I have recently joined a social bicycle riding club. Well, there is four of us now anyway. I ride with my friend about every fortnight on weekends but this will be every week while she is at work.
I have a "ladies" bike, no gears, wicker basket and a nice comfy seat. It is red so it goes faster. I bought it from a department store in a box and we put it together.
I am riding with real women who ride real bikes with real gears and those slinky riding jerseys. I wear my pink Dunlop Volleys, leggings and over sized man's shirt. Man I look hot!! (Not).
I think the woman who takes us is gobsmacked - no gears? What is that about? You can see the lack of comprehension in her bulging eyes as she stares at the foreign body that is my deadly red treadly. It does have hand brakes...
Anyway, we had our ride. They took it quite slow until I enquired if this was their normal pace...it was so-o-o slow. I think they thought my bike was handicapped. Once the pace picked up a bit it was lovely. Chatting, riding, chatting, dodging swooping, nest protecting magpies and spying mother koalas in the road side trees. Beautiful. I did ask for a couple of drinks stops, we red bike riders get thirsty.
On the way back I started to fatigue. We red bike riders tire when riding against the wind but I made it back and was amazed to find out that we had ridden a whole 19km!! Woohoo, I am so impressed with myself. I survived the ride with NO gears.
I shall ride again with these real women. Maybe they will convert me to gears, maybe not. But I shall ride the deadly red treadly with a comfy seat with pride, puffing and panting and peddling for all I am worth.
A lot of waffle about my life on a small property in Australia and the people and animals that share it with me.