I had decided to finish a project at work which put me on track to get home about 45 minutes late. Velo was (im)patiently waiting with a website open showing a local bike show that was going to start in about 15 minutes.
Q1: Do you want to go to the bike show?
A1: Duh
Q2: Should we take bikes for the competition?
A2: Duh
Q3: Can we load bikes and drive there, find parking, unload bikes, and find the show in time to enter the voting?
A3: Ummmm…Damn
 |
| Atrium, Tangeman Student Center |
The show was in the Tangeman Student Center at University of Cincinnati. Parking is inconvenient at best and the weather had turned really cold and really wet. The campus itself is not far from home but finding the right garage to park in and then walking across campus for two old blokes not familiar with the layout curbed our enthusiasm, but only slightly.
We compromised and took only one bike. We loaded Velo’s Mercian onto the roof of the Subaru and headed in the general direction of the university. There is constant construction and reconfiguring of the driveways, roundabouts, and streets in and around UC. We, of course, doubled back a time or two before finally sighting the garage we wanted. But wait…we had a bike on the roof! We sort of knew we were going to have to unload the bike before entering the garage, we just didn’t know we would have to do it in the driveway. Solid teamwork resulted in quickly and efficiently removing the bike and securing a convenient parking space.
Feeling good about our accomplishments thus far we began the search for the venue. We walked to the building we knew the show was located in but had one little setback when we realized we had no idea what the design of the building was. This wouldn’t have been too bad except that we didn’t even know the floor, room, or wing we were looking for.
Since when has the lack of vital knowledge ever stopped a cyclist from reaching his destination? Of course we found it and only 30 minutes late for the start of the voting. There was still 90 minutes for the Mercian to be on display.
There are several really cool things about this bike show.
- It is put on by the University of Cincinnati Sustainability Department. http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uc.edu%2Fsustainability&h=MAQGlqvs9&s=1
- Only local bike rentals, shares, co-ops, and teams sponsor it.
- The students have an easy opportunity to show and discuss their bikes with like-minded students and residents.
Velo placed his bike in line with the rest of the specimens. There were single speed, utility, racing, commuting, and custom built bikes of all sorts. Cincinnati Red Bike, our local bike share program, had one of their bikes on display. The UC Bike Share had one there as well. Our local, downtown bike rental and sales, The Garage OTR, had several of their specialty bikes on display. MOBO, an urban bicycle co-op, had a booth, as did UC’s Sustainability folks.
 |
| Best Utility Bike |
 |
| Best Paint Job |
Promptly at 8:00 the ballots were collected and tallied. All of the contestants anxiously awaited the reading of the winners. Those with strong wills and those with fragile egos all waited in trepidation to hear which finely tuned and well-loved machine would bring great pride to its owner.
Now, to be honest, I thought Velo’s Mercian would definitely take home a prize. I was banking on best paint job or something of that sort. Well the King of Mercia did not disappoint! But the SEXIEST BIKE?! For real?! For Velo the award, a gift card to Spun Cycles, didn’t even come close to the bragging rights of owning the SEXIEST BIKE.
Help me out here. Take a minute and describe what you think a SEXY BIKE is in the comments.
Thanks for reading and riding.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I am interested in your thoughts. Please Share.