On saturday I rode a bike for the first time in about 28 years. On sunday (yesterday) I bought my first road bike in 28 years. This morning (rather foolhardily - if that's a word) I went on my first real bike ride in 28 years. I chose to do it in peak hour traffic in Sydney. I also had my first fall - do you have any idea how much blood there is in a thumb? - and many near death experiences. This is a long account of my adventure.
A month or so ago I tore a hamstring quite seriously while running intervals. This has necessitated taking a few months off from running to recover. Rather than do nothing for those few months, which would drive me crazy, I decided to take up cycling, spent last week researching road bikes, and then last weekend I went around town test-riding various bikes. I rode some Giant, LeMond, Cannondale, Avanti and other bikes, and ended up buying a Trek 1500 (with Ultegra groupset). While doing my research I was told that when you find a bike that fits perfectly you will know it straight away, and for me this happened with the Trek.
I finally got the bike home at 5pm yesterday, but was unable to ride because of gale force winds. So I set my alarm clock for 6am, and woke up eager to try out my new toy. Rather than take the bike to the park, where there is a reasonably safe 4km bike path, ideal for a beginner like me, I decided instead to head straight for the monday morning peak hour traffic.
The first test was the pedals: some sexy Look clip-on pedals, of the sort which lock your feet to the pedals unless you twist them off. I have never used these before, so this was another good reason to head straight for traffic. I managed to connect my feet to the pedals, and then managed to get the bike moving. Off to a good start. Down the street and then on to the four lane main road, so far so good. The bike was moving easily, although I was still riding only barely faster than I can run. It was about 6.15am so traffic wasn't too heavy, and this was starting to feel pretty good. At about 3k the hills started, and after about 1.5k of continuous uphill riding, using easier and easier gears, I ran out of easy gears. Desperate to find just one more easy gear, I started clicking the left gear shift, which I'd never really figured out how to use. The chain slipped, and the pedals were spinning wildly. Fortunately the bike was going uphill, so it soon came to a stop, and in the few seconds before it did so I was thinking furiously about how to get off it. I knew I had to twist my feet to get them out of the pedals, and I twisted and twisted with a vengeance, but the pedals would not release my shoes. Finally, the bike stopped, and with a sense of inevitability I fell over sideways, still locked to the pedals. Curiously, although I fell to my left, I landed on my right thumb, scraping off a square inch of skin to a depth of a few millimetres. It hurt, and there was blood pouring out of that thumb all over the place. I managed to un-click my shoes from the pedals (it appears to be marginally easier when lying on your side in the gutter), got to my feet, picked up the bike and examined the damage. The bike looked okay, apart from the chain hanging limply and some blood stains wherever I touched it.
With my bloody fingers, I tried to get the chain back on the cogs, getting blood all over the chain, pedals and cogs and grease on my hands. Finally, I figured out how to fix the chain, and then pushed the bike to the top of the hill, getting more blood on the handlebars, brakes and dripping it on my shoes. My bright yellow jersey was also now striped with blood. This was also a good opportunity to discover just how hard it is to walk on pavement with cleated bike shoes.
At the top of the hill, instead of turning round and going home, I pedalled on to an 8 lane freeway with reasonably heavy traffic. Did I mention I am insane? This was pretty terrifying, but not as terrifying as the narrow road it fed into. This was a long road with one narrow lane in each direction and heavy traffic. The road was also strewn with branches which had blown off trees during yesterday's gales. Cars were passing me within centimetres, while I was simultaneously trying to steer around thick branches. This was possibly the most terrifying few minutes of my life. Seriously, I can't recall having been so scared since my university exams.
Eventually the road widened a little, the traffic thinned, and I felt a little more relaxed (my anxiety had reduced to mild terror). Then I hit the top of a very steep hill. This was a hill I had often used to run hill repeats because of its length and gradient. When facing the downhill stretch - 800 metres of curvy, steep downhill riding, ending in a T junction with a wall on the other side, I decided after precariously descending part of it to walk the bike down the remainder of the hill. Again, I discovered the joys of walking on cleated shoes. Not merely was it uncomfortable walking on shoes with hard soles and a big lump under the forefoot, the smooth concrete of the pavement was causing me to slide down the hill. After making slow progress to the end of the hill, mostly walking on grass, I started pedalling again, and got home 20 minutes later, a nervous wreck (and looking enviously at the runners I was - barely - passing, hoping they realised how simple and safe running was). After about 90 minutes and 19km (according the bike computer I have no idea how to work), I felt like I had used about as much physical effort as I would normally do on a run of about 1km (ie very little), yet had expended serious energy in sheer terror. Now I am scared of my bike.
There seem to be lots of experienced cyclists on the forum. Please tell me it gets easier.