Take care of yourself

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Nah, dude. Mom and dad were cool. Wasn't their fault I'm not always the most ambitious guy. As for the rest of it...do you think they'd mind if I pedaled through:

21, thanks for the encouragement. Perhaps when Ernesto lifts, I'll have something to try this weekend.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I was just giving you a little good-natured ribbing - hope you realized that.

Since you are a novice cyclist, don't invest too much money on a bike at this point. Heck, borrow a neighbor's bike if you can. Try using a mountain bike first. They're built to let you be more upright and less in a hazardous position if/when you fall.

Find a parking lot or out of the way jr high with a track around the football field. One good step that I'm trying with my 5-year-old right now is to drop the seat plenty low at first so you don't trip on it or catch your booty on the saddle when you get going. Remember to start with one foot on the ground and the other on the peddle while it is near the top of the rotation. Push down with the upper foot while also pushing off with the lower foot. Might not hurt to have a slight downward slope to ride on so gravity is your training partner.

and wear a helmet. and gloves if you think you might end up falling and using your hands to catch your fall. heck, trying to get the hang of it on a long patch of grass might not be a bad idea because it will be a safer falling surface.

good luck.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I'd go the parking lot route. On weekends it's empty and if you find the right one you can have it to yourself. Agree with Idaho on the starting position, but if you do the downward slope thing, make sure you're familiar with the brakes. If you have hand brakes, use the rear tire brake, not the front tire brake . You'll have it down in no time.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Hustle, you're not the only unambitious kid. I could never beak free from the training wheels, so I stopped riding after I was 5.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I recently bought a new bike for my wife/daughter to share and ride along with me. I asked my wife if she wanted to go for a ride with me and she reluctently said OK. She tried to get started a couple of times and suddenly remembered a phone call she needed to make. I think she might also be among the never-learned-to-ride crowd. :-\

So shame in that. I never learned to perform a vasectomy so she's still got that on me.

I really don't think it's a lack of ambition, just interests in other things. I've never been skiing and I don't feel like I lack the ambition to do so.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Hustle,

http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/16604

Lots of advice here. One tip was to find a slightly-sloping hill or field, remove the peddles from the bike and just practice rolling down the hill and learning how to keep the balance up. The grass will prevent some nasty road rash.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

So, did she use a take-home kit to perform yours?

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Nahhh. I let another doc do it. I didn't want to take the risk that I had really pissed her off earlier that day.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Thanks, chief. I tried to do a couple of searches for that sort of thing, but came up empty...

And my plan was to go rent a bike for a day or two and see how things went, then decide if I wanted to pour more significant money into it.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Boom says you can borrow his:

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Wish me luck. The mini-triathlon is bright and early in the morning.

I took the bike out and rode the course a couple of times tonight and I'm glad I did. There are a couple of tricky turns that the scouting will be helpful for. Plus, I found out I had two tires that were a little low on air pressure and that's a recipe for a wipeout and some nasty road rash.