plantluvver
05-29-2006, 01:02 AM
Hi,
I have recently started biking again. Well, yesterday, actually.
After my car died in November, I kept putting off the purchase of another infernal combustion machine. Then the Oregonian ran a headline story on the glaciers on Mt. Hood melting. The article made me nauseous, the writer at one point was nostolgic about the loss of a scenic veiw of Mt. Hood. What about the fact that much of our city's drinking water is melt from the snowpack? Anyway, it was time for me to commit myself to being carless.
I've been riding public transit all along, but with sailing season, I need to commute 7 miles to participate in this sport. And I have no idea where in my cluttered garage, my air pump might be. And I really miss my Raleigh three-speed, that was stolen last year.
I'm not looking forward to the neck ache and low back pain from my mid 70's Schwinn Letour. I thought I might need a new bike to get me out of my rut. Something with a more upright posture. I have probably spent 60 hours in the past two weeks, trying to get myself motivated to get the Schwinn in working condition again, or SOMETHING.
I don't know why I didn't find you earlier. I know I googled women and bikes, but got a lot of manufacturer sites, no forums. But maybe it's better. (I've see lots of nice bikes to drool over in this forum.) I've pretty much decided to stick with the LeTour for awhile, while shopping for another bike.
Besides, if I HAD found you earlier, I would have been HERE, and wouldn't have found so many other sites.
But I was close to crazy with all the different notions of bike fit. And then wondering how they applied to women. And then to ME specifically. And how does that apply to women specific bikes. (Now that there are women specific bikes out there.) One lbs had me nearly convinced that I needed a new bike, because now everything is aluminum. And they would have put me on a hybrid whatever that is, (A hybrid of WHAT exactly?) What is it for? Is it not designed to do anything well? (I didn't have it clearly in mind what exactly I was going to do with the bike. The Trek catolog was NOT helpful.
After all that, I have decided a few things. First, my LeTour can work for awhile, while I get used to riding. I went to a bike clinic on Saturday, and learned that I should have changed my chain long ago. And now I provbably can't because the spockets are worn, from the chain elongating. (Who KNEW that those things happen? I thought that I only had to replace stuff that BROKE.!) I was paniced, but the only difference is now I am aware of it, and I can actually slow it down by better maintainence.
One of the posts here made me realize that my body will change, I'll get used to being in the saddle. My posture will change, so buying a new bike right now might be foolish. My posture MUST change, because I never paid much attention to it, just plopped myself down, tried not to lean much on my hands.
When I started riding before, I was dating someone who thought pain meant I was getting thin. He pushed and pushed me, and was never satisfied. In fact, I developed asthma during this period, and I put on more weight because I would sleep the whole next day (or two) after an outing with him. And I would eat Big Macs on the way over to his place, because I became so self-concious of eating in front of him. And when I did bring over healthy food, he would usually eat it, and so it wouldn't be there when I was hungry. So the Big Mac routine continued.
YIKES, sorry for the length of this post. But I think I've finally found a site where I will get very useful information, that is relevant to me, as a woman.
Thanks for being here,
Mary
I have recently started biking again. Well, yesterday, actually.
After my car died in November, I kept putting off the purchase of another infernal combustion machine. Then the Oregonian ran a headline story on the glaciers on Mt. Hood melting. The article made me nauseous, the writer at one point was nostolgic about the loss of a scenic veiw of Mt. Hood. What about the fact that much of our city's drinking water is melt from the snowpack? Anyway, it was time for me to commit myself to being carless.
I've been riding public transit all along, but with sailing season, I need to commute 7 miles to participate in this sport. And I have no idea where in my cluttered garage, my air pump might be. And I really miss my Raleigh three-speed, that was stolen last year.
I'm not looking forward to the neck ache and low back pain from my mid 70's Schwinn Letour. I thought I might need a new bike to get me out of my rut. Something with a more upright posture. I have probably spent 60 hours in the past two weeks, trying to get myself motivated to get the Schwinn in working condition again, or SOMETHING.
I don't know why I didn't find you earlier. I know I googled women and bikes, but got a lot of manufacturer sites, no forums. But maybe it's better. (I've see lots of nice bikes to drool over in this forum.) I've pretty much decided to stick with the LeTour for awhile, while shopping for another bike.
Besides, if I HAD found you earlier, I would have been HERE, and wouldn't have found so many other sites.
But I was close to crazy with all the different notions of bike fit. And then wondering how they applied to women. And then to ME specifically. And how does that apply to women specific bikes. (Now that there are women specific bikes out there.) One lbs had me nearly convinced that I needed a new bike, because now everything is aluminum. And they would have put me on a hybrid whatever that is, (A hybrid of WHAT exactly?) What is it for? Is it not designed to do anything well? (I didn't have it clearly in mind what exactly I was going to do with the bike. The Trek catolog was NOT helpful.
After all that, I have decided a few things. First, my LeTour can work for awhile, while I get used to riding. I went to a bike clinic on Saturday, and learned that I should have changed my chain long ago. And now I provbably can't because the spockets are worn, from the chain elongating. (Who KNEW that those things happen? I thought that I only had to replace stuff that BROKE.!) I was paniced, but the only difference is now I am aware of it, and I can actually slow it down by better maintainence.
One of the posts here made me realize that my body will change, I'll get used to being in the saddle. My posture will change, so buying a new bike right now might be foolish. My posture MUST change, because I never paid much attention to it, just plopped myself down, tried not to lean much on my hands.
When I started riding before, I was dating someone who thought pain meant I was getting thin. He pushed and pushed me, and was never satisfied. In fact, I developed asthma during this period, and I put on more weight because I would sleep the whole next day (or two) after an outing with him. And I would eat Big Macs on the way over to his place, because I became so self-concious of eating in front of him. And when I did bring over healthy food, he would usually eat it, and so it wouldn't be there when I was hungry. So the Big Mac routine continued.
YIKES, sorry for the length of this post. But I think I've finally found a site where I will get very useful information, that is relevant to me, as a woman.
Thanks for being here,
Mary