October 4, 2000

silly yuppies.
So yesterday, my good buddy Chris and I are walking down University Avenue in Palo Alto, headed back towards work. As we pass Walgreens, I notice there's a motorcyclist that had just pulled up and was removing his helmet. Then I notice that his bike was a green Triumph Sprint ST, which, as you know, is on The Bike List. So I mosey on up to him and say, "hi! I really like that bike and was wondering if you liked it!" He says yes, and we chat for a minute while he's taking off his leathers. It was a really nice conversation until he said something like "Yeah, as long as you're like 5'4", you'll be fine." I shook my head and said, "well, I'm 5'1", actually" (rounding up). "Oh," said yuppie, "you won't fit on this bike then." But wait, I said, I was planning on doing some aftermarket modifications, like lowering the suspension and, more importantly, getting aftermarket handlebars that I could reach more easily.

You would have thought that I had just suggested replacing all of his Starbucks coffee with the generic Safeway brand. I was the proud recipient of a little mini-lecture about how "aftermarket modifications impair the original intentions of the bike manufacturers and are a travesty and blah and foo and etc." "OK," said I, "I'm just saying that I could RIDE THE BIKE if I made the aforementioned mods." So he looks at me like I'm 12 years old and asking to drive the family Trans Am, and says, "well, I think that a little person like you would be much better off with a 500cc bike or something small like that." I explained to the nice young man that I already *had* a 450cc, thankyouverymuch, and I rode it every day to commute, and that I was looking for something to tour on. He suggested, again, a nice 500cc sportsbike. At which point I realized that I just wasn't going to get anywhere with him, so I thanked him and left.

The annoying thing, though, was that he was totally right about the distance from the seat to the handlebars -- there's no way I can reach that, upon closer examination. Hrm. I think I will ask the Short Bikers List people for suggestions.

the most annoying thing ever.
My commute is 9 miles from the work parking lot to my parking lot. At about block 3 of my ride home last night, I realized I had a hair in my mouth. It must have gotten there when I put on my helmet. I got it right to the tip of my tongue...and then couldn't do anything at all with it. I tried to spit it out. Want to try something fun? Next time you're wearing your bike helmet, try to spit something like a hair out of your mouth. Isn't that fun? You just make a funny noise and cloud up your visor. Whee! I tried to, uh, stick my tongue out and brush the hair off on the side of the padding. I succeeding in licking the inside of my helmet, something I really can't recommend. So here I am, driving down Central Expressway (home of all that is evil), spitting and licking and making funny faces and clouding up my visor. Luckily, Rengstorff Avenue (about 5 miles down) came through with a red light for me, and I could reach into the helmet and retreive the hair (that was fun, too. Try taking a hair out of your mouth when you're wearing a full-face helmet and leather gloves).

I am so freaking cool.

other news.
Um. I don't think there really is any. Hi to Bren, who wrote me a really nice email. It constantly amazes me that people actually read this. ;) Oh, I guess the other news is that the Nighthawk is going to the doctor on Tuesday to have that wobble looked at. So that's good. I'm really curious to find out what the problem is.

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