Bicycle Fixation Weblog
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09/20/2008: "The Gopher Gets 'Em"
The mighty Green Gopher was my ride on Thursday, as I had to fetch a lot of stuff and it was hot, so I didn't want to wear a messenger bag all day. Those beat-up old JANDD panniers, utilitarian though they may be, swallowed up a good load of goods: old Business Journals to drop off at my kid's house, a T-shirt Chuck Schmidt had printed up for me for a rush order, a couple of yards of folded-up foam for a (non-BF) project, rubber-block pedals so that Gina can ride the Milk Runner in fancy shoes, and probably some other stuff I've forgotten.The Gopher may be slow, but he sure is handy sometimes...I think, though, that I'd like to gear him down by one cog tooth (he's a fixie), both to compensate for his weight--he's much heavier than the Bambina, my Bottecchia fixie--and in preparation for the cargo trailer I can never afford.
He does, with his big Vittoria Randonneur Pro tires, crash over asphalt heaves, potholes, and cracks with a casual aplomb, so as long as I'm not feeling frisky, he's a good ride.
And I had tweaked my back reaching for something earlier that day, so it was doubly nice to go at a relaxed pace.
No point in hurrying unless you really have to. And you don't often really have to. The Gopher's stateliness reminds me of that when the Bambina would just be saying, "Come on, let's go!"
