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cycling into a 5ºC headwind

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Today I picked up an old bike from a friend. I'm the third owner among various friends to ride the thing in the past dozen years.

I had to pick it up at St. Clair Avenue and Runnymede Road, well in the north-western quarter of the city. Naturally, I live in the south-east. And naturally, it was one of the dozen days out of the year when a stiff wind blows out of the east in Toronto. The entire way home I faced a strong headwind that brought the temperature way down.

In fact I'd only gone a kilometer or so before I passed a couple of used bike shops and decided that the old thing needed work that I simply wasn't going to be able to put off. The front brake cable was frayed and making strange noises, the handlebars were so low that I couldn't properly keep the thing moving in a straight line, and the front derailleur wasn't working, period. And hour after popping into the one store that was open, and I was back on the road with a much improved geometry thanks to a drastically raised set of handle bars. I'd also had the dangerous front brake cable replaced, and .. well two out of three ain't bad. And the whole thing cost me a song. I like the 'Junction' neighbourhood: it's run down but it's a good place for finding stuff on the cheap.