Requiem for a bicycle
Today, my friend Arnav gave me a ride to to the Newton police station so we could pick up the remains of my bike. I thought it would be a tangled mess, but it doesn’t look too bad from afar. Get closer, though, and it’s obvious that it is completely totaled. The frame is bent and broken in several places. The spokes are bent. Even the rear rack does not line up with the (rear part of the) frame.
Sigh.
Here are the grim stats of that fateful ride:
| Distance/day: | 4.93 mi |
| Ride time: | 21:50 |
| Avg. speed: | 14.04 mi/hr |
| Max. speed: | 26.5 mi/hr |
My bike served me well. My bike computer reports 2980 miles on the saddle, and I’ve only had it a little over a year.
Eventually, I’ll get a new bike so I can start riding as soon as I’m healed. My more immediate task, however, is daunting: I need to remove the month-old protein shake that’s been sitting in my pannier and stinking up the police station and, now, my apartment.
Speaking of healing, I have the hand splint for two more weeks and then I start rehab—I couldn’t even make a fist yesterday at my follow-up appointment. I am getting a bit of exercise by walking every chance I get; that’s pretty comfortable, even if it does not feel completely normal yet. My left knee is very sensitive, so I am trying to be particularly good to it.
Interesting factoid: My doctor told me that bone is piezoelectric, and that property might help it regenerate. I didn’t know that.