Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Who's a Pretty Baby? Aw, Who's a Pretty Baby?

I'm in love with a bike named Jake. Jake the Snake, to be precise (the brand of the bike is Kona, the model is "Jake the Snake," if you wonder why I keep calling him that, haha). On Saturday, I got up early and ventured down to Portland to Sellwood Cycle Repair. Alllllll the Kona dealers in Western Washington were sold out of the Jake the Snake in my size, but I found this one in Portland. Hmm, I should have called around to other Portland stores to see if I could get a bike bidding war going, but I was SO EXCiTED to finally find one in stock, I didn't even think of it.

After arriving at the store shortly after it opened, I met my new man. Love at first sight, I tell you! I took it for a couple long test rides and it was everything I had hoped. I had ridden the base model of the bike in Seattle, the "Jake," and it fit me perfectly and was a wonderful ride. "Jake the Snake" has upgraded shifting components, though, and after riding a different bike with the better parts, I knew it was worth the upgrade. "Jake" had the same shifting components as my road bike, and I knew I wanted better this time around. This bike also has disk brakes, which are more effective and will be especially so if I can talk myself into foul weather (or moderately foul) commuting.

A night on the town with my cool ride. Okay, I left Jake the Snake at home, haha.
Yesterday was my first commute home on the new bike and it was glorious! I wouldn't say it was any faster: Jake has wider, knobby tires that are slower than a road bike's skinny, slick tires. I got home in the same amount of time at a higher level of exertion. But the smile on my face was twice as big! Okay, for one, Jake is just a really cool bike. Look at that bright green! The wider tires make for a much nicer ride, not having to worry about Seattle's bad pavement through downtown and the International District (I think we are supposed to call it Chinatown now but I am not sure).

Jake's a real looker, too. My biking coworker friend had told me people would chat me up about the bike because it's so cool and so distinctive looking. Sure enough, two men on the way home separately rode along side me and talked about the bike. Do you race cyclocross? No, but I am looking into it, I said, truthfully!

This morning I told my friend that I will have to have a custom bike sticker made that says, "No pictures, please," haha. You know, you can actually make custom bike stickers. I crack myself up.

Seriously, I crack myself up. :)
I'll end the blog here because all I think about is my new bike, my new bike, my new bike. I had a fun time staying with Kim on the whirlwind trip - we got all dolled up like the fancy ladies we are and went to a friend of her's birthday party. That was fun - I have been feeling like a MAJOR FRUMP, so it was good for me to feel all pretty. It has even inspired me to go two whole work days without wearing yoga pants to work, hahahaha.


Friday, June 13, 2014

Road Trip!

I have a giant case of bike lust. Meet Jake. You remember Jake from Sixteen Candles, right?

I always knew you'd come for me, Jake.
Well, he was one "Jake crush," and here's the other. Meet Jake the Snake.

Yeah, you.
How much do I need a bright lime green bike named Jake the Snake? Uh, bad. Real bad.

This is a cyclocross bike, so maybe I will also have to take up cyclocross, an idea that has crossed my mind before...

But that's neither here nor there right now, because what Jake the Snake offers me, besides beauty and form, is disk brakes, a nice commute to work ride (even...gasp...year-round...something I should really give more thought if I don't want to spend the first three months of my bike commuting year whining about how out of shape I am from not riding for six months...)

Okay, there's only one Jake the Snake available in my size on the whole freaking west coast. And it's in Portland. It literally has had my name on it for over a week while I hem and haw about shelling out that kind of bank for a bike. I have drivers ed and football and soccer and, and, and to pay. But you know what? Mama wants a new bike!!

I told the bike shop this morning that I would see them at 10 a.m. tomorrow, if I could pull together all the details. Um, the details are filling up the gas tank and pulling some benjis out of the bank. I think I can do it!