did not fall

my first ride on my brand new road bike, i did not fall.

now, i have good balance overall as a person, and i haven't fallen off a bike since that one time i was pedaling home in the rain on my mountain bike, braked on top of that metal plate, you know the one, and went skidding all over my knee, which required three weeks of convalescence, but not before i went home and set a deadlift PR (heh -- and then came the pain!)

anyhow, i wasn't expecting to fall due to balance or traction issues, but because i now have clipless pedals, which, for non-riders, means my pedals clip onto my shoe (hence the name clipless -- no, really!). the danger is that when approaching a stop, i'm unable (or forget) to disconnect myself from my bike, and thus have no free foot to set on the road, and fall. or, as the bike shop owner told me, unclipping a foot, setting it down, and putting my weight on the other side of the bike -- whoops!

anyhow, i did none of these things and stayed well on my bike. i had some trouble getting reattached after every stop, and although i am very confident in my ability to unclip (though perhaps not in an emergency -- the tension (adjustable, i know) is pretty high on my pedals) i am not so great at clipping in.

that's not a problem, it's better to become quickly proficient at unclipping.

the ride was nice, not easy. i wasn't exactly comfortable, but i also was not uncomfortable. hills were hard but thats because my huge, muscular, deadlifting arse is full of so much extra huge muscles that they actually hold me back when climbing (hills or walls).

anyhow, it was my first ride, and it wasn't bad. i need to find a better place than alameda de las pulgas: so many stop signs, so many teenagers in mustangs.