In November last year I bought my road bike, because I got tired of being passed all the time on my mountain bike. Now I get passed all the time on my road bike, but that's besides the point. So now I'm out there and I'm riding for longer distances on this machine that little by little I'm getting to know a bit better. I know how to clean and lube it and make some minor adjustments. And, in theory, I know how to change a flat tire. I used to patch and fix my tires all the time on my Schwinn when I was 10, but somewhere along the line I lost that confidence.
So some girlfriends and I took a Women's Basic Bike Maintenance Course at REI a couple of months back and again I heard, in theory, how to change a flat tire. But I'm one of those people that until I actually do it and get my hands dirty - I don't feel like I've really learned it.
This realization led me to think that I needed to have a party where my girlfriends come over and we sit around, drink beer and practicing changing out flat tires. And finally, this week . . . that's just what I did.
I sent out an invite to my fellow bike chics and was excited that Susan, Gaye, and Heather could all could make it. I ordered pizza, had them bring their kids so they could keep my kid entertained, and then the best thing of all happened - we got an expert to join us. My friend Sonja - athlete extraordinaire (read: winner of 1/2 Ironman Rage in the Sage, currently training for full Ironman Canada in 2 weeks, invited to the Triathlon World Championships in Australia, and on and on and on) - joined us as well.
Sonja was awesome and such a great teacher she walked us through it all was very patient with all of our questions, gave us lots of hands on experience (as evidenced by the fact we were all covered in bike grease by the end of the night). Also, I want to give a shout out to all the kids, all 7 of them, they were amazingly well-behaved and left all us mommies be so we could learn our stuff - they made full use of Megan's giant playset and I never imagined that having all the kids there would have worked as well as it did. Thank you.
Now I feel totally confident if and when I get a flat tire on the side of the road that I will know exactly what I need to do to fix the problem and keep on riding - and it doesn't involve sitting around waiting for a boy to show up.
1 comments:
Snickering at the Fat Tire remark cause I know it's directed at me. My sister and I have been talking about taking a bike maintenance class, but never actually do it.
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