Biking

I haven't ridden a bike in 14 years. The last bike I had was a 10 speed Huffy (or something similar). I hopped on the bike my friend let me borrow the other night.

Let's just say I looked silly.

Aye carumba.


I managed, somehow, to get the chain off the gears at one point. I'll guess that I tried shifting too far too fast or something like that.

My biggest nemesis, apart from my puny quads, are the toe clips on the bike. For those that don't know, toe clips are these 'cages' that go over the top part of the pedal, which you can put your foot into. The idea is that your foot is firmly secured on the bike (but not too secure in case of an emergency/fall/etc), and that you can also use your leg to pull the pedal upward and make better use of your energy expenditure.

That all sounds good, no? Well, the design of these pedals is that at rest, the cage is on the bottom. Yes, you read that right.

So, at a stop, you can flip one of the pedals over and put your foot in the straps. No big deal. The big deal is the second foot. If you do it while you're stopped, you'll get your second foot in, sure. You'll also be lying sideways on the pavement as you've tipped over.
So, the art is to get going and then, nonchalantly, kick the pedal right side up, and smoothly insert your foot.

I am not very coordinated.

Certainly not enough for a finesse move like that.


So, I pedaled around on the bottoms of the pedals. We'll try again some other day.