Defying conventional wisdom since 2005

An inelegant but inexpensive cargo solution:

I normally hate doing this because it makes me look like a poor college student, and poor college students are treated a certain way in this neighborhood. For one thing, poor college students get mugged because they have rich parents and lots of credit cards, or so the conventional wisdom goes. I have neither, but no one knows that. And some unlucky day it might just get me killed.*

While auditing my bike bag contents, I realized that the most expensive item I'm carrying around on a daily basis is probably the bag itself. I also realized that a mugger, not realizing this, would likely just dump it somewhere. The thought galls me. Go ahead and take my wallet that has nothing in it, my digital camera that's broken, my iPod that's several models too old to be coveted--but please give me back my bike bag, if it's that worthless to you.

Anyway, my point is that I don't have several thousand dollars lying around. Well, technically I do, I suppose, if you define "several" and "lying around" rather liberally, but I've already decided to put it toward a new bike before I destroy my primary mode of everyday transportation by forcing it to do things it was never meant to do. Or I could just abandon the whole silly, expensive pursuit of bicycling for Real Fun altogether and sit back to watch my savings grow, but that would be boring (as well as Bad For The Economy, as the conventional wisdom goes). He who does not bike is probably shaking his head and clucking his tongue right now, so I remind him that I'm not the one shopping for an airplane. (He told me once that he only reads blogs that mention him.)

The grim reality--usually glossed over with lots of pretty pictures and poetic musings--is that bike touring (or "cyclotouring," as I suppose it's really called) can really eat up one's disposable income, and that not many of us have a whole lot of extra income there to dispose. I thought about my cheap-looking milk crate when a comment on a post in Commute by Bike led me to this article in The one and only Times:
Ride a bike? You must be rich

"The richer people become the further they cycle, according to official figures overturning conventional wisdom that the bicycle is largely a poor man’s mode of transport..."

Conventional wisdom, my cheap ass. "Conventional wisdom" says spend, spend, and keep spending. "Conventional wisdom" says I have something worth stealing on my person on any given night because that's exactly what I do. "Conventional wisdom" says I'm not likely to be an avid cyclist anyway because I'm not an eco-freak, a health nut, a poor college student, or someone with tons of money lying around looking for a hobby. To hell with conventional wisdom--I just want to ride my bike.

Hey, good timing.
Roger Kramer Cycling blog:
Got $5,000 to spare? Then go to Italy!

Oh, the places I'd go with $5000 to spare... Actually, I'd probably just move. I think I'm finally done with this neighborhood.

*The latest rumor I heard was that Amadou Cisse was murdered out of frustration because three armed robberies that night had netted nothing of value for all the trouble. I think about this every time the weather dude predicts a giant blizzard come evening and I'm tempted to walk to work. It's why I hate walking so much. "Heckling" hurts, but it's mostly harmless; so is falling off your bike in weather that would send even the most insane among the Bike Winter bunch onto a bus. But I fear nothing in the world more than being just another shocking news headline.

Update: Rumor sort of confirmed in the Chicago Tribune:
Teen charged in shooting death of University of Chicago graduate student
...
"Demetrius Warren, 17, was charged with first-degree murder and attempted robbery in the killing of Amadou Cisse, 28, a Senegal citizen who was shot Nov. 19 near the campus, Calumet Area detectives said.

"Three others already were charged as accomplices in the murder, but police said Monday it was Warren who shot Cisse.
...
"Police said Warren and the other three rode around that night in a car, armed with one gun and plans to rob college students of cash. The group planned to split their take, police said.

"The suspects came up empty-handed in the attempted robbery of Cisse but robbed two female students and a male student in separate incidents. A male staff member was shot at as he ran away from the group, police said."

Sigh.