morning cawffee

Prantl's bakery is officially a legend. A morning, pre-shift legend. I <3 cinnamon buns.

Unfortunately, The Coffee Tree is also a legend but it's packed on Saturdays. No place to sit. So here I am at a Starbucks.

Riding the fixie is my new favorite thing ever. I was afraid the gearing would be too high for Pittsburgh (39x13), but the commute is really quite comfortable, as are most rides that don't involve epic climbs. The only really rough climbs I do these days are up to Squirrel Hill anyway, so it's really a match made in heaven. Last night, I beat Trevett, who was driving to the O from Regent Square. It felt awesome. I hadn't ridden the bike like that yet, but I found out that if I really want it to, it responds like a track bike.

I really want to get my shit together and go touring. I was at a friend of the restaurant's place for Thanksgiving and I met a woman who toured from California to D.C. Our dishwasher's roommate has done the same thing, riding around the country, living out of dumpsters and a little money, the only planning involved being hitting a few bike shops along the way. I think I could do it on the fixie. It's always scared me mostly because I'm not an expert enough bike mechanic to fix everything on the bike if it stops working, and that becomes a situation when you're 100 miles out of your home city. But with the Schwinn all I'd need to keep around is a pair of folding tires, a few tubes and maybe an extra chain. That's the beauty of the bike--when something sounds wrong, there are only a few thing it could really be. All I need is fenders, really, and maybe I could get a rack and panniers if I didn't want to use my messenger bag.