Dusting off the Wheels and Social Cycling

I had been meaning to dig my bike out of the basement (its winter home and this year its fall, winter, and most of spring home) a couple of weeks ago.  My husband and I had even planned to go on a bike date last week, but then the weather turned rainy and his family came into town, so my bike stayed in the basement until the other day, when I finally decided there was no time like the present to air up my tires and bike into campus to run some errands, drop off some library books, and meet with one of my committee members.

I also took the opportunity to participate in Let's Go Ride a Bike's Summer Games.  While on campus, I left a note on a cute cruiser with a basket.   I hope that the bike owner thought that it was cool rather than creepy.  Maybe the fact that I wrote the note on the back of a neat flamenco postcard, which I had been using as a bookmark, helped to push it into the cool category.

It's only about 2.5 miles from my house to my campus office at R1 school, but since it was a very hot day and I hadn't been on my bike in almost a year (for shame, for shame), I decided to dress pretty casually and to wear flats.¹  I used to have a bit of a reputation for biking around campus in heels, but that was a few years ago when I lived much closer to campus and rode every day.  Maybe I can earn that reputation on my new campus next year.....

 1. Shirt - H&M

Capris - NY&Co. (remixed)

Flats - Steve Madden (remixed)

Sunnies - Esprit (thrifted and remixed)

Backpack - ??? (I've had it for years)

Bike - Schwinn

The outfit photo is from after my return ride, and I was a bit sweaty and dusty.  If I had been smarter, I would have hosed my bike off a couple of hours before heading into campus, as my bike was embarrassingly dusty from it's basement exile.  Oh, well.  Now it's been washed off and is clean and just waiting for a date ride with M. sometime in the next week or so.

When's the last time you rode your bike?  Do you tend to dress differently if you're cycling or walking into campus/work than if you're driving/taking public transit?