i've been in converstations with my friend "Ike" from school. he moving into the neighborhood from a declining area, and due to a blown head gasket in his pieceofshit Escort, is looking for alternative transpo to school. he's a nice guy, but also a "skeech", at least in my strange teenage lexicon. he's been spinning a good yarn that he's going to get one of these Electra Townies. i think maybe i've even had this pic on before, but he's yapping again. i get this impression that i can apply the analogy of the local 'Bike Path' discussion. quite a few people call for dedicated bike paths, but they tend strongly to be people who don't ride bikes. i think Ike is in the camp of the 'if i just had this bike i would actually ride to work' type of rider, one who won't ride to work, but will talk some good commuter smack. he inquired to me about the experience and the logistic. things he felt were obvious: helmet... things that were optional or distasteful: lighting of any type, bag of any type, rack of any type, changing clothes..."I'm not gonna do that shit". he also seemed concerned about how you pull it all off in winter. bundle up? there is no way he has the routine discipline to develop, well, a routine for getting to school on a bike.

now, dude, this guy is incredibly free to ride to work with his 'teacher' clothes and stuff his school papers down his shorts. he's welcome to ride with no safety lights. he's welcome to do it however he can. BUT from my years (about 8-9) experience, i feel that it's reasonable to suggest to someone to have safety lights and have a good way of carrying stuff. there are definitely folks who travel with only Timbuk2 bags. my friend Jay in DC has done that for many more years that I. BUT from experience a simple rack and pannier or (now) saddlebag is a hellofalot more comfortable than stuffing school papers down your shorts. and 6 miles in school clothes would make for a funky teacher. he mentioned just wearing jeans. I wear jeans sometimes. but his solution to be too jodido lazy to get his clothes shit together is to just always wear jeans? like he works at a mini-mart?

fact is, Ike is going to live only 1 mile away from me now. i will encourage him to ride. i will NOT give him rides when i drive. he's like a loser brother. he's a user. he asks but doesn't give. he borrows but doesn't return. Ike, in fact, was borrowing a bike from me about a year ago, a beattohell Trek hybrid that i had purchased as a neighborhood Burley trailer bike when L was young. i rarely used it and i had previously lent it to my buddy LuvDug for a year maybe. it came returned from him with no probs. Within a month of Mike's possession, some assmonkey stole it out of his yard, i'm sure unlocked. his comment? "oh, someone ripped off that bike of yours, huh huh huh" WTF? what the motherfuck? it's one of my bikes! it's personal property! i could- and Did- ride that bike. and he, through languid malfeasance and a willingness to abjure his responsibility, lost the damn thing. and didn't Give a Shit!

he's a nice guy, but he won't use any of my bike stuff again. he can walk the 6 miles to work. and he certainly doesn't have the discipline or balls to be a bike commuter. and i certainly am not holding myself on much of a pedestal. really none whatsoever. i'm no (not too much) martyr. anybody can ride to work given a few variables, namely reasonable distance from work. but Ike is chingado en el cerebro if he thinks he can pull it off. and i'm not babying his white ass.

damn that felt good. did you notice the use of 'Abjure'? that word popped into my head, but i had to look it up to make sure it was really a word.

peace out.

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