My Excellent Two Wheel Adventure

Yesterday at lunch I got two new tires my bike tires fixed at the Hub in Roseville (nice job guys). It turns out you need good tubes AND un-chewed-up tires to help in the flat prevention. Who knew?

So today before eight, before the Sacramento weather turned on me (103 degrees predicted today), I went for my first bike ride in ... 3 years? 4? 5? Hard to say.

My last bike ride was also the first bike ride in 3 years or so. Two bike rides ago (about 6-9 years), I had had my third flat in about two weeks and was pretty disgusted, so the bike sat in the garage for another three years. At that point I got it fixed, then went out and on my first ride had a flat. Back into the garage went the machine from hell.

So the first most excellent thing about today's adventure: my tires made it through intact. Hooray.

On the way out I remembered just how much I enjoyed this when I was in fifth grade and would ride out to visit my sister, Linda (who's daughter you can see chatting with me from time to time). Or stop and visit my friends or stop at the store. And just generally combine getting somewhere quicker than walking with having some nice air in the face.

So I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this was the best bike ride I've had since I was in fifth grade.

My odometer unfortunately seems to have been a casualty either of my recent move or my trip to the hub, so I don't have the details, but it was extremely modest by Jeffonian standards. Based on what I know about the rest of the route, I'd say it was between five and seven miles -- more on the five side. However I consider it good news as well that no more than maybe twenty feet or so were (inadvertently) spent on the little big gear, with the rest on the medium and quite a bit on the large.

The terrain around here is perfect for beginners, straight suburban / rural roads with lots of flats and only modest hills. The last mile to my apartment is a slight downgrade (hooray again), with a bourgeois race track very close to home (bourgeois race track, n., newly coined: a circle or D shape of recently built homes on level ground with almost no traffic).

My legs had benefited by my time on my bicycle's shut-in relatives at the gym and by the weight machines, so they were aware that something very different was afoot without being overly stressed by it.

Between the reduced load, the low-traffic roads, the thorn proof tubes, and the new tires, I'm hoping I can go a long way before my next flat. I only found out about the kevlar tape gizmoes after the tires were on, but next time I'll insist on them.

And now, an apple. Later a movie.