the vg-r collective

so Rob and I have been trying to joing the ranks of daily bicycylists, which has been delightfully rewarding and challenging. our commute to work is about 5.5 miles each way and just hilly enough to feel like decent exercise.

we've found Trek's Navigator 100 to be a great choice for this type of riding, with sturdy and versatile racks for carrying up to 50 lbs. worth of laptops, groceries, books, potluck dishes, etc. we ride on the street to protect walking pedestrians, but also to hopefully make the streets a safer place for cyclists to be by encouraging cars to be aware of us (though I wouldn't go so far as the cyclist I saw the other day cutting in front of a car in the left turn lane at a red light).

one of my particular issues has been attempting to bike in professional clothing, particularly skirts. obviously some skirts won't be practical for biking (if they're too narrow and inflexible that I can't even get my leg over the bike, for example). but in more bike-progressive places, women find ways to maintain their fashion aesthetic while honoring their desire to cultivate the earth and their neighborhoods. now I wouldn't necessarily call myself a fashion diva (though a diva in another context, for sure), but this site was helpful. and here's a quote from a blog I found in my research that makes me want to live in Copenhagen:

"Social Documentary in High Heels", is one way this blog has been described. It's about bicycle culture in Copenhagen, Denmark. 35% of the population - 550,000 people - ride their bike to work or school each day. Bicycles are such an integral part of our culture and there are many aesthetic aspects on the streets at any given moment.

and here's some advice that delights me: "Be smart. Be aware. Be stylish. Stay awkward."

yes, stay awkward. you already look kind of dorky in your helmet, but awkward is necessarily 'in' in the biking world. I'm already making plans to sew some triangular 'earmuffs' that will velcro into my helmet as a means of preventing my ears from aching on cold morning rides.

and yet another step--or should I say: ride--in the right direction for me will hopefully be biodegradable vegetable-based bike chain oil. may seem a bit obsessive, but in the effort to move away from fossil fuels as a means of getting around in a more sustainble way, it doesn't really make sense to slather my chain in a petroleum product.

I must confess that biking introduces a new category of consumerism with all of the gadgets that are available, but if I'm going to drool over something I don't have, might as well be fenders...