Bicycle

I recently bought a bicycle. The plan is to ride to and from work and hopefully get in some kind of shape while saving gas money at the same time. I spent some time up in the second floor at Dick’s Sporting Goods riding three biked around, checking them out. Handsome went with me and checked out some bikes as well. He’s not all that good at using the hand brakes yet, but he managed to only have one accident.

That I know of.

At least, no one was hurt.

So I was being all careful to try and get the bicycle that was most comfortable for me. At least the most comfortable one they had marked “Clearance!” And I was, like I said, riding all three possibles around in Dick’s for a while. But while I was checking things like seat comfort, bike weight, handlebar width, where the brake levers were positioned and whether I’d have a problem hitting them in an emergency and whatnot, there was one thing I failed to check. At least on the third bike I looked at, which happened to be the one I settled on.

Gears.

The 1st two bikes I looked at had the gear shifters built into the handgrips, seven on the right, three on the left for a total of 21 gears.

Cool.

Now, riding around in Dicks, it’s not like you’re ever going to get it up there into the higher gears. You’re pretty much going to leave that left shifter alone and work around the right, leaving it in the lower gears so you don’t go careening out of control, taking out staff and stock as you go. So I didn’t even notice that the bike I finally settled on, the one I looked at last because it was the most expensive of the three, doesn’t even have that shifter built into the left handgrip. It doesn’t have one anywhere. There’s just the one sprocket in the front, and the 7 in the rear. 

It’s a 7-speed.

Not a 21.

How in the hell did I miss that? I had checked it on the other two, and this was the most expensive of the three, so why would I think it had less?

And the worst part is I didn’t even figure this out until I was on the way to work this morning. I went to upshift and there was just nowhere to go! I must have looked a little funny pulled over by the side of the road, scratching my head and looking for something that just wasn’t there.

Well, long story short (yes, I know, ‘too late!’) I rode the damn bike to and from work today. It’s about a 15 minute trip, apparently, all loaded with my work stuff. The bike worked fine, I guess, although I do have one thing to say.

I am going to be so sore tomorrow!

Talk to you later!