Shek's Footprint

I have been painfully absent from this website lately for which I sincerely apologize, to both my readers and myself. I have not stopped  bicycling yet. It has been challenging though. Braving the cold on a bicycle is a little daunting for someone who has never lived in a city as cold as Jacksonville. 

There have been days when I have almost given up on the day’s ride while walking Laya in the morning. The 25F to 35F temperatures would tempt me to call a friend to pick me up on his/her way to work. Some days I managed to man up and ride out. Some days, I have given in to a friendly neighbor who offered me a ride in the morning. Somedays it rained while the temperature was in the high fourties adding to newer challenges. I bought a rain jacket from REI that breaks wind upto 60 mph to combat the rainy and cold mornings. 

Yesterday, I attended the kid’s bicycle safety workshop hosted by Zombie bikes at the Jacksonville library. A burrito from Burrito Gallery later, Matt and I were off exploring the historic parts of Jacksonville. We went though Springfield, visited his friend who owns the Klutho house and  headed over to the S-line bike trail to see what it was about. Then we rode towards Riverside through neighborhoods that had some very eclectic and rustic buildings. After hopping into Jax E Bikes,  a quick chat with Dylan and a quick test ride on the top of the line E bike later we headed off to Memorial park. I have not hated Jacksonville’s sprawl this much till I watched the after glow of a post sunset evening on a clear florida sky across the river from San Marco. People stuck in concrete cul-de-sacs do not know what they are missing on a daily basis. After a quick ride through riverwalk, we got back to Matt’s truck.

All this on the new Hercules bike was a lot of fun. The total distance was around 10 miles. The roads included some bike lanes but mostly there were no spearate bike lanes or segragated paths. The S-line greenway was the only segregated bike path. I actually felt pretty safe on the roads without bike lanes. Those older neighborhoods are built on a more human scale unlike the suburban mess that I call home.

Matt from Bikejax accompanied me on a suburban afternoon ride to the movies. Please visit here: http://bikejax.blogspot.com/2009/01/kick-it-suburban-style.html for pictures and Matt’s perspective on riding in suburbia. 

Image courtesy Bikejax

The ride happened on a Florida winter afternoon

I am leaving for India on 25th November. I will be back on 29th December. There may not be many posts betweeb now and then. I do not do particularly well when I am outside my comfort zone of no laptop. Yes, I am not lugging the monster with me on this trip. I will be looking for offsetting my airplane trip when I get back though.

One of my objectives on this trip is to take pictures of the bicycle culture in the suburbs of Calcutta (Kolkatta). Poverty and dearth force people to ride their bikes everywhere. They are well complimented by a decent commuter rail and busses. Most of the bikes they ride are roadster style bikes (wikipedia link).

This brings me to my second objective of buying a roadster and shipping it over here. I need a more reliable alternative to Katrien, no offense to Katrien. She understands. Roadsters are cheap in India. They are primarily used as work bikes in most cities but are the most common bikes in Calcutta (link). I may be able to buy one for under USD 85. The goal is to get it shipped here under USD 150.

Well, wish me good luck and stay warm.

Bajrang is up and running, smooth and nimble as ever. I brought it home Thursday night. On Friday, I bought a 40 Lb bag of dry dog food and a 12 can box of wet dog food, loaded it on Bajrang and we carried it as effortlessly as ever even with the load being unbalanced. I started off on a low gear but soon moved on to the normal gears and cruised home at 15 mph.

It feels like the free-radical was always a part of the bike and the bike was built with the free-radical in mind. The way it attaches itself to an existing bike is the most attractive feature of the xtracycle. You can go for longer rides and not feel any different than before the conversion. I rode it 10 miles to a friend’s house today and at times I forgot that I was riding an xtracycle. This is a genius invention and deserves a lot of credit.

I am Abhishek Mukherjee and on behalf of Bajrang, I approve this message.

By the way, I am looking for a name for my Dutch bike. Suggestions will be helpful. I do think it is a ’she’!

The particularly long box marked Xtracycle sat in the leasing office of my apartment complex when I went to pick it up. With the box in the trunk of the car and my Specialized on a bike rack, I set off on six lanes of concrete clusterfuck to Downtown Jacksonville.

Brooklyn at Cycledelic-Fixity has voluntered to be the only reasonable bicycle shop owner that will put it together for a reasonable price. His cool shop is around 14 miles from my apartment in the historic Riverside area of Downtown. He came out of his shop to greet me as I had started to un-strap the bike rack. He said that he recognized my bike as I am a celebrity thanks to these guys: link.

I browsed around his shop a little drooled on the fixies in various stages of completion. Some day after the car is sold! I did pop in at Jax Ebikes (link) but it was closed, so I decided to head back home. I have never ridden my bike from Downtown to home. Since I may have to do it tomorrow, I decided to give the route a shot in the car. I went up the Acosta bridge and then on Philips all the way south to Baymeadows (see route: View Larger Map)

The section of Philips between San Marco and Emerson is pretty desolate and sad. It is one slip away form being a ghost town. I hope the road is as less crowded tomorrow as it was today. Maybe I should have Brooklyn install a Katana holder while he is at it, a custom from Hattori Hanzo none the less!

As for the name of this post, well, that is the new name of my xtracycle-attched-specialized. The god of strength in the Indian mythology is the name of this bike which is my strength to go car free. In today’s car-dependent world, this bike is my Plan B and my extra set of bollocks! Eat this Big Oil!