the site has been woefully low on, well, content lately. the reasons have been alternately that my life was too dull or too interesting for me to bother with writing about it.

one high point i don't believe has been mentioned yet on this blog is the new bike! that was an '08 purchase made with the funds i was saving for a new computer, the reasoning being that i can continue to get by with the old computer and that the bike will bring me more joy. of course, to date it's brought me more frustration. two days after i triumphantly (and very carefully) rode it home winter arrived with a mind to make up for lost time. i don't particularly care to learn an entirely new riding style in slush and ice. i'd like to think that cold isn't a factor, too, but when the cold is cutting through 5 thermal shirts it's difficult to muster enthusiasm for a long workout. so i've been mostly grounded, or resigned to using the hybrid to get around. it's not nearly as sexy as the new bike, but i can roll through pretty much anything on it and when i can't, well, what's another scuff or scrape on the frame?

the new bike was chosen while i considered joining a racing team. seemed like a good deal: the team is for new racers and they were recruiting women. i spent hours combing craigslist and going out to test ride bikes before finally deciding to get one new. doing all the research on the used bikes was super helpful, though, so when i went into the shop i knew at least remotely what i was talking about. when i told the guy i was looking for my first road bike he pointed vaguely at some on the wall. "these are for women. they like the colors." i told him i wasn't so concerned about the color as i was about the component group, at which point he actually looked at me for the first time and said, "well, you'd probably fit better on a men's frame, anyway." it was gladdening, because despite what i said about the color, i'd much rather NOT have a bike with little flowers painted all over it, which was the case with all their womens' bikes. what is the deal? i don't understand why there are so fewer women cycling regularly/seriously than men, but of those that do, is it really true that most of them want frilly flowers everywhere and pastel-painted frames?

in any case, we moved on. the image i kept returning to during the bike search was of a gazelle, as opposed to the draft horse of a hybrid i've been trundling around on. however, the bike i brought home was christened "the goat" for its color and its nimbleness and its curly horns. perhaps i should have been more ambitious and less self-effacing this one time, because when i finally rode it out with the racing team i couldn't stop thinking i was the goat in a herd of gazelles as they left me in the dust. ultimately that plan was shelved. '09 is instead going to be the year for pleasanter rides with the freshly-formed south 4th cycling club.

on that note, here's the quote from bikesnobnyc that i promised thomas to repost, in which he is actually not cynical at all:

"One of my favorite things about cycling is that it can reward suffering with joy. Another thing I love about it is that it often rejects those who don't understand this. Cycling teaches you that there's such a thing as necessary suffering and such a thing as unnecessary suffering, and that sometimes a short cut is a dead end. I'm sorry the hardships [nytimes blogger] Mackey encountered while cycling and blogging made him "feel awful about the world." If he'd looked at them differently, they would have made him love it."