Went for the Season's First Bike Ride...

...and almost died.

Ok, that might be a tad dramatic, but I am very out of shape apparently. Baby steps I guess. I did have a very close shave with a very cute white pit bull who was waaay to interested in the bike. The owners main strategy for controlling the dog seemed to be saying to him "Come on now, that's not cool!" as he strained towards my bike. :yikes: Luckily she got it together at the last minute and disaster was averted.

Anyone a bike rider?

Going to dust mine down this week. Me and Bodhi are going to try and get fit together. We have an amazing flat estuary near by with a good wide path. The trail is 9.5 miles long beginning to end, so hoping to be doing it all there and back by the end of the summer, maybe a couple of times a week weather permitting! Prob not with Bodhi the full way though. She's done it before, but prob just a tad too much for her these days. She'd do it happily, but think she would be suffering later on! We will see.

Haven't yet but need to get the bikes out. Problem is we're rural and it's not safe riding on our road - lots of hills, no shoulders and really deep ditches on either side, so we have to haul the bikes to a park on the weekends and just haven't had time.

What kind of bike do you have? I have a hybrid mountain/coaster bike, complete with fenders, back rack and front basket. Looks dorky but I can carry my camera, extra water, etc, so I don't care.

We live in town and I grew up on a country road and was not very used to riding in traffic. Now we live in town so I'm uncomfortable riding in town traffic, so we tend to haul to parks and paves trails too.

I have a blue Electra cruiser, and I love it! Very comfy bike. If I get I into decent enough shape I think it'd be fun to get a mountain bike for dirt trails, but that's a long way off.

My hybrid looks a lot like yours, except for having 21 gears and handbrakes. It's pretty comfy, too.

I'm not that ambitious (about getting into mountain biking), given my klutzy tendencies and the fact I don't bounce anymore when I hit the ground. My brother managed to tear both of his ACLs from mountain biking, and he's fairly athletic (and 10 years younger). I think I'll stick to my paved/gravel bike trails.

In the past I was an avid cyclist. Work, life, and injuries have slowed me down substancially. I still ride 15-30 miles a week, whether it's indoors on my trainer or outside, but nothing like I used to do. When I was in high school and college I was easily riding 50+ miles a week.

bike by chance1191, on Flickr

My baby, Yellowjacket. Had her since I was 15.

For a while I was commuting 100mi a week by bike, year round.

Need to do a century this year I did 2 rides of 60+ last year.

I wish I could but if you cycle in town here you are literally taking your life into your own hands... I have a friend who used to bike to work and apparently it's common for drivers to think it's "funny" to pull up behind a cyclist and bump their tires with their car??? Yuck. =<
There is a trail one town over that I run at where some people also cycle, I would totally do that though! But it's only like a 6 mile trail which is a bit disappointing - and to get from one half of it to the other you actually have to bike (or run!) across a highway. :yikes: It's a bit scary as a runner, not sure if it's better or worse on a bike. People drive so stupid here... they really should build a pedestrian bridge. X_X

My friend just sold her house but they lived in a small town where she and her kids would just ride their bikes around the whole town. It's so quiet out there, very much the small town where everybody knows each other type of thing, not a lot of traffic, so they would just bike all over the town for fun when the weather was nice. I would love something like that!! Living in a big city has it's drawbacks, haha.

So my cycling is all indoors. I do like that plenty though, because it lets us listen to LOUD music without having to be aware of traffic LOL. And I don't need a helmet!
I decided for my birthday I want to ask for some clippy cycling shoes to use in class. Everybody says you can pedal faster with cycling shoes. It's been almost a year I've been cycling so I think it's time (or beyond time.) So I need to go to one of the cycling stores in town and pick some out. How do you buy cycling shoes?? Is it like running shoes where there's a huge variety?


One day I would really like to do a mini-triathlon...

For cycling shoes its mostly a matter of weight and price. Its pretty non impact, so most of the worries over which specific type of sole aren't too big.

You do have mountain bike vs road shoes. I like mtb even for road use because you can walk in them. To some extent they're overrated, but I do like the stiff soles and lighter weight compared to running shoes. Clips are actually the least important part I think, but they do help with spinning (120rpm or so and they're really nice) and they're useful for mountain bike control as well as fixed gears.

Studies have apparently found (no links though) that even the pros do not pull up their pedals, they just press down less. At high rpm though pressing down less can cause your foot to come off.

As for idiots on the road, every place has a few, but every place has people riding on the roads too. I think the USPS trained in Texas of all bike unfriendly places. Unawareness is the bigger problem, people turning across wherever you're going.

Lol, my bike fell off the back of a caravan and was found near our house! Tourists can be useful

We did hand it to the police but no one claimed it so I got it for me!

I love biking. I was really depressed in between babies so didn't do it too much and have had my hands a bit full since... however I am SO excited to get back at it with both kids and the dog.

Tyler just bought be a fancy Mountain bike. I love it. Its a Rocky Mountain
Slayer SXC. Its super crazy light, which is awesome since I am a small person. I can easily carry it over big fallen trees and stuff like that.

I've only taken it out twice so far. Tuesday we did a 5 mile ride through asphalt and dirt trails and Yesterday we did a 9 mile ride through asphalt, dirt trails and trails going through trees and up and down hills. It was ton of fun, I am really enjoying it so far.

This is what my bike looks like, except the handle bar grips are bright pink, her name is unicorn.