I bought a Schwinn bike from Target during my 1L year.
I had no car, lived in the Gamma eta Gamma house in Dinkytown, and biking seemed like the collegy thing to do. $150 felt pricy… but I bought the bike and used it until winter came.
The bike came back out this summer and last week I biked over 100 miles. Most of the biking was to work, which is 15 miles out in the suburbs.
I also somehow managed to break the bike. A pedal snapped in half. The kick stand unscrewed halfway. The handlebar was bent. The seat hurt my butt.
It was a disaster.
So I went to Freewheel bike shop, which is by campus, under the shadow of the Stacks:
I wanted to get my Schwinn repaired and then buy a new, more bum-friendly bike. The first bike they showed me was $1,500 and several of the bikes topped out at $2,500.
I felt like an incompetent customer, and the prices horrified me. I explained to the indie-biker-salesguy that I regularly bike 30 miles to work, but that I wasn’t hardcore enough to drop $1,000 on a bicycle. I’ve owned cars that were less than $1,000. Plus, I don’t bike in the snow, or care what the bike frame is made out of. I just want something that won’t fall apart, or hurt my bum.
I think I lost him when he found out that not only do I ride a crappy Schwinn, but that I left it outside in the snow for 3 months. Apparently you’re not supposed to do that. Woops.
After testing two bikes, I finally bought a Trek-Bontrager bike for around $450. I then went to the Midtown bike shop to get bike lights installed. I should have tested those lights before biking off to the suburbs because I found out later that night that the back light didn’t work.
I also found out that the suburbs are really, really dark.
It was terrifying. The Mississippi bike path was completely black. The Fort Snelling park was filled with shady creatures and things that went bump… but I made it home, somehow.
I plan to get another 100 miles in this week, weather permitting. Just not at night. And there might be some “biking to school” action during the first part of this semester. We’ll see.
13 Comments
Gary
August 10, 2010 at 3:46 pmIs the crackstack on the right inhabited or even inhabitable? It looks like a bombed, shelled out, depleted Soviet-style designed building in war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Jansen
August 10, 2010 at 6:16 pmIt’s inhabited, and actually houses the biggest population of Somalis outside of Somalia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverside_Plaza
Gary
August 10, 2010 at 8:23 pmThat bldg has 2 strikes against it:
1) 1970’s style architecture
2) The place where The Mary Tyler Moore show jumped the shark.
Jansen
August 11, 2010 at 12:17 pmNot all 70’s architecture is fugly…this is just a little too Commie-chic for me.
New Kid on the Hallway
August 10, 2010 at 11:02 pmI went into that bike shop in the early 90s. They had the EXACT SAME attitude then, too. (I can scarcely stay upright on a bike, so we didn’t really get on.)
And I have actually been in the crack stacks and lived! (A friend lived there.) The apartment was fine, as far as I can remember, though the whole building smelled like Middle Eastern, South Asian, and East Asian cooking. (There are a lot worse things to smell like.) But this was in the early 90s too, so it’s been a while…
Jansen
August 11, 2010 at 12:15 pmI think there are even UMN law students there now…and probably a few more Somalis. I just hear that it’s severely under-elevatored. I think one of the towers only has 5 elevators for however many thousands of residents.
And the Freewheel people weren’t mean per se…just condescending. I guess if you LIVE-bikes, then the fair-weather bikers are annoying…
Laura
August 11, 2010 at 10:59 amI’ve always found the people at Freewheel to be very kind to me–despite my non-hardcore-biker status… And I will be forever thankful to them for selling me my first gender-specific seat.
I recommend the bike lights with multiple settings (e.g. on, strobe, other blinky thing) and multiple batteries. They seem to be brighter.
Jansen
August 11, 2010 at 12:19 pmMy bike lights have the multiple settings, but I am NEVER biking from Eagan in the dark again. That was nuts. I need a flood light for that ride.
I may bike to school this semester though, so the lights will come in handy then. The real question is whether I will buy a helmet too.
Laura
August 12, 2010 at 11:40 amYes, yes, buy a helmet! You’re spending all that money on tuition to put things into your brain, you must keep your brain in your head!!
Jansen
August 12, 2010 at 12:01 pmI just can’t imagine myself using it! Ugh. We’ll see.
Robin
January 25, 2011 at 6:11 amHave you tried Erik’s Bike Shop in Eagan? They are very helpful to new bike riders, at least they were in my experience. And I second getting a helmet! It feels awkward at first, but you get used to it.
Jansen
January 25, 2011 at 8:39 amI’ve been there for a few things like backpacks and they didn’t have what I wanted. I usually go to the midtown freewheel because it’s on my bike-commute to work and just far enough from my house for me to catch any problems.
2010 Minnesota State Fair, and the end of 2L summer
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