A little history

Ok, So here is where the narrator starts telling the story of how and why I started this project.

I am a student, one of the older ones at UNT (University of North Texas). I have been going there for a little over two years now. I am getting ready to start my last semester in Denton. I live in Carrollton and commute by car and have put a lot of miles and gas behind me. Well, I found out that there is a commuter bus from Carrollton to Denton. I thought, no way, this has got to cost a lot or, is really difficult to catch. After all, why would I have not found out about this sooner?

Guess what? I am already paying for it, and have been the whole time. This is in the tuition. Well, as they say in the old GI Joe cartoons, "knowing is half the battle". So know that I am armed with this knowledge, I plan to act on it. So I will need to find out where to catch the buss, and how to get there.

The stop is only 5.85 miles from my house, easy day; I used to ride a bike much farther than that years ago. OK, I was smoking about a pack and a half a day. I was not in any shape to attempt this in the fall. So I quit, after all, it is around 5 bucks a pack now. I thought I would start slow and build up some mileage over the summer. I was even going to get in a little exercise in Guam; did I forget to mention I am a reservist? Well, I was doing my 2 weeks this year back in glorious Guam, I have some friends that I can work out with and get in a little better shape.

OMG!!! Day one is like a PT session from BUDs (Basic Underwater Demolition school). The Senior Chief is killing me, or perhaps I am just in really bad shape. Well, after several PT sessions before work, I was beginning to feel the groove. When I got back stateside, I was determined to put down the packs of smokes and get on the bike.

I started training and getting ready for the Summer II session at Brookhaven Community College. I was ready and determined to ride there and back every day of the session. It turned out to be around 17.6 miles round trip. I won’t lie to you, some days were exercises in humility. One day I even walked the bike up a hill as a little girl with training wheels was pulling her brother on a skateboard.

Well, the semester ended and I managed to make it every day on the bike. Looking at my Specialized TriCross, I begin to think if I really want to have this special machine go through the abuse of being loaded under a bus twice a day. So I began to think about the Commuter Machine. What I would need is a good all around heavy constructed single speed beater. Ok, I wanted something cheap, so I wouldn’t be too concerned about it getting a little torn up.