Today I attempted my first bike ride in years!

[KittiPaws]

Thanks for the great welcome and advice, everyone! I didn't realize helmets weren't made to take more than one blow. That's good to know. Safety first. (Although hopefully there won't be any more crashes or spills!) I've decided to go around the speed bumps until I'm more sure of myself.

My bike is a single-speed. My town is fairly flat. However, even gentle inclines in my apartment complex parking lot have me huffing and puffing. Today I ventured onto the street for the first time and biked to the store, which is about a mile away. I had to stop periodically and walk the bike. I do a lot of walking around at work, so I think I should have been able to ride a mile on fairly flat road without stopping. Not sure if it's me or the bike. Since I don't know how long it sat at the big box store before I bought it, or if the good folks who put it together knew what they were doing, I picked up some dry teflon bike lube and will apply it to the chain tonight.

If lubing the chain doesn't help, then I'll just have to make do with the bike I have until I either gain strength, or until I'm able to upgrade to a bike with gears. Whichever comes first!

[Bike Writer]

Welcome KittiPaws! Congratulations on taking your first steps toward better health and fitness. It's not your bike, it's the re-entry into fitness. You said you have pretty flat land so you should be fine. In time you may want to upgrade if you find you love the sport and what it does for your body, and want to ride miles and miles on end. Until that time just keep up your good work so far. A couple of blocks turns into a mile and one mile turns into 2,3,4,5 and so forth.

The huffing and puffing will stop and you will amaze yourself with your abilities. I love falling in love with bicycling. Enjoy your re-entry into biking and have fun out there!