Riding my bicycle

This is me riding my bicycle.

I finally tried mounting my RAM mounts and my GoPro on the front basket of the bike. This seems to give a decent angle of view.

I have a RAM X-Mount for my iPhone. It’s the same mount that I use on my motorcycle.

I use the iPhone for music, and for maps. I don’t text or take phone calls when I’m riding, but having an easy view of the phone makes it easy for me to pull over and answer the important calls and ignore the calls that I can ignore.

Lucky for me I live just off the new bicycle path on Beach Ave. This isn’t a half bad path, but it does get very congested in the summertime. And the nice thing about reducing car traffic to two lanes, one in each direction, is that the racers and speeders have had to find a different place to go.

Vancouver is the bicycle theft capital of Canada. And such my bicycle lives either in my apartment or in my office at work.

Yes, this is what I wear when I ride my bicycle. I don’t own a single piece of “lycra” or “spandex”. I ride to and from work. I ride to and from the supermarket of coffee shop. I go out for dinner on my bicycle. I don’t like the idea of having to change from my “riding clothes” to my “destination clothes”.

Dresses, skirts, and kilts are what I wear. I don’t think I’ve worn a pair of pants on a bicycle since the mid 2000’s.

I ride for comfort. I’m not setting any speed records, nor am I setting any endurance records.

My earphones block much less outside noise than you average car. Most cars these days are extremely soundproofed. With my earphones on, I can still hear cars coming up beside me, I can hear emergency vehicles blocks away. I can hear car horns and voices. These are all things that I wouldn’t be able to hear in the typical everyday Econo-box car.

I’ve done some minor upgrades on the bike, mainly being that I replaced the cable operated disc brakes with hydraulic brakes. I’ve replaced the stock seat post with a shock absorbing post. I have the front and rear baskets. The next upgrade I’ll probably do is upsizing the disc brake rotors from 180 mm to 206 mm.

I’ve always loved bicycling over cars and even motorcycles.

I think there are two reasons for this.

First, as a kid living on military bases, a bicycle was an easy way to escape and for me to get away from Richard or my grandmother.

Second, my father’s temper behind the wheel turned most car trips into anxiety inducing adventures in road rage.

When I had my bicycles I could go for rides and not worry about coming home or needing rides from Richard.