Bike Pumps and Other Imponderables

Going bike riding with a mate tomorrow around the Mount Macedon area (preferably the flat part). It's been a leetle bit long time since I last rode my bike - two years, in fact. Long enough that the tyres are completely utterly totally flat.

Last time I rode my bike, I was staying at Jane's until I found a place of my own. I rode my bike from Footscray to Williamstown, red tomato faced, puffing like Thomas, vowing I was going to ride my bike more often because dammit, it was such good cardio work and I was gonna get fit.

You can't rush these things.

In preparation for my ride tomorrow, I got out the bike pump purchased from the friendly fellows at Rays Bicycles. Should have done it earlier. The goddamn thing requires a pHD to use it. Levers, dual pumps, gauge looking thing. But does it pump air into the tyres? Only if you know the secret password, apparently. Simsalabim.

My head is as sore this evening trying to work out this pump, as my bum is going to be tomorrow after I've ridden. How embarrassing it is to trawl the internet Googling "how to use a bike pump".

This is the fault of free market capitalism, you know. If the good people at WhoeverTheBloodyHellMakesBikePumps (Aust) didn't feel like they had to add bells and whistles to a goddamn bike pump (ergonomically designed, of course, so as to add less than .00003 of a gram to the weight of your bicycle ride) so as to gain market share from the rest of the people who also make bike pumps, and I had have bought a bike pump from the rest of the people who also make bike pumps, I would have already stuck the end onto the valve, pumped my hand backwards and forwards many times, and would be now onto working out how to reattach the detachable wheel to the rest of the bike. I would have already finished wiping of the two years of accumulated dust off the bike and cleared the spiders out of the bike helmet.

Bells and whistles make a silly girl's head spin. I just want to ride my bike, dammit.

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Redux. Ended up riding for three hours yesterday. I was most concerned about whether, upon awakening this morning, I'd be walking like a cowboy but thankfully, damage is minimal.

Now, that was fun. Being on a bike, instead of on my feet or in a car, the world just looks different, you know? It takes me back to being a kid again. I don't know how far we rode yesterday, but I only felt like I was going to seriously have a heart attack twice. The other 16 times I just got off the bike and lay on the ground and waited :) Cardio exercise is fun like that. There's a danger element to it :)

I seriously lack stamina, dammit. It's a humbling experience to know just how much, and to not try to push myself too hard like a moron :)