Most important, I've grown hugely more confident on my bicycle — more skillful in steering around road obstacles and on narrow shoulders; more in control of the back end of the bike, loaded down as it is with my saddlebags; more adept in shifting gears to maximize pedaling efficiency on flat roads and to maintain momentum going up and down hills.
I stopped in there for some advice about directions and to have my chain checked — it had slipped off a few times the previous week — and while I was there I asked them to rotate my tires; with the weight of my saddlebags on the back end of the bike, the tread on the rear one was wearing down, but the store didn't carry the Schwalbes I'm riding on.
In a letter distributed electronically within the company last Friday, Mr. Walker wrote, "Packin' more than 850,000 shares of Autodesk stock in my saddlebags, I remain keenly interested in Autodesk and fervently wish you continued success". The stock closed at $53.875 a share Tuesday in Nasdaq trading, down $1.50.
There was a row of Horse Chestnut trees and I collected the fresh fall of conkers, which filled the saddlebag on my bike.
Perhaps it was having company, perhaps the amiable tail wind, perhaps being reminded of what riding is like without the burden of saddlebags, but my legs felt springier than they had in weeks, and I had the longest day of my journey — 92 miles.
I withdrew the Orange Trapper, collapsed its telescoping shaft, put it into a saddlebag with the day's harvest, jumped onto my bicycle, and headed back upstream, upwoods, and away from 206 at a speed so blazing that I probably could not duplicate it if I were to try to now, but that was years ago, when I was eighty.
These days, living in southern Arizona, my idea of first-class transportation is a good horse (All that legroom! No security agents pawing at you and your saddlebag!).
A saddlebag held their worldly possessions.
Mr. Kinaci diffidently showed us one Anatolian saddlebag for $500.
