I had a rare opportunity today – a chance to ride twice in one day. I had to turn in my Jeep Cherokee today to the leasing company and I needed a way back home. The only option I could come up with was to ride my bicycle back home. It turns out that the place I had to go to was only about 5 miles away from my house.

Before I could drop of the vehicle, I had to get it ready to turn in. Besides the usual cleaning, I also had to re-install the original stereo and remove the bike rack from the roof. The stereo was a piece of cake, but the rack was a nightmare. It seems that I’ve lost my keys to the locks on the rack. This meant that I couldn’t unlock key components so that the rack could be removed. I tried everything I could think of, but in the end, the only option I could come up with was to cut the rack off with a hacksaw.

That’s right, I took a hacksaw to the top of towers which hold the cross bars. Once I sliced through the top piece, I would take pliers and pull back the brace until it broke off in my hands. Once enough of the brace was removed, I could lift the bar out of the way and throw away the towers. It was such a shame to have to destroy the towers like that, but I couldn’t think of any other way. I suppose it wasn’t a total lost, but it doesn’t look like I could re-use the towers on any of the vehicles that I’m looking at.

With the rack removed, I put my bicycle in the back of the truck and drove it to the turn in center. I met the guy that I was turning the vehicle into and then went outside to put my bike back together and wait for him to finish. I was over the mileage to the tune of $500, there was a $300 turn in fee and they said the hood had too many chips and charged me another $100. So close to $1000 lighter, I hoped on my bike and rode home.

It was a fairly straightforward ride with most of it being flat. This was a nice change from my usual hilly rides. I also had a fair amount of traffic which made it more exciting. It didn’t take me long and I was back home. Looks like until I get a new vehicle my bicycle will be my primary means of transportation. Well that and I’ll have to bum rides from my wife. 🙂

Total Distance: 5.53
Ride Time: :30
Avg Speed: 11.08
Max Speed: 27.1