Flowers popped up everywhere in our garden, and in our neighborhood. Sun feels so good nice and warm, bright and cheerful.
For a moment I wanted to switch back to my good old Novara instead of my Schwinn folder. But I didn't.
The more I study and ride it, the more my curiosity and challenging spirit come up. I want to be able to ride it as well as possible.
Today we both got terrible small backache from morning, but we rode for an hour with slow speed starting anyway...
I checked my Schwinn folder using 5th or 6th gear for start. And even on quite an upslope I could start in 5th gear kicking my foot on the ground and the other foot pedaling combination. That was surprising! I could start without spinning too much which happened with the 3rd and 4th gear before.
And I rode through using 5th, 6th and 7th the most of time.
I just need more time to figure out which gear to choose correctly in any road. That's fun.
I got more fun to purchase this. Bicycle on the coffee maker!
I have lost interest in drinking coffee lately, but the french press made me happy and coffee enjoyable to drink.
So I've been researching about our folding bike. From outside looking I've already known that's a Schwinn Loop.
The tire shows,
Luckily we found the model number on the bike. S2280A
So our folding is:
Schwinn 20 inch Loop Folding 7-speed Bike S2280A.
My research started. Reading what people thought about it.
Then, Found this video on YouTube. I thought this is very good education for me. His is red though. Nice color!
"Humm, at the price this is a quite nice folding bike. "
And this article is also useful for me.
http://www.foldingbikeguru.com/schwinn-loop-7-speed-folding-bike-review/
And even found a fold and unfold video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uKY2D9vHQQ
A little hard to handle for Mr. WheelP. the first time, and since then he doesn't want to bother doing, but I should try some days.
Recently I found that I could use the 6th gear right away after start and it made it much easier to ride for me. And I could start even with 5th gear on slightly up-slope.
And small number gear are convenient to use when I got tired and felt weak in my legs. This is a totally amazing great discovery for me.
The biggest reason why I like my Novara J. so much better than my Schwinn Loop is the Loop's heavy weight. 5 lbs difference right now.
But I found another difficulty today. That was the seat which was a little far from the handle, so I asked him if it's adjustable or not. He said that he could do a little, and did it for me.
That little difference turned out to be quite a big difference to me, so I had to enjoy another ride today.
Before:
After:
Because I can reach the handle easily, I could lift the seat higher. And it made pedaling more enjoyable.
It feels new!
Since the weather here will bring another rainfall soon, I need my Novara to stay on our bike trainer. Meanwhile I should get used to the Schwinn Loop more and enjoy it.
We read that front tire should be raised up to balance the trainer, so he made nice stand.
It seemed easier for my arms.
Finally we could ride under the sunlight today. Everybody's garden looked so beautiful with healthy trees and flowers.
Further view was great too.
I still need to get used to the folding bike. But at least I found 6th gear is quite comfortable to use. I just need to train my legs to keep up on any up slopes around here.
At least I could ride over 10 miles on the folding bike. ... nothing is good and comfortable as my lovely NovJ.
"It stopped! Let's ride, honey!"
We jumped on the bikes with our speed, of course. We rode carefully not running onto manhole lids, puddles, and piled old leaves etc. It was fun for a while. I could hear wheel spray crashing onto fenders. That sounds were very comfortable for me.
Then, rain began falling more and more. Finally we gave up riding in half an hour. Afterwards we felt very tired and couldn't believe it! Just riding a measly 4 miles made us so tired?? Rain is scary for old folks' body.
We've had rain for two weeks now. We need to setup our bike trainer whenever we want to use it. So my lovely bicycle was put on the trainer for a while.
In the garage, if I open the door, I can see the view outside, and also Mr. WheelP. managed to find the close spot for putting the old odometer, so I didn't get bored so easily like before.
At least I can check how long a distance I pedaled, that's very important to me.
Unlike me he doesn't care the distance, he just set to see the time which I just can't stand. It's boring.
Meanwhile I decided to use our folding bike for road biking regularly. Luckily the folding bike has fenders on both wheels!! which I didn't notice before. Because I didn't know the necessity.
I really wanted to try it riding on wet roads, but we couldn't in the morning.
Then, we had a chance in the afternoon!
Even though the folding bike handle is wobbly and it's hard to get speed because of the small tires, I was happy to ride with my new interest.
Next time I need to find the appropriate gear to use for each slope.
I had a small back ache in the morning, so I couldn't go riding while the rain stopped for a short time. He went and enjoyed 2 miles riding then the rain started.
After eating I felt much better, it might start soon, but I want to go! We both put helmet covers on, and started riding. Gosh it started again! But I ignored it and kept riding.
The rain was soaking in more and more, and my legs were getting colder and colder. When I saw the cyclometer showing over 3.5 miles, I decided to stop.
I could ride more, but I was worried about catching a cold.
Next time when I ride in the rain, I should be wearing all nylon or synthetic, I thought.
We took a good hot shower afterwards, but my body didn't forget the feeling of having gotten cold a while ago.
This old body can't take riding in the rain so long.
Last month, February's riding records:
Residential road,
Feb.01, 10.56 mi., ave. 9.3mph, max. 18.8mph, 1:07:13
Feb.02, 8.36 mi., ave. 8.8mph, max. 15.6mph, 0:56:41
Feb.03, 10.69 mi., ave. 8.4mph, max. 14.9mph, 1:16:02
Feb.04, 12.02 mi., ave. 8.6mph, max. 15.7mph, 1:23:37
Feb.06, 10.90 mi., ave. 8.6mph, max. 15.7mph, 1:15:59
Feb.08, 10.13 mi., ave. 8.8mph, max. 17.6mph, 1:08:09
Feb.09, 5.69 mi., ave.10.0mph, max. 18.0mph, 0:34:49
Feb.12, 10.24 mi., ave. 9.3mph, max. 15.9mph, 1:05:54
Feb.16, 6.00 mi., ave. 9.4mph, max. 15.9mph, 0:38:06
Feb.18, 5.28 mi., ave. 9.0mph, max. 16.8mph, 0:35:03
Feb.19, 10.16 mi., ave. 9.2mph, max. 17.4mph, 1:05:58
Feb.20, 4.86 mi., ave. 9.1mph, max. 16.6mph, 0:31:52
Feb.21, 10.43 mi., ave. 9.2mph, max. 17.8mph, 1:07:46
Feb.22, 10.96 mi., ave. 9.3mph, max. 16.8mph, 1:09:54
Feb.24, 5.67 mi., ave. 9.5mph, max. 15.2mph, 0:35:34
Feb.25, 10.57 mi., ave. 8.1mph, max. 15.9mph, 1:18:09
Feb.26, 8.47 mi., ave. 8.2mph, max. 16.0mph, 1:01:38
Feb.27, 4.49 mi., ave. 9.0mph, max. 16.6mph, 0:29:51
February Monthly Total 155.48 miles, 17:22:15
That was not from bicycling, that fatigue came from gardening. Digging made us sickish which we've never gotten before.
Anyway we were going to try one of cycling clubs' monthly events this morning, but we just couldn't go. What a shame! It was good that I didn't tell the leader.
But I was still worried if we can keep up with the group or not. Our speed is not fast enough. And we've never yet tried group riding.
Maybe this is God's voice. No, you are not ready yet. Something like that.
At least we should get rid of this pain in our arms, small back and knees first. We both didn't feel up to riding even in our neighborhood.
We had breakfast with the dish. I want to ride!
