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I took my first bike ride tonight after work. I just went around the neighborhood for about a half hour trying to get the hang of it. I didn't fall over, but I did loose control a few times and had some messy stops. I'm thinking in list form, so
1. Bike helmets look dumb. Mine makes me look like a big blue mushroom. I am the only person in my neighborhood who wears one. Vanity almost got the best of me, but I know that if I don't wear it I'll fall down and Denis will taunt me for the rest of my life. (Note that it is the threat of taunting, not my safety that is a motivating factor).
2. Going straight on smooth level pavement is no problem, anything else is.
3. Turning is hard, turning downhill is harder.
4. I do not like to go fast.
5. You can't go as slow as you would like on a bike before almost falling over.
6. Cars (and turning onto places where they might be) sucks.
7. Riding a bike is fun. It brings back lots of good childhood memories, especially about my dad.
8. Riding a bike is more fun when you can go farther than up and down your street.
9. Riding a bike is probably most fun when you have other people to do it with.
10. People in my neighborhood do not hesitate to make fun of inexperienced women riding bikes. Particularly men who sit on their porches, look like shrivled tobacco leaves, and heckle people on bikes who have difficulty stopping and turning.
11. Small children running around are dangerous, but not as much as cars.
12. Riding a bike for a few miles (at least on mostly flat terrain) is not particularly strenuous.
13. Trial-and-error is a legitimate way to figure out how gears work.
14. My mom used to ride a bike to and from work when she lived in Colorado. (I think she was a waitress or hostess, at Denny's maybe? during this time). Her advice was to wear lots of clothes in case you fall over, riding at night is dangerous because you can't see the potholes, and carry money for a taxi in case you get a flat. There are no taxis (some, but not very many) in North Adams, but good advice anyway.
15. You have to pay attention when riding a bike, just when your mind starts to wander something will demand your attention (or at least your reflexes).
16. The Berkshires are filled with beautiful natural scenery (but, at least where I live, not particularly beautiful people).
That's all I can think of right now. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.
1. Bike helmets look dumb. Mine makes me look like a big blue mushroom. I am the only person in my neighborhood who wears one. Vanity almost got the best of me, but I know that if I don't wear it I'll fall down and Denis will taunt me for the rest of my life. (Note that it is the threat of taunting, not my safety that is a motivating factor).
2. Going straight on smooth level pavement is no problem, anything else is.
3. Turning is hard, turning downhill is harder.
4. I do not like to go fast.
5. You can't go as slow as you would like on a bike before almost falling over.
6. Cars (and turning onto places where they might be) sucks.
7. Riding a bike is fun. It brings back lots of good childhood memories, especially about my dad.
8. Riding a bike is more fun when you can go farther than up and down your street.
9. Riding a bike is probably most fun when you have other people to do it with.
10. People in my neighborhood do not hesitate to make fun of inexperienced women riding bikes. Particularly men who sit on their porches, look like shrivled tobacco leaves, and heckle people on bikes who have difficulty stopping and turning.
11. Small children running around are dangerous, but not as much as cars.
12. Riding a bike for a few miles (at least on mostly flat terrain) is not particularly strenuous.
13. Trial-and-error is a legitimate way to figure out how gears work.
14. My mom used to ride a bike to and from work when she lived in Colorado. (I think she was a waitress or hostess, at Denny's maybe? during this time). Her advice was to wear lots of clothes in case you fall over, riding at night is dangerous because you can't see the potholes, and carry money for a taxi in case you get a flat. There are no taxis (some, but not very many) in North Adams, but good advice anyway.
15. You have to pay attention when riding a bike, just when your mind starts to wander something will demand your attention (or at least your reflexes).
16. The Berkshires are filled with beautiful natural scenery (but, at least where I live, not particularly beautiful people).
That's all I can think of right now. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.
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Also, in regards to getting a flat when riding your bike: an alternative to bringing taxi money (esp. if you're going to be riding where there aren't any taxis) is to get one of those little under-the-bike-seat bags and put in it a tire patch kit and tire levers, and then also buy one of the bike pumps that mounts on the frame of your bike. That way, you can repair your own tire if you ever get a flat. I used to do this all the time when I rode my bike a lot (8th/9th/10th grade). I had ridiculously bad luck when it came to flat tires, and literally got dozens of them over those couple of years. It was almost comical. One time, I parked my bike in a friend's garage overnight and when I came to ride it home the next morning, it had a flat. To this day, it mystifies me. I also had more exciting flats, such as the time I was mountain biking with my Dad in the Sawtooth mountains and I rounded a peak in the trail and came down hard on my front tire, resulting in a highway-style blowout that flung me from my bike, ripped a four inch gash in my tire tube, and bent the rim of my wheel. Point being, flats do occasionally happen, and so having the proper tools helps a lot. Another option, though, which I haven't tried but which is probably a heck of a lot easier, is to replace the tubes that came on the bike with the self-healing kind which have a goo in them that will fill holes automatically if the tire gets punctured.
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I think one of Coffman's friends made his bike into a bong. But I could be mis-assigning the story.
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Were you the one who told me about the "special" burritos at a Phish concert? Baked goods are one thing. But a burrito? Egads!