Friday, March 30, 2012

Will the mustache put a stop to skateboarding?

Today, I bought my first bike...from a non-pawn shop. I have had a bike or two and rode until grade 10 or so, but my lovely parents paid had paid for those. I purchased a one from a pawn shop while living in Calgary for $100, but started to fall apart pretty quickly and I didn't have the motivation to repair and maintain it. I hoped to buy one in the transit-less city of Jasper in 2008, but it was far too expensive so I settled for a piece of wood with silly drawings on the bottom and became a skateboard commuter. My next and last year in university a friend gave me a rusty old bike of theirs, which I was very grateful for, but I still spent more time narrowly avoiding accidents on my skateboard.

Two years ago, I really fell in love with biking while living in Montreal. I must say that I'm more likely to fall in love with anything in Montreal then I would be elsewhere, but it was still quite exciting. I bought a discounted pass for the incredibly convenient BIXI bike sharing system. I never had to get my bike fixed, carry it up stairs or worry about having it stolen. I never got the wet line on my back when it rained since they had wheel covers and I could take the metro home without it during a storm and then bike to work the next morning! Montreal's great network of bike paths also didn't hurt.
Unfortunately, Toronto doesn't have a comparable bike path network and they have less than a fifth of Montreal's BIXI stations, but they do have Mojo Cycles. A nice little bike shop that opened recently by a salt-of-the-earth kind of guy named Joe who is clearly in business to benefit all, not just to make a living. He's helpful, not pushy whatsoever and charges $13 for a wall support - for storing the bike off the ground - that another shop was selling for $20!

Anyway here's the bike: It's got the European moustache handlebars so you can sit upright while riding, internal 3 gear system so you don't get chain grease on your business pants, a wide spring-supported seat so you don't feel like you're sitting on the bike's frame and it's made in Quebec and it was a mere $275+tax. Normally I wouldn't mention the cost because who cares? But I was blown away by that, the cheapest bike at any other shop was generally $400, am I wrong?
So, great purchasing experience and hopefully it'll be equally pleasant owning the bike. Don't expect my skateboard to disappear though, it's still got it's uses.
Here's a somewhat related, intriguing and short article about societal gains from biking.

http://grist.org/list/one-mile-on-a-bike-is-a-42-economic-gain-to-society-one-mile-driving-is-a-20-loss/

Here's Sarah's take of my on the Raleigh Sprite.