On your left

I'm not quite sure how this happened...but I think I'm turning into a bicyclist! In the past I've fantasized about hitting a biker with my car door after parking on the street, or cursed mayor Mc"Schwinn" for turning Dexter into a street devoted to bicycles and leaving the cars to pile up behind buses that stop in the middle of the road. And now...I'm turning into one of them. So far, I'm sticking to bike trails and leaving the roads for cars, so hopefully that will redeem myself. But riding a bike is just so much fun, who knew?!

After taking my bike out for a ride down to Alki, I invited Anne over on Thursday and we made the ride down there together. She's had a bike for a while now, but hasn't had a chance to get much use out of it. So, we decided to bust it out again. We rode down to Cactus where we had a nice dinner, then headed back to my place. The weather wasn't the greatest (again), and actually a bit cold on the ride home. Regardless, we had a good time and felt nice to get outside and be active.

Checking out the Seattle skyline

typical gray Seattle day

  

Then, over the weekend, Clint and I attended a bike class at the Montlake Bicycle Shop. When we bought our bikes, they told us we could come in for a free workshop to learn some helpful tips, like how to change a tire. We scheduled it for this past Saturday at 9am, so we loaded our bikes into the truck and headed over.

There were only four of us in the class, plus our instructor, so it was nice and small. We each had our bikes with us in the shop so we could actually try out what we were learning. We first learned how to oil and clean our chains, and then flipped the bikes over to learn how to remove both tires and replace the tubes. They also taught us how to patch a tube and even gave us punctured ones to try it out on.

Clint working on his bike

Me working on mine

After the class, we headed downstairs to shop. I ended up getting a spare tube and patch kit (recommended from the class), plus a pouch for under my seat to carry things, a watter bottle, a bike lock, a rack for the back to strap things too (such as a cooler with food and beer), and a bell...they were sold out of streamers. Now I'm all set to go!

Yesterday I had some time before my dad came over for Father's Day celebrating, so I tested out my new bike accessories with another ride. The weather was warmer this time and a lot more people out and about enjoying it. I'm starting to feel more comfortable out there, and even saying "on your left" when passing people. Here's hoping I don't completely convert and start complaining about cars not giving bikers the proper respect on the road...

view from Salty's