to fix it, FOR A WEEK. That meant driving to work again during the nicest time of the year, just when I gotten into riding.
Craigslist to the rescue, with a vintage bike that had been in a guy's basement for the last 30+ years, when he bought it, and hung it there by a hook. He had the bike tuned up a few days ago, and like new it got me to and from work today. It really felt a lot like the Kalomar, except that it's a racing bike, and the seat is harder.
On the off chance anyone out there knows anything about this bike, let me know. I know very little beyond the Miyata bicycle page on wikipedia, but apparently their bikes are somewhat prized by collectors/enthusiasts, and this thing is mint-condish. Anyway when the week is up, I plan to try to sell it. :)
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