Introduction

I ride a bike. Not as far or as often as some people, but frequently, and farther than most. I don't consider myself a very good rider, at least based on how frequently I get passed, but I do ride a fairly nice bike, a 2006 Trek Madone 5.2. Which explains the title of the blog.

These days most of my riding is actually commuting from my home in Evanston to work in the Chicago Loop, about 25 miles round trip. Last year I rode through November then petered out when the weather got crappy in December and didn't really pick back up until March. This year I hope to ride through the winter. To that end I recently bought a Schwinn Madison on eBay as a bad weather beater. I like it well enough, though I must admit my knees are getting a bit old for all the starting from a dead stop required in the city. I think I need to find a slightly smaller chainring and suffer with lack of "top end".

I've been riding "ten speed" bikes of one sort or another since I was in college in Los Angeles. I've had a number of different bikes, including a nice early American Masi back in the 70s (made shortly after they moved from Italy), and nowadays can be seen bopping around Evanston on a Specialized Crossroads fitted with an Xtracyle longtail. I kind of wish I had the blender attachment. That would be cool at the beach on a hot day. While I used to have a mountain bike, off-road riding never appealed to me. I love the road, and I really like urban riding (more on that in later posts).

I started riding in LA, slacked off while in graduate school in Iowa, returned to it when I moved back to Northern California after graduation, then in upstate New York. I do miss not having hills here in the Midwest, but I love to ride. I love to swim as well, but that's a topic for another day.