Cheetah go fast!
I used to be a cycling nut. It was cheap and easy transportation when I was growing up, and while getting "in town" was a little far to walk, it was well within the range of a bicycle. During college, it was always up and down the hills of Pittsburgh racing everywhere. While I wasn't a racing nut, I was a cycling nut, though I had a penchant for showing people just how fast I could get from place to place. My use of bikes pretty much stopped when I moved out to the West Coast, because unlike rural Connecticut, a lot of the basic commuting was on highways, not roads; don't try bicycling on the highway in California if you can help it. Even bicycling in-city involves a lot of stop-and-go and general craziness and not the long, flowing, graceful riding that I enjoyed back in Connecticut. I purchased a mountain bike, so that all the bumpy roads and general wear-and-tear wouldn't break my bike so easily, but it wasn't riding in the same sort of way.
For the past several months, my boyfriend has been getting more and more into bicycling. Originally he stopped due to his small size (He's about 5'3" (160cm).) and the fact he's had some measure of back and knee problems. Many of the joint issues have been solved with the purchase of a recumbent bicycle, and the bike fits him perfectly. This means he has a high-gear-ratio bike designed to let you really drive with your legs for some pretty impressive speed.
This is compared, of course, to me on my mountain bike. The mountain bike is great for climbing hills and taking bumps, but not for speed. With him being able to outdistance me on flatland and downhills, and then have me catch back up on the uphills, we pretty much wound up with him taking the lead. Slowly, he's been reeling me back into bicycling, and it's been a good bit of exercise.
Introduce our local mechanic and metal-head, dustykat.
Before being the incredible motorcycle master he is, his first mechanic work was on bicycles. From storage, he pulls out this vintage (ob: Is it 'classic' or 'vintage' when the item is 25 years or older? Let me know.) Schwinn Tempo racing bike. He found it and loved it because the frame was so tall it was one of the few bikes that he could sit comfortably, being the 6'4" (195cm) monster Viking he is. I can just about fit over it, so he dusted it off, gave it the once-over, and hands it off to me to let me try a genuine road bike. After changing out the tires and tubes (Untreated rubber simply doesn't last ten years without drying out and becoming brittle and useless in that regard.) and getting on a new seat, I take it out for a spin with my boyfriend.
He tells me that for most of the ride to and from the bike shop about four and a half miles away, I was averaging about 24mph (38.5kph), and at one sprint, I pushed up to 30mph (48.3kph). I was flying.
I may become a cycling nut again.
For the past several months, my boyfriend has been getting more and more into bicycling. Originally he stopped due to his small size (He's about 5'3" (160cm).) and the fact he's had some measure of back and knee problems. Many of the joint issues have been solved with the purchase of a recumbent bicycle, and the bike fits him perfectly. This means he has a high-gear-ratio bike designed to let you really drive with your legs for some pretty impressive speed.
This is compared, of course, to me on my mountain bike. The mountain bike is great for climbing hills and taking bumps, but not for speed. With him being able to outdistance me on flatland and downhills, and then have me catch back up on the uphills, we pretty much wound up with him taking the lead. Slowly, he's been reeling me back into bicycling, and it's been a good bit of exercise.
Introduce our local mechanic and metal-head, dustykat.
Before being the incredible motorcycle master he is, his first mechanic work was on bicycles. From storage, he pulls out this vintage (ob: Is it 'classic' or 'vintage' when the item is 25 years or older? Let me know.) Schwinn Tempo racing bike. He found it and loved it because the frame was so tall it was one of the few bikes that he could sit comfortably, being the 6'4" (195cm) monster Viking he is. I can just about fit over it, so he dusted it off, gave it the once-over, and hands it off to me to let me try a genuine road bike. After changing out the tires and tubes (Untreated rubber simply doesn't last ten years without drying out and becoming brittle and useless in that regard.) and getting on a new seat, I take it out for a spin with my boyfriend.
He tells me that for most of the ride to and from the bike shop about four and a half miles away, I was averaging about 24mph (38.5kph), and at one sprint, I pushed up to 30mph (48.3kph). I was flying.
I may become a cycling nut again.