Saturday, June 16, 2018

I want to ride my bicycle


Remember that song from Queen "I Want To Ride My Bicycle" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwvWtZl2ICY)? Well, I've finally started riding mine a bit more.

I don't really consider myself a "cyclist" (or whatever they're called). I'm still a runner, and I prefer running. However, I have added the bike to help develop different muscles to hopefully make me a better runner. It's also a nice way to get to work now that I'm only ~5 miles away.

The pic at the top is from my most recent ride to work - on the Huffy. Both bikes were ones people had left when I worked at the self-storage place.

This green Huffy is a 3-speed, and has a more comfortable seat and riding position for me. Yes, it's a woman's bike, and doesn't look the greatest, but it's actually faster than the Nishiki. Note the 25 mph on this last trip! I can barely get the Nishiki to 20 mph. Anyway, I like this bike, but I'm not sure how many more trips it can take to work and back because it's just not built for that. I have to ride it pretty hard to get there on time.


This Nishiki is a cool looking bike. I get a lot of compliments on it. When I found it it was a "fixie." It had a fixed-gear rear tire, so the pedals constantly went around and you could pedal both forward and backward. Fortunately it had a flip-flop hub on the rear tire and I just needed to add the freewheel and a hand brake to make it a one-speed that can coast. I'm too old for a fixie. I like this bike too but it's a tad tall for me. I'm also not a big fan of the seat but I think my butt is slowly getting used to it. The narrow tires don't work well for most sidewalk riding so I need to ride on the road more than I would like, but it's not bad.


Anyway, I do think it has helped strengthen my legs, and I do enjoy riding to work and back. Most of the route is Fairfield Ave, which is sidewalk for a large part. To get from our house to Fairfield, I either ride along the side of Airport Expressway or take Lower Huntington down to the Rivergreenway and cut over. Once I get to downtown there are bike lanes, so that makes it a lot nicer - as long as cars aren't crowding me.

So, that's where I'm at with the bicycling. I've ridden more in the last couple months than in the last 30 years, and so far, so good.

1 comment:

Whisky Prajer said...

Those are both swell bikes -- the Huffy even has a bell, no? I can see why the Nishiki inspires bike lust, but the older (and heavier) I get the more I like a more upright cycling position.

Hm. I'm thinking about the three-speed thing. Back in the late '80s when me and my buddies were getting bicycles with anywhere from 18 to 21 different gearing options, I had a friend who said you really only needed three. We'd go out for rides, and at the end he'd ask how many different "speeds" had we really used. I hesitated to admit that, in fact, it had only been four or five. Of course, his bicycle had as many gears as ours did, but the point remained.