Spring!

[mousme]

Okay, it's technically not spring until Friday, but I took out my bicycle today and rode it to work. I am very pleased.

I am not in quite as good shape as I was last summer when I was cycling every day, but I did make it all the way up the hill that gave me problems the first few times last year, so I feel vindicated.

It's a glorious day, and I am feeling very virtuous.

I do wish, however, that it hadn't taken quite as long for me to get my stuff together today. I had to get the bike out of the shed, find my panniers, fix the chain which had come off the... umm... spiky turny thing whose name escapes me, and transfer a bunch of stuff out of my purse and into my panniers. Then I had to find my colder-weather cycling gear, pack my work clothes, and generally do stuff that I had taken for granted last year because it had become habit.

I'm pretty sure that now that I have all my ducks in a row it'll go faster. For the moment, though, I kind of felt like I was flailing around like a headless chicken.

Negotiating packing my lunch in all this was an added complication as well. Still, I prevailed, and here I am at work, none the worse for wear.

Comments

[chasingthenuns.livejournal.com]

I'm so jealous you get to go biking.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

*pats*

Soon. It'll be over faster than you think, I promise.

[elanya.livejournal.com]

You're taunting me aren't you?

*eyes her busted bike sadly*

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Yes. I specifically took out my bike today in order to mock your pain. :P

*pats*

Can it be fixed?

[elanya.livejournal.com]

I dreamed about my bike last night. And then in my dream I remembered it was broken, and suddenly had no breaks :x

I am sure it can be, I just don't know when it is likely to happen at this point.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Suckage. Well, it's not even spring yet: you have plenty of time.

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

Sprocket.

[kiwano.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that works too, and has the advantage over "cog" in that it can refer to both chainrings and cogs (much like "gear", but "gear" is even broader).

[kiwano.livejournal.com]

fix the chain which had come off the... umm... spiky turny thing whose name escapes me

If it's up front near the pedals, it's a chainring, if it's down back on the wheel, it's a cog. The whole assembly of chainrings (and the cranks that turn them) up at the front is typically called a crankset, and in the back, if you have several cogs, there are two different names for the set of them. The set is a cassette if any ratchething mechanisms live in the wheel, and you can take the cogs off one-at-a-time. A single assembly containing all the cogs and the ratcheting mechanism, that you have to remove from the wheel as a single piece is a freewheel. Both cassettes and freewheels require specialized bike tools for their removal, so you're probably best off just referring to the collection of cogs as "cogs".

[luvenditti.livejournal.com]

GOOD JOB!