ARE MY BICYCLING DAYS OVER?

Yesterday I planned it all out. Since I brought up my bike on my last visit to my home down south, I finally got the perfect day to clean the bike up, bring it to a tire store to get the tires filled with air and test drive it at a bike trail.

I would ride it around the gigantic parking lot which is flat and hardly any cars in it and very little cars going in and out of it. If I felt I had a confidence about driving there and my stamina would hold out, I would attempt the trail which was fairly flat.

While I was cleaning up the bike at the apartment and getting air for the tires at the tire store, the excitement was gaining. I got to the parking lot of the bike trail, removed my bike from the van and wondered how in the world did I ever get on this dynosour? It's been about 13 years since I've been on this thing, riding comfortably, feeling secure and having fun. Although I did take it out in the Joshua Tree National Monument a couple of times, I remember feeling good about my
biking. This was on a cooler day. The park doesn't have bike lanes, but with the traffic so light there, riding on the side of the road didn't seem to bother me. In fact, that's the only way to ride there.

So, as I was looking at my huge friend of almost 35 years I almost had to hold the bike almost flat with the parking lot in order to get on. Once that was accomplished, I nervously tried to start peddling. My steering sucked, my balance was off a bit, but with a few circles of this parking lot, I finally felt a bit more confident. I fiddled with the gears, which also made me nervous and shakey and a loss of control set in. I stopped, stood there and tried again to start peddling. I practiced braking. I did all of these things at a very low speed, trying to always be in control.

After a few laps around the parking lot and with increased confidence, I got on to the bike trail. It was kind of all coming together now. The trail was level enough for me to continue on when a few seconds later the peddling got harder. I couldn't even see the elevation gain because it was so gradual and really, there hardly was any at all, but I started feeling it. My breathing got labored, my arms on the drop down handlebars ached and just being hunched over on my wonderful touring bike was just very uncomfortable. After a few seconds of trying to peddle on, I told myself this bike is too big for me now. I felt very high off the ground. I turned around and started back to the parking lot. Now that I had a little elevation gain I was going down the trail at a pretty fast pace and I wasn't even peddling. It was fun at first and then I started applying the brakes. I didn't want to lose control. I was high up on my bike and could see myself losing control and taking a terrible fall. I wasn't going to do that. I slowed down enough to gain control once again, got back to my van and home I went.

My pride was hurt that I couldn't bike like I used to. I remember I used to bike 50 miles at a time with bicycle clubs in LA and Orange Counties. What fun that was.

I also attribute not being able to ride comfortably was I wasn't wearing my biking pants or the light bicycling top I usually wore. I was only wearing black elastic type shorts with my old bright yellow biking shirt which was too warm and too small for the warm, sunny day it was. I thought very seriously of selling my loved bicycle for a smaller type bike they are using now.

I went down to my local bicycle shop and asked if anybody or if they knew anybody would like to buy my bike. Since I had the bike in the van, the owner of the shop looked at it and said he'd give my number to a young man who did serious racing. Although this young man had a carbon bike (really serious of a bike) you never know who knows who and would like a really good bike as mine. Mine is a Raleigh Competition and in that day when I bought this bike it was suited to me in size.

I haven't heard back from him yet, but I plan on visiting bike shops further down the hill in Sacramento and maybe find someone with a buyer of this good ol' bike of mine.

I checked on the Internet what my bike was selling for now. Well, REI is selling them new for $2,500! I might even trade it in for a smaller bike if I get a good enough trade in for it, if there is such a thing as a trade in at a bike shop. I'd like to see what's going on out there in the bikes I would like, clothing I would like and any other special gear that has been invented since my days of cycling, where the ordinary consumer had little to spend his disposable income on. I think it will be a fun experience and a project to do.

I hate to let go of my bicycling exercise because not only do I really enjoy it, as long as I feel comfortable, but I really need that exercise, being with people who also enjoy it and going to new bicycling areas in this beautiful area.

So for now, I'm keeping it on the back burner and seeing if I can recapture what I've always enjoyed doing.