Archive for the ‘Commuting’ Category

The “Tim Taylor” Incident

Monday, April 28th, 2008

I was on my way home from work today (on my bike), when a beige Cadillac all but buzzed me in slow motion. I was a little miffed, but saw the handicap hangtag on the rearview and chocked it up to elderly driving. I continued up the road, approaching a stoplight at a busy cross-street. As I’m pedaling through the green light, I hear “Ma’am!” from my right , and see that the driver of the beige Cadillac has parked in the right lane of the busy cross street and is standing behind her car waving at me! I continue through the intersection and pull over to the gutter on the other side to find out what this woman wants.

The first thing I hear her say is “What are you doing all the way out here?”

Me (thinking she’s just a really crazy anti-bike person): “Uh… Riding home from work”

Her: “Are you Tim Taylor?” (I couldn’t understand her very well at that point, but she wandered into the street a little closer to me and yelled it a couple of times)

Me: No!

She starts trying to explain something to me, but I can’t hear what she’s saying because she’s on the other side of a busy road. By this time, the light has cycled, and she abandons her car on the side of the road and comes over to me. Apparently, she thought that I was her son, Tim Taylor, who lives in Midtown. He’s ridden a bike for more than 20 years, and she thought I was him.

Hmmm…
I know that it’s easy to mistake me for a guy from the back when I’m on my bike & wearing a helmet.
I know she said Ma’am when she was trying to get my attention.
I am confused as to how she thought I was her son while driving by and pulled over, used a female term to get my attention, then once again asked if I was Tim Taylor. Is he a transgender of some sort? I’m confused. I doubt that Tim’s bike is as ugly as the Mule, though.

Tim, if you’re out there, maybe you should give your mother a call.

Introducing THE MULE!

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

The commuter is finished! It’s definately not pretty, but it’s a perfect utility bike. I rode it to work & for general errands Monday-Wednesday this week, though I did drive today because of the storms moving through the area. Here’s a rundown of the parts:

Early 90’s rigid Univega MTB frame (21 speed converted to 7 speed when the left shifter broke!)
Harris Cyclery trekking bars
70 deg stem w/delta stem riser
Kenda Kwick Roller Sport (26 x 1.25″) tires
Delta Supersherpa Megarack
Detours Toocan Pannier

And here’s the bike:

mule.JPG

And yes, that is a 12 pack of Diet Coke bungee-corded to the rack :)