I Want to Ride My Bicycle

After moving here, I found a decent, but not great, bicycle to allow me to get back into riding. Riding is one of the few exercises that doesn't generally get my RA in a bunch, so it is a good exercise to continue.

After getting the bike, but well past the 30 day return policy limit, I started to discover some issues with the bike I bought. I should have guessed, as I had to go through and tighten nearly every nut, bolt, and screw on the bike after getting it home because the man who put it together wasn't, shall we say, a pro.

The biggest issue with it was that my shifter didn't work right. Sometimes it would shift the gears off the sprockets and either onto my foot/pedal or onto the pedal crank on the other side. It also didn't quite line up with the gears and would shift multiple sprockets with on press of the shifter.

I tried to fix it myself, but shifters have always been touchy things and I don't know enough about them to do much. Soon it turned to winter and bike riding season was over, so I put the bike away until the spring/summer.

Took the bike into a place in town called Alternatives. They did a bike tune-up on it for $40. I asked them to pay specific attention to the gears, as I couldn't ride it on the hilly area around here without working gears. They took and told me to come back in a week to get it.

I now have my bike back and went for my first small ride today. Everything, for the most part, seems like it is running just fine. I was able to use all the gears I shifted to and at no time did the gears fall off on my feet or the crank. What I also learned is that I am way more out of shape than I thought, as I barely rode a few blocks before my legs were screaming at me.

If I stick with it, though, my legs and endurance should improve over time. I'd like to get to the point of riding on Manawagonish Road at some point. Or maybe down around the Nature Park, or similar. And, of course, it will help me lose a bit of this damn stomach I've developed from a year plus of sedentary living and Prednisone use.

If I stick with it and get into better shape, M says I can consider selling/giving this bike away and get a more expensive, better bike. So I have good incentive to keep it up now.