Riding Buddy

Clearly motion is not my forte, that said however I will make the excuse that it was late (after 7pm) on a cloudy evening so the light wasn't great, I abetted that by standing under a tree and the photos were taken on fully auto "sports" mode because it was starting to rain, I needed to hurry! Surely then, I cant be held responsible for their quality?

We picked this bike up for R from a lovely freecycler who had bought the bike for her daughter years ago. Long story short, it's a bit rusted from being laying around but it's barely been used (the little spikes are still on the original tyres,) the gears were a little stiff but a bit of oil and it was off! We'll have to work at getting  the rust off both our frames and get them polished up to look pretty but other than that great FREE bikes!

So, I went for a short ride with R this evening, having to take my husband, D's, bike as mine has a flat tyre (again, I'm not getting far in a hurry but it will soon be all sorted.) O>M>G>>> His seat is HARD! Surely the difference between mens and ladies bike seats can't be that great? I think I'll have to get him one of those air cushion seat covers, I guess it wouldn't hurt for me to have one too, whilst I'm there you know?

Here's R trying not to run me over!

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

Not much to be proud of here as far as photography goes but proud of myself for dragging my butt of the lounge to get out on another bike ride. Dad brought my bike back with the new cranks and pedals on Saturday but I don't deal well with neither heat nor humidity and I wasn't even going to ride this evening until my friend Jaime (check out her blog, She Will Have Her Way) asked how I was going with Map My Run's 30 miles in 30 days challenge.

As the site name suggests it's a runner's challenge but Map My Run is also great for planning and mapping walks and bike rides. (For the purpose of the 30miles in 30 days Challenge, Jaime recalled the correlation for a marathon to bike riding is 42:130km. 30miles = 48.28km so I figure the equivalent of 30miles running would be 149.44km, or 4.98km per day. Disclaimer: my maths is TERRIBLE so I could be completely WRONG, if so please do let me know!)

Today's ride was 11.39km so that leaves me 138.05km to pedal between now and 30 days from now (end date: 14 February. (Four weeks at 34.5125km per week = 3 rides per week of 11.5km, so I will have to revise my route a little, take more frequent shorter rides or maybe a couple of longer rides.)

Jaime introduced me to Map My Run on 8 January and I thought I could easily walk the 30miles in 30 days. I'd kind of put it out of my mind but have done two walks to a total of 14.52km, leaving 33.76km to walk before 6 February.

Specs:
Canon EOS 400D
10.0s
f/5.6
39mm
ISO 400


PS: Remember how I said today's photo was nothing to be proud of, far from ideal shooting conditions under our carport (flouro light) in the dark and let's just say my hands were not very stable, here are the first two shots I took by comparison (the photo I used for this post was taken with the camera balanced on bricks with my still very unsteady hand stablising it.)

 

The Apprentice

What would Grandad know about fixing bikes? Surely I can fix these pedals, this is where they go...

Specs:
Canon EOS 400D
1/400s
5.0f/
50.0mm
ISO 100

Front Yard Workshop

Dad came over this morning to fix all our bikes, again, I really should learn how to do this stuff.

David's bike needed one tube repair and re-inflated.

Liam's bike needed two new tyres and a new tube.

My bike, as you know, needed the pedal reattached.

We also have a retro style scooter which I picked up for free thinking it was worth at least looking at properly to see what needed to be done to make it workable. The scooter needs both wheels re-spoked and new tyres.

By the end of the front yard bike workshop however, the picture was slightly different.

Liam's bike was fully repaired, until a couple of hours later the rear tyre "popped". I haven't a clue what that means but Rhiannan was riding it and the tyre made a loud pop noise and instantly deflated. One bike back in the shed 'til the next front yard workshop session.

David's bike is fully repaired, and back in the shed protected from the pending rain.

My bike needs two new pedals and cranks; all screw together parts were threaded. Still hopefully cheaper to repair than a new bike, since I got this bike was free.

Specs:
Canon EOS 400D
1/125s
5.0f/
50mm
ISO 100