I’m a fairly new reader of your blog, but I wanted to submit some pictures of my bike. I’m very much an accidental bike commuter, so it’s hardly tricked out yet. I started out doing spinning classes at my gym, then realized I was in really good cycling shape and that it was ridiculous I didn’t have a bike. I don’t have a ton of dough, so I went to Bikes Not Bombs and looked at what they had (I hosted a fundraiser for them a few years ago, and it didn’t go so well;  they paid me anyway, so I wanted to buy from them to get my karma in balance, you know?).

I wanted a pretty straightforward road bike, because that’s what I rode as a teenager in the Rockies. They didn’t really have one built, but I didn’t want to leave without a bike, so I got the attached. It’s an old French Motobecane Nomade with a total mishmash of components. There’s nothing fancy on it, but all the pieces together look kinda groovy to me. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the handlebars (straight bars on a road bike frame? MADNESS!), so I was asking around, trying to find out how to put drops on it, which turns out to be a lot more involved than I thought.

While showing the bike to people, a guy says to me, “What do you want to screw that bike up for? That is a PERFECT commuter right there.”

The next day, I rode my bike to the train station, because, well, now that guy had planted the “commuter” seed. Then I did it again. And again. And then I figured if I was riding to the train station anyway, why not ride all the way to work? The gym has a shower and iron, so why not? It’s taken me a few weeks to find a decent route that minimizes the risk of death by Boston traffic, but now I can’t WAIT to go to work, because it means I get to ride my sweet, sweet Motobecane before and after. I dread winter.

I realize the drawing is random, but one look should tell you why I want to win new pedals!

Let me know if I left anything out or missed the point entirely. Wish I had some funky fenders or panniers on it to impress you, but what can I say? The contest has caught me at the beginning of my transportational biking career. —Tim

[Tim is a very funny comedian working in the Boston area. Visit his website here. —ed.]