If it’s March and it’s Oregon it must mean, (gasp!) rain.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the rain and I love Oregon but this entire week has been hellish at work so when I ended up staying late tonight I was not entirely pleased to find myself standing in the rain getting soaked.  But it is what it is.  If nothing else, I have another photograph to add to my collection.  Fellow Oregonians, remember, summer is a mere 4 months away.  Maybe.

There are many personal opinions out there regarding the topic of singlespeed and fixed gear bicycles and why people ride them.  Why ride singlespeed?  Many people, including myself, like the fact that a singlespeed or fixie is lightweight and easy to maintain due to the fact that there aren’t very many parts involved in the construction of such bikes.  There is certainly the coolness factor but one must admit that singlespeeds and fixies are very cool looking bikes, in general.  I ride a singlespeed for two reasons.

1.  I rarely take advantage of the gear selections available on multi-speed bicycles.

2.  I like the fact that maintenance and upkeep is much easier on a singlespeed bicycle.

It was several years ago that I came to the realization that although my bicycles had several different gear selections I rarely changed gears.  I found that I had a favored gear ratio and I never changed it, even while climbing.

So I’m not cool but at least my Lemond is.

I Am Viddy!

Sunday.  A day of rest.  Perhaps.  But not for this kid, at least not yet.  I was up early and piddled around the house for a bit and then I headed over to Performance Bicycle and was hit with a couple of surprises.  The first surprise was the fact that on Sunday they don’t open until noon and I got there at 11:11am.  Anyhoo, I ran some other errands and then circled back and boy was I glad that I did.  The second surprise was the kick ass sale they were having that just happened to end today.  Everything in the store was on sale, and on top of that, there was another 10% off the lowest price.  Fuck me.  When faced with an opportunity like that you couldn’t very well expect Mister Viddy to simply buy a patch kit or something cheap.  No sir, I got a killer headlight (see below), two new puncture resistant tubes and some new Adidas rain covers for my shoes.  Believe me, I was ready to spend every dime in my bank account but I took the best deals on some things I really needed and then bounced.

Now I can’t wait for the sun to go down so I can go and test my new headlight.  Sheehah!  Ride to live, live to ride.