Did Critical Mass in San Francisco last nite with John Oleery. Both of us were on our HiWheels. What fun!It was John's first Mass and he handled it amazingly well. This considering the fact that he has only been riding a Penny for the last five months. I remember the first CM that I did and from all the starting, stopping and slow speeds, my arms were fried and I slept more than well that night.
Tho we, and a few hundred others got caught at a light and lost the ride, we still got over two good hours worth of riding in. And for me on the Eagle, I barely felt it! What a confidence builder for next June. It can only add to the skill set that i will need for my ride to Boston.
As I watched John ride with no hands and remembered how that was far more than a trick for me when I rode regular HiWheel bikes, I knew it was all the other little things I was learning that would make next summer a lot easier for me. When we rode around the Giants baseball game at ATT Park near the waterfront, for example, a curb I could not see knocked me off my bike. Because I had been practicing lifting my front wheel in my daily jaunts, I spotted the next one and all three after that in enough time to lift my front tire up and over them. The rest of the bike followed. With grace and ease!!
Yey!!And at those times when I was forced off, because there were always people on bikes behind me, I could not stop and poise myself for a mount. I had to keep moving. So I returned to the way I had first learned to get on the Eagle. With a twenty foot or more runway. Only last nite, no failures could take place during my fast walking starts.. Nor did they! More yahoo!!
Besides being forced to learn new abilities, I know it is rides like these that are creating a buzz for my 2010 SF to Boston. Many times I overheard people pointing me out as the guy who rode to Salt Lake. A couple people interviewed me. I got invited to lots of special rides and there were so many cameras pointed at me (John too) all night long, I knew the bikeroute.com logo on my handlbar pak would be seen far and wide.
Indeed it is an honor to ride this, the Spillane Eagle!!
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