Spring Forward, Indeed.

I guess I shouldn't mock my friend Gramps for having a hipster bike because, well ... I have one, too. I would be mad if anyone kicked my bike because I have invested a lot of time in restoring an old bike to my precise liking, similar to what he has done with his main mode of transportation. Mine is a single speed and I have a front break (unlike his fixie bike with no breaks or gears), and everything on it is practically perfect in every way.

The junky "before" bike:
My beautiful "after" bike:
Last summer I painted my entire bike white with refrigerator paint, bought white rims and white tires, put on new white grip tape, and found some fancy schmancy white pedals. I searched high and low to find pink parts for the rest. I spray painted the fork fluorescent pink, have a pink chain, pink crank, pink frog lights, and even a super comfy old pink seat.

It really is a work of art.

My bike, however, isn't a winter bike. I also am not an experienced rider and I use it solely for transportation during cooperating months. It's been sitting up against one of my apartment walls for the greater portion of the winter, and the tires lost all of their air. The nearest free air pump is more than a mile from me, and I'm way too lazy to walk my bike that far.

Gramps, being the super hipster that he is, basically carries his life with him in his stupid Timbuk2 body bag. Since he only bikes, he has to have spare parts and tools with him at all times. He had exactly what I needed to re-Spring-itize my bike, and I finally was able to convince him to bring over those tools despite living pretty far out of his way.

And while we were fixing my bike, enjoying 64-degree weather (we set a new weather record today!), and basking in an extra hour of sunlight, we went out on my first bike ride of the year.

Gramps carries his entire world with in his stupid hipster bag. I wore my Brooks Nightlife sweatshirt as a joke.
That crazy hipster practicing his track stands.
Close up of my skinny white road tires and all other things pink. ♥
It's not a true bike ride if you don't stop for some beers while sitting out on a patio.
Little did we figure, it still gets dark ... and fast. I had on my reflective sweatshirt as a joke, but ended up being really glad I was wearing it. I was straining my eyes to avoid potholes and sidewalk cracks in nearly complete darkness, and was easily forgetting to keep scanning for cars. I had some comfort knowing they could see me pretty well.
I don't ever want to ride at night again unless I look into getting a pretty substantial headlamp or some kind of bright light for the front of my bike. I seriously couldn't see anything in front of me! But, it definitely was a fun first ride of 2010. I'm happy to be back in the saddle and look forward to cross training outside of the gym.

Can I count mile splits for bike rides?
6.7mi: 4:47, 4:55, 4:53, 5:50, 7:40, 7:43, 4:00
Air Temp: 64F