Please excuse my OVER exaggeration in what I'm about to talk about but I know this is how I truly felt.
Yesterday, Saturday, I can honestly say I haven't felt that nervous, scared and slightly embarrassed in years! It was day one of my bike shopping and I confirmed that I really can't ride a bike. Either that or getting on a road bike first in 25 years was a big mistake. Uncontrollable sweating, laughter and blabbering about my nerves were my reactions.
Raul and Audrey Chen were kind enough to join me on my first bike window shopping expedition. As Raul and I were on our way to pick up Audrey, I was telling Raul, "I don't know if I REALLY know how to ride a bike, but how hard can it be?" I would realize how wrong I was later in the day.
So after picking up Audrey, our first stop was Pasadena Cycle. A small shop and not too intimidating. We check out the bikes and decide I need a female road bike. Audrey begins to explain to me the differences and the main thing we need to find is a bike short enough for me. Being 4'10", the height of 14 year old, its quite difficult to find an adult bike that fits me. We find ONE on the floor and its on sale. It's a used bike but looks pretty good. We pull it out of the rack and I straddle it. It BARELY fits. Audrey said there should be about an inch or two between you and the bar and the bar was "right there" no space in between! I was able to have both feet flat on the ground but had I been barefoot I probably would've needed to tip toe a little. We flag down a sales man and we ask him if there's a bike shorter than that one on the floor. He said that that is as short as they come, a 42, and that anything else would have to be custom made. DAMN! So he offers for me to try it out to see if fits right because that's mainly important. I explain to him that I haven't been on a bike since I was 7 and that I don't know if I can really ride it. The salesman is calm and very helpful while we walk out and is not bothered at all by my lack of confidence.
All four of us walk outside to the parking lot and I'm already laughing and expressing how nervous I am. Luckily Raul and Audrey aren't easily annoyed, at least not showing it, because I couldn't stop blabbering. The Salesman picks up on my nervous and baby's me through the process and says we should go on the sidewalk. WHAT! The sidewalk is NARROW! Sweat drops in the helmet....
The salesman holds the bike and says, okay, get on. Palms sweating, uncontrollable laughter, legs shaking and I put my foot on the pedal. Push OFF. I immediately lose my footing and don't move an inch. More uncontrollable laughter and sweating. Now the salesman gets an idea of how I really don't know how to ride a bike. He himself puts the pedals in the correct starting position for me and kindly says "you already have the marks of a true rider". They were grease marks on my calves from the chains. So with the pedals in the correct position for me to really push off, attempt #2. I push off, sit down, balance is WAY OFF. Swaying side to side I jump off and the bike veers to the grass and I try so hard to not fall. It's not my bike and I really really don't want to break it or crash it! All three of them, all being very patient and very encouraging with me were great but I felt utterly embarrassed. How can I be 32 years old and not know how to ride a bike! The salesman, now acting as a dad to me, said, "okay, jump on and I'll help you get started". So just as any KID would learn, the parent holds on a few steps as I ride down the sidewalk. He helps me get my balance and says I'm letting go now, and of course I see a white picket fence coming up soon. I say okay and determined to get this on my own, he lets go and I am pedaling, focusing, over thinking. I pedal a few feet trying to maintain my balance and come up against the fence and freak out. I'm afraid I'll bump into the fence and scratch the bike, or crash and cut myself on this unnecessary enclosure of a yard in Pasadena. I squeezed the brakes and catch myself before I could go any further. I believe had I gone past the fence, I might have been okay. I began to lose confidence and decided to stop. More uncontrollable laughter. I tell them that that's enough. I am far too embarrassed to go any further. This is the exact reason I rather walk alone during my marathons. No one is watching me, no one is paying attention to me, I can do my own thing, no embarrassment. I'm obviously not a competitive person.
The salesman, acting dad, offered to put together a mountain bike for me to practice on. He said, I can take it around the neighborhood to get my balance back and comfortable on a bike again. What a nice guy. I made sure that there was no obligation for me to purchase anything and agreed to it. I figure I can go on my lunch breaks and ride for 20 minutes a day and hopefully find my groove.
We hit 3 other stores, mostly intimidating for an amateur and nothing close to a 42. Our last stop was performance cycle. We go in and are approached by a salesman. He's very friendly and suggests that I look into kids road bikes. Being surprised that they actually have road bikes for children, we find out the functionality of the bikes are the same. The kids bikes are slightly more sturdy, the wheels are a little thicker and just a tad heavier by a couple of lbs. They do have the gear shifters in a different position as well as the breaks but as if I knew were they were supposed to be in the first place. He brings over the catalog and shows me the bike. I would have to order the bike before they can get it in. He said that if I didn't like the bike I could return it but I wished I didn't have to buy it first. The major push was that the kids bike is significantly cheaper. The bike he showed me was under $400. Most bikes we saw were at least $800 with the exception of the used one at Pasadena Cycle being $500. We called it quits for the day so I can go home and collect my thoughts.
After a yummy lunch at Whole Foods, Raul and I went to the TNT encouraged store in Burbank, Bicycle Johns. Its a small store, intimidating like the others. As we were about to leave a salesman approaches us. I explain to him that I'm joining the next tri season and tell him my problems earlier in not finding a bike short enough for me. His suggestion was to put smaller wheels on. 650s? Something like that. I don't have all the correct cycle lingo down yet. He shows me a Cannondale catalog and which one I could get. Again, it would have to be ordered and the thing I didn't like was there's really no returning it. I don't think an all or nothing option is ideal for a first time rider let alone asking me to shell out $800 for it. I take the catalog home, with the used bike and kids bike as my primary options at this point.
I know I need to go to more stores. I still have to check out Helen's and REI. I think as soon as I can get those practices on the road bike in, I can hopefully go and try to ride some road bikes. It was a highly stressful afternoon but I as much as I was embarrassed I was very thankful I didn't have to do it alone. Thanks Raul and Audrey!
to be continued.... hopefully it won't be titled DISASTER again *wink*
