Bike City: Attempt 4

I have a new bike, my fourth since returning to California ten years ago:

My first was a Long Beach-local company, 3G, beach cruiser that was built like a tank. It was with that cruiser that I learned what I actually wanted from a bike.

It had been my first cruiser. It was heavy and matte-black. I'm sure I even posted about it here. When I went to get a new bike after the first few months in this relatively flat, relatively perfect weathered place, I had a few ideas on brain. Something like my last main bike, before we left San Luis, was what I thought my goal was. It had been a Sport-Comfort Raleigh, something today called a "hybrid."

A hybrid bike blends the characteristics of three kinds of bicycles: road bikes (the classic "ten-speed" and most racers); touring bikes (robust bikes made to handle carrying the weight of travel gear); and mountain bikes (off-roaders with lower pitched seats, suspension and better durability). Here's a picture of one version of the Raleigh SC40:

My edition did not have the suspension on the front tires, but did have the tiny spring under the seat. Mine was solid gray. The reports on this bike were: 1) for novices, it is pretty awesome---good for commuting and sturdy for general getting around on pavement as well as some mellow off-roading; but 2) the parts (seat, brakes, derailleur) are of low quality and make the bike heavier than it needed to be.

I qualified as a novice, and this bike was awesome for me. I rode it from Oceanaire to campus everyday for multiple years, and still used it as my main transport after moving to Palm St, but that was closer to campus. I traveled all around San Luis on my Raleigh SC40, and had nothing but love for it. Compared to Corrie's heavy-ass mountain bike, it was light as a feather.

But, after returning to California, and looking for a bike, I realized that I mostly rode my Raleigh in the heaviest gears, even when jamming up the steep hills. I never liked the easy gears: I want the heavy resistance---it makes me feel alive.

When I test rode a few bikes, the lack of different gears in the 3G Cruiser - Isla Vista wasn't an issue. Another thing I realized I liked: no wires of any kind:

The brakes were of the "coaster" style---backpedal brakes, like with the BMX bikes kids my age had. This beach cruiser style bike was a nice price, a nice look, had what I wanted as far as performance and aesthetics, and held up super well for as long as I possessed it. I even wrote the Two Towns Over piece about riding it.

Where it had been secured wasn't, eh, secure enough, and it was stolen. Bummer. By this point I had been staying up late at night and reading about bikes (just like recently, only not so late one night, rather kinda late many nights), and settled on looking for a different style of bike, the European/Asian city bike. This is what I ended up with:

As terrible as the bike turned out to be---and terrible it was (besides falling apart and resulting in my broken femur, the signs were there early in its generally poor craftmanship)---this bike garnered a TON of compliments and positive attention.

It was creaky, squeaky, rickety and soft, and I pushed it beyond its miniscule limits and paid a drastic price. BUT, my life is better in ways I wouldn't have guessed had this specific reset hadn't happened, so...there's that.

It was stolen, and you can read about it here.

Soon after, Corrie sprung for a new bike, a Decemberween present. This time I went for heavy duty, sturdy, and respectable. I settled on a Virtue, a brand that I had heard of, and the version I got was called, rightly, the Tank:

It was a cruiser, like the 3G. It had no wires, no extra gears, and coaster brakes like the 3G and the Death Bike. I would purchase a serious U-lock and carry the 75lb bastard up the stairs every night to keep it safe.

For the first time since my Raleigh, I had a serious daily commuter. This was my bike for all my new career stuff after my femur healed. I installed a rack and attached a bag to hold clothes and books. I would take it on the train and ride across the 'Hood twice a day. I put literally hundreds of miles on this bike. I blew two tubes on my back wheel in a week and bought a Kevlar-lined tire. I loved this bike.

It was stolen off our balcony at our old apartment. It was a fourteen foot balcony, which means you'd need a ladder. Also, it weight 75 pounds. ALSO it was U-locked to itself, so any thief would be better off breaking the spokes than trying to bust the lock without a torch.

Long Beach has some very ambitious and enterprising drug fiends.

Also stolen from that balcony was our neighbor's bicycle and Corrie's '70s era Peugeot mixte, all three on different days, with mine last. My pedal spoke left scrape marks on the balcony railing.

The Virtue Tank or something like it was what I was looking for now that we, as a family unit, are looking to re-outfit ourselves with bicycles.

IT TURNS OUT THAT BEACH CRUISER-STYLE BICYCLES ARE SOLDOUT ACROSS THE COUNTRY. Rad for them, of course, but it makes it tough for folks like me.

Corrie found a bike for her, with a toddler seat for Camille (the whole kit 'n caboodle is still waiting for some parts before we go pick it up), and at the place where we went looking for her stuff, I found a Linus that fit my needs:

It has no wires, no extra gears, coaster brakes, and is a simple street bike. (It's also the most expensive bike I've ever purchased. Gulp.) It works for me. 

And then, there's the adventures we've had so far, in a short week...

Two Decembers ago we got Cass a bike, and now, since I have a bike and his muscles have developed, he's keen to come out riding with me. Since we're still awaiting Corrie and Cam's finished setup, Cass and I have been going out alone.

And it turns out my Boy is a machine! Maybe being almost five years old sheds light on the reality, but damn, son, he's like, "No, let's keep going," over and over. We went clear across town on the beach path on a busy Saturday. He was still wearing his pajamas (he refused to change and I've learned when to give a shit about fighting him). PJs, helmet, training wheels, all golden boy, jamming as fast as he could go:

Eventually we turned it around, headed away from the beach and into a neighborhood, and cruised home.

And the next day we did it again! We rode across town on the beach, headed into a neighborhood, and came home on quiet streets:

He'd taken the sweatshirt off early on in the trip, but once we went down to the end of the pier, he wanted it back on. He didn't remove it again until we made it home.

At the end of the pier, we took some pictures of our home neighborhood:

And enjoyed some popsicles before heading out:

(Shout out to Into the Spiderverse on that one...)

And now, I've got my bike U-locked right outside our apartment, visible only to us and the courtyard below:

Every time I get on it, if Camille can see, she starts to get all excited and amped, but ultimately disappointed. Her time will come. And Cassius asks me to ride everyday, which I adore.

Those two afternoons, just the two of us, were two of my favorite days ever:

Also, since I'm on the subject of bikes:

• Biking the Shoal Creek Trail in Austin in 2010
  
• Searching for Birth 55: a behind the scene look at how a Caliboy in Brooklyn post comes about