New Group Ride: A Review

:o :o :o :o :o

Get there. Realize my rear tire seems low, pull out pump to fix it. Think I'm going insane that tire isn't filling. Sheepishly walk over to the 4 people & ask for help. Guardian Angel Regina walks over & looks/uses her pump. Still nothing. She decides that my pin-thingy(still learning) is broken & asks if I have a spare tube. Haha I do! I get to experience my first tire change. Proud that I did it pretty quickly--10 minutes start to finish. Get on the road.

4 miles in, we stop for Ride the Vote. I watch bikes, as I've lived here 1 month & haven't had the chance to change county status yet. Dude stays with me. We get to talking, I get a business card & offer of him showing me around town;)

Continue on ride, few miles into it, I shift to granny gears & bike goes wonky. We discuss this & general opinion of group is something is wrong with my front derailers & bike needs tune-up.

We are heading back to cars, when girl in front of me swerves into me, I literally roll. Hop back up, say I'm fine & am surprisingly calm. Girl is more freaked out than I am & we stand around for a minute.

Back on bikes, head on in. 19 miles took us 1.5 hours.

Had fun, bike is still in car, so he can be dropped off at the shop in the morning. Wondering how much this will cost as I wanted to get MTB out of layaway. May have to put that on hold for a few weeks.......

Isn't it nice to have people to talk about it with when things go nuts with your bike, like the valve and the derailleurs? Sounds like you've found a good group to ride with--and a possible date, even. Enjoy!

Just wanted to add that I was looking in the phone book (for LBS hours) and found a nifty coupon for 50% off tune-up, so it looks like I will be dropping off road bike for tune-up & picking up new mtb!!