One thing that did seem odd is that my eyes weren't covered. On a motorbike, I have a visor on the front of my helmet, and on a snowboard I wear a mask, so it's a bit strange to feel the wind. It's not a problem, it's just unusual. Speaking of clothing, I've been pondering how many layers to wear. If I'm walking around outside at this time of year, I normally wear a hoodie or a coat; however, on the bike I've found that I get too hot if I wear anything on top of my T-shirt. That implies that I'm working harder, i.e. doing more exercise, so that has to be a good thing. In fact, I've had to keep pulling up my jeans today; that's partly because my belt broke during the ETA course, but hopefully I'll be able to shift down a waist size soon.
One thing about the bike is that I need to travel light. The front pannier only has a certain amount of space, and I wound up with it crammed full today. There is a touring pannier that's a bit bigger, but then I'd be running into weight limits. The maximum load for the bike is 110kg (rider + luggage), and the max load for the front pannier is 10kg. In my case, I weigh about 99kg fully clothed, and the full pannier weighed 9kg today, so I'm getting quite close to both limits. It's not really a problem, it just means that I need to plan ahead, and only carry what I need. If I'm going to the supermarket, it would be better to take the bus so that I can bring back several carrier bags.
More generally, I've been wondering where I can take the bike. If I'm at work, I can stick it in my office, and Gosh! (comic shop) were happy for me to leave it behind the door. However, I don't think that it would fit into a locker at the gym, and there's nowhere convenient to store it at the local library. Similarly, I think it would be awkward to take it into a cinema, theatre, or restaurant, even if I put it in a bag. Ideally, I'd like to see some storage lockers dotted around for folding bikes (the equivalent of cycle stands), but that's probably not going to happen in the imminent future. I could chain it up outside, but I don't have a lock, and that goes against the point of a folding bike. Again, it comes back to planning; I'll probably need to either leave the bike at home some days, or come back home and then head back out again. Anyway, I can figure that out as I go along.
