Biking

This weekend B and I biked around Toulouse to take advantage of the Journées du Patrimoine.


I'll admit that with my free unlimited public transportation pass (since I've been unemployed), I haven't been motivated to use my bike a whole lot or the VeloToulouse system. Why bike when the bus and metro are free?

But there are certain locations that are easier to get to on bike than with public transportation, and if I miss a bus that comes infrequently, it's sure faster to bike than walk to get where I need to go. And exercise is good and B likes to repeat that it's very ecological.

Saturday afternoon B and I started our biking adventures by riding into downtown. I'm not sure if I'll ever quite do that again because I nearly crashed about 10 times between the pedestrians that stepped out right in front of me, the scooters that zipped too close, and cars that cut me off. But then again, it was a Saturday afternoon. I reminded B that I grew up riding my bike the suburban housing development where my parents still live, and it was a little calmer to ride your bike.

This morning B and I got ready to bike again, but this time I walked around our complex to the VeloToulouse station on the boulevard and paid 1 euro to rent a bike for the day. We rode back into downtown with much less traffic, and I dropped off my bike at a station around the corner from the Ministre de la Culture building. It was fairly easy to rent the bike and drop it off, but it was a lot heavier than a normal bike, which meant that I had to peddle a lot harder than Saturday.

After our guided visit, I went back to pick up a bike, but there were none left, so we headed to the next station next to the Carmes market. Upon seeing all that fresh food, we decided to pick up some bread, meat for lunch, and a couple figs. Half an hour later (we had to eat the croissants we'd bought) I rented a bike for the return trip.

After 20 feet, I realized the seat was much too low, and stopped to fix it. Unfortunately, I'd chosen a bike with the lever broken off to change the seat height, so I had to ride home with a low seat. One of the inconveniences with renting the bikes is that you have to choose which bike you'll rent on the screen and then you have 60 seconds to walk down and pull it from the post. If the only bikes available are far away from the rental station, you can't always see if there's a problem. I rented my second bike right after two other men, so even if I had scouted out a bike I wanted, they could have chosen them before it was my turn.

With our groceries in the handy front basket we rode home and I returned my bike to the station just around the corner from our apartment.

Anyone else with noteworthy experiences involving city bike rentals? I'm curious if things work any better in other cities.

This afternoon I went out again, but this time with my own bike, and succeeded in derailing the chain and reparing it.

Now the debate is whether or not I'll pay the 25€ for a year long VeloToulouse pass. My idea was to use the VeloToulouse bikes to go to the university since it's in downtown Toulouse and doesn't have it's own metro or bus stop (but there are other ones not too far away). I didn't want to worry about having my bike stolen on campus, so I thought VeloToulouse would give me some piece of mind. But now I'm wondering about riding a bike that's so heavy every day to class and arriving all sweaty.

Which brings up a whole 'nother problem: I hate arriving somewhere to start something and being all sweaty. If I have to stand in line outside or do something during the day and I'm sweaty at the end of it, that's okay, but I hate arriving at a 9am or 10am class with damp marks under my arms and on my back.

Riding a bike puts limits on your clothing as well. I've seen lots of French women riding in skirts and heels and all kinds of clothing, but I can't. I tried riding in a skirt today, but there was a lining that made it difficult to put my feet down, and I almost feel over once. Some French women don't seem to care if their underwear shows when the wind blows up their skirt, but I'm not like them. I scrapped my foot really badly with the side of my pedal a few weeks ago when I was wearing sandals, so I've sworn to never wear sandals or other inappropriate footwear again while bike riding. That leaves me with pants and sneakers though, with a top I don't mind getting sweaty. Buy I don't want to be forced to always dress practical because of my transportation method. B suggested I could having a biking outfit and change when I get somewhere, which I like, but entails caring around the alternate outfit the rest of the day.

So anyway that's my biking story. I think I'll go back to walking this week.