The Commuter Bike

I've been commuting on my bike to the hospital every day except when I'm on call (since it's probably not safe nor would be very fun to do the ride when I'm sleep-deprived and just want to hit the sack). I was frustrated trying to find somewhere to put my super-expensivo bike and not have to worry about it all day so I was trying to build up a time-trial frame someone had given me. It's a Felt S22, a sweet bike, but it was going to cost boku bucks since all of the parts were specific to that frame: headset, fork, and a $150 seatpost!


I finally gave up at 5:00 pm a few Saturdays ago and decided to get on Craigslist to find a cheap bike I could make work for my purposes. At 5:15, I found this BEAUTY that was up FOR FREE! It had only been up for 20 minutes and I was sure it was gone. It had the old school shifters on the downtubes and was only an 8 speed, but the best part was that it had been on a car top rack and RUN INTO A GARAGE. The fork was shattered, the rear wheel was taco'ed and the top tube had a dip in it with some Glidden outdoor latex paint scraped into it for life. However, I had vision and I could see my perfect commuter coming to life.


So, knowing the bike was probably already gone or going, I emailed the people and gave my sob story (thanks, Bri for the suggestion) about being poor and how it would go to a loving home, etc. Anyway, I guess it worked because they called back and gave us directions to come pick it up. When we got there, we found out that a bunch of people had emailed and I guess they chose me because of the great writing skillz I gotz. We started talking and realized that she, Carly, worked as a nurse in the Pediatric ER at UNM! (Ortho goes into the ER all the time to see patients and we actually saw each other the other day.) She said she was done with car top racks since this wasn't the first time this kind of thing had happened, and the asked us if we wanted her Yakima racks. I owe Karma a lot of money by this point in my life, and if you know me, you'll know why.


With my long legs and short torso, this small bike ended up being perfect after I replaced a few parts and got things dialed in. I put on the aero bars I built in a machine shop years ago, used some mountain bike bars with bar ends to finish off the homemade aero bar setup, put on a spare rear wheel I had, got a cheap carbon fork, and used my special AC seatpost backwards to get the forward position I needed to be real aero. This bike flies and it's comfy thanks to the 853 steel frame. And yes, that IS a gripshifter I put up on the bars to control the rear derailleur. This thing is the definition of Franken-bike.


So, I leave dress clothes, underwear, etc and toiletries at the hospital in our Ortho call room, lock the bike up and then go shower and change. I timed it and if I drive it takes me 21 minutes (if I include the parking and walking from the lot). On the bike it is about 22-24 minutes since I "miss" lights, traffic, etc. and the route is a little more direct than the freeway. I'd shower anyway and I just shower at the hospital, so there's really no reason to drive, even if I'm in a hurry! Bri loves that we're saving gas, but I guess I'm not saving the environment because of my huge carbon footprint from all the calories I have to eat. Eh, screw the pinkos.

I actually would love to take this bike to a real time trial race and try to spank some $4000 bikes just for fun. So now I have a sweet, fast, comfy, FREE commuter for the next 5 years of residency. Dontcha love craigslist?