3 days, 3 bikes

I finally feel like I’m starting to get back into biking shape after my accident 8 weeks ago.  Today figures to be rain-free, so I trotted out my road bike.  That makes it the third bike I’ve ridden to work in as many days, which I believe is a first for me.  It won’t happen too often, because switching bikes is a pain, so I like to limit the number of times I do it.  Looks like I’ll be doing it at least one more time this week, as the weather forecast for Friday is looking wet.

Today I hit Oella and Catonsville for the first time since the accident.  I rode out River Rd., went left on Frederick out to Ellicott City, then up Oella Ave and Westchester Ave, and through Catonsville.  The weather was nice for once, and it was a great ride.

I’m trying to think of ways to make it less of a pain to switch bikes.  The big issue is that I only have one set of panniers, and a single rack that I share across all my bikes.  Each bike also uses different sized tire tubes, and I have different frame pumps for each bike, etc.  Some of this could be simplified by getting separate racks and panniers for each bike, but good panniers aren’t exactly cheap.  Another nice thing would be to have somewhere on each bike to store tubes, etc. that are specific to that bike, so I don’t have to remember to pack the correct spare tubes each time I change bikes.  One product that looks like it might work well for this is called the Cage Rocket.  It’s a storage pod that fits in a spare water bottle cage.  An alternative would be to just get a separate seat pack for each bike.  Still trying to sort it all out, but once I find a system that works, I’ll be sure to write about it here.