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May. 23rd, 2006 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickThe fun never stops over here. Today I got on a bicycle and actually rode it more than fifty feet. Actually, I did some bike maintaining stuff first so that the bike would have brakes and...
It's not on purpose. A tenant left it behind. A tenant. *sigh* Okay, it was Freddie of Melva-and-Freddie fame. I am riding around on a bike that was abandoned by someone on the Megan's Law website. (No shame!) I do not particulary have any love for bikes but the boy would like to do bike touring of Amsterdam. (It's in the Netherlands. There aren't going to be mountains or anything, are there? I'm hoping for sorta-flat, personally. Isn't it costal plain? Or costal underwater-with-dikes, or something? That doesn't sound very mountain-y to me.) Because the last time I was on a bike before last weekend was during the Reagan administration, I figured it might be a good idea to actually get on a bike and ride about some before trying it in public. Fortuitously, as so frequently happens in my life, there was a free bike about the time I needed a free bike to ride upon. So, that's why the bike.
Is riding a bike actually like riding a bike? I didn't fall over or anything. I was kind of wobbly, partly because I need to jack the seat up some but mostly because I'm about forty pounds heavier than I was the last time I got on a bike. I remembered how to do it, despite commentary from the legs that was very Wha-Wha-What?!?. They were not amused even though the bike had gears to make hauling my ass around the landscape easier. Riding a bike is a hell of a lot like work. There was sweating. I don't remember it being that much damn work when I was a kid. (Yes, I know how to work the gears. Thanks for asking, though.)
I think the seat needs to be higher because when I am pedaling, my leg doesn't go all the way straight when the pedal's at the bottom (the 6 o'clock position of the pedal) but I can fix that tomorrow. I put it up some today but the road test suggested that I didn't put it up enough. I also need new brake pads -- the brakes are shitty and the grippy pad things are all worn. They're just held on with a hex nut and it's easy to see how to adjust 'em so I can do that. Does WalMart sell brake pad things for bikes? I'll have to check. I flipped them over for today, but they don't have a whole lot of contact surface left. New brake pad things would be better. And dang, bike seats are uncomfortable or maybe I'm just broad in the beam. It's a guy bike, and that might be the problem right there. *sigh* I can tough it out for two weeks of riding-a-bike practice.
Anyway. I got on the bike and I rode it about four or five miles over actual terrain. I am now tired. I am going to feel like total hell tomorrow and I am certain that I will not want to engage in any damn bike practice. Sometimes it's not about what I want. Sometimes. I will try again tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
It's not on purpose. A tenant left it behind. A tenant. *sigh* Okay, it was Freddie of Melva-and-Freddie fame. I am riding around on a bike that was abandoned by someone on the Megan's Law website. (No shame!) I do not particulary have any love for bikes but the boy would like to do bike touring of Amsterdam. (It's in the Netherlands. There aren't going to be mountains or anything, are there? I'm hoping for sorta-flat, personally. Isn't it costal plain? Or costal underwater-with-dikes, or something? That doesn't sound very mountain-y to me.) Because the last time I was on a bike before last weekend was during the Reagan administration, I figured it might be a good idea to actually get on a bike and ride about some before trying it in public. Fortuitously, as so frequently happens in my life, there was a free bike about the time I needed a free bike to ride upon. So, that's why the bike.
Is riding a bike actually like riding a bike? I didn't fall over or anything. I was kind of wobbly, partly because I need to jack the seat up some but mostly because I'm about forty pounds heavier than I was the last time I got on a bike. I remembered how to do it, despite commentary from the legs that was very Wha-Wha-What?!?. They were not amused even though the bike had gears to make hauling my ass around the landscape easier. Riding a bike is a hell of a lot like work. There was sweating. I don't remember it being that much damn work when I was a kid. (Yes, I know how to work the gears. Thanks for asking, though.)
I think the seat needs to be higher because when I am pedaling, my leg doesn't go all the way straight when the pedal's at the bottom (the 6 o'clock position of the pedal) but I can fix that tomorrow. I put it up some today but the road test suggested that I didn't put it up enough. I also need new brake pads -- the brakes are shitty and the grippy pad things are all worn. They're just held on with a hex nut and it's easy to see how to adjust 'em so I can do that. Does WalMart sell brake pad things for bikes? I'll have to check. I flipped them over for today, but they don't have a whole lot of contact surface left. New brake pad things would be better. And dang, bike seats are uncomfortable or maybe I'm just broad in the beam. It's a guy bike, and that might be the problem right there. *sigh* I can tough it out for two weeks of riding-a-bike practice.
Anyway. I got on the bike and I rode it about four or five miles over actual terrain. I am now tired. I am going to feel like total hell tomorrow and I am certain that I will not want to engage in any damn bike practice. Sometimes it's not about what I want. Sometimes. I will try again tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
