[Cheryl]

Hello,

This is an open topic. If you’ve joined this group, take a few minutes to introduce yourself and say a bit about what cycling has meant for you, or your cycling history, or what type of cyclist are, or something about your bike…something cycling related.

Thanks

[Cheryl]

So I’ll go first.

I’m Cheryl and the admin of this group. I keep at it on this website because, I guess, I like WordPress and I like running a blog because I just keep at it. And it seems that, if there’s a membership feature to be had, I’ll add it.

I’ve been riding a bike since I was five…but there was a long gap where I didn’t ride. I’m going to keep this brief as I’m actually writing a post about some of it. But I picked cycling back up later, started commuting to work, then club rides, then riding a road bike in triathlons for a bit.

But then life happened. I still rode enough — but not as much as other things took priority. My bike got stolen…mostly due to my own stupidity. And then the pandemic happend…and I ended up getting an ebike.

The bike was a Tern cargo bike. It was fun to ride and great for carrying groceries, but somehow it just seemed to lack something in terms of…fun. Or maybe it seems that way because my spouse got a class three bike and called me “slow.”

I got a class three road bike…which I sold because I found that I was having increasing neck issues on a drop bar bike and numerous adjustments didn’t help. And then I fell in love with a Surly Skid Loader — another heavy ebike but I feel like it’s much more fun than the Tern AND will carry a ton of groceries.

Still…

I have a problem with looking at “bike porn” on the Internet and soon started building a bike. After a long period of time, I ended up with a custom (mostly built by me) Crust Bombora. I put the thing on a trainer, got back in better shape, then took the thing off the trainer and had the bike shop check it out.

Went on a few good trail rides and on-road rides and decided I was falling in love with this sort of heavy non-e-bike…until the pedal fell off while I was in the middle of an intersection.

I have NEVER had a pedal fall off of a bike. This was just about a week ago and I’m OK, but recovering. Lots of bruises and an elbow that still won’t completely bend or straighten, but it could have been worse.

So…I’m going to be taking it to the bike shop soon to have it looked at. I cannot tell where the failure was. Was it the crank arm? Was it the pedal?

If I’d been in heavy traffic, this accident could have made it much worse for me, falling suddenly and abruptly as I did. And while I always give lip-service to knowing that cycling is inherently risky, this is the first accident I’ve had that’s really given me pause to riding on the road…and I’d been thinking about using the car much less.

So, that’s a long intro to where I am right now in my cycling journey. I’m hoping I’ll get back on the bike. If not on the Bombora, then I’ll likely be riding around the trails on my ebike at least. (But don’t ask me if you can buy my Bombora…not ready to give the thing up just yet!)

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