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Valley Village, California
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Published On: Oct 08, 2008 10:46 PM
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Published On: Oct 08, 2008 10:46 PM
Early Morning Bicycle Ride
The ONLY way to bike now that the real
summer heat has started.
I hadn't been biking for a few days, because
the high temperatures here in the San Fernando Valley have been over 100F since
Monday. Even at 7 P.M., the temperatures have been in the mid-90's. Also, my
knees have been recovering from the last
outing.
Yesterday I bought a new knee support, and for a wonder it actually had directions in. If you have worn cartilage in your kneecap, you're supposed to wear the support all the time, not just when you're exercising. Who knew? Now I've started wearing the support on my right knee constantly, and it's really helped. So when I woke up this morning, I talked myself out of bed by promising myself a before-breakfast bike ride in the Sepulveda basin before the air heats up.
So far, so good. I got to the basin about 7 A.M. When I unfolded Momo-chan, I noticed that she didn't seem to be rolling as easily as usual. Mentally ascribing this to a slightly misaligned brake, I went for my ride anyway.
About a quarter of the way through, I knew that this was no mere misaligned brake; the drag was very heavy. In addition, my gear shift has slipped or the cable stretched or something so that now I can't put the bicycle into first gear.
Stubborn as I am, I was not about to turn around and walk my bike back to my car. I promised myself a ride, and by God I was going to ride. After 4.8 miles, I felt like I'd been dragging logs up a hill for 45 minutes. All the way, I was planning what I was going to say to those &*^&* technicians at the bike shop...
Back at my car, I started to fold the bike and looked at it to see if I could identify the problem... and sure enough I could. I was the problem. The front brake cable was looped around the front safety reflector -- something that has happened before when I unfolded the bike, but I'd always corrected it before riding.
Oops.
Well, I got a good workout. The knee support, now that I'm no longer taking it off, is helping and I'm not in significant pain despite the really heavy effort pedaling this morning. The hub STILL won't go into first gear, though, and I need to learn how to adjust that myself so that if it happens while I'm commuting this fall I can fix it and continue on.
Note to self: Never ride a bike before I've had my coffee.
Update 10:09 P.M.: I just asked Hubby to teach me how to adjust the gear shift cable. Really very simple -- hills, here I come!
Yesterday I bought a new knee support, and for a wonder it actually had directions in. If you have worn cartilage in your kneecap, you're supposed to wear the support all the time, not just when you're exercising. Who knew? Now I've started wearing the support on my right knee constantly, and it's really helped. So when I woke up this morning, I talked myself out of bed by promising myself a before-breakfast bike ride in the Sepulveda basin before the air heats up.
So far, so good. I got to the basin about 7 A.M. When I unfolded Momo-chan, I noticed that she didn't seem to be rolling as easily as usual. Mentally ascribing this to a slightly misaligned brake, I went for my ride anyway.
About a quarter of the way through, I knew that this was no mere misaligned brake; the drag was very heavy. In addition, my gear shift has slipped or the cable stretched or something so that now I can't put the bicycle into first gear.
Stubborn as I am, I was not about to turn around and walk my bike back to my car. I promised myself a ride, and by God I was going to ride. After 4.8 miles, I felt like I'd been dragging logs up a hill for 45 minutes. All the way, I was planning what I was going to say to those &*^&* technicians at the bike shop...
Back at my car, I started to fold the bike and looked at it to see if I could identify the problem... and sure enough I could. I was the problem. The front brake cable was looped around the front safety reflector -- something that has happened before when I unfolded the bike, but I'd always corrected it before riding.
Oops.
Well, I got a good workout. The knee support, now that I'm no longer taking it off, is helping and I'm not in significant pain despite the really heavy effort pedaling this morning. The hub STILL won't go into first gear, though, and I need to learn how to adjust that myself so that if it happens while I'm commuting this fall I can fix it and continue on.
Note to self: Never ride a bike before I've had my coffee.
Update 10:09 P.M.: I just asked Hubby to teach me how to adjust the gear shift cable. Really very simple -- hills, here I come!
Posted: Thu - July 15, 2004 at 03:47 PM | | | | |