I rode my bike. In 1996, at age 26, I bought an entry-level Trek bicycle. It was my first (and only) decent, bike-store bike and it was rather expensive on my very limited income. In '97-8, when I lived in Denver, I rode it a *lot*. It has moved with me to Alabama (where it was rarely ridden) and then Maryland, where it was occasionally ridden until I got pregnant 16 years ago. My bike has lived in the garage, gathering dust and cobwebs, for my son's entire life. My son is 15, and rides to and from the summer pool (~4 miles each way) on a daily basis. When Son's bike experienced a catastrophic failure a few weeks ago, I quickly had my bike tuned up (and new tires/tubes) so that Son could ride it temporarily. Although my bike's frame is a bit small for him (I'm barely 5'6" and he's already 6'1"), at least it's not a women's frame or a girly color. In the end, we reassigned Husband's neglected mountain bike to Son and my bike is back to being available - and functional - for riding. Why hadn't I ridden my bike in over a decade? Because I was too fat. I was over the specified weight capacity of my bike. I was not just a little bit over, either; I was definitely beyond any safety margin that might have been built in to the specifications. But now I have lost over 80 pounds, and I'm confident that my bike can hold me safely. We brought my bike with us on vacation (along with Son's and Husband's). Yesterday I rode about 1½ miles. That's very short, but I hadn't been on my bike in a decade. Today I rode 2¼ miles. Still short, but a little something. Tomorrow we head home (and my Pilates starts back up on Monday); maybe the weather will sometimes be cool enough for me to ride some more later in the week.

Posted by Jenifer Anderson at 2024-08-09 20:54:11 UTC