December 21, 2010

I’m getting a bike

You might think this is a funny time of year to write about bicycling. I think it’s the perfect time. This is the story of how I met Marty form Geekhouse and the start of a new biking adventure.

For years I’ve been an advocate of bicycling as transport. It started by necessity. I was a college student. I got a job out in Waltham. I didn’t have a car and the bus gave me motion sickness. I rode 20-30 miles a day, year round for a couple of years. It was the best commuting experience of my life.

So of course Clover’s restaurant at Harvard Square has a shower and lockers for employees. I want folks to be able to ride to work and have a chance to shower, change, etc. This is something I’m really excited about.

In the meantimeI need a bike. Mine was stollen at MIT last spring. Really sad, and terrible feeling. I’d ridden that bike for something like 20-30,000 miles.

The other day I met Marty from Geekhouse bicycles. I was admiring a bike outside of the restaurant. He came out to hop on it and we started chatting. I hadn’t heard about him and what he does (forgive me, I’ve been out of the bike world for a while).

So Marty is going to help me get riding again. The first step was getting fit properly. I have some serious childhood injuries that led to some back and knee issues when I was biking last time. Marty suggested I get a full fit at Landry’s this time around. He went over with me, and $200 later we had some measurements and other stuff.

I was really impressed by the process. I mean, I sat on jelly and they measured the width of my ass bones to choose my seat. I didn’t even know seats came in different widths.

Marty said he thought a bunch of it was smoke and mirrors, but the basics were solid and important. So here we go. I’ll be posting as this bike gets built. Stay tuned.

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