Kip came up to help me when I came in. I brought my bike in, planning on not leaving with it and doing a trade-in. Kip showed me crossover bikes per my request because I was doing trail and road/greenway runs. I have a neck issue with the spinal fusion, so I can’t lean way over as my neck doesn’t arch back like people with all their vertebral junctions do. We talked about ways to possibly address that with changing out the handle bar part (the stem? I can’t remember what he called it.)
Then he showed me mountain bikes. They had big, fat tires that looked so stable to me. The biggest thing I’ve not liked about the bike I have is I don’t feel stable on it. I feel like the wheels could skip on a rock or slick terrain or fine gravel or mud and I’d be down and out. It’s a serious concern I’ve been working through, especially since I have a thirty-pound child on the back on the bike most of the time with me. So those big wheels looked grippy and solid and safe to me.
Here’s the thing: I would have bought a new bike. I would have paid twice as much as I did for the first bike I got, because I wanted to feel safe and I wanted to enjoy riding and being able to ride aggressively without worrying I was going to wipe out. I wanted my neck to be comfortable and if possible, I wanted my ass to not hurt for two days after a ride.
What happened was Kip talked me out of all the new stuff. He said he thought all I really needed were some new tires on my existing bike. He could replace the ones I had on my existing wheels and in so doing, give me a wider wheel that will be much more stable on both trail and roads.
For the bike seat, he had me sit on this heavy foam thing for forty-five seconds so the bones in my backside (they have names, but I forgot them) would make a width impression. He then showed me the seat that would work best for me. It was tiny. It was thin. It was firm. It didn’t feel particularly comfortable, but he told me to bring it back if he was wrong. I asked about shorts and he pointed me to some that were made to go with that particular seat.
I bought sixty dollars worth of tires and a fifty dollar seat. Today, I went on a ride in the park. Kip was right. He was right about everything. I love the tires, they make my bike feel like a totally new vehicle. And the seat! I forgot I was sitting on a bike seat. I didn’t spend a lot of time scooting forwards or backwards because it was adjusted for me and it fit my body.
I rode fourteen miles today on hilly trails. I rode hard and made under five-minute per-mile average time for the trip, which for me, is great. I was riding hard. I was pedaling uphill and pedaling downhill—something I never did before because I was afraid I’d wipe out with too much speed on the old tires. I was having a great time.
At about eleven miles I reached up and scratched my head because I was pretty itchy. Wait…I just scratched my head. I shouldn’t be able to scratch my head because there should be a helmet on my head protecting me in case I fall. Oh dear. I rode very carefully the rest of the way home.
Kip is working again on Thursday. I’m going back to the bike shop to tell him thank you for the great advice and for helping me find a solution that worked, instead of just selling me a new bike.
The Big Boy Tiny Girl Pool Swimming Update: I was at the pool with my children today. My daughter jump/dove (read belly flopped) in and then started swimming across the width of the pool. I watched her swim for a while, take a breath, swim some more and repeat. When she got to the far side I picked her up and cheered. I told her I didn’t know she could swim across the whole pool. Then, my son decided to do the same thing because he wasn’t about to be outdone. When he got to the other side I did another hugging, cheering and kissing round. I asked him, “who taught you to swim across the pool?” He told me, “Margaret did.” Margaret is Uncle Jonathan’s girlfriend. She joined us for a pool date last week. Thanks, Margaret for the swim lesson!
Fitness Update: It was one of those days. I ran seven miles this morning with my neighbor. Then I biked fourteen miles to check out the new tires and seat. I didn’t plan on biking fourteen miles, but I was having so much fun. After that, we went to the pool and I swam some laps so my children wouldn’t glom onto me and instead, would play with the other children at the pool. I got about a half-hour of laps in. It’s interesting swimming laps with goggles on. You can watch your children the entire time surreptitiously from under the water.
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