mein neues Fahrrad

Reason number 97 to love Miki: he got me a new bike.

Well actually I guess his dad did. And by new bike, I mean it's one of their old ones that no one uses anymore. But regardless, Miki brought it to me from Prague via train the week that my parents were here. He was really nervous about meeting my parents, and I was really frustrated that we were running late to dinner with Monika and Dieter especially since Dieter was waiting with the car. So it didn't make the best first impression of the quality of our relationship on my parents, but he passed the test nonetheless (I hope).

But this bike is new to me, and let me tell you, it puts me in a whole new league when I bike to work in the mornings. This bike has 18 speeds. That's 17 more than my old bike. Unfortunately, the seat is regular sized, so I no longer have the luxury of the old lady giant comfortable seat. That took some getting used to. And there's no basket, so I have to wear my bag, which results in sweaty back on days when it's hot. I think I'll start attaching it to the flat thing on the back (does that have a name?).

All sorts of people bike around Berlin. Not too many wear helmets though. And as I mentioned before, thanks to Miki, I wear my helmet everyday. Before, I fit in the category of overly cautious leisurely biker, since my bike had one speed, an old lady seat, and a basket. I couldn't really bike that fast, but I still had my helmet.

Now I'm running with the big dogs. On my first morning out with the new 18 speeder, I found myself in the midst of an unofficial urban bike race. Not ever having a bike with different speed options in the city before, I wasn't mindful of the stop light strategy. Successful urban bikers know to down shift into a lower gear while approaching a red light to increase the starting velocity once the light turns green again. These berliners are hard-core. They try to pass each other like mad. This unofficial bike race I stumbled upon was pretty well representative of the biker-types out there. Our contestants were:
The business man (wearing a business suit and a bicycle helmet)
The man in full spandex armor.
The half armored man wearing the spandex biking shorts but just a normal sweatshirt.
Me, the casually dressed young adult.
And finally the woman in her 30-40s with her purse in her basket and only one speed, yet pedaling like mad to keep up with the pack.

It was especially crazy do the construction we were biking through as well. And it's even more like a race because the traffic lights in Germany turn yellow before they turn green as well as before they turn red (fun fact!). I can't remember who pulled ahead first. I think it was half spandex man. Another thing I've learned about myself in the past month is that I don't like taking biking to work that seriously. So now when the pack comes, I just hang back and let them use their stop light strategy to its fullest potential.