I finally got a bike!  It had been almost ten years since I had one!  I used to ride around the gulf coast of Florida like crazy when I was a kid, but I never tried out riding when I was living in New York City or Los Angeles. During college I was only in New York for a few months at a time, and the city is so easy to get around that a bike never felt that useful.  I did borrow a friend’s bike in LA for a while, but I was turned off by roads without bike lanes and crowded sidewalks.

This is my ’85 Schwinn Sprint, an entry-level road bike.  It was made on November 7th, 1985 in Taiwan by Giant Bicycles.  The gearing is classic 10-speed with 40/52 crankset and 14/17/20/24/28 freewheel.

With its steel frame and accessories, the tool clocks in around 35 pounds.  It’s a heavy one, but I still weigh a heck of a lot more.  So when I come hurdling down a hill pushing 30 MPH, its basically just a 170 lb mammal rushing by on top of some paper clips.  A bicycle may count as a vehicle on the road, but it’s basically an unprotected person swerving around….