I picked my new bike up yesterday! And after finishing tidying out the garage, I went out for my first, short, shakedown ride.
I haven't ridden a bike for at least 7 years (well, other than my ongoing, and so far completely unsuccessful attempts to master the unicycle). And my old bike was a 1980's 'racer'. This was a modern, light hybrid.
What a revelation...
The first thing that struck me was the progress that has been made in materials technology in the intervening years since I last partook of bicycling. The scientific community have, against all odds, managed to develop a substance that's harder than diamond, and joyously, Specialized have decided to use that to make my saddle! Suddenly that £40-odd on a decent pair of padded shorts was looking less like an extravagance and more like a matter of life and death.
The second thing that struck me was a line from Douglas Adams's finest hour, "The Restaurant at the End of The Universe". Two of our heroes are up to no good in the garage of said eatery, and have found a sleek looking spaceship, which they are about to make off with.
"Feel it." said Zaphod.
Ford put out his hand. "You can't. It's totally frictionless. This must be one mother of a mover..."
I was amazed. A combination of the lightness of the bike, the 110lbs of pressure in the (fairly narrow) tyres, which was probably a good 50lbs more than I ever put in my old steed, and the fact that everything was new, and therefore didn't rattle or clunk, meant that riding it for the first time was a very strange experience indeed. The thought that kept crossing my mind was that it was like riding on ice - there didn't seem to be much contact with the ground at all. I guess this is a good thing, although at the time, it made for a fairly... uneasy experience. Combine that with a far more upright riding position, and a considerably higher saddle position (i.e. where it ought to be) than I used to have, and for the first 500 yards, I felt like one of those baby foals that you see in the seconds after their birth, legs splayed out every which way, and looking particularly ungainly.
Fortunately I was on some very quiet roads.
But I gained a bit of confidence, found a straight, flat bit of road and tried to remember what the manual had said about how the gears work.
I then recalled something about "Different bikes have different gear systems - talk to your dealer if you are unfamiliar with the way your bike works." Bit late for that now! I decided to push the big lever by my right thumb and see what happened.
Well the pedalling just got easier, so I'm guessing that was a downshift. Upshifts, however...
Upshifts seem to be hidden away under the handlebars, just at the reach of my index finger. I'm sure I'll get used to it.
My left thumb wanted to have a go too, so.... whoah!
Suddenly my legs are going round like Wile E. Coyote in the moment after he's just run off the edge off a cliff, but gravity hasn't beckoned him groundward yet. I suspect that particular ring of the chainset is only ever going to get used for going up hills.
Flipping a few more gears, onto the largest chainring and the smallest cog of the cassette, and I'm beginning to see why my friends said they dumped their hybrid after 6 months and bought a road bike. It's as though there ought to to have been somewhere else to go, another chainring.
Then I reminded myself that I didn't buy this for speed, I bought this to enjoy leisurely rides and get some exercise.
Meanwhile, the reflector at the front had clearly not been tightened enough and was threatening to fall off, and not having any tools with me, I decided to turn round and head back. Besides, my heart rate had gone up to the sort of tempo usually reserved for hardcore Scandinavian techno, and I didn't want to kill myself on my first ride.
I dismounted at home, having covered no more than two miles, and nearly fell over. During the past 10 mins or so, someone had replaced all the bones in my legs with jelly!
Unfit? Moi?
Maybe just a little.
Having fixed the reflector, and said to my wife, through heaving gasps, how much better I felt for getting some exercise, I went for a sit down with a glass of Lucozade.
I could get used to this cycling lark!
I haven't ridden a bike for at least 7 years (well, other than my ongoing, and so far completely unsuccessful attempts to master the unicycle). And my old bike was a 1980's 'racer'. This was a modern, light hybrid.
What a revelation...
The first thing that struck me was the progress that has been made in materials technology in the intervening years since I last partook of bicycling. The scientific community have, against all odds, managed to develop a substance that's harder than diamond, and joyously, Specialized have decided to use that to make my saddle! Suddenly that £40-odd on a decent pair of padded shorts was looking less like an extravagance and more like a matter of life and death.
The second thing that struck me was a line from Douglas Adams's finest hour, "The Restaurant at the End of The Universe". Two of our heroes are up to no good in the garage of said eatery, and have found a sleek looking spaceship, which they are about to make off with.
"Feel it." said Zaphod.
Ford put out his hand. "You can't. It's totally frictionless. This must be one mother of a mover..."
I was amazed. A combination of the lightness of the bike, the 110lbs of pressure in the (fairly narrow) tyres, which was probably a good 50lbs more than I ever put in my old steed, and the fact that everything was new, and therefore didn't rattle or clunk, meant that riding it for the first time was a very strange experience indeed. The thought that kept crossing my mind was that it was like riding on ice - there didn't seem to be much contact with the ground at all. I guess this is a good thing, although at the time, it made for a fairly... uneasy experience. Combine that with a far more upright riding position, and a considerably higher saddle position (i.e. where it ought to be) than I used to have, and for the first 500 yards, I felt like one of those baby foals that you see in the seconds after their birth, legs splayed out every which way, and looking particularly ungainly.
Fortunately I was on some very quiet roads.
But I gained a bit of confidence, found a straight, flat bit of road and tried to remember what the manual had said about how the gears work.
I then recalled something about "Different bikes have different gear systems - talk to your dealer if you are unfamiliar with the way your bike works." Bit late for that now! I decided to push the big lever by my right thumb and see what happened.
Well the pedalling just got easier, so I'm guessing that was a downshift. Upshifts, however...
Upshifts seem to be hidden away under the handlebars, just at the reach of my index finger. I'm sure I'll get used to it.
My left thumb wanted to have a go too, so.... whoah!
Suddenly my legs are going round like Wile E. Coyote in the moment after he's just run off the edge off a cliff, but gravity hasn't beckoned him groundward yet. I suspect that particular ring of the chainset is only ever going to get used for going up hills.
Flipping a few more gears, onto the largest chainring and the smallest cog of the cassette, and I'm beginning to see why my friends said they dumped their hybrid after 6 months and bought a road bike. It's as though there ought to to have been somewhere else to go, another chainring.
Then I reminded myself that I didn't buy this for speed, I bought this to enjoy leisurely rides and get some exercise.
Meanwhile, the reflector at the front had clearly not been tightened enough and was threatening to fall off, and not having any tools with me, I decided to turn round and head back. Besides, my heart rate had gone up to the sort of tempo usually reserved for hardcore Scandinavian techno, and I didn't want to kill myself on my first ride.
I dismounted at home, having covered no more than two miles, and nearly fell over. During the past 10 mins or so, someone had replaced all the bones in my legs with jelly!
Unfit? Moi?
Maybe just a little.
Having fixed the reflector, and said to my wife, through heaving gasps, how much better I felt for getting some exercise, I went for a sit down with a glass of Lucozade.
I could get used to this cycling lark!
