[As the readership of the Cobb County Courier continues to climb, we’re republishing earlier “evergreen” articles that we think might be of interest to our newer readers. This was originally published in September of 2022
It was an installment in the series “Accidentally car-free” about getting around Cobb County without the use of a car. To see a list of the entire series visit this link. To see how this project began, read the first article in the series by following this link.]
It’s time to move on from primarily focusing on walking in my “Accidentally car-free” series, and put some serious focus on getting my bike roadworthy. My bike is a 2009 Raleigh road bike, and is not a great make and model, but an acceptable bike for the sort of usage I’ll be putting it through.
But that is if and only if I make sure the chain, gears, brakes, cables, bearings, tires derailleur etc are capable of getting me safely around in a wide variety of road conditions, and that I can find enough of the accessory equipment that I haven’t used in years (lights, cycling shoes, locks, panniers, mud-guards, etc).
My intent is to clean and oil the chain today, find my cycling shoes, fill the tires, and take it around the block to see if there are any major glaring problems (brakes are good, chain doesn’t slip and will run through all the gears smoothly, no weird noises from anywhere around the tires).
I’ll then read through some of the pre-ride check articles from the internet, and make my best guess whether I should immediately put it into the shop for maintenance).
But before I move on …
But before I move on from walking as my primary focus (I’ll never really be leaving pedestrian issues altogether, but want to do deep dives into cycling and public transit) here is a short photo gallery of some of the walks I’ve written about.
Things along the south portion of Oakdale Road
Highlands Parkway
The north portion of Oakdale Road
South Cobb Drive and the East West Connector
The walk to the Kroger on South Atlanta Road
These are all of Collins Springs Cemetery and the old primitive baptist church building, since that’s the most interesting thing on my walk to the Kroger.
