View Single Post
Old 01-26-08, 07:00 PM
  #5  
StephenH
Uber Goober
 
StephenH's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Dallas area, Texas
Posts: 11,758
Mentioned: 3 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 190 Post(s)
Liked 41 Times in 32 Posts
Getting in Better Shape is one of my goals. Not better shape for riding specifically, just healthier. I saw one of my cousins that I hadn't seen in ages. He says, "Hey, you've put on some weight there!" Well, I thought that was a bit rudish. But then he went on to say he had been riding a bike and had lost about 60 lbs. And my older brother has been doing so as well. Both care nothing about racing or multigears, just get on and go. I started with a cheap mountain bike, rode it off and on when it was working for a year, then got my single-speed cruiser and have really enjoyed it. Last time I checked, I have lost about 20 lbs in the last year and a half. That's not a lot, but moving in the right direction. I'm faster now than what I've been, and been able to go on some of the group rides and not feel too badly about it all. A while back, I went to help a friend with some moving, and noticed I didn't get out of breath going up and down stairs. That was a cool feeling.

Fresh Air. This sort of goes with getting in better shape, but I just like to get out and do things, but I'm not really sports-minded either. Hiking in the mountains was a favorite activity for the 5 years I lived in Colorado, and I'm finding that bicycling gives me some of that same benefit here in the flatlands of Dallas. I've been going over to White Rock Lake and riding around it on weekends.

Tinkering is something I'm sort of accidentally engaged in. One of the items I had on my Christmas list was a low-gravity bicycle. So I've been working on assembling that off and on. It wouldn't take that long if I just dove in and worked on it full time. But I've laced up wheels for the first time ever. Currently, I'm sawing/drilling/filing out some tools for the adjustable bottom bearing adjustment. Give me another month or two and it ought to be running. More details will be posted when I'm done. I should be able to take Brutus the bulldog for rides in it, too.

Touring, Bicycle Commuting, Utility Cycling are ideas I just never really thought about until I started reading more online. The ideas intrigue me, but I may or may not make much headway in that direction. I've got an old tandem bicycle that I plan to convert into a reverse-bakfiets, plus the low-gravity bike. That would let me do all my grocery shopping by bicycle, but on the other hand, that's a minor part of my driving. I can commute via bicycle and commuter train, but it takes me a good while longer than driving, and getting to work all sweaty won't work except on weekends. I've done a lot of camping, and have been pondering the touring idea. That would probably amount to a 20-25 mile ride out ot a local lake to camp, but still sounds like fun. I don't plan to tour the country or anything. No one else in the family has any interest in cycling, so that takes some of the attraction out as well.

Unicycling. I got a unicycle the day after Thanksgiving and have been learning to ride it. It's a slow process, but I'm doing okay for me, I guess. It just sounded like fun and a challenge.
__________________
"be careful this rando stuff is addictive and dan's the 'pusher'."
StephenH is offline