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New Set of Wheels
May. 25th, 2024 05:25 amTrek is having a sale this weekend, and I'm heading into Jacksonville on the off chance that Bicycles Etc. will also have those discounts and I can get myself a new bike. I've been riding, or trying to ride, this very not great big box store bike I bought at the start of the pandemic. At the time it was perfect because I was just teaching myself to ride and knew I'd be crashing a lot, and it was the only bike I could get my hands on at the time. It's a steel frame I refer to as The Tank because it weighs about as much as I do and you probably couldn't damage this thing short of backing over it with a dump truck. The problem is the gears are always loosening and falling and just .... MEH. Fox has stopped trying to work on it because repairing it is an exercise in futility. Oh yeah, the handlebars come loose, too, so that's awesome.
What I didn't know until recently is that after her two kids were grown, Fox's mom got into competitive cycling and was doing races. She rode with a local bike group for a long time until age caught up with her. I'd have said she should consider taking it up again but she shattered a finger recently by trying to lift a bucket, so it sounds like osteoporosis is catching up to her. I don't want to throw shade at the woman, but she's always doing shit like raw potato diets and fruitarian vegan and stuff. Anyway, Fox has been handed down his dad's mountain bike (also a Trek) and a friend of theirs who refurbishes bikes hooked him up with a carbon fiber Orbea road bike, which I think I posted about already. Besides that we've got a couple of the very low-end big box bikes which we probably ought to get rid of. Someone locally may want them to work on.
Update: I started this yesterday morning. Since then we went to the shop and between Fox and the sales guy they talked me into a higher tier bike, so my broke ass may be doing art commissions soon :D
It's a nice one, though. I just need time to get out and ride and gain more confidence in it. I hate to put it like this, but I need to ride alone for a while, because I get more focused on what Fox is doing and saying to me, and trying to do everything right, and I can't just fuck around, mess up, and learn my usual way. I was raised by a perfectionist. Anyway I may head up to the Lake Butler Trail this weekend to pedal around, and if the soccer fields aren't hosting a game, there's a whole big parking lot to ride around in. I'm not great at turning yet - I'm basically only a step up from a raw noob at this.
And in case anyone is curious, the bike is teal green. I think it's listed as blue, but then I also think Trek's colors have been sorted by someone who is straight up colorblind.
What I didn't know until recently is that after her two kids were grown, Fox's mom got into competitive cycling and was doing races. She rode with a local bike group for a long time until age caught up with her. I'd have said she should consider taking it up again but she shattered a finger recently by trying to lift a bucket, so it sounds like osteoporosis is catching up to her. I don't want to throw shade at the woman, but she's always doing shit like raw potato diets and fruitarian vegan and stuff. Anyway, Fox has been handed down his dad's mountain bike (also a Trek) and a friend of theirs who refurbishes bikes hooked him up with a carbon fiber Orbea road bike, which I think I posted about already. Besides that we've got a couple of the very low-end big box bikes which we probably ought to get rid of. Someone locally may want them to work on.
Update: I started this yesterday morning. Since then we went to the shop and between Fox and the sales guy they talked me into a higher tier bike, so my broke ass may be doing art commissions soon :D
It's a nice one, though. I just need time to get out and ride and gain more confidence in it. I hate to put it like this, but I need to ride alone for a while, because I get more focused on what Fox is doing and saying to me, and trying to do everything right, and I can't just fuck around, mess up, and learn my usual way. I was raised by a perfectionist. Anyway I may head up to the Lake Butler Trail this weekend to pedal around, and if the soccer fields aren't hosting a game, there's a whole big parking lot to ride around in. I'm not great at turning yet - I'm basically only a step up from a raw noob at this.
And in case anyone is curious, the bike is teal green. I think it's listed as blue, but then I also think Trek's colors have been sorted by someone who is straight up colorblind.
