Biking in Seattle

The frankenbike.

I’ve slowly started doing more biking over the last couple weeks. By which I mean I remembered to bike to writing this morning, hooray for me, and I also went on a bike ride earlier this week.

I’m so accomplished, I know.

I have decided I’m going to a) stick with it, and b) try to get in good enough biking shape I can do postmates or some other bike-based gig thing while I’m job interviewing. (I blame/thank Kaia for that idea.) The latter is going to be a journey, let me tell you. Nothing like transporting yourself via pedal power to realize how out of cardio-shape you’ve gotten.

That all said, some miscellaneous observations on biking in Seattle so far:

• I will never stop being terrified of large (like 2+ inches wide) cracks in the asphalt. I’m convinced I’m going to catch my front wheel, fall over into traffic, and get run over by a car. Has this happened yet? Nope! Will it? Probably not! But I fear it all the same. ;_;
• Getting to Ballard from Magnolia sucks. Not because there aren’t options. But because the routes involve either the Ballard bridge or the Ballard locks. Both of which have sections that are too narrow for someone on a bike to pass anyone, pedestrian or other bike, comfortably. So no matter the route you risk an awkward shuffle-tangle.
• Hills are murder.
• Cars have, so far, been pretty polite. It probably helps that I pretty much always defer to them, and/or am biking on roads where they have space to go around me.
• Not having a water bottle with you while biking sucks. At least if you’re me, thirsty-person extraordinaire.
• Having a milk crate bike basket is great until you’re on a narrow path and a pedestrian is coming the other way.
• Tourists stopping to take pictures in the middle of one of the locks bridges will awaken feelings of murder in your heart you thought you had banished long ago.
• Having a bike you’ve DIY-frakensteined feels very weird in a city full of people with spandex bike shorts and high-end road bikes.
• My brakes like to yell at me once hills get too steep. They still work fine, but the squeaking of rubber on the rims freaks me out and makes me not want to squeeze them as hard as I should. Which is a weird argument for eventually getting disk brakes, but there it is.
• I know I own two bike front lights. I can only find the rear lights from each of those sets. This is my curse.
• Being nervous about your biking skill is a good way to end up not biking, because you dilly-dally out of anxiety and then go “oh no if I’m any slower than google maps guesses I will be, which I will be, I will be late.” And then you take your car. I’m working on not doing this.
• Bike gear is expensive.
• For being a “bike friendly” city, Seattle sure doesn’t like having real bike lanes anywhere.

I think that’s it for now! I continue to survive. Hopefully biking will get a little easier in the future so it’s just A Thing I Do on a given day instead of An Event. We’ll see!

P.S. Please sign my petition to get rid of all of Seattle’s hills. We’ve regraded the city once, we can do it again! </bad plan>