My First Bike Ride to Work - 9 Years Ago

My First Bike Ride to Work

Before you read this, just keep in mind it was written 9 years ago and in June, but I would honestly have experienced the same things now (minus the nice weather as we are still experiencing snow and single digit temps)

       Hello from London Ontario.  I decided to try riding a bike to work for various reasons and found that after just my first day I was already annoying my family with the many details of my ride until my husband suggested that I write a blog about it. Well the gauntlet was thrown ( I read too much)  and who knows , maybe I can encourage more people to get out of the traffic jam and onto the paths and sidewalks.
I borrowed my bike from sister because a) I am cheap...and b) I am not known for following through with anything requiring me to do exercise. So Wed June 1 I set off from my house on a red Supercycle that is made for a person about 4 inches shorter than me. I turned around and went back into the house, got a wrench and adjusted the seat about 3 inches higher. Ok so now I am really going. I noticed that along the way ,when cars are stopped, waiting for a school bus to load kids...I could keep going. This is cool, definitely an advantage. Also, you get to smell the flowering bushes at the side of the road, lilacs and honeysuckle are in season right now and if you don't have allergies to pollen or bees this is a good thing. But the first lesson I learned ...keep my mouth shut and breath through my nose...bugs taste awful and they don't like flying into your mouth.
Most of my ride is downhill, a lot of it along Oxford St which is such a busy road I cannot imagine the effect I would have had on traffic this day if I had not been on the sidewalk...I am a big wuss when it comes to cars. I have always told my kids to ride on the sidewalk and that I would pay the ticket if they ever got one. I watched how close to the sidewalk  trucks and cars travel and kept picturing me in a state of nervous breakdown all the way to work and it is not worth it...so hopefully our city leaders will do something right and vote for the new bylaw allowing bikes on sidewalks . 
Once you get closer to the core there is a really nice path through Harris Park along the river. The sounds and smells of traffic are replaced with birds, frogs geese and greenery all around. I forgot I was going to work for a bit.  I got to work a little sweaty and out of breath, but what do you expect, I have not ridden a bike in 25 years and my favorite activity is reading ...I was just happy my heart and lungs decided this was not the day to pay me back for all the chips and bacon I have eaten. ~

Day 2 and My Rear Brake is Gone

When I rode my bike home from work on day 1, it was mostly an uphill ride. I knew that riding home would not be as easy, since in the biking world what goes down must come up.. but mother nature decided to kick it up a notch with such strong winds that I found myself having to pedal while going downhill so I would not come to a complete stop. When I shuffled into the house my kids took one look at my red sweaty face and said "I bet you'll be too sore to ride in tomorrow".  So the next morning I thought of my kids and their prediction while every muscle in my body was so tired I had to literally roll out of bed to get moving. Needless to say, I did not ride in yesterday.
But today I was ready and there was no wind to fight with. About halfway there, I heard a "zing" sound and saw that my back brake had snapped. Greeeaatt.  I was too far from home to go back so I figured since I still have my front brake I should be OK. If I lost my front brake as well I planned on finding a hill to coast up or a bush to crash into.
There is a really good bike/pedestrian  path that runs along the east side of the river in Harris Park and today I decided to try it. Everyone warned me about the steep hill near the Blackfriar Bridge. I was approaching the hill when a young woman walking her rather large pit bull mix stepped onto the path in front of me. I couldn't pass her since the bikes coming down the hill towards me were going too fast, so I was stuck behind her. When we got to the steep part of the hill, I realized that she was walking faster than I was pedalling and passing her was not really an option.  I found myself laughing, then panting, since laughing when you are already out of breath makes a really odd sound that her dog found disturbing. I pulled over at the top of the hill near the Blackfriar Bridge to catch my breath while she and her athletic dog walked confidently up another hill which I was now dreading. This was the last climb before I would hit level ground and arrive at work and I decided that whoever invented 1st gear was a genius and I love them~~