several years ago My son saw the neighbor lady leading a very nice clean bike out to the trash cans. he asked why. she replied that she figured someone would take it before the trash pickup truck came. There was nothing wrong with the bike. She just didn't ride it anymore. Son to the rescue. He asked if he could but it for his mom whom he wished to encourage to ride. No, but he could have it.

Fast forward a month or two or six and i rode it one morning and scared the snot out of myself going down an incline in a very low gear I had used to climb said incline without a helmet, and the frame shuddering as though to come apart at any moment. The bike went into the shed.

Fast forward a couple of years and with new cycling togs (thanks to my darling daughter) and a helmet that had been hanging in the shed for two years minus one month I had good intentions. I had Son check out the bike in front of the house and off I went.

Proudly I rode uphill to my limit of 3/4 of a mile. (At this point in my neighborhood one either gets to go up a serious hill or down a serious hill which one then must pedal back up.) i turned around and started back home feeling good. That is I felt good until I felt fear. No rearbrakes at speed going downhill. i shifted into the highest gear I could and squeezed that brake lever as hard as I could. Dragging my heels and intermittently hitting the front brake lightly I slowed to the slight incline of my driveway and hopped off the bike. Oh yeah, did I tell you that I had paid a bike shop well known by name to check this bike out before I rode it the second time? No? well I did.

The bike did not go back to the shed. I figured that it was not the bike's fault and it really did not have it in for me. I took it to another bike shop where the owner promised to make it safe. I am actually looking forward to getting over this cold and slightly warmer weather, yes, I am a wooss ( is that one s or two?) to get out and try again to recapture that good feeling of being up on a bike and out in the air moving under my own power.

In the meantime, I better shut this thing down and go pedal the stationary around my imagination. Let's see where shall I ride today?