Sharpshin

West Side of San Antonio Yo

Don't get me wrong, San Antonio is about the friendliest major urban poverty center there is.

But.... on the days when I don't leave my high school until around 10pm (more often than you'd think)... being visible in advance like with reflectors gives potential miscreants a few moments for premeditation as in.... "hey, lets knock that guy over and take his bike" etc etc....

Towards that end, being older (mid-fifties) having a beard helps. What I do is bag up my dress shirt for the ride home, wear an old t-shirt and especially a cotton knit or wool watch cap. I'm commonly taken for homeless, as indeed most older bearded Anglos in my neighborhood are

Been teaching here for twenty-five years, bicycle commuting on and off, getting to an age where I take the bicycle while I still can.

This area seems pretty safe, and most times it is, but occasionally something awful happens. For example, been two drive-by's and one fatal shooting on my street in the last ten years (or one incident of catastrophic violence about every three years), yet kids play in the streets and we can and have left our car doors unlocked in the driveway, even with valuable stuff inside, for years.

I carry a 9oz can of bear spray in one saddlebag, mostly for dogs, never had to use it (though have successfully resorted to bear spray against pits and such several times while walking my dogs, only downside is its $50 a can). Prob'ly wouldn't violently resist an attempt to take my bike. This IS Texas, but packing a discrete firearm ain't an option given my workplace.

My favorite commuting bike is a 15 year old Kona Blast 8sp mountain bike with a Marzocchi fork. I bought it for my then 14 year-old son as a reward for doing the 50 mile loop on the Lance Armstrong charity ride in Austin. Any smaller and I wouldn't fit, but the near BMX proportions work well to lend manouverability on the "urban technical" sections I have to navigate en route.

Mike