I am still reading about Major Taylor, who was the first African American world champion cyclist. Taylor was actually the first non-boxing world champion of anything. At the turn of the century cycling was a huge as the NFL is now, and Taylor became world champion against incredible odds. It's a fascinating story, and I will be writing a full review of the book I'm reading soon, and I'm looking forward to telling you more about it.
I had a long talk about commuting and riding with my neighbor/commuting buddy yesterday where we both lamented our incredible lack of fitness, and how quickly we can lose it. Despite riding so much I am doing well to stay slightly less fit than I was in November.
I have made some changes to my High Sierra MTB to make it a better commuter rig, and I think I just about have it dialed in. However, I am having trouble with brake adjustments in the rear, so I'm still not exactly where I want. I need to replace the levers on the bike, and I'm thinking that as long as things aren't right I need to just go ahead and do it all at once. When I built my brother his singlespeed, I stupidly used the fairly rare Suntour levers on his bicycle, rather than putting them on my Schwinn where they belong. It's not a very hard job to replace them, but it means a lot of time just to do something for purely aesthetic reasons. Once I finish the job I will do a fairly long post about the bike, which I'm sure you won't find interesting at all, unless you are as sick in the head as I am - or have a casual interest in my mental illness.
It's supposed to be pretty nice on Friday, so I plan to ride then, at least. I am hoping to get a ride in tomorrow (Wednesday). I'm seriously considering making my commute a mixed one and riding the train in the morning and riding the bike all the way home in the afternoon when it's not so cold. It's a hassle to ride with a full sized bike, but I'm getting really tired of being trapped in my car for 45 minutes each morning, and I'm even more tired of putting $3 gas in the tank. I was filling up once a month in the summer, but it's a lot more now.
I'll leave you with the admonition to watch for cyclists when you are driving. While I have the luxury of driving, lots of us don't, and are out there in the nasty weather fighting with traffic every day.
