Meet Firenze and His Fantastical Tale

Buy a Stereo and get a FREE bike? I did an internet search for my new (used) bicycle curious about their history. If the lore is true it’s got a neat history. Apparently these bicycles wouldn’t make certain safety specs when they wanted to import them into the USA but somehow found out that they could “give them away” as promotions in some legal loop hole. I’m not sure if it’s true, but I did have the bicycle shop go over it to be safe.

I’m not sure when they say taking your bike out for a ride they mean to carry it? I now know what 90lbs maximum and high pressure tires mean. I’m having to make small adjustments…the new (rather old but new to me) bicycle has thinner tires and higher pressure. I apparently put in 91 pounds? I leaned the bike against the wall, put my pump away and shut the door. The vibration was the hair trigger needed to set off what sounded like a shotgun blast, my rear tube popping, or more vividly exploding the seal ripping a 4 inch hole in the tube, proving once again I still need adult supervision? I had to carry the bicycle on my shoulder back to the bicycle shop to get them to put on another tube.

I spent a bit of the morning putting on one of the two water bottle holders (nicely coordinated with the yellow and blue theme too!) I tried with the other but I think they make the little bolts just a tiny bit shorter than what was needed to fit the bar. After fiddling forever I just gave up on the second until I can get a longer set of bolts. Then I’ll have two water bottle cages just like those racers!!! Next stop bright neon plastic rubber lycra outfits and shaving my legs?! (Well, um likely *NO*)

This 12 speed along with having 2 more gear than the black racer I used to race at the speedway last year also is bigger. It’s taken a bit of getting use to being on your tip toes at a stop light however the ability to stretch your legs better as you peddle I think is making a huge difference in power. I don’t have a speedometer on it yet but I’d say it’s dare fast and may be even more so when I can really develop aerobic endurance. I’m actually only in the easiest 3 gears so far. I can’t fathom the speed (or for that matter the effort to peddle) at the top ones!

This last week an a half has seen some unofficial gains in weight (maybe up to 7-8 pounds?) I haven’t been sticking to a decent food plan or in reasonable volumes. Yesterday was the first day in a while I capped the caloric intake under 2000 calories once more. Really bummed I’ve gained of course but who’s the one to blame for eating ice cream and pizza in vast quantities? Today I did better with something high calorie I kept a reasonable serving size. I’m hoping to get back to something with some reasonable nutritional value too. I won’t “ban” goodies but I also don’t think it’s a good idea to make the funny bones and Doritos your two main food groups!

With a couple of days left to the month I’ve bicycled over 160 miles in June! About 30 more than May! The whole year last year I could barely make 200, so it goes to show if you keep on trying you got a good chance at getting better!

Time to get peddling!- Alan