I don't know if it's possible to move a thread to another forum but I kinda want to continue using this as a place where I continue blogging about my Sofrider and the progress I've made in riding it.
I finally, finally, FINALLY got the time to take it to a big, empty, wide open parking lot to take it for a spin, today. I had replaced the handle bars and finally got a few pedaling revolutions in, but those were on gravel surfaces or places too steep and narrow to get much practice in.
I pedaled around freely and, of course, had to be too much of a speed demon and ended up wiping out on a turn. Massive strawberries on both the left hip and left calf. Funny, I had an appointment to go give blood in about an hour.
It turned out later that the blood drive had been last week but they had to cancel because they couldn't get a driver for their Bloodmobile. I gave blood anyway, right there on the asphalt. And that was my fault, not the bike's.
After going in big, wide circles, counter-clockwise and clockwise, uphill and down (it was a gently sloped parking lot with a few areas of varying steepness) I finally took it up a wheelchair access curb onto sidewalk and back down another wheelchair access point into a much flatter parking lot for doing figure-eights.
I had read someplace about needing to lean outwards on a curve. I tried both leaning in and leaning out, neither of them very smoothly. This is my first recumbent of any kind so I don't have much prior experience with this new means of balancing.
Oh, and I decided that having the pedals as close as I had them was helpful in getting me started on learning how to, well, start. But after riding a bit and getting some familiarity with the feel of it, I tried lengthening the pedal position out half a mark and it felt better. Eventually I'd like it out as far as possible and move the seat forward again, lean it back some more, but I've still got too much lard in my seat. It's like having pillows back there, the way it moves the hips and groin forwards.
Both my mom and dad had those big, huge, bubble-butts so it's hereditary. This confused me during my slimmer teen years when learning to drive. I was taller than my mom but always had to move the car seat forwards after she drove it, as if she had longer legs. Nope, turns out she needed the extra room for her butt.
My kids were practicing on their unicycles while I was doing this. My son called me over, asking if I wanted my helmet. See the thread I started elsewhere on that topic.
I figure the helmet is more suited for commuting when I have to contend with traffic. For just me on a bike, putt-putt-putting around a parking lot? Hell no. People wearing protective gear tend to get reckless, feeling like they're invulnerable. If I do something stupid, I want to know ahead of time that I'm going to seriously feel it.
So... no idea how far I managed to bike today, maybe a half hour to forty-five minutes. Got some good scrapes to show for it. I'd post a picture but I'm not ready to show the world how fat I still am.
Next is the, what, 25 mile challenge on the "Learn To Ride" page on the Cruzbike website? I might need to take my kids up to the C&O canal since it's relatively flat, I don't have one of those fancy bike/trip computers, and the path has mile markers to make the math easy. I'll figure something out but I'm still a little too wobbly to "share the road" with anyone.
