As you can see, it has bright yellow rims and a pretty pink chain. It's whats known as a fixed gear... it has only one gear, and that gear is connected directly to the tire so if you pedal backwards you go backwards and there's no coasting.
When it got here it had around 2350 miles on it, and I did at least 60 miles on it this week. The first ride was a 10 mile ride (20 round trip) along the path by GW. Towards the end the path turned to gravel and I kinda got lost in a small town haha! Thankfully I have an iPhone with gps. My second ride, today.. I went down to Mt. Vernon. I think it was a 20 mile ride (40 round trip) and it was a great challenge. Fixed gears are meant for city streets or track racing in a velodrome. Many bike messengers use them, and I've seen a few on DC streets.. however they do not work good on hills, so I had a fun fight climbing them. But I did it! And it was a beautiful ride, much nicer than the path I usually take in Chicago. However, biking the streets in Chicago is a lot better because the cars don't stop.. that may sound weird, but I've gotten use to timing it perfectly so I can bike without stopping for traffic. IE at a stop sign I slow down just enough to go through right after a car does... But in DC they stop and wait, so it throws off my timing and I end up slowing down even more... because in Chicago if your "timing" gets messed up chances are when you go through you'll be hit.. so you have to stop.
Having my bike is great, I plan on not using the metro at all (except on rare occasions) and the money I save will offset the cost of shipping it here. plus its greener! yay green!
Other than biking, I went to capital pride (the gay pride parade) and that was pretty fun. Nothing like a bunch of cute guys and girls dancing on floats to lady GaGa.. Honestly nothing can top the pride parade in Chicago, theres wayyyyyy more floats and loud music and the streets are packed. I was actually pretty surprised at the turn out, and its great to know so many people are so accepting. We are all humans, and all deserve to be free to love and live without restriction. Imagine if they banned disabled people from getting married!
This country has a long road equality, and I'm proud to be a voice in it.
Other than miscellaneous adventures, I wrote some poetry and did a bunch of programming. I launched a website for my old teacher and hopefully it will take off.
So far I'm liking DC, granted I would like it more if I were working, but stuff happens and you just gotta "roll with it"
peace + love
Matt
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