bike

I’m a moderately skilled cyclist. I’m fairly likely to remain upright on my bike in most situations. I’m comfortable riding in traffic, near cars (and doors that may open at any moment) and taking the lane when it’s required.

I’m not good at crossing railroad tracks, it seems. I took a different route out of work toward the light rail. In hindsight, this was a bad idea. It required crossing the tracks on 7th street, and then crossing them again to actually travel down 7th street. See the map (zoom in to just about street level):


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I was traveling west on Jackson, making a left on 7th to head south. Note the railroad tracks. I know they’re there. I cross them all the time. The surface is terrible, but I usually just bunny hop over the tracks. I didn’t bunny hop quite far enough today… Caught my front wheel just in the angled track rut area, went skidding down on my left side, and hit the ground hard. Hard enough to actually send my lip balm shooting out of my fully closed messenger bag where it came to rest about six feet away.

Is it sad that my first two thoughts were:

1. Shit, there goes my rear derailleur.
2. Thank god I didn’t fall on my knife side!

I have beautifully forming bruises in a crescent shape around my left knee, a bruise blossoming on my left hip, elbow, and shoulder. Ugh. Not much broken skin though–just some abrasions on my knee and elbow. I guess that’s the advantage to commuting in my regular clothes and not spandex. I would’ve shredded my knee (I was wearing long shorts) and probably ripped the shoulder of my jersey (I was wearing a sturdy cotton t-shirt) if I were commuting in full kit.

Though this is always one of the dangers of cycling on the road, stuff like this always takes me by surprise. I’m going to hurt tomorrow!

Pants. But really, these are good.

I’m always on the lookout for stuff I can wear for both bike commuting and which will then transition well to my casual workplace. I have a pair of Patagonia capris I like (they’re called the Sender Capri, I think) and I really love my REI Slickrock 3/4 pant. However that really means that I’m just wearing two pairs of pants pretty much every day? Boring and impractical.

Thanks to my enjoyment of Fixed Gear Gallery, I happened to click on some of their ad sponsors in the right column of their page. There I stumbled upon Chicago Wig. Their knickers were awesome looking, the correct inseam length for my lack of height, and definitely the right price. (I’m not sure why most cycling knickers hover in the $130 range, but they do.) I read their positive review and decided to pull the trigger.

On Monday I placed my order while on a break at work. I ordered a pair in green and a pair in black. On Monday night they emailed me and told me that they were out of black in my size and would I mind grey? I didn’t respond until almost midnight on Monday. Thursday afternoon I opened my mailbox to find that they’d already arrived! Thank you for your awesome service, Chicago Wig!

They’re the perfect length, durable, and with awesome pockets. You’ll also find a sweet “WIG” logo patch on the leg. I’ve gotten compliments on them from many people and have sent them to the site to check them out. I’m in-between sizes, I now realize. The smalls are kind of small, but the medium would be huge and they make my ass kind of disappear. Despite reinforcing my position in the world as the assless wonder, I love these things.