the black mobile

here she is. 2 words: SO GOOD. this is downtown transportation made easy. i can't stress enough how easy it has made commuting. this past weekend nuit blanche was on and having a bike made the experience amazing. last year, we were basically stuck on one main street hoping to see a bunch of cool installations and we really didn't want to have to keep hopping on and off the street car and subway. So we didn't get to see much of anything. just a bunch of local stuff. but this year, we actually got to see pretty much all the sponsored international works. there were 3 zones and i can't imagine a better way to have done it than on a bike. you could have walked but that would have been the longest night. subway/streetcar? maybe. but then you've got to buy tickets and stuff and deal with crowds. biking made it simple and a blast. riding through the downtown core and traffic made the night even better and exhilarating.

i ended up setting up a single speed bike rather than one with gears or one that was fixed. gears for downtown really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. i think i would only be transferring between 3 gears MAX anyway. downtown is mostly flat and you can get going pretty quick with the right gear. also, it makes your bike much simpler and easy to maintain and lighter for carrying around and/or hanging. AND much more sleek and aesthetically pleasing. fixed? cool idea. great for going slow. lots of control. but for those times there is a hill or i want to just coast, on a fixed, not going to happen - unless of course you take your feet of and let your pedals just spin and carve up your shins. for the times that i am going down a hill, i'm going to want to coast and enjoy it. not pedal out of my mind. just my opinion.