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Mar. 3rd, 2006 08:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerRupert and I went out on our first jaunt using his new computer, and now we have DATA, which make all analysts happy! (the choice of icon is because the background numbers look all statistic-y)
I used yet another distance alternative (my main street plus only one side road--Overbrook--becase the school bus was coming down Crestview and I didn't feel like trying to negotiate my way past it under the watchful eye of dozens of eight-year-olds who know how to cycle better than I do :-). So to compensate I went back down my cul de sac after climbing the hill. Distance = 2.23 miles. Average speed = 8.5 mph. Time = 15.28 minutes.
Other useful statistics: top speed = 21.2 mph. Walking speed, thoroughly pooped, pushing bike up the Big Hill = 3.5 mph. Roughly average speed when riding 9-10 mph. Speed I feel safe at = ~16 mph. Speeds I start to feel nervous at = >20mph (but it's still exhilarating until the little voice kicks in saying "You're going very fast, can't control this, AND WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!")
Other nonstatistical observations:
It's easier in bike shorts. Really.
I still don't have a good handle (so to speak) on how to ride with one hand and signal with the other (I tried, and almost ended up like DUmbo, only there was no policeman in riot gear to crash into).
My brakes work really well (I had an unintentional emergency stop when I overbraked and turned into a sideways skid--like the cool kids on daytime TV--when making a 360 degree turn).
Questions for more experienced cyclists:
Is there something on the Web that explains how to operate gears in very simple layman's language? I still feel as if there may be some essential principle I'm missing, especially when it comes to the left-hand (meta) gears.
Does one eventually learn how not to wobbble from side to side when moving one's legs up and down at something other than the speed one's aunty would use?
Likewise, does one eventually learn how not to joggle when shifting gears?
What's the best leg position for coasting? I always extend one leg, and sometimes brace it, but only because 1920s Oxbridge students always seem to do that in movies/TV, and they must know best, right? ;-)
Lastly, I have to confess that the Rot set in as soon as I started riding. :-( There are stop signs at each of the side streets I turn up on my route and, to my eternal shame, I look both ways as I approache them and then ride right through them if there are no cars within about 100 yards of the intersection. I am alreayd one of Those People. :-(
I used yet another distance alternative (my main street plus only one side road--Overbrook--becase the school bus was coming down Crestview and I didn't feel like trying to negotiate my way past it under the watchful eye of dozens of eight-year-olds who know how to cycle better than I do :-). So to compensate I went back down my cul de sac after climbing the hill. Distance = 2.23 miles. Average speed = 8.5 mph. Time = 15.28 minutes.
Other useful statistics: top speed = 21.2 mph. Walking speed, thoroughly pooped, pushing bike up the Big Hill = 3.5 mph. Roughly average speed when riding 9-10 mph. Speed I feel safe at = ~16 mph. Speeds I start to feel nervous at = >20mph (but it's still exhilarating until the little voice kicks in saying "You're going very fast, can't control this, AND WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!")
Other nonstatistical observations:
It's easier in bike shorts. Really.
I still don't have a good handle (so to speak) on how to ride with one hand and signal with the other (I tried, and almost ended up like DUmbo, only there was no policeman in riot gear to crash into).
My brakes work really well (I had an unintentional emergency stop when I overbraked and turned into a sideways skid--like the cool kids on daytime TV--when making a 360 degree turn).
Questions for more experienced cyclists:
Is there something on the Web that explains how to operate gears in very simple layman's language? I still feel as if there may be some essential principle I'm missing, especially when it comes to the left-hand (meta) gears.
Does one eventually learn how not to wobbble from side to side when moving one's legs up and down at something other than the speed one's aunty would use?
Likewise, does one eventually learn how not to joggle when shifting gears?
What's the best leg position for coasting? I always extend one leg, and sometimes brace it, but only because 1920s Oxbridge students always seem to do that in movies/TV, and they must know best, right? ;-)
Lastly, I have to confess that the Rot set in as soon as I started riding. :-( There are stop signs at each of the side streets I turn up on my route and, to my eternal shame, I look both ways as I approache them and then ride right through them if there are no cars within about 100 yards of the intersection. I am alreayd one of Those People. :-(
