I've been using a bike that I got from a friend to commute to and fro
university for the past few months. The main motivation was to sav
money on bus tickets (saves me $12 out of the $150 I live on each week
and some vague inkling that I might lose some weight and get fit afte
quitting smoking at the end of last year
Friday morning I woke up at about 7am in a foul mood for a variety o
reasons. The sky looked less than entirely evil out the bedroom windo
so I got up, breakfasted, and jumped on the bike for no reason othe
than to blow out the cobwebs. About 25 minutes later, I was cresting
hill, jousting with peak hour traffic and grinning like a loon. A fe
minutes after that I hit Beach Rd. Down to Beaumaris, then back up t
Brighton. By the time I got back to Oakleigh, I'd done around 50-60k
and I felt great. I think I now know what proper cycling shorts ar
for though
Not a particularly big ride by the standards of most, although it wa
the longest ride I've done in one go to date. The big difference wa
that I did it wholly for the sake of riding rather than to get somewher
Something of a turning point, I suspect. Now I just need to get ou
there more often instead of just thinking about it. Anyone out ther
riding socially on a regular basis who doesn't move too fast (I'm on
mountain bike with road tyres, that morning I did about 22-23km in th
first hour and slowed down a bit after that) and who wouldn't min
someone else tagging along
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