Two Bike Shops and a Fat Bike

1.13.2014 40F 29m #216

Started off at 32F at the Bastille at 11am with S., who's had some flats in the flat-resistant tires the last few days. Those Conti Contacts had about 6000 miles on them so they gave pretty good service.

Charted a course via the Jail Trail to REI. We got there just before the Wrench did, so we left her bike and hoofed over to Big Dog Coffee for coffee and their world-famous oatmeal with fruit toppings. Completely awesome.

Went back to REI. I picked up a U-Lock with a Christmas gift-certificate (thanks guys!) With the new tyres, S felt a lot better about the bike and we ventured out to Sandcastle and Costco. Reversed, passed behind American Eagle into Riverfront Park, approached a field of mud and decided that we didn't need to go mud-bogging today.

Retraced around the Hilton, through the SouthSide to join the trail at 18th Street. Off the trail again at 9th, which we're doing more frequently and onto the Smithfield St. bridge. Took Grant St. across town, and Smallman Street out to Lawrenceville. At 35th and Charlotte, observed this new mural (the center one):

Saw this at Franktuary, custom bike racks (very nice!)

Went to Iron City Bikes to pick up a light. Started drooling over this Origin8 fat bike, which is a Crawler, which comes with the NuVinci crazy continuous interplanetary flux-capacitor transmission. I'm told the name Crawler is appropriate given it's average speed. Looks like a lot of fun in deep snow. They also had some very cool cargo bikes - a baksfiet, a delivery bike.

Returned via the 16th Street Bridge, and the rain started right around the bridge. Got to the cars a bit (but not too) wet, just enough to make one feel virtuous. 29 miles on a great day.