Ready to hit the road
Last week I barely touched a bicycle. While my mom was doing was busy with work I babysat for two days. I don't recall what I did on Thursday but I'm sure I didn't bike either. Then on Saturday we had to cancel our TNT ride for a number of reasons. My mom and I still went out and rode in Marina Del Ray. We actually passed by some of our team mates while we were exploring. I noticed a lot of bikers crossing the street at one point and directed my mom's attention. "There must be a bike path over there." Lo and behold there was one. We didn't explore it too much because my mother was feeling ill but we found what must be the rest of the beach path that continues in Venice and runs into Santa Monica.
My bike was also busy telling me whose boss. I noticed some rusting on my chain and other areas. It's been little over a month since I got it so I rode it to Wheel World. Let me tell you, Sepulveda is NOT a fun place to ride on. The streets are chewed up and the sidewalks are raised at jutting angles by tree roots. Not to mention heavy, impatient traffic. Bringing it in Thursday of that week I got a tune up. I also mentioned the rust. Justin, I believe, told me that I needed to grease any part of the bike made of steel. He informed me that I should do it once a month and pointed out that I needed to clean my bike. This was a review of a TNT workshop that I could barely remember. His tip was to buy a thick bristled paint brush, like those used to paint houses, and use it to clean in between my gears and my derailer. The mechanic did some adjusting to my gears. It rode fine...better even. On my way home BOTH my tires went flat. On my home from the shop!
I was too close to home to justify riding the bus. I'd have to walk a third of the way anyway. With my backpack on it was too hot to allow the walk to be any fun. Thankfully my bike is light or else I would have thrown it across the street instead of lifting it every time I had to step off and on the sidewalks. (No ramps) I returned home to some man watching his kid pull bricks off of the wall that protects my lawn from mud-sliding. Knowing that any reaction out of me would have been an obscene one I kept my mouth shut. I focused my attention to the detail of cleaning and lubricating my bike. After that I was in a better mood.
Friday my step-dad helped bring my bike to the shop to get the tires fixed. There were no holes in the tires so there must be spokes poking out of my rims. The rims were lined and new tubes were installed. On my Saturday morning ride my chain was clattering in almost every gear. My mom and I biked to Wheel World. We explored and rode through Culver City and Venice to kill time until the shop opened. I professed my love for them, how I had missed them so since we last met, and told them how I would never leave. We returned later on to be picked up by Dave who had been hanging out and getting to know everyone. They are so much cooler (and affordable) than Helen's Cycles. Though I only am familiar with Helen's in Santa Monica.
This week I biked from Hollywood and Highland to the Westwood village. Not many miles but much better than doing zero. There I met with my friend Adam who bought a $2 raffle ticket. *ahem* If you want to buy a ticket you need to get on that because the drawing is THIS Sunday and I wont be checking my messages on Sunday. Thursday evening, that's yesterday, my mom and I went to do our Brentwood ride. Smela (I hope I have that right) joined us in our quest for a bathroom causing the three of us to split from Deborah's Thursday group. My mom and I did about 15 miles on our laps on San Vincente and three more to our weekly IHOP trip. ^^ According to Ramon the San Vicente route is equal three times normal miles thanks to the incline on the way back. Wow, that means I'm doing a three mile incline! It's very rough but my mom and I are able to do more each week. I hope to do three full laps next time. Smela had some regrets about only doing one lap but she felt unwell after the first. We assured her that she did wonderful, that we hardly finished the first lap on our first try, and that we rode our whiny butts to IHOP because I wanted pancakes. Thus a weekly IHOP trip was established. I'm out of school for the summer so I don't have friends to coax into ditching their classes for a morning stack of goodness.
I don't know where we're going tomorrow morning. I've read all my team emails out of order. But now we are splitting up into two teams. One for Cool Breeze, an event that's coming up soon and another for Century Honolulu, the event I am doing soon. I believe it's Cool Breeze where we'll be doing the metric ride, a practice run for our actual event. I'm excited and hope to tell you all good things about tomorrow!
My bike was also busy telling me whose boss. I noticed some rusting on my chain and other areas. It's been little over a month since I got it so I rode it to Wheel World. Let me tell you, Sepulveda is NOT a fun place to ride on. The streets are chewed up and the sidewalks are raised at jutting angles by tree roots. Not to mention heavy, impatient traffic. Bringing it in Thursday of that week I got a tune up. I also mentioned the rust. Justin, I believe, told me that I needed to grease any part of the bike made of steel. He informed me that I should do it once a month and pointed out that I needed to clean my bike. This was a review of a TNT workshop that I could barely remember. His tip was to buy a thick bristled paint brush, like those used to paint houses, and use it to clean in between my gears and my derailer. The mechanic did some adjusting to my gears. It rode fine...better even. On my way home BOTH my tires went flat. On my home from the shop!
I was too close to home to justify riding the bus. I'd have to walk a third of the way anyway. With my backpack on it was too hot to allow the walk to be any fun. Thankfully my bike is light or else I would have thrown it across the street instead of lifting it every time I had to step off and on the sidewalks. (No ramps) I returned home to some man watching his kid pull bricks off of the wall that protects my lawn from mud-sliding. Knowing that any reaction out of me would have been an obscene one I kept my mouth shut. I focused my attention to the detail of cleaning and lubricating my bike. After that I was in a better mood.
Friday my step-dad helped bring my bike to the shop to get the tires fixed. There were no holes in the tires so there must be spokes poking out of my rims. The rims were lined and new tubes were installed. On my Saturday morning ride my chain was clattering in almost every gear. My mom and I biked to Wheel World. We explored and rode through Culver City and Venice to kill time until the shop opened. I professed my love for them, how I had missed them so since we last met, and told them how I would never leave. We returned later on to be picked up by Dave who had been hanging out and getting to know everyone. They are so much cooler (and affordable) than Helen's Cycles. Though I only am familiar with Helen's in Santa Monica.
This week I biked from Hollywood and Highland to the Westwood village. Not many miles but much better than doing zero. There I met with my friend Adam who bought a $2 raffle ticket. *ahem* If you want to buy a ticket you need to get on that because the drawing is THIS Sunday and I wont be checking my messages on Sunday. Thursday evening, that's yesterday, my mom and I went to do our Brentwood ride. Smela (I hope I have that right) joined us in our quest for a bathroom causing the three of us to split from Deborah's Thursday group. My mom and I did about 15 miles on our laps on San Vincente and three more to our weekly IHOP trip. ^^ According to Ramon the San Vicente route is equal three times normal miles thanks to the incline on the way back. Wow, that means I'm doing a three mile incline! It's very rough but my mom and I are able to do more each week. I hope to do three full laps next time. Smela had some regrets about only doing one lap but she felt unwell after the first. We assured her that she did wonderful, that we hardly finished the first lap on our first try, and that we rode our whiny butts to IHOP because I wanted pancakes. Thus a weekly IHOP trip was established. I'm out of school for the summer so I don't have friends to coax into ditching their classes for a morning stack of goodness.
I don't know where we're going tomorrow morning. I've read all my team emails out of order. But now we are splitting up into two teams. One for Cool Breeze, an event that's coming up soon and another for Century Honolulu, the event I am doing soon. I believe it's Cool Breeze where we'll be doing the metric ride, a practice run for our actual event. I'm excited and hope to tell you all good things about tomorrow!