After a Week and a Half, I am Back on the Bike

I have been doing very well with biking to work on most days this summer despite the rain and even fog. But on the eleventh of this month we had a couple delightful guests visiting at our home.  They were part of a larger group of the Musikkapelle Heiden community band who had come to our community as part of a sister city exchange set up by band members in both communities.

Well part of our responsibility for being a host family was to get our guests to the places they needed to be and provide transportation when needed.  As a result, I ended up driving to work most days.  It was fun having our guests, but I did feel guilty about driving so much and not biking.

After our guests left, I took a rest day (Wednesday) to recover from all the late nights and early mornings. Then came the rain.  Thursday and Friday of last week saw thunder storms and quite a bit of rain.

Well today I rode my bike to work. It was great!  I enjoyed every peddal stroke and thought to myself “Ah, this is what I have been longing for, this is the part of my life that is now habit”.

Biked to work every day this week!

Finnally, I have realized my short term goal of biking to work every day in a week.  After my failures of doing so during the National Bike to Work Week and the Wisconsin Bike to Work Week, I was more than a little disheartened.  However, this last week the weather helped, as we had no rain.  Every day seemed the perfect day to ride!  OK, not quite.  The last few days were quite windy coming home.  Winds out of the Southwest kept me from pushing it too hard on the bike ride home.

I have also not figured out what’s going on with my crankset, as it keeps creaking.  I’ve taken it apart on several occasions lately and will now have to take it apart again.  I thought I was tightening it up enough, but perhaps not.  Well it also could be worn out.  I’m not sure how long splined bottom brackets are supposed to last, but perhaps I should invest in a new one. A new bottom bracket, what a reward for biking to work for a week.