the Angie’s List Blue House Blog

I bought a bike last week from Angie’s List A-lister Indy Cycle Specialist. Not just any bike. A Giant Tran Send commuter bike with rack, fenders, bell and built-in compass.

“Hello, inner 8-year-old.”

I feel like that kid in A Christmas Story who longed for a “Red Ryder carbine-action, 200-shot Range Model air rifle BB gun with a compass in the stock and a thing which tells time.”

I might blow out a knee, but I can’t shoot my eye out with the Tran Send.

When I moved to Indianapolis this month to join Angie’s List, everything came together to make my dream of bike ownership come true.

First, this city has the best urban trail system of any place I’ve ever lived. The Monon Trail alone will occupy a month’s worth of weekends. Add to that the Pleasant Run Trail and Central Canal Towpath and I’ll be trailbound for the foreseeable future.

Second, the Angie’s List campus is perched on the near east side, one mile from my apartment in Woodruff Place and within biking distance of cool destinations like Fountain Square, Monument Circle and Irvington.

And finally, gas is at $3.85 a gallon and climbing. Why drive when almost everything I need or want is within easy biking distance?

Too soon winter will return and I will crawl back into the metal cage some people call a “car.”

Until then, I’ll be the guy zipping around the near east side sitting tall in the saddle of my trusty Tran Send with its rack, fenders, bell and built-in compass!