Every Day Adventurers

I’m trying to decide how to spin this, because it was partly one of those inspiring loads that makes me feel “hell yeah, that’s why I ride an Xtracycle” and partly I just felt stupid.

The plastic company I use for the polycarbonate in the Down Low Glow had my home address on their file for my shipping address. So there I was with eight feet of polycarbonate tubing, well more like 160 feet, actually, that I had to get to the Rock the Bike workshop across the Bay in Berkeley. A few months ago I would have borrowed my girlfriend’s car. But, umm, I can’t do that anymore. And I need to work with that tubing tomorrow. Hence the Xtracycle.

At first I felt pretty badass. I stuck my messenger bag in the front of the freeloader to separate the box from my pedal stroke, since I didn’t have a longloader handy. I loaded the tubing quick enough. I felt good enough about the whole affair to stop and snap a picture.

Then I realized the tire was flat. And it was getting towards 4:30PM. Which means I wouldn’t be able to get on BART if I patched the thing. So I threw on a wheel from another bike, which worked well enough.

BART was tricky. I used the escalators and rolled into the last car. People weren’t stressed about the wierd bike, but I could tell they were having to think a little harder to get to their seats. At the West Oakland platform I decided to get off. There was no down escalator, so I slid the bike down the stairs, Travois style, on the tubing.

The worst part of the whole thing was that it has happened before! It’s just that before, I had that car as a backup, so I didn’t even take the time to call my salesman at the Plastic Company and get it sorted out. That’s car culture for you!

If there’s one thing we’ve learned on this journey, it is how to keep the stress in check. I mean, you simply can’t survive a 12 year expedition without a little perspective! Some friends had a slackline up at their house when we were hanging out last Sunday and I got inspired to set up one at the Willow Springs Mystery Ranch. I had seen a piece of webbing and an old biner kickin‚Äô around. So we strung it up, and have been wobbling our way into balance. fun!