Bikes

My LW's

Mine without the rack yet

We bought new bikes for both of us. Since I bought them online, I had to put them together. Of course, there were no instructions.

I assembled my. LW's first (since hers was the outer most one), so I got to practice on hers first. It seems that mechanical things don't like me. So there was much frustration and sweatiness!

 I looked online for videos on assembling bikes, but the ones I found were for specific bikes at specific bike shops, so they were not for our bikes.

On my LW's, I thought I was done, but found a piece that was left over. So I looked at the bike online that we bought and compared the picture of the bike with the part and found where it went. It was from the front brake lever to the bracket on the headset.

I had her try it out and it didn't fall apart.  I assembled mine (with more sweatiness and frustration) and set the seat where I thought it should go and it was too low and the front brake (the brake that I had to connect) was not tight enough.

The bikes have the type of brake handle that also is the gear shift.  It is my first bike that way though my LW has a bike that is built that way(we bought it at s bike shop so ut was assembled!).

Hopefully, we can try them out for a long bike ride tomorrow(weather is a bit dicey today).

Biking

Today, I pumped up the tires of our bikes.  We have not ridden them for a long time.  The goal is to bicycle to Church on Sunday.  It is suppose to be 60 or so then.

Even though we get 40+ mpg on our new car, we like to bicycle since then we get exercise, we can leave at different times and we save the gas.  This week is "Women's Sunday", so the women do even more than normal.  And my Lovely Wife will want to stay later then I do.  I like to leave right after Church, my LW likes to have the goodies and talk to various people.

Since it is Women's Sunday, only the women will be in the choir(including my LW) and as Josh (our choir director) says the men will not be in the organized choir.

The first bike ride of the bicycling year is always exciting and we wonder how our legs will hold up!

Bike v. Car

Small hills and wind (in general except on a bridge or a hurricane) have no effect on a car.  Cars, in general, are not too much of a problem for other cars to see since they are about the same size and in the road lanes.  Cars use gasoline and emit noxious fumes.  Cars travel at 25-80 (or more with idiots at the wheel (assuming not on a race track)) mph.  Cars can carry 1-9 or so passengers.

On a bike going up hills increases the energy needed and hence increases the calories burned.  Into the wind with a bike has the same effect.  However, going down hills and with the wind does not seem to reduce the energy needed; this might be because we don't recognize the reduction as much as the increase.  Cars are a large problem for bikes, in a collision with a bike the care wins plus the cars do not seem to realize that we are there and hence do (to us) stupid and dangerous things.  Bikes use people calories for propulsion, which does not add to pollution other than the sweat odor.  When we bike, our speed is usually between 10-12 mph, up hills 0-8 mph and down hills 12-20 mph.  With our tandem we could have 2 passengers but usually the only one per bike (a friend of ours son has a four-dem) or with the bike kiddie cart 1 or 2 small children.

Long distances are a car's specialty; it takes a looonnng time to bicycle more than 20-30 miles; but on a bike it is much more likely to appreciate the scenery and notice people and other attractions.  If everybody would bike for short distances (1-15 miles round trip), then our health and pollution would be much better.

When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.- Sherlock Holmes


When you ride hard on a mountain bike, sometimes you fall, otherwise you’re not riding hard.- President George Bush


An engineer designing from scratch could hardly concoct a better device (BIKE) to unclog modern roads – cheap, nonpolluting, small and silent…- Rick Smith


The bicycle is just as good company as most husbands and, when it gets old and shabby, a woman can dispose of it and get a new one without shocking the entire community.- Ann Strong


Cycling to work is an important issue for business – the more who do it, the more our communities will support it. Healthy and green, cycling is worthy of the support of every business in the land.- Sir Digby Jones


Until mountain biking came along, the bike scene was ruled by a small elite cadre of people who seemed allergic to enthusiasm.- Jacquie Phelan


The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart. - Iris Murdoch


When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.
- H.G. Wells


Marriage is a wonderful invention; but then again, so is a bicycle repair kit.
- Lord Charles Beresford


Bicycling is the nearest approximation I know to the flight of birds. The airplane simply carries a man on its back like an obedient Pegasus; it gives him no wings of his own.- Louis J. Helle


bicycle (n)a vehicle composed of two wheels held in a frame one behind the other, propelled by pedals and steered with handlebars attached to the front wheel.
ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from bi- [two] + Greek kuklos ‘wheel.’