At last!

No pics, but why and how would I take one? I felt like jumping up and down with glee, but instead I hopped on my now-perfect bike and went for a 30 minute ride. After the body issues with only 12 minutes a couple of days ago, it seems wise to work into this slowly. This body is not as young and agile as it once was.

Loaded the bike on the car this morning and hied myself off to my favorite bike shop, downtown. 10 minutes and a mere $25 later, I left with a new rear tire and tube and without the toe clips. Ready to ride!

I can't imagine how it happened, but there was a deep lengthwise gash right in the middle of the tread about an inch long that probably went through and ticked the tube. Tis a mystery, but it was there for a fact, nevertheless. I saw it. I had the toe clips removed because -- referring to the first paragraph -- I'm neither as agile nor have the reflexes I had in prior years and I remember a couple of years ago I felt really uncomfortable using them in town -- barely got my feet out of them in time to stop myself from falling when I'd stop. So, it seemed prudent to remove them. I'm certainly not trying to go faster or conserve energy for long days in the saddle any longer.

On the way from here to Eugene I noticed the bike bouncing around on its carrier, which was a bit disconcerting since the road is a good one, no bumps. The rear end -- the heavy end -- bounced almost to the end of the support, twice, and if it managed to bounce off the barely-tipped-up end of that support, I'd have a problem. So I stopped and put it into the holders and strapped it down tightly. You might say I should have done that in the first place, but I drove from Georgia to Oregon two years ago, taking it off every night, and I don't remember ever using those holders. Just putting it on the rack was enough. Another mystery.

So -- it is clear today that the achy back muscles from the first ride were indeed caused by the bike, because they were complaining pretty quickly after I got home. Or maybe, which I also thought possible, they were caused by lifting that heavy bike up onto the rack both days, twice today. Either way, I'll keep riding. The body will adjust. I'm too happy out there to care.