Commuting with Cecil

I took the Raleigh to work on Friday, for the first time this year. Ahhhh, lovely ride but a few mishaps! First, I didn't have the seat adjusted properly, so after a few blocks it tilted all the way back. I had to stop and fix it. Of course, I am much to stubborn to see this as a reason to take it back home. Oh no, just tightened it up and kept going. And it was fine, actually. It was surprisingly comfortable this time. It's a weird, thick seat that I had refused to use in the past. But I don't have a spare, so there it is. It calls itself a "Troxel."

That's a repurposed laundry/storage basket on the back. Not very sturdy, but it has the water and belongings retention properties I like, it's cheap, and it's lightweight.

The other equipment malfunction I encountered was my rear wheel. A few blocks from my office, I started to feel a lot of drag, like a brake was rubbing. But it wasn't my brakes. When I got to the bike rack, I gave it a closer inspection and realized that the rear wheel was slightly twisted. The tension from the shifter cable (which runs directly into the internal hub) had pulled it to the side, and it was rubbing against a fender strut. If you look closely in the picture below, you can see the rubber dust that was scraped off by the strut. Before riding home, I loosened the wheel, straightened it, and gave the nuts a good tightening.