There's Got To Be A Morning After...

…and blessedly, the pain is minimal! However, I have come to several conclusions regarding bike riding and me. Don’t worry though, like most problems, they only take money to fix.

1) I definitely need street wheels. Mountain bike tires make every slight upgrade feel like slogging through heavy mud.

2) I need to invest in biking shorts – though I have been told that the chafing protection only works if you don’t wear underwear. (I’m not sure how bike shorts with no underwear would fly at choir practice!) If I can't afford the gel-chamois shorts (or can't get them in a size big enough to cover my rear) then I'll have to pick up a gel-chamois seat cover.

3) I should invest in toe clips, or the shoes with automatic toe clips, which I was informed increase the efficiency of every pedal stroke.

4) I really need to learn how to use the gears. I never had a bike when I was growing up. Only rich people’s kids had bikes with gears and hand brakes. The bike I learned to ride on belonged to a friend. It had one speed and back-pedal brakes.

5) I need to raise my handle bars. It seems that I lean forward while riding, leaning on my hands and putting pressure on the carpal nerves. A mile or two into the ride, both hands start getting painfully numb.

6) I need a water bottle holder and some other type of contrivance to hold necessities.

7) Last but not least, I need a chain and lock. Normally I ride to a destination where there is not much worry about the bike disappearing, but that will not always be the case.

By my calculations, it will cost about $200 to resolve my biking dilemnas. Guess I better get a part time job to pay for the new vice. In the meantime, it's more sore glutes and slogging up inclines!