MY RIDE
Cyclist likes having 'no road rage'
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.11.2007
Owner: Paula Karrer.
Occupation: Flutist with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and Arizona Opera Orchestra.
Age: 38.
Ride: Green Motobecane bike.
Back story: Karrer bought a used bicycle for $40 when she was living in bike-friendly Aspen, Colo. She then moved to such places as Florida and Connecticut, but she says she really began riding her bike again in Tucson this summer.
"I suddenly got attached to it," she said. "It's a better way to live."
For one thing, she's getting exercise, saving gasoline and helping to delay costly repair work on her 1998 BMW. Plus, bicycles are low-maintenance.
"Those things are so cheap to fix," she said.
Then there are her emotions: She's cut back on her transportation frustration by riding her bike on errands.
"No road rage," she said.
From her home near Country Club Road and Speedway, she'll ride to the University of Arizona and even down to the Tucson Convention Center for orchestra practice. She's played the flute for 18 years and has been a member of the TSO since around 1998.
Really?: She also is known to cruise around town on her Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle. "I'm sort of a minimalist," she said, "so it's odd I have three vehicles."
The experience: The bicycle is not really a looker. It's dusty and has a deteriorating seat with metal baskets in the back for carrying stuff.
"I'm about riding my ride — not pimping it out," she said.
She also has an attachment called a Springer that attaches a short leash to the bike and lets you exercise your dog as you ride it.
Ride pride: Karrer said she's living in the perfect place for her new love of bicycling. Tucson was named one of the top cycle-friendly cities in the country by Bicycling magazine.
"I'm so pleased that I've been transformed," she said.
– Kevin W. Smith
See all past "My Ride" features at aznightbuzz.com/stories/myride.
