I continue my chain rosary of remorse. Up, down, left, right. How could I expect any machine to withstand such indifference? I deserve nothing but contempt for this injustice... I got the bike April 3rd 2005 - FOUR years ago without a single dollop of maintenance except yearly chain oiling. No wonder fellow bikers avert their eyes in embarrassment when I lumber past on my grubby bike.
Once done I thrust my hands into a boiling vat of lye to try and get some of the grease off and then walk around the bike with nine different allen wrenches tightening up everything I could find. I had just returned from the bike store with 'bike grease' and I was eying my pedals. I head downstairs for more wrenches and carefully remove the pedals.
I then grease the threads and install some used ones that intoIt gave me for evaluation. I'll have to tell you about intoIt later but let's just say this guy is one serious bicyclist (he's training for some 200ish mile in one day, ride through three states starting in Utah event. It's USCF sanction, yeah he's that serious) and his joy of riding is incredibly infectious. The pedals I'm installing are called campus pedals so that I can buy cleats if I want to but the other side of the pedal is platform for regular everyday shoes.
My bike is a 'specialty' bike in the sense that I use if for everything, hauling a monstrous load of stuff from the grocery store, riding with the kids for ice cream, commuting to work, or getting lost on a long bike ride.
I'm starting to love it.
Once the pedals are installed I head out for a quick neighborhood romp. I think I even see the car of the kids that were harassing me a few days back parked in their driveway, the criminal masterminds. I'll check that out later.
The bike is quiet. I'm elated but too cautious to declare victory yet. I need to go on a long ride and the way the weekend is mapping out, when is uncertain - making me angsty.
If I'm going to do long rides on the bike I need to take care of it. Much more care then when I was casual about it. I hop on Amazon and order
I figure while I'm cleaning my bike I can inspect it for more opportunities to spend money.
Today at the gym I did my total body workout and a lot of stretches. I'll have to run it through Bubbles calorie per minute thingy I mentioned yesterday. I did fifteen minutes on the elliptical, five of them cool down, and it told me I burned off 160 calories. mmhmm ::rolls eyes::
My average HR for those fifteen minutes using the new math gives me the following calorie count:
10min X 8.63cal/min = 86 calories
5min X 7.56cal/min = 37 calories
For a grand total of 123 calories. Oh well.
Have a glorious weekend!
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