“Are you going to get out on your bike today?”
At Be Well Cafe this morning, Sean asked, “Are you going to get out on your bike today?” I replied that I have too much work. I’m designing maps of Chapel Hill and the D&H Trail.
But actually, I did bike to the grocery store this morning at 7 am. The morning sun felt pleasant and made for good photos. My trip to the store and back took 15 minutes. While I wish there were bike racks, it’s still convenient to park.
Back to our coffee conversation – Sean showed me how the market for dockless bike share is huge globally, naming companies that I didn’t know even existed that are coming to the US.
Sean and I haven’t biked together, but we share a lot of common interests. He got me thinking about long distance cycling again and introduced me to the concept of randonneuring in PA. Somewhat related, the Trans Am Bike Race, which uses an Adventure Cycling route and is unsupported, is going on now.
Anyway, a lot of our conversation centered around batteries, chargers, the Karoo Hammerhead cycling computer vs my iPhone for navigation and ultra-light bike gear. I showed him some new Ortlieb bike packing gear that I hope to use soon as well.
Last month I tried out a Fuji Jari gravel bike, and I rode it between 500-600 miles in May, the longest ride being over 101 miles on a lot of gravel as well as on-road. This inspired me to consider getting ultra-light gravel gear.
Since then, I’ve just biked for short errands.
There are so many adventures to pursue. A few minutes ago, a friend asked if I’d like to go on a ride in New York this weekend. He’ll be pedaling his 60-year-old Raleigh Lenton Sports 3-speed with well tested gear. Of course I would love to go, but I have other commitments. Here’s a google map showing the proximity of his route.
It would make sense to go on this trip because I recently finished revising a bike map of Ithaca and Tompkins County, and I could field check it. Here’s a screenshot of the county side:
The reason I bothered to share all this is that having a community to bike with is important. Now, back to work… This is what the early stage of a bike map looks like. Mostly data on a page.
