Tag: bicycle

Small Accident

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO800
 “Tacoed” Cedar Park, 2020

A bit of bad news today: my bike is out of action for a few weeks.

I usually keep my bike in the garage, in front of my car. We have a 2-by-4 on the ground to keep the car going too far and hitting the bike, but a normally-careful teen driver in our household came in too fast and went over the wood and plowed into my bike, pinning the wheel against the small curb in our garage. I was in my home office when I heard the crash, and I initially thought he just knocked the bike over, but upon closer inspection, I noticed that the wheel was “tacoed”, which means bent in the shape of a taco.

I took the wheel to the bicycle shop and they said it was beyond repair and unfortunately they wouldn’t have any replacement wheels for two months. 😮 If you didn’t know, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a huge demand for bicycles and subsequent shortage available bikes. And that shortage also extends to bicycle parts. Luckily I was able to find a rim on Ebay that appears to have the same dimensions as my damaged one, so I am hoping it will be any easy swap. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it won’t arrive for another week-and-a-half, which means no evening bicycle rides for a while. 😞

Still, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not a huge (nor expensive) deal. And it’s the first damage that my 20-year-old bicycle has suffered, so I should consider myself fortunate!

Cycling POV

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“Cycling POV” Cedar Park, 2020

I was inspired by Two Wheel Cruise and Vietnamese Girl Wandering the World and wore my Victure action camera while I went on my evening bicycle ride. My camera doesn’t have stabilization, so it’s pretty shaky. If you are prone to motion-sickness like I am, I don’t think you should watch. 🤢 But it was fun to make and edit. Maybe sometime in the future I will get a GoPro like the youtubers and can make better videos. Until then, I’ll stick with still images.

Running Slowly

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Photo info: motorola moto g(6), 3.95mm, f/1.8, 1/220 sec, ISO100
 “Lawn Sign” Cedar Park, 2020

While I was out running, I was thinking of the different modes of travel and how you see different things with each.

For instance, in a car, your vision is framed by the glass viewport, and are very disconnected from where you are at (especially if you are listening to music).

On a motorcycle, the glass viewport is essentially removed, the music is gone (unless you use earbuds), and now you are exposed to smells and temperature, the noise of the engine, and also the vibrations and leaning angles.

On a bicycle, you add the audio of the environment you are in, but more importantly, traveling at the slow speed, you can look in all directions and observe things more closely without fear of crashing. And stopping quickly to take a photo is now an option.

Lastly, walking/running allows a extra bit of mobility in that it is easy to stop instantly, or hop on the sidewalk. On a bike, you may have to turn around and backtrack a few yards, or dismount to get a better viewing angle. This is actually significant to me. For instance, I’ve seen the sign in the photo above while riding my bike, and thought that I wanted to take a photo, but then I am already past it and would have to turn around. Add to that my laziness, and I pass on it. But while running, I will just stop for a few seconds, snap a photo with my phone, and then be on my way.

But even not taking photos, while biking or running, it’s fun to wave at other people, stop and watch the birds when you hear them chirping, or admire a bunch of wildflowers. I guess this is the appeal of the “slow life”. 🙂

Speaking of the photo, I am encouraged by the sign in front of the house. I’ve seen several other signs, some homemade, which have similar messages of support. It’s wonderful.

Evening Bicycle Rides

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/100 sec, ISO250
 “Uphill” Cedar Park, 2020

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Many of you know, but I have been doing a 365 project for a while now, and it kind of connects to this blog in that my daily photo becomes the subject matter. Sometimes, it’s the reverse, where I make a daily blog post and then take a photo. But usually the photos will just be the literal snapshot of something that happened that day, and I’ll add a few words.

Because of this process, my posts tend to follow whatever hobbies I am into at the time and right now, going out for bicycle rides around the neighborhood is something I have more of an interest now since we all are staying at home almost all the time.

It got me thinking of a bicycle ride I went on in 1982 with a group from the YMCA. Two friends and I joined a 9-day bicycle tour that started in San Francisco, and ended at the YMCA in our hometown of Torrance. It was really fun, but surprisingly I hadn’t thought about it too much since then. Maybe I’ll write about my memories of that in another post, as I managed to find some old photos of the trip when I visited my parents last Christmas.

But for now, I’ll just continue with some photos I took on tonight’s ride. 🚲

I hope you had a nice day! またね～

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO400
 “Seat and Bags” Cedar Park, 2020
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/680 sec, ISO200
 “Neighborhood Construction” Cedar Park, 2020