PIZZA BIKE!!

After more than a decade of riding bicycles for the purpose of pleasure, commuting, communing, meditation, fitness, sanity, environmental sustainability, and sporting cool spandex outfits, this evening I road a bicycle professionally. The bike I road was probably a full four times heavier than Lance Armstrong's bike, and its purpose was not just to carry the human passenger but also to carry PIZZA!

Due to being unusually short staffed, I volunteered for a delivery shift at the restaurant. After folding boxes and hanging out for a while, the orders started coming in and soon I was pedalling all over Prospect Heights. Lots of brownstones, nice old apartment buildings, some with nice views of Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Museum.

The bike itself was a glorious example of form meeting function. It was a Worksman bicycle, a low-gravity pizza delivery model. The front wheel was a smaller 24" circumference, with a large steel box attached to the frame above it. The box was free of the steering column, meaning when you turned the front wheel, the steel box remained flush straight, similar to the experience of steering a car.

By 8pm, the delivery rush had me hitting 2 and three addresses on each run, with no time to hang out in between. One I had to come back to because I missed a salad, another gave the wrong address and phone number, or at least it was written incorrectly or something. By my last run, a single portion of rigatoni to Eastern Parkway, I was thoroughly enjoying the momentum that can be built up in such a heavy bike -- once you get it moving with a little effort, you've banked a lot of energy in that bulk and...it wants to keep moving -- even up hill. And down hill, well, it's like cruising on a express train, with luxurious padded seats.

The bike was awkwardly front-heavy. I chatted with the owner's wife towards the end of the evening, and seemed surprised that I was swooning over the bike. She was the one who went to the factory to buy the bike, and was planning to get a second one, but the delivery people really didn't like it. They preferred the crappy mountain bike whose basket didn't quite fit the pizza boxes. This Worksman is a classic, over-built and designed for its purpose. It delivers.

The money I collected over the evening went in to a pot. I wasn't really paying attention to tips, but when the count was done at the end of the night...well, I made a couple of bucks more during that one-time dishwashing shift. Now I see why only college kids and newly-arrived immigrants do this job. Still, next time I order in, I'm giving the delivery person an extra buck.

ADDENDA:
Lifted weights for the first time in years today -- but just on the arms, shoulders, and chest. Biking has given me a certain kind of strength, but the strength needed to haul hot heavy trays of pizza and bread out of a furnace of an oven with speed (and yoga's full wheel position and most inversions) require an upper body strength I just don't have right now.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, organic chex with good millk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, leftover pasta with shrimp, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2:3opm, chocolate ice cream, 1 freshly baked chocolate chip cookie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6pm, cheesecake, water, couple pieces of bread, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10pm, margherita pizza with sausage and broccoli rabe, rootbeer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING DRINK: 11pm, 1 beer