A flat tire is not often seen as a good thing. Tuesday morning I headed down the basement to grab Lisbeth for the ride to work, saw the totally flat rear tire and uttered a few words of frustration. My only other geared option is Bonnie and she had my clipless pedals on and they are not handy for work as they require lugging another pair of shoes to change into. So out went Molly my skinny tire singlespeed.
The roads from home to the far west end of Victoria Avenue are not what I would call smooth. Parts of Victoria's bike lanes appear to have been mined for some rare surface material. Potholes abound. Molly is not a cushy ride, her frame is stiff and the tires carry 100 psi of air. Not great when dodging potholes. So I wasn't looking forward to an hour of pounding.
But I forgot how she feels. Speed is addictive. At lunch I have been riding out to Park Dale and back instead of eating, about 15km. I got back to Chapples golf course and checked the time, I had another 10 minutes to spare so I added a few laps. Today I added a lap to my morning ride and another at lunch. I just can't get enough of the speed even with just one gear to mash.
I came up behind a fully decked out rider just as I started my return from Park Dale. Let's just say his shoes and pedals are probably worth more than I have invested in Molly. I stayed with him for a bit fully expecting him to pull away slowly. Well if he was a car there would be four doors lying on the path under the expressway. On the slight climb from the underpass I had had enough of the view of his expensive Castelli shorts so I said "on your left" and zipped by. I was sure he'd be pushing me the rest of the way but that's the last I saw of him.
Having more than one bike may seem frivolous to some but for me having another ride that can totally motivate me all over again makes it all worth it.
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