Well, it had to happen....my first flat tire. It was at the apex of an eight mile ride, on the highway, with no help. As I was riding I thought the cell phone was playing a song with a hiss to it. Ultimately the hissing stopped and a mild thump brought me to a halt. From my trusty tool bag I removed a tube, plastic tire irons, and prepared to fix a flat. How hard could it be? Had I practiced.....well, no.

I removed the wheel, got the botched tube removed and put in a new tube. After an hour, covered with bike chain oil, and with the tire inflated I headed down the road. My joy of a successful fix quickly faded with the discovery we were still flat.

What followed was an almost 4 mile push home. I won't comment on the many people who could have helped, but didn't or the transit bus with bike rack who drove quickly past. Suffice to say I got home and did a quick youtube search on "bicycle flat" to see a guy with no hands and one arm totally fix a front wheel flat in about 3 minutes. Feeling painfully useless I pulled my rear tire and analyzed the tread. There was a nasty bit of glass that had done the deed.... twice.

So I guess I learned 1. Check for glass and 2. Pack a rubber glove to be better prepared next time.

And just in case you want to see a double amputee do it, just click here.

In May I became owner of an 18 speed road bike to carry out the exercise/health plan I had prescribed myself earlier in the year. This should be the end of the story but actually initiates the start of a whole fresh episode. First, biking requires accessories:  a soft seat, bike rack, two tire pumps and minor items such as lube, lock and backpack to carry those things that don’t directly attach to the bicycle. These are all expenses I somewhat expected.

What I did not anticipate is the ever present specter of age in the form of awkward, sporadic balance. I recall once being able to easily register where the traffic was at all times. Looking back to traffic check is no longer so simple. Either the neck bone doesn't twist or the body is reluctant to rotate for fear of changing course.  

And stopping the bike produces other unsteadiness. My memory plays a video of me sliding my bicycle to a controlled, smooth stop on gravel, laying the bike on its side.... being totally at one with the machine. That is no longer the case. Once, just once, I stopped—the bike stayed perfectly poised—and I smoothly dismounted. All other times I had no advanced knowledge as to which way the bike might fall and rarely felt properly in control. To date I have luckily guessed the fall direction and have averted scuffing or embarrassment.

Hopefully, I will find that balanced, poised self from an earlier time so I can get about the business of becoming one with my new found friend. 

After four months relearning how to ride a bicycle I can climb hills without having to walk the bike, check for traffic, click through the gears, and easily cover eight to fifteen miles. I am not quite at one with the machine but I have no issues with balance. I can even enjoy the scenery. This is all great. And much of it is due to getting a small review mirror that attaches to my glasses and lets me easily know where all the traffic is in real time. I had been relying on sound and as the terrain and trees change, sound gets very unreliable for assessing where cars really are.



The best part of my summer experience, I am much healthier: 20 pounds lighter, able to work through a day with energy to spare, and no grocery checker has asked if I need help getting my sacks to the car.



So in sum I am happy with biking. It has provided health, a richer vocabulary, and many reasons to search and purchase small treasures from Amazon.

I got my first bicycle at about age 5. In those days bicycles came in one size, 26”. For a boy that meant a bar that made mounting and dismounting with short legs a potentially destructive enterprise. I think I started really riding about age 7….about the time I could reach the pedals and depart safely to the ground. All our bikes had one speed, were heavy, and we stopped with pedal brakes.

Enter Act 2. There is something in the air that says us vintage adults require regular doses of exercise and old fashioned bicycling is less stressful on the joints than jogging and even walking. So, to maintain health, and if you are overweight like me, it could potentially be my last chance to salvage my health. This makes bike riding an actual life or death choice. So let’s ride.

Well, first you need a bike. Fortunately , I had purchased my younger brother’s mountain bike when he tired of riding so I was set. Except today we seem to have multiple sizes of bikes and his mountain bike turned out to be a 16” bike. So, although it was barely used and looked aggressive with the shocks and knobby tires….it was really difficult to ride very far. And the sit bones don’t adapt well to the narrow, hard, cruel seat with no springs.

So getting a bike today involves research….lots and lots of research. It has been an intricate discovery thread traveling from the energetic mountain bike look toward the upright casual riding position to finally committing to the speedy road bike frame. And there is a lot to know. My original Schwinn had brakes associated with the pedals. Now the controls are on the handle bars. And then there is shifting. We no longer get a single gear. We get as many as 30 and have to manage where the chain goes by negotiating a wide range of shift options.  This will take some learning.  It seems every bike I rode had adopted a different standard. Some shifted by twisting the grips, some had levers. Mine has levers inside of levers and indicators.The final bike I settled on is called an “allez” which means fast in the French language, although no one watching me awkwardly mounting or dismounting could ever guess.