| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
13.70 miles
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Time: 00:58:00
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Avg Speed:
14.17 mph
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Max Speed:
21.00 mph
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Weight:
160
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Effort:
4 - Normal 14-16 mph
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Route:
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Altitude Gain:
0 ft
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Terrain: Road: Flat
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Bike: Bacchetta Titanium Aero (SOLD Sep 2010) SWB Bent
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Club: 'BentRider Recumbent Club |
| Weather Conditions: Warmish...typical Florida winter stuff. 70's. |
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(Continued from Jan 25)
Fall 1998: Viva Recumbency (Special thanks for the phrase to Bob Bryant)
Another life cycle event or how I came to love recumbents and the folks who ride 'em. Okay, a vast majority of 'em. Some of 'em just never shaddup.
I was living and biking in hilly northwest New Jersey. Not real longish hills, mostly shortish and steepish. You know the kind that make you cry UNCLE!!!
Driving home one day I felt a twinge in my back. As I exited the car I fell to the ground in agony and just like that commercial I said: "Help I've fallen and I can't get up!!"
Literally dragged my self on my belly into the house unable to stand up. Calls to a chiropractor friend and yes I thought chiropractors were...well..quacks up until this time. He worked on my bck for two hours and got me somewhat ambulatory. Spent two weeks lying on my back on the floor with daily trips to him for "work". Bottom line the infrastructure over the years had shifted. Weeks, nay months maybe, or exercise and treatment and I was able to walk.
Nope, I don't think chiropractors are quacks.
Can I bike? That was the thought going through my mind the whole time. Remember: obsession.
Biked around the block. Hey, not bad. I'll go to the club ride Saturday.
First hill and I almost screamed. It hurt to bike up hill with the way the back muscles needed to work to power me up. Oh EXPLETIVE, I muttered. Kept biking, but every hill became a "baby up or scream" effort.
After the ride talking to a bike bud I said: "John, I think I have to give up cycling. It hurts to bike up a hill and I'm not having back surgery. I've read too many back surgery horror stories."
John says: "Joe, maybe you should try a recumbent."
And I respond with: "OK. What the heck is a recumbent?" You just did not see any in the northeast in the mid to late 90's.
He splains. I listen. Off to the internet, way back when you typed in a word, you got "information" not "infomercials". I miss those days.
There was a forum about recumbents. I read. I post. I read. I research.
More research and I locate a guy selling recumbents out of his garage about 1.5 hours south of me.
Get to his house and he takes me around back where he has some LWB (long wheelbase) and SWB (short wheelbase) recumbents. By this time, for ease of transportation and for "looks", I want to check out a SWB.
He sets one up and explains "how" to ride one. Thankfully, I'm somewhat athletic and pedal down the street. Not bad. After a few loops I say: "I need to ride up a hill" and explain my back situation. He tells me to head down the street, make a left and another left and thar will be a hill.
I approach the hill.
I'm worried about "The Pain".
I start to pedal, pushing back into the seat and up I go. And up I go. And more up. And NO PAIN!!. Wow..thinks I.
And whataya know: LIFE CHANGE
- Found new bike buds all over the world through the internet researching recumbents or "bents"
- Bought a recumbent ride untested. Still have it today.
- Became a recumbent advocate spouting "Viva Recumbency" well mostly to deaf ears in my bike club. Gee, not much has changed.
- Created a new circle of friends, who in turn opened up new adventures I never would have experienced. Example. There's a bike ride called "Bike New York" through the five boroughs with over 15,000 cyclists. For some reason, recumbents and special bikes get a front line pass. It's New York and at the start line is the mayor and "Cousin Brucie", en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Morrow who comes over to look at our "funny" bike and spends a half an hour chatting with us and tells us New York radio stories. Riding a recumbent created that life experience.
- Introduced me to a whole new sub culture.
- Allowed me to continue to do something I love. Were it not for a recumbent, I'd be doing something else besides cycling because for sure I was not going under the knife.
- Opens new doors every day.
- Ride Long and Prosper. I rode a century I had done a few times previously on my standard bike. At the end I'd lie on the ground somewhat exahausted and rubbing my pains. I finished on the recumbent smiling, turned and said to the century: "That's your best shot??"
- So I ride much more now. Oh..and in comfort!!!
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