The bike shop killed my granny! With less than 1000 miles on my Raleigh Venture I messed up the back wheel, 6 spokes broke and a bad brake cable to boot. In fairness you’ve got to figure I weigh like twice an average weight person and add in doctor’s notes and medical records being a bike messenger in my mail pouch means that bike likely say somewhere around 350+ pounds. Moreover, my riding is lots of stress on a wheel, from accelerating, braking, and weaving. I wouldn’t say I pummel the bike, but it has seen a bit of “air” occasionally jumping a curb in an emergency as well as a bit of gravel trail riding. Still, I think I’m a bit disappointed with the quality of the stock rims.
A picture of my mighty bicycle in front of some mighty impressive artwork that some very skilled artist did on a wall in Portsmouth NH. I wish I could say it was my art but it's not. It's very Rockwell isn't it? Nice work!Back to the death of my granny… the bike shop was originally going to replace the spokes but it looked like they needed to remove outside spokes to get to inside ones… in short heavy labor. So they bike shop guy finds a used wheel that he swapped in to save me a bit of cash. They set back was the wheel has a gear set that has a much higher ratio “granny gear” (the lowest gear I use a fair amount of the time to pedal fast but easy to make it up steep hills.) the new gear ratio “feels” like 1st is now 2nd or maybe even 2.5? Going downhill or flats I can really boogie though! So all that celebrating on those hard hills… well, it’s like the hills just got a bit steeper! I tried my hardest hill I made before and could still do it with a light load but I was puffing like a cog steam engine climbing Mount Washington!!!
I went to the Fair and saw a smash up derby!!!
The wild thing is they stopped the derby when the car had got hit so hard it flipped on it's side. a bunch of guys pushed it back over and it started back up and continued!!! 
At the end of summer I’ve tried to get in a bit of activity and local travel. Wow time flies since I posted (sorry about that!) but I’ve got to Portsmouth (The seacoast of New Hampshire) and to Hopkinton State fair and saw my first live demolition derby. Got to love watching people senselessly pummeling automobiles into each other over and over until they won’t move! What’s not cool about that? Of course I ate too much… but holding at about 306ish right now. Along this journey I like to drop more weight but I’m glad to say I’m more fit and doing more activities. The other pictures are from the seacoast in Portsmouth.
A image from Portsmouth waterfront... an area that's neat.
At Foolsfitness we encourage people to wreck their cars, (just not by running into us)!- Alan
