back to the future

I am, for the first time in almost 70 years, without a bike.  Chris and Rose now have my super-dooper e-bike.  Rose is nearly as tall as me, so it’ll fit either of them.  
It’s been nearly two years since I last managed a decent ride, whizzing round the hills of Northamptonshire, calling out “ciao baby” to all the Sunday lycra lads and lasses, as I flick the motor to boost and leave them for dust on the steepest bits. 

There was a time when I could do that without an electric motor.  But that was in another life.  When racing shorts were made of wool.

I’ve slowed right down.  I’ve stopped going to my gym for people with dicky tickers and dodgy lungs.  My GP is doing his best to find out what’s going on.  But it’s a long process. 

Anniemay is not happy about this state of affairs. So she’s converted our third bedroom into a gym.  And not only that - makes the ultimate sacrifice, by suggesting that I use her lovely bike as a stationary exercise bike.  Hmm.  An excuse to get my spanners out and start fettling.

I still have some old bikes spares and manage to find a longer seat post and a saddle to suit me.  Fitted to a cheap turbo-trainer and with a suitable music playlist on my phone, I’m good to go. So I do.

Next time; walk round to the Italian cafe in town first, to get much needed sugary pastry for post-ride snack.  This will also count as a warm-up.  I’ll also wear my Campagnolo racing jersey.  (On the bike ….)

Technical note; I expended more energy taking this blip than I did riding the bike.  My default camera settings are Aperture Priority and Auto Iso.  It seems like almost 70 years since I last used a camera on Manual.  And as I couldn’t find the manual, I spent ages delving through the various screens to find the self-timer.

So, lined up camera on stool and then with 12 seconds to spare, dashed across the room, leapt onto bike and pedalled away at different shutter speeds until I got what I considered to be enough blurry motion.  It took about half a dozen goes.  Which was more than enough for a good warm-up.