Disclaimer: the views expressed on this site do not nessecarily reflect those of my employer
Friday, February 28, 2003
More better living by bicycle: Apparently these folks offer something similar to AAA but for your bike. Of course, the nice thing about travelling by bike is that there are relatively few mechanical difficulties that can come about. You can't run out of gas (although you can run out of blood sugar!), your battery wont go dead. Your radiator won't overheat. And its pretty simple to stuff a spare tube in your pocket and fix a flat tire. Ah.. but there are always those times when you used up the spare tube, forgot the patch kit or your pump and you really are a good 10 miles from the nearest bike shop. For the times that this has happened to me I can't quite warrant even the $39.95 per year that this would cost me. I'm actually surprised that this got off the ground at all and I wonder if there is any demand. The other services look worth investigating though! I particularly like the quote from Tom "Car Talk" Magliozzi:
"If AAA thinkgs that it's a good idea for every single person to get to work in 3000 pounds of iron, we sure don't want to help support such a silly idea. Cars stink. Everybody knows that."
Now, after riding around in the salt, sand and snow I can definitely say I need a bike washing service. As one of my fellow bike club buddies said, "I don't ride my bike. I just clean it. And if I do ride it, it gets dirty so I have to clean it again".
