A Wild Black Sheep Chase
It all started with a tweet. The tweet guided me to a blog. The blog inspired me to craft an e-mail. The e-mail led to a phone call. And the phone call led to my agreeing to trade my 1993.5 Infiniti G20 for a 2010 Black Sheep commuter bike (1 of only 13 in existence). All of this happened within 24 hours.
An informal part of our agreement to move to Portland was for me to get rid of my car, since I had committed to biking or riding the bus to work--and I never did drive the G20 once we moved to Portland, except once every other week or so to keep the fluids moving through the car. I had posted my car for sale at the G20 enthusiasts' site, but I didn't get any substantial bites, nor did I do much to promote its sale (Meg would like me to remind you that I took a year to sell my del Sol after buying the Maxima). So when I saw a blog post about New Belgium's car swap at the Tour de Fat, I called Meg and proposed the idea to her. She thought it sounded good and gave me her blessing to proceed. I took some time to write an e-mail presenting my case and wasn't too surprised to get a phone call less than 24 hours later congratulating me on being the winner.
Friday after work I stopped by Waterfront Park to the New Belgium Brewery team who were setting up the festival. They gave me a private tour, tossed me a t-shirt, tried to get me to take some beer home, and showed me the Black Sheep, which as hidden under the stage after they had built it just for me that morning.
Saturday turned out to be the hottest day of the year, which made for being outside not very pleasant. Eddie and I rode the bus downtown and walked around the festival, while Meg drove Aaron to a friend's birthday party going down in North Portland. It was interesting to look at the strange-looking people (and not all were in costume) and bikes. The time for my ceremony got pushed back an hour or two, so we had to stay longer than expected. But eventually they put me up into the car float (see first video below) and the stage (second video, which Meg did a pretty good job of capturing on my my stormtrooper camera).
Now that it is all over, and I've been commuting with my Black Sheep for two weeks now, I still think I got the better end of the trade. The bike rides smooth, although I haven't figured out how to pedal as fast as I did on my mountain bike. And with the panniers, I no longer have to haul all of my stuff in a backpack. The bike looks very sexy in real life; fortunately there are empty cubes nearby mine at the office where I can store the Black Sheep so I don't end up staring at it all day.
The car swap web site talks about New Belgium documenting my trials and triumphs over the next year, but I highly doubt they will get together with me again. But maybe I'll promote my own videos and stories here about what it is like to commute by bike during Oregon's winter.
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| From New Bike |
Friday after work I stopped by Waterfront Park to the New Belgium Brewery team who were setting up the festival. They gave me a private tour, tossed me a t-shirt, tried to get me to take some beer home, and showed me the Black Sheep, which as hidden under the stage after they had built it just for me that morning.
Saturday turned out to be the hottest day of the year, which made for being outside not very pleasant. Eddie and I rode the bus downtown and walked around the festival, while Meg drove Aaron to a friend's birthday party going down in North Portland. It was interesting to look at the strange-looking people (and not all were in costume) and bikes. The time for my ceremony got pushed back an hour or two, so we had to stay longer than expected. But eventually they put me up into the car float (see first video below) and the stage (second video, which Meg did a pretty good job of capturing on my my stormtrooper camera).
Now that it is all over, and I've been commuting with my Black Sheep for two weeks now, I still think I got the better end of the trade. The bike rides smooth, although I haven't figured out how to pedal as fast as I did on my mountain bike. And with the panniers, I no longer have to haul all of my stuff in a backpack. The bike looks very sexy in real life; fortunately there are empty cubes nearby mine at the office where I can store the Black Sheep so I don't end up staring at it all day.
The car swap web site talks about New Belgium documenting my trials and triumphs over the next year, but I highly doubt they will get together with me again. But maybe I'll promote my own videos and stories here about what it is like to commute by bike during Oregon's winter.
did you ever read wild sheep chase? I recall that it was a strange book. actually, have we had a murakami discussion before? can't remember. anyway, congrats on getting rid of the car. one more step toward becoming Fred and biking to work.
ReplyDeleteYes I have read the novel--it's one of my favorites, thus the name of the post. My dad always had his truck, so I've moved one step beyond him.
ReplyDelete