krishna2.com

After a long time, I finally took the plunge and got a bike. I had been researching for a while and decided instead of shopping for the “bang for the buck” bike, I would rather pay a bit more but get professional advice. So I went to Bicycle Garage in Fremont and talked to a passionate biker there. He listened and suggested that I get a road bike. The one particular option I was insistent on was to have slightly wider tires.

Update: Here is an awesome write up at the jwz collected bicycle wisdom page.

I got the 2009 Trek 7.2 FX road bike. It is one awesome bike. The nice thing with getting it in a pro-bike-shop is that you get certain perks. In the case of Bicycle Garage, I get lifetime free tune-ups. How cool is that!

I had never thought about naming it but then when I registered for an account in cyclogz.com, it prompted me to give a name to the bike and describe it. I was reminded of the movie Monsters Inc in which Sully (when he names the little girl, Boo) is told by Mike Wazowski that once somebody names something, they get very attached to it. I thought why not – I do like my bike. I thought of many names.

But in the end, with not much originality, but with lot of geek humor and pride and utmost respect for two great computer scientists, I christened my bike, “The T(o)uring Machine”.

Edsger Dijkstra called his Volkswagen bus “The Touring Machine”.

It did not escape me that as a biker I am looking to take the shortest path. ;)