Manning Up

 My reason for not riding yesterday was that the wind was too strong. It left me feeling like shit,  physically pear shaped & emotionally doubting my toughness.  

Time to man up. 

"You live more in five minutes on a bike like this than some people do in a lifetime". 

" I've  always tried to not be scared of anything". 

"If you don't follow through on your dreams,  you might as well be a vegetable".

                              Burt Munro

                     The World's Fastest Indian

   Well, this morning the wind came up with a vengeance,  & when I pushed through that little hick-up, I discovered I had a flat tyre. Well fuck, thinks I, a chicken shit would pack it in.  Well,  not me,  not today.  

Loading groceries. 
 Puncture repair. 


I plucked the tube out & marveled at the beautiful engineering of the & tube.  Even the tube was a work of art.  With some air I could see green gel bubbling out from a small knick on the inside of the tyre. The magic gel had lost its mojo & was just fizzing out & doing nothing.  

I opened my stash of Scabs inherited from my brother in-law (heart attack,  age 55 years). Scab #1 failed. Self- doubt surges.  Scab #2 with extra chafing & cleaning took hold. Haha! We're off. 


This triking caper inflated my chest as I surged through the gears & dodged potholes.  Dodging road debris on a trike is complicated,  you can't just swerve away you have to make it miss three tyres & the derailleur. deraileur takes skill & focus for the duration of the ride!

About 6 klm as I'm enjoying working the gears up a small rise,  Scab #2 gives out. The original tube is so petite, my LBS purchase looks like a tractor tube by comparison.  I stuff it in like a Christmas Turkey's butt & it's works.  I was still heading out,  so it took some courage or stupidity to keep going. But,  by ride's end,  that fat littler bugger was rock hard.  

Coming of the rise,  we picked up speed, a lot of speed & I worried about blow outs,  gear at failure or pothole collision.  But,  she kicked arse as the Americans say.  In town I stowed groceries in the pannier,  inhaled a banana & left on the other road.  The one with paint on it,  & a lot of traffic.  

Without a flagpole & powerful lights,  the width of the trike made me uncomfortable.  The problems around here are; there is no bike lane & the edge of the road is bouncy & eroded.  But I d sucked up my fear & pedaled hard during the worst bits.  But disconcerting an area arrears was sunken & ran half the lane width,  I worried about my deraileur & being hit from behind if I dodged it.  Tt geese roads are something!

After the road damage & lack of bike lan continued, I decided to ride into oncoming traffic. With my headlight on,  I got heaps of space.  Perhaps witnessing the humaness of the cyclist does that? 

After turning off I resumed normal lane use.  The wind almost drove me to a standstill,  but I laughed into its face.  Not today windy. 

Monday be 30 klm's, three puncture stops,  but I got out,  got groceries & feel in love with my trike a little bit more.  

Peace, love & human powered cycling.   


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

a skin thing?

As a surfer from my childhood years I escalated to surfing most days. If i wasn't surfing I was just going on or out of the surf, or at school or in latter yesrs work. Some school days would see me run home from the beach dripping wet, stuff cereal down & jog to school. At lunch break I would grab a bike & get a surf in.  On my twenties i took up sailing. If I wasn't actually sailing I would be working on my boat getting things ready. I spent two enjoyable winters on the tropical north.  In later life, I've mowed lawns for an income & continued to swim & sail when I can.  As old surfers know, there's a toll on your skin. Some surfers I know have died or been treated for skin cancer, so it's a vocational hazard.  Added to this, I have a genetic weakness towards skin cancer. My great grandmother passed in midlife & her daughter, my grandmother, had several skin grafts on her nose to manage skin cancer.  Last month my younger brother Pete had a ...
Read more

the american dilemma

Image
Ever willing to criticise  The Pres with the Snake Eyes When he calls out "Fake News!". The media lead a people's chorus of boos.   The same singers when at home Before the neon god they lay prone Soaking up bullshit ads & sculpted boobs Glitzy endless crap on the tube.
Read more

mass political deception

Image
On the day a gunman nicked ex president Trump's ear the world politcians decried violence as evil, undemocratic & so on, more than 39 people were killed in Palestine. These events highlight mass hypocrisy across the world with regards violence & race.  No one in the media industry will ever mention this hypocrisy.
Read more