walmart

My bike was stolen on Sunday. Today (monday) I walked to work for the first time in months, only a ten minute trip btw, and it felt great! After work I took out some sheet music, a prelude from Bach's wtc, and studied it all the way home. Sure it took me longer to get home but time was not important oddly enough. By contrast when I am on my bike I seem to want to reach my destination as fast as I can and I am very conscious of time.

It sucked big time to lose my wheels but it was almost worth it because it has resulted in a positive discovery about myself, my perception of time and distance. While I will buy another bike soon I think for now I will enjoy this new sensation awhile longer and see what happens.

njm

Sorry to hear about the loss of your bike. Based on this post, you're taking it very, very well -- much better than I would.

Welcome to BF, walmart!

tehdely

I sort of discovered the same thing the last time I crashed, fractured a wrist, and was instructed to not bike for a month. Walking is sublime

I'm happy to be back on the bike though

chephy

Walking takes forever. If walking doesn't take forever, you probably shouldn't've ridden there in the first place. I mean, a ten-minute walk, is about 2-minute bike ride. What's the point of a 2-minute bike ride?

rmfnla

One nice thing about walking is you don't have to worry about your bike being stolen.

JanMM

Is there a problem with studying sheet music while cycling? How about using a small Casio keyboard (velcroed onto your bars) and playing the music while riding? Might calm the motorists.

mayukawa

I wouldn't bother with cycling if I can walk to work in 10 minutes.

gkb

i can't stand walking, toooo slow

walmart

It's nice that so many people have contributed intelligent, witty and useful responses to my 1st post here.

Day 2 off the bike and still no saddle craving yet, but I did do some grocery shopping after work. When I walked out of the store it felt surreal that there was no bike to go to, no rear rack to drop the bags into, no key to put into the U lock, nothing to do except... keep walking.

Plus a couple of funny things showing that maybe it hasn't sunk in yet that I'm not on my bike anymore:

- not sure if I should walk on the street or the sidewalk. My feet want to go where my bike has rolled hundreds of times

- looking up from my reading and doing visual checks, the same way I do when on a bike, darting my head this way and that, and finding it slightly disorienting how stationary everything is, that the scenery isn't whipping past me

Sooner or later I'll get another bike, but if I don't get it sooner I worry if I'll ever be the same again lol.

chephy

BTW, what kind of lock and locking techinque did you use with your original bike? It may be due for a revision.

rando

you are like a zen master.

namaste!

PaulH

Brings back memories of graduate school, when I was hit by a car while riding to class. My bike was crumpled, I was unable to push the clutch of my car in, and all I could do was hobble along at a rate of one mile per hour. The trip to my ofice and class now took nearly an hour instead of five minutes. I recall being fascinated by how much larger my world had become.

Paul

csr

You do if you're walking your bike!

se_racing

sorry to hear about your bike. my car got stolen about 10 days ago. just a day after I took my bike apart to get the frame and forks powdercoated sooner or later. i know if i put it all back together to ride I will probably never get around to powdercoating it. so walking will now be my new hobby. i could stand to loose a few pounds. good thing is that i work at home hehe. after almost two weeks and no word from the police about my car..i really have not hope of getting it back...but at least i have the bike to look forward to eh?

DataJunkie

After my commuter was squished I rediscovered the joy of driving.

Walking is amusing from time to time but it tests my patience.

fat_bike_nut

I only like walking if there are places to walk TO. In other words, I like walking when I'm in downtown Seattle, and I could walk all day if you drop me off there. Not so much when I'm stuck in the boring 'burbs, where almost nothing worth seeing is within 3 miles of the house. In fact, walking just plain sucks and takes too long when I'm stuck in the boring suburbs. I miss bicycling (been going without for almost a year now, due to being too poor to afford one).

Portis

I walk everyday. It is usually the first thing i do every morning after putting my feet on the floor. I still fail to see the intrigue of it.

DataJunkie

It's a bit challenging. What foot do you start with? How to keep them from tripping over each other? What happens when one declares that it is a free agent?

shumacher

You know, a department store bike isn't so bad. I put several hundred miles on a $50 bike from Hudson's. Sure, it weighed a ton, had steel rims, long-armed stamped steel caliper brakes, an ugly green splatter paint job, and a slightly brutal saddle, but it was still a hoot. If you go this route, I'd buy the least feature-rich bike on the rack. It's doubtful that they'd implement the fancy features properly, and I don't want to give up dérailleur quality for a useless suspension fork.

bobn

Ah, walking, the primary mode of human and animal transportation. What did the poor S.O.B's do before the invention of the bi/tricycle and the internal combustion engine?

Nachoman

fat_bike_nut

Tried department store mountain bikes. Did not like. Too spoiled by road-style bikes, and my hands hurt when I use flatbars or risers. It's drops for me. And touring-style geometry.