the mellow tigger's musings

I want to recommend two items that I've used on my bicycle this year.  I didn't have either of them last year, and their presence is making my bicycle commute this year easier already.

The best toy I've yet found for my bicycle is this MTX compatible Explorer rear rack ($42) and the MTX TrunkBag DXP ($113). I bought them at my local shop, Fridley Heights Cyclery. They have simplified my daily commute a lot. The Trunkbag clicks on and off easily, so swapping it out is very fast and convenient.  Its central pocket holds my bike repair kit and cool weather jacket. The Trunkbag also includes some useful side panels.  The panels zip up compactly when not in use.  They unzip and fold out to hold all of my items for commuting to work (fresh clothes, fresh towel, new 2-liter Dr. Pepper) each week. Very nice.

Now that I have a rack, I also bought my first pannier bag.  I shopped around local stores first, finally ending up at Calhoun Cycle which had a large variety of bags on their shelves for convenient comparisons. I finally settled on the the Shopper ($85), since it was clearly large enough to handle a full paper bag of groceries. I've already taken it shopping, and it does work quite well. I used its shoulder strap to carry the bag with me while shopping. Afterwards, I used the pull-string cover to keep my purchases safe from the clouds that threatened rain. I noticed right away that it's important to keep the bag clipped to the rack as far back as it will go, otherwise my heel might touch the edge of the large square bag while I'm pedaling.

I have only two quibbles.  The TrunkBag is quite wide so I cannot use panniers while the bag is clipped to the rack.  They could overcome this limitation by designing the bag with some extra "height" over its rail clip, allowing pannier bags the room they need for their own clip bar. Separately, the Shopper is difficult to get into because of its pull-string cover, so it's not very convenient for emptying it out at the grocery counter and allowing the cashier to ensure that all items were removed. If the cover opened wide enough that it would fold down around the outside of the bag, it would improve accessibility a lot!

They're only minor complaints, though.  Overall, I'm very happy with the purchases and can easily recommend them to other bicyclists.

I made my first bicycle ride of the year.  It's just 4 miles to the field where some softball teams were playing today.  I know people on 3 teams this year.  I got to see 2 of the teams this morning.

The area includes some steep hills.  I wasn't too surprised that I was unable to ride the hills and eventually had to step off and walk uphill.  It is my first ride in a long time, after all.  Mostly I was disappointed by myself afterwards, when I got home.

I ate some food and tried resting on the couch watching a movie.  That wasn't enough rest, though.  I went to bed and slept for a few hours.  *sigh*  I seem to have a lot less energy this year than I did last year.  Any amount of exercise is really wiping me out.  I hope things get better when I start commuting by bicycle again, then maybe my body will adjust to the required exertions.

It's August 31st, and I've officially bicycled 1,000 miles this summer while commuting. I'm "simplifying" the math in a few ways, but I started bicycling on June 1st and after traveling 82.7 miles each week for 3 months, I've finally reached 1,075 miles total. I can think of only 1 song that's appropriate for today's theme song.


The weather is already turning cool. I checked weather.com and found this record (click photo to see larger version) of temperatures in September for my postal code. The record low temperature here is freezing as early as September 3rd, which arrives on Saturday. Luckily, I don't expect the weather to be that cold, since I don't have any cold weather bicycle clothing.

I need to get a vehicle soon. I called to turn on my car insurance on Monday. The account was kept in "frozen" status. I've already gone to a nearby lot to ask about test driving one of their vehicles.

Nevertheless, my commute by bicycle did some good.

• I lost 20 pounds and have easily kept it off.
• I saved $183 on gasoline.
• I saved $118 on car insurance.
• I saved 444,000 kg of total CO2 emissions (operating costs).

I never did acquire that strength and stamina that I wanted. I never set any speed records during my commute. I was actually passed a few weeks ago by a roller blader. A roller blader! I still did a good thing this summer, though.  I wish I could continue, but winters here are too harsh.