Well, slow progress continues on the New Sewing Room, which I often use for an excuse for not whizzing slowly around town more often on my Catrike .
Sundays are a welcome day off, and especially so yesterday since we were both a tad tired out. We realized again that Jacque had a prescription waiting for her at our local Big Box Store, and I volunteered to use that for an excuse to actually get out on the trike again this morning.
It had cooled off quite a bit from last week's Upper 90's and humidity to match, and my scheme was to take off early this morning before it got too hot.
As usual, I distracted myself and took off much later than "planned". One distraction was the mild cloud cover - making it even cooler than normal, fooling my brain (what's left of it) into thinking I had plenty of time to take a cooler ride.
Cloud cover DID protect me somewhat all the way to the Big Box, and I didn't even apply sunscreen. (Yeah, I know, cloudy days are NOT protection from sun cooking the skin)
There was a middle aged fellow there at the Box's bike rack working on his bike, but he ignored me as I spoke a greeting when I walked past him to the Store Door. When I came out to leave, he was still there, putzing away with something on his bike. He was struggling with some sort of hardware, so I spoke again to him, saying I had tools on board the Catrike that he could use if needed.
This time he responded in friendly fashion and I dug out some of my wrenches to help him out.
Turns out he had just now purchased this bike - Big Box Style - and had found it difficult to ride and was trying to install a gel-cushion seat and a cargo bracket on it.
It also turned out he had almost NO experience riding bikes of any style.
He appeared to be between 50-60 years of age. He was a homeless dude. He walked from place to place and saw cyclists and thought to himself "That looks easy, I think I'll buy a bike!"
He had purchased a mountain bike a couple weeks ago and awkwardly ridden it 60 miles and - having never ridden before - decided he needed to trade it in on a "normal" bike. Here he was, trying to rig up a brand new bike, with no experience riding or maintaining, and no real tools on hand.
I wound up spending almost 45 minutes or so handing him tools and trying to help him install the new seat and cargo bracket, and helping him adjust the seat to a comfortable riding height. He had ridden 60 miles fitfully on the mountain bike and still had trouble balancing while pedaling, and even asked me if I thought they made training wheels for adult bikes. I assured him that training wheels were a waste of time and money, based on my limited experience with them 60+ years ago.
We finally got his seat at a comfortable height and angle, and I tried to encourage him to keep up with the learning process and not give up. I told him the world needed more cyclists and that it would eventually be well worth the effort to keep it up.
Thankful that my Cousin Darel had let me learn to ride HIS bicycle at age 5 when we visited his folks' ranch near Hereford TX about 1952, I rode home without balance issues on my three-wheeler.....
Ride Started: 9:34 AM Ride Ended: 11:35 AM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.0 Ending Battery Voltage: 12.7
Lowest Temp: 71 F Highest Temp: 82 F
Beginning Blood Glucose: 199 Ending BG: 87
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 5.18
Overall Average Speed Moving Avg Max Speed
3.3 MPH 7.5 MPH 19.2 MPH
Total Trip(s) Time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 35 minutes 41 minutes 53 minutes
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