Andy Laub

I have been riding bikes in some form or another for over 20 years, and yet during those times, it was only in my formative years that I enjoyed biking at its simplest: coaster, brakes, one speed, get on and go. After that it was a ten-speed “jack of all trades” mountain bike with skinny road tires and terrible brakes. Then it was a mountain bike, then a full-suspension mountain bike, then finally a real mountain bike. And I thought I was done evolving; I was content in my little 27-speed front-suspended aluminum-framed niche.

But then I was bitten by the single speed bug. Hard. So I bought one. And except for 2 outings at the local singletrack, It’s all I’ve been riding. I estimate that I’ve put about 250 miles on it in the past two months, and while it hasn’t all been fun and games (like the times I smacked my knees against the top tube or last Friday when my crankarm fell off), I love it.

It started off being a bit painful, considering my normal riding style. I’m used to riding in the largest chainring and one of the smaller cogs and only downshifting when I need to. This is fantastic for my efficiency and I can haul ass relatively easily, but it’s not getting me any exercise, and my bike’s drivetrain made all kinds of noise. So trading efficiency for simplicity has been a win-win in my opinion. I’m able to maintain a higher cadence than I would’ve on my other bike, because I’m spinning a lot more to go the same speed and I’m getting used to it.

Yesterday was a prime example of the type of ride I love; a nice ride around town, punctuated by some moderately technical off-road tomfoolery. My other bike sits neglected and I’m not getting the technical workout that I would at a place like 9 Mile, but I’m having fun and that’s the important thing.

On Monday night, I got a phone call. It went to my voicemail because I was in the middle of a conversation with somebody. Because of that same conversation, I forgot about the voicemail until the person called me again, and after that call there was no point in checking the voicemail, so I didn’t.

Mistake.

The alarm went off in the morning as it usually does, and I glanced briefly at the time before hitting one of the side volume buttons to silence it as I always do. Then I fell back asleep. Then I woke up 35 minutes later, panicked and wondering why my alarm hadn’t gone off again. I opened it, and things became clear.

When alarms occur on a Motorola phone, they go into a sort of queue and await your attention. The “missed call” message was in this list, as was the “new voicemail”. And because I never cleared these notifications (since I closed the phone upon hanging up the previous night), the snoozed alarm fell inline behind these other 2 less time sensitive items.

So that’s how I overslept because of bad UI design.

Then there were the times where I’d try to open the phone as it was ringing, which normally isn’t an issue. Every so often though, I can’t open it on the first try. Again, not normally an issue, but the way the hinge is designed, it snaps the phone shut before you can try to open it again. The problem here is that opening the phone the tiniest bit answers the call, and that snap shut is enough to disconnect, leaving the caller to think that you’ve hung up on them.

Finally, there’s the fact that it doesn’t get a signal in my basement. Nor does it always work with the stereo headset. And it isn’t very good at playing music. And there’s a piece of tape on the battery to keep the cover from falling off.

But it hasn’t scratched, so there’s that, I guess.