I rode my trike to work and back today. It was a great deal of fun. I wasn't at all nervous going down the hill from our house, because the brakes are amazing. It has disc brakes, so it brakes much faster than a bike. I quickly learned, though, that I need to brake both wheels at once, cause otherwise I'd head off into a slide.
The way to work was all about figuring out how to use the bike. For some reason, I can clip my left biking shoe into the pedal without a problem, but I spent a lot of the way to work trying to get my right foot clipped in. Also, I had to learn to significantly downshift when I came to an intersection. Starting the trike from a dead stop is much harder work than pushing off of one foot and stepping on the pedal on a bike. I need to be in a low gear and have plenty of space between cars. It's much easier to work the pedals both ways on the trike than on a bike, pushing forward and pulling back.
People at work wanted to try it, so we all went out into the parking lot and everyone gave it a shot. It was a lot of fun. Jeff had the best ride--he got up a lot of speed, and then braked on one side and went into a power slide. I don't know if that's what he intended, but it really looked cool.
The real test was the way home--the vast majority of the trip is uphill. My legs started burning going up the bike path which starts 3 blocks from my office, and I knew that what nothing compared to the 2 miles uphill on North Farms Road. That hill is why our road is so popular with the area biking crowd.
Liz got her trike today, so she met me at the bottom of the hill. We wanted to do the first climb together. The trike is geared very low--much lower than my bike was. On the way to work, I never dropped into the lowest gear in the front. I took my brother's advice and downshifted early, rather than doing what I'd always done in the past, which was downshifting when I had to.
We made slow, but steady progress up the hill. I didn't need to shift into the lowest gear until the steepest section. It starts right where you can first see our house--the place my car got stuck in the snowstorm the day I couldn't make it up the hill. That section of the hill is about 300 feet to the top, where our driveway is. About a quarter of the way up that section, I realized I could make it, and looking in my rear view mirror, saw Liz was right behind me. We both made it up the hill! We were both excited--both of us thought we were going to have to work our way into shape to make it up.
We love our trikes! I sure never had any desire or interest in getting one, but now that we have them, I realize that it's much easier to give up rollerblading for something new than it would have been for biking.
I've been biking since I was a little girl. I remember the day I learned how to bike. My dad was holding onto the saddle as I pedaled, he let go, and I took off. I remember the feeling of freedom and joy at riding my bike. I've always had a bike as an adult, but have never chosen it as my means of exercising. The trike feels like something new and fun I'm choosing, rather than something I'm doing because I don't have any other choice.
Thanks again, Ruth, for making the suggestion!
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Awesome!!
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