A very good Saturday...

Today was a good day, worked with a chainsaw most of the morning cleaning up the broken limbs from the snow, then took a bike ride to the library and had a nice lunch with a new friend and fellow cyclist. Later I rode the bike to visit with the inlaws and rode back home. Riding in the cool evening air is one of my favorite things...but I'm pooped now! Sleep should come easy tonight...ZZzzzzzzzzz

The Final "History"

Here are some miscellaneous photos to get you up to date with Bicycle Bill! I have purchased used bikes for my wife, children, their spouses, my grandchildren, my sister, and a couple of friends. We've been on a number of group rides, and I have accumulated my share of spandex and lycra! I'm still going to do the rallies, and plan to do the century at Wichita Falls for many years to come, but I have also discovered the great benefits of using the bike for transportation. More on that later....

A little more history

We rode a couple of more bike rallies on the mountain bikes, but it was becoming clear that if road bike riding was to be the sport we wanted it to be, we would need to move up to road bikes. I knew very little about bikes at all, certainly nothing about road bikes, but I started reading about bikes both in printed literature and via the internet. In October 2006, I went to an estate sale and ran across this 1983 Trek 510.
I absolutely could not pass it up, since the price tag was a measely $5.00! I knew enough to know that Trek was a quality brand, and the bike had obviously been well cared for; it had all original components, right down to the Avocet leather seat, and even the leather was in great shape!

I updated the stem and bars, put on new tires and tubes and eventually upgraded the saddle. I started taking longer rides on this bike, and in 2007 completed my first century at the Hotter 'N Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls, Texas. It was difficult, and I could never have made it without my son T.J. pulling me along, but I did finish it, and that was when I really felt like I could call myself a "cyclist", and I also felt like I was fully recovered from having stents put in my heart the year before.

Getting Started...History

After having two stents put in my heart in January 2006, I was looking for an activity that I could consistently enjoy that had more aerobic benefit than playing golf several times a week. I dearly loved playing golf, but seldom found others at our small golf club willing to walk, and riding in the golf cart provided very little of the kind of exercise I needed.

Being 51 years old and having not ridden a bicycle since college, I was actually afraid of riding on the road with automobiles! So, in October of 2006, my wife and I each purchased an inexpensive mountain bike and took it to a local park to ride. After riding two miles, I hurt in places that I could not remember ever having pain before, and I was exhausted. We put the bikes back into the back of my pickup truck for the seven mile ride home. I would have to admit to feeling discouraged with my new exercise hobby.

However, the next time we rode, we were brave enough to get on some residential streets in our neighborhood, and actually rode a little over three miles. My confidence boosted, we actually looked forward to expanding our distance next time! Eventually we stretched the route to 8 miles, then 10, then finally 15, with a rest stop at the halfway point of each extended distance.

Continuing to ride the mountain bikes, by May of 2007 we had built our confidence up to the point of participating in our first organized group ride. Our daughter, Kelly, was living in Indiana at the time, and thought we should build up to the point where we could come to Indianapolis in October to ride the "Hilly Hundred". We knew if we were going to do a "Hilly Hundred" we should get some "Flat Thirty's" done first.

While Kelly was in town during June, the three of us decided to carry the bike by pickup the 20 miles over to Italy, Texas to ride in the "Tour de Italia", a group rally that several hundred cyclist participate in. The rally is sponsored by the Lone Star Cyclists from Grand Prarie, Texas, and they do a wonderful job hosting it!

We left Ennis in a torrential rain about 5:30 in the morning. All the way over there, the three of us talked about whether we would go through with the ride or not. After all, it was our first group ride, and we wanted to enjoy it, and the thought of riding 30 miles in the rain did not REALLY appeal to any of us. As we pulled into the Italy High School parking lot, our plan was to eat some pancakes (a tradition at a lot of rallies), pickup our souvenier T-shirt (another tradition) and ride back home with the bikes still in the truck! However, just as the starting time arrived, the sun broke through the clouds and we decided to ride!

Rhonda was apprehensive about the 30 mile distance, and her plan had been to take the shorter, twelve mile route, and wait for Kelly and I to finish the thirty. But as we were leaving, she said she did not want to be left out, and would ride with us at least to the first rest stop, then catch a SAG (Support and Guidance) ride back to the school.

To make this long story a little shorter, we all made it to the first rest stop and Rhonda felt like going on with us. About the time we left the rest stop, the bottom dropped out of the clouds and it rained steadily on us for the next 20 miles...but we all finished the ride!

We were all proud of what we had accomplished, and it would be the first of many rallies for Rhonda and I.