bikelovejones

First of all, let me say that the reason I have not been doing longer rides so much this summer has nothing to do with my lack of interest in riding. I have been riding nearly every day and enjoying it so much that my worst day on a bicycle is still usually as good as or better than my best day off one.

That said, once I'd finished with the Livestrong ride, I went right back to the kind of riding I've been doing the most of this season: cargo biking.

Since building up my X in mid-May, I have probably put about 250 miles on it just riding around town. The benefits of riding the X are, so far:

--I cannot bail out and take Trimet home. The Xtracycle can fit on a bus rack in theory. in practice, some municipalities will not allow it to be mounted on their front racks. Portland is one place where you cannot put your X on the bus, not even with the front wheel removed. This means that if I take it out, I'm committed to riding it everywhere and all the way home afterwards. That's a good thing.

--I can carry just about anything I imagine. Recent loads have included a drum and marching carrier, large pieces of lawn divider (scored at a yard sale), a folding table and chairs (on an errand for the shop), and multiple packages for Post Office runs at work. Last night I brought home a long and unwieldy stack of cardboard to lay down over sections of the garden I want to discourage weed growth in.








All this hauling has done nothing for my distance riding, but it has certainly been a lot of fun. I am SO into the possibilities of cargo-hauling with bicycles now. I chatted with the very nice proprietress of Clever Cycles (another X dealer in town) and we kicked around the possibility of our shops someday hosting a joint event to promote cargo bicycling in Portland. Meanwhile, Xtracycles are still at least a month away from delivery to Citybikes; the worldwide demand has been so high that the manufacturer is hard-pressed to keep up. It's a good problem to have but it sure makes for some crazy times at work.

As for my long-distance riding this season? If I do any serious randonneuring I'll be surprised. I'm enjoying the shorter-distance cargo hauling so much that I may just rock hard with it the rest of the summer and not worry so much about doing a populaire (or any ride more than about 30 miles, for that matter). The riding these days is really good.