Woo Hoo! Dan built up a bicycle for me. We picked my beautiful, new, glossy black and red bicycle on Thursday. Mom and I had driven downtown to go to lunch with Dan and after a lovely "le pot pie" from La Madelines we stopped past the bike shop and picked up my new toy! I got a red, black and white helmet to keep my noggen protected. Dan helped me pick it out since I know little or nothing about cycling or the gear involved. The helmet itself has bug netting to keep flying insects out of my hair! Clever...
It's a "starter bike" just in case I don't get the "itch". When we were in AustinBikes the guy kept showing me a beautiful bike for only $2300. I just giggled.
Friday I rode a bike for the first time in over 20 years... I was, of course, nervous about balance, etc. We started out in our cul-de-sac and Dan gave me directions on starting with me push-off foot up. It took two stops (stop signs within the neighborhood) for me to catch on to pedaling for a bit before flipping over the second pedal cage and slipping my foot in. After that my starts and stops were much smoother. I didn't know what to do with the gears but Dan gave me nice simple instructions for when and how to switch gears.
At one point, going down hill, we were up to 18mph! I started to brake after that because it just felt a little fast for me... I could just imagine someone backing out of a driveway and me spazzing just before colliding. Dan says that I have great pedaling form (I keep my knees in) and is/was impressed with my balance. I had fun and we took three laps up and down the main road in our neighborhood for a total of 3.5 miles. My hiney is sore but I'm looking forward to taking more laps the next time we ride (later today perhaps?)
I'm now a believer that being on a bike fitted for a person is much more comfortable than a spin bike at a gym. I was, reasonably, nervous about getting on a bike because I have historically experienced such hip discomfort when on recumbent bikes.
Dan took a goofy photo of me with his camera phone but I don't have it to post here. However, I do have a photo that Dan took of the bike with our camera.
