Back in the saddle(s) again

Someone else's Bilenky -- but you get the idea.



A couple hours back Anna, Mei, Daniel, and I stopped at the Budget Bike specialty shop to pick up Daniel's Bilenky Viewpoint tandem, a cherry red, 27-speed, machine with a recumbent front stoker seat and an upright rear captain seat (the captain also steers) We had carefully searched out this bike with the criteria that Daniel ride in front -- so he can't unilaterally decided to dismount -- and that it be recumbent so that he can pedal with his bad hip. The next step, of course, is to get him to ride the thing. Not easy, especially at first, since his first reaction to anything new is "I'm not doing it." Has happened with everything from his laptop computer to a bathtub support, both of which he happily uses now. I have visions of he and I someday going on an organized ride.

Not today, though. My big concern was getting it home, since even the folks at Budget, nice as they truly are, were getting tired of having to trip over it on their showroom floor. We're getting a roof-mounted tandem rack next week (which, unfortunately, will cost more than Rocinante), but in the meantime I had to talk Anna, sometimes a bit surly, into riding the bike home with me. After spending about 45 minutes at the shop while the mechanics, drooling over the fine technical details of the bike (which Daniel has named "Racer"), Anna and I set out to ride home.

Took a bit of getting used to, the front sticks out so far, and all that weight on front made me wobble a bit, to Anna's great annoyance and minor concern. But then we rolled along nicely, up the Southwest Bike Trail, onto Odana Road, and home, avoiding any major hills -- though we did climb nicely up the gradual bike trail ascents. Got a lot of stares and some comments, too. I've never before owned a bike that many hardcore types admire (even though most of the specs are lost on me, I just know it's a delight to ride, and, as of now, unmarked and clean). Anna even admitted it was fun. Tiring, too, since it was my first time on a bike this calendar year. Anna's pedaling made a lot of difference; one attribute of Racer is that the Stoker can pedal or not, independently -- though the Captain must pedal whenever the Stoker does, which sometimes interfered with my coasting decisions. But we worked it out, as we did the shared techniques of mounting and dismounting without tipping over.