Best comment on a YouTube review of Brooks bicycle saddles:
"I bought a Brooks on the recommendation of my octogenarian neighbour who used to ride 200 mile days in the 1950s. It was pretty uncomfortable to start but thankfully after 6 months of perseverance I permanently lost all feeling in my nether regions and any chance of fertility and now swear by the brand."
I did it! I rode my bike for the first time in 30 days! I used lots of assist and just went a short distance. I’m glad I did it and I’m also glad I kept it short because it definitely felt more effortful than usual — but it’s a new start on this road to recovery that I’m traveling.
@SarahFrumento Looking at Lady Amalthea's purple loveliness, reminds me that I was going to post how last night I discovered that Clever Cycles has a Brompton Design Studio where you can build a bike - for real, they'll build what you make if you process the result as an order request.
So I went in there and decided to try and make the lightest, most purple bike I could. I chose a Titanium frame, and every section or component that could be selected that had color options, I chose, and then chose purple! 😅
The end result was a very lovely, very purple, Brompton T Line, that cost:
A little over 13k. :blobcatrainbow:
https://clevercycles.com/collections/custom-brompton-design-studio
It’s vitamin B12 tonight — Bike Ride No. 12 on Bea the Brompton (I love night rides 🌕). I’m still madly in love. I didn’t intend to keep track of every ride, I just happen to be using a great analog system that works really well for me (Traveler’s Notebook!), and marking that stuff down is easy, so it’s becoming fun to track.
For many months I’d been saving for a Rivendell, and this is the “Rivendell World Champion Stripe Sticker” on the website. It was $2 and I ordered it ages ago, as a fun little motivational reminder of how much I wanted my Riv. And then I got….a Brompton! So I put the sticker on Bea as a little joke to myself. And a reminder that all dreams that nourish us are good, and it’s okay to exchange one dream for another if the new dream works better.
Grabbed Bea and rode to our little local library and sat in the empty fountain for a little while, just enjoying the warm air (it’s supposed to get cold again this weekend). Took off my hoodie and basked like a library lizard.
It’s been 10 bike rides in my 8 days having the bike. :D
In other news, we’re taking my old electric-assist bike (Shadowfax!) over to our son’s place tonight, so he and his boyfriend (who are carless) can have a nice ride. I had thought I should keep it because I “might need it”, but Bea is so much better for me that it just makes sense to pass the bigger bike on to someone who will use it every week.
Jupes and I stayed up late talking and I realized suddenly that I hadn’t done my bike ride today. So we threw on shoes at ten after midnight and stood outside, Jupes pointing into the sky and calling out the names of stars and planets - Jupiter, of course, and Sirius and Capella - while I rode up and down the street a few times.
I just rode Bea the Brompton to the post office and that means I've ridden her every day since I've had her save for yesterday. But I'm still counting it as every day since I DID take her out yesterday and explain to Jaime how wonderful she is. Jaime agreed with me.
Which means, technically me and the bike got outside and had a nice time. Solid biking day.
