So I've been up here for two weeks now and I'm sososo glad I brought my bike. Boston's tiny, yo. And towny. It's very walkable, fun to get lost pedaling around in, too, and very easy to get acquainted with. Also there's a great 20-mile round-trip bikeway just a 10 min. ride away from my apartment.
But before I could hop on that, I still had to assemble my bike. And last I left off, I believe I was just finished an epic breakfast en route to a bike shop. So, picking up right there, the rest of that day was freaking awesome. Couldn't have had a better welcome to Boston.
I popped into Eastern Mountain Sports to check out their bike stuff/sale stuff/student discount stuff. I started talking to the bike mechanic there about clipless pedals, my trip, etc. and he showed me these neat aluminum clipless hybrid pedals. Shimano PD-M324. They had clips for cycling shoes on one side while the other was just a plain flat pedal face for commuting. Very ideal for my situation, not so ideal for my wallet. $84.99 -- fack. I gave the mechanic a resigned "thank you," plodded over to the sale rack and started squishing the butt paddings on all the bike shorts.
"How were the pedals looking?" I heard just over my shoulder. I turned around to meet Diane. She's into mountain biking big time and we started chatting about pedals and things. As it turned out, she had just recently bought these same Shimano pedals, only used 'em a couple times, and was looking to sell them. She offered them to me for $40. They were in her car, which was in the shop around the corner, but I said I'd be in the neighborhood so I grabbed her email and got in touch a little later in the day. We agreed to meet at Trader Joe's around a certain time and right as I was about to call her and let her know I was there, I turned into the next aisle and practically walked right into her. She offered to help me put the pedals on my bike, which was incredibly nice of her; considering my pedal wrench was in Seattle and I'd otherwise be wrestling with a pair of pliers, I took her up on it. So we drove to Elliott's place and popped em onto my bike. And she even lubed up my chain and errthang so my bike was in ultra primo shape. Serendipitous morning.
I spent the next two, three hours reassembling my bike in the company of one of Elliott's neighbors, Jean-Christian, an old man who took curiosity in the clanking, occasional grunting and indecipherable sing-humming going on outside his door. (Didn't realize I'd set up right outside someone's living room.) We talked about a lot of things. Cycling led to Seattle led to Harvard led to urban design led to his childhood led to this:
It was his twelfth birthday present; I'm guessing he's 70-something today. TWELVE. He got this from his mother when he was twelve. This bike was three times older than me.
He had an overall very placid, easygoing demeanor, but I could tell he was getting excited talking about his bicycle. Before bringing it out to show me, he told me about how excited he was when he got it, and about how he's kept it in tip-top shape with regular maintenance and maybe a paint job or two. I didn't imagine it to look this stellar though. When he rolled it out into the courtyard I imagined Xzibit escorting it, with a 360 shot highlighting all its souped up features, hot new paint job, espresso machine poppin out the back, lights, a couch and a roof deck with Bose surround sound because why not.
I kept working on my bike and he started pumping up his tires a bit, and then set the bike aside. We continued to chat as I tinkered with my bike more, but a lot of the time was just passed silently, actually. The city sounded nice, and I enjoyed the mild company. I think he did, too.
I finished and was admittedly pretty proud of myself. One of those "HA pulled it off" prides. This was my first time disassembling + reassembling my bike and I'm just happy it shipped safely and securely. And now it's actually more comfortable to ride than when I was pedaling around on it in Gainesville.
Jean-Christian shared a brief celebration with me through some laughter and a high five. He offered his bike to let me ride it down the little road behind the apartment. Man, riding that thing was cool. It was like riding a couch around. So incredibly comfortable. I loafed around up and down the street a few times, returned the bike, and we said goodbye and wished each other well with whatever was ahead.