Sunday, October 17, 2010

What is this thing, and can I get a replacement?

It broke when I tipped over on my bike.   I didn't even know that it had broken until it clunked down and was interfering with the pedaling action.  It must have a name but I can't find one online to order.   Seems like not such a big deal, but it did prevent my leg from getting greasy when I ride, plus it seemed a bit of a protection from those pokey bits on the gear. 

Tipping over was just a dumb thing I did.  I don't even know what I was doing, I think I was trying to reach down and check my tire pressure on the front tire - while slowly riding on my driveway...or maybe I was feeling the front brake pad.  I don't know why I didn't stop and do whatever it was I was trying to do, silly.  And before I knew it I was falling, unable to stop it.  I was okay.  The bike thingy broke.

I'd like to replace it.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Thoughts While Pedaling

It was really windy today, which I didn't realize when I decided to ride my bike to town.  It's a ~6 mile ride, 3.5 miles east and 2 miles north, then usually less than a mile to wherever.  When I opened the door to take the bike out, I saw how windy it was.  The wind was straight out of the south, about 20 mph.  I decided to go for it.  Riding in was fine - a nice push on that northerly ride.  But coming home...well, it took about twice as long as it usually does.  My roads are straight and flat and fortunately there's not much traffic.  I thought the ride going south was hard and was relieved when I made the turn to the west but after I turned, I could hardly stay on the road!  I was buffeted around and sighed a "thank you" to every car that moved over to the other lane while passing me.  

When I ride, I ponder things.  I watch the speed on my little odometer, I watch the road and the scenery.  Sometimes I sing.  And I ponder things.  Today I was pondering the wind.  As I said, my road is flat.  Biking is kind of boring, til I get to town and I love to ride around the neighborhoods and look at people's houses and gardens.  The long straight stretch to town is easy because it's flat.  But today I was wondering how steep of a hill would correspond to the wind I was riding against.  I suppose someone has figured it out, you'd just have to know something like how fast you're going and how hard you're pedaling and somehow there must be a way to compare "up a hill" with "against the wind".  So I felt like I was riding "uphill" coming home.  The times when the wind would briefly die down were like a flattening of the hill.  And then the gusts were when the hill gets steeper.  But what's the correlation when the wind is coming from the side, trying to push me over?  That got a bit tricky at times!

No plane tickets yet.  No word from Indonesia pinning down the dates we should go.  But I did call the travel agent's boss and tell him about my less than desirable experience and why I'm not going back to the agent I had.  He apologized and explained and said that there's another agent who would be better for my situation.  Haven't decided yet if I will take him up on his offer to make an appointment with her.   So that's still up in the air.  Nothing to blog about in that area yet.