shot down
I tried to bike to work today for the first time in a while.
It was an uphill battle, and all was against me.
The main problem, begins with the fact that I know bring my work laptop home with me on a regular basis. This then requires me to have to bring it back to work also. Although I've biked with both a backpack of clothes and a laptop satchel previously, I have no intentions of doing so on a 25 mile ride, uphill, when I'm aiming to shave any amount of time off the commute I can. This lead me to finally upgrade to getting a pannier setup for my bike. I had been shopping around for a while trying to get the right system. I wanted to get a free hanging rear bike rack with a quick release. That way I'll only need one, and will be able to switch quickly between my road bike, and my fixie once I build it. This will also allow me to take it off when I'm going for a training ride. I also needed panneirs that were big enough to hold my laptop, while inside of its laptop bag. I didn't want to have to bother unloading accessories in and out of my bag every day. I already knew from talking to jojo that the quick release racks don't work as well as you'd like for panniers. They're to high for the panniers to clip to the rear wheel mount, if you're panneirs have a hook even. Regardless, I got the quick release carrier, and panniers. I made them fit by using one of gods great tools, zip ties, to extend the reach of the the hooks. I was fairly sure the ties would hold, and testing them on the way to gym the previous day.
So, I woke up early. I packed my bags, eat a cliff bar as breakfast, got dressed and headed on my way. I got a mile or so away from home when I realized that I had forgotten my badge, and had to turn around. Halfway back, however, there was a clink , bang thunk, and bike wobbled drastically. I looked back to see all my stuff yard saled across the street. Bags, and bike gear laying aorund. Apparently both zip ties had simultanious cataostropic failure.
I picked up my bags, biked home, went to sleep for another hour, and then drove to work. The pannier system needs some adjusting, but it will prevail!!
It was an uphill battle, and all was against me.
The main problem, begins with the fact that I know bring my work laptop home with me on a regular basis. This then requires me to have to bring it back to work also. Although I've biked with both a backpack of clothes and a laptop satchel previously, I have no intentions of doing so on a 25 mile ride, uphill, when I'm aiming to shave any amount of time off the commute I can. This lead me to finally upgrade to getting a pannier setup for my bike. I had been shopping around for a while trying to get the right system. I wanted to get a free hanging rear bike rack with a quick release. That way I'll only need one, and will be able to switch quickly between my road bike, and my fixie once I build it. This will also allow me to take it off when I'm going for a training ride. I also needed panneirs that were big enough to hold my laptop, while inside of its laptop bag. I didn't want to have to bother unloading accessories in and out of my bag every day. I already knew from talking to jojo that the quick release racks don't work as well as you'd like for panniers. They're to high for the panniers to clip to the rear wheel mount, if you're panneirs have a hook even. Regardless, I got the quick release carrier, and panniers. I made them fit by using one of gods great tools, zip ties, to extend the reach of the the hooks. I was fairly sure the ties would hold, and testing them on the way to gym the previous day.
So, I woke up early. I packed my bags, eat a cliff bar as breakfast, got dressed and headed on my way. I got a mile or so away from home when I realized that I had forgotten my badge, and had to turn around. Halfway back, however, there was a clink , bang thunk, and bike wobbled drastically. I looked back to see all my stuff yard saled across the street. Bags, and bike gear laying aorund. Apparently both zip ties had simultanious cataostropic failure.
I picked up my bags, biked home, went to sleep for another hour, and then drove to work. The pannier system needs some adjusting, but it will prevail!!
posted by Frick at 11:02 PM
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