Strange Newbie Sensation
 

So I was driving a car last night after my second full day of riding fixed gear around town. When I slowed down for a light I had this weird sensation that my legs should be rotating. Don't know if any of you experience that sort of thing (hopefully not many of you have to drive cars) but I think it's pretty rad that fixed gear has re-programmed my body in just a couple of days...
-s

ha!! my friend tony has taken this to a whole new level. after not having driven in months he had to car-sit. but he found that his navigation was still very bike-oriented and sometimes he would forget completely that he was in a car: ie. not heeding which direction traffic goes, jumping up onto curbs to avoid potholes (which he would have done on his bike normally) and the funniest of them all -- looking BOTH ways when at an intersection.

The last time I was downtown in a car, my buddy was asking me to navgate and I kept sending him down the bus lanes instead of the car lanes (opposite directions). I seem to remember SuperRookie mentioning that it's a bad thing if you ride brakeless long enough and then drive a car - you try to pull up with both feet to stop, which doesn't really work with the pedals in a car...

Hi sruti! Sounds like you have a case of "phantom spinning"! ;)
Good to see another rider on the forums representing Durham - maybe I'll see you around!

Just wait til you get on a geared bike after months of nothing but riding fixed.... ;)

ditto what fixer said, big time.

in addition, i have friends who, after biking rather than driving for a while, will start creeping into intersections, looking for traffic, and having the instinct to run reds if there are no cars coming. ha.

Nothing stranger than the attempted fixie stop on a geared bike. Oh yeah, that's what those levers are for.....

i always get the feeling that the crank arms are soft and flexible when i coast. it's like, what is it with you guys? how come you're just sitting there?

And maybe another. I'm applying for a job that could help me escape my 50 mile (car. one-way) commute and get back on my bike for a 32mile round trip through Durham.

I am also from Durham.

During the tail end of ragbrai i would kick
my legs at night. luckily my tent partner
didn't notice, otherwise he'd get the boot.

jeff

I have that problem more when riding a geared bike after riding fixed for a while. Although now when driving, I am constantly swerving like mad to avoid these small little bumps and potholes that you can barely feel in a car but would give you a little jolt on a bike.

The strangest thing for me was going back to driving an auto trans after driving nothing but manual for a year - I kept stepping on the "clutch" every time I started the car or would come to a red light, it felt really strange.

After my first few days of riding fixed, every time I sat down my legs felt like they were still rotating. That went away after a couple more days, but it was a very strong sensation the first two days.

Good to see some Durham peeps in here.

Whenever friends come to visit me I almost always force them to ride bicycles around the city. Sometimes I'll have to get in a car and they'll ask for directions and inevitably they fall through since I only know bicycle-accomodating directions - one-ways, et al. We'll get halfway somewhere and everything falls to pieces. I'd go INSANE if I had to be in a car in the city more than a few hours a year.

I've tried to "clip out" of the van's accelerator and clutch pedals before! :)

I have to remind myself not to slowdown for RR tracks.