~ happiness is self-induced intoxication ~

I have reached the conclusion that the ONLY way that I shall survive being a graduate student and maintaining the high quality lifestyle to which I am accustomed is to procure for myself a red Electra Amsterdam sport bicycle. This is the ONLY thing that will keep me from falling into the stressfull hell that would be my existance without said red Electra Amersterdam sport bicycle. Allow me to elaborate...

Currently, almost everywhere that I go on a week-daily basis, I have to lug about a variety of items - - from my general purse items, to my lunch for work, and my gym clothes for a workout right after work. I anticipate that when I start school in two and one-half weeks that I will need to lug about with me, in addition to those items I listed above, a dinner to eat in between work, the gym, and school (I refuse to get into the habit of eating out for dinner, a habit that could be very easily formed considering my love of eating out), as well as my school crap. Now, that seems like a good amount of lugging. At present, my transportation is my mountain bike and the lugging method is an unfashionable outdoorsy backpack. Which is perfectly fine and servicable, except for that I have decided that I dislike backbacks. In an ideal world, I would head out to work, having placed my items into a basket at the front of my bicycle, and calmly peddling to work, sitting upright and comfy. The impediments to this ideal include the positioning of my mountain bike (in which the handlebars are parallel to my seat), the clip-in peddles, the lack of fenders and chain guard (without which I am splattered on and in danger of shredding my pant cuffs), the central bar preventing my bicycling while wearing a skirt, and my cycling-enthusiast of a boyfriend who might never speak to me again if I installed a basket onto my mountain bike (in addition to how a basket would not look good on this bike). Therefore, the ONLY solution is to purchase for myself a cruiser-style bike, on which I can ride in comfort, sitting upright, shoes and peddles existing in harmony, and items placed tenderly in basket.

AND, I did recently rearrange all of the furniture in my wee apartment so that a third bike would fit easily. If by "easily" you mean that bikes have plenty of room to rest and I have little room to move.

SOME PEOPLE may think it ridiculous to consider owning THREE bicycles, but I ask you, what is the alternative??? After all, this is the ONLY solution.

Additionally, I have a plan for the phasing out of the backpack. I have been working tirelessly on my knitted/felted messenger bag with lining and zippered pockets (except that the project was on hold due to some holiday knitting committments) which I feel would be a more fashionable alternative to the bulky North Face blue and black backback. While this messenger-style bag will be fine for riding a bicycle, but because it is knitted it is less durable and sporty than normal messenger bags. Indeed, as I ponder on this, I realize that the perfect home for the bag in transit would be nestled gently in a basket at the front of a bicycle. Further proof that a red Electra Amersterdam sport bicycle is the ONLY solution.

Of course, I haven't actually test-rode one of these bikes. I do, however, have it on good advice that it's a great bike from a person whose judgements on all things cycling I trust blindly. I will be heading over to the bike shop tomorrow to spend some good time with it before making my final determination. Also, I've been reading some online reviews which have reinforced my tentative decision about this. That review, incidentally, is of the classic and I do not want the classic because the sport version shakes my tail more.

Posted by jennifer at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)