Day 108: Congrats Mr. Lopez! It's A....Bike!

Update: 212.8 lbs, 45.4 lbs so far, 38 lb Goal Reached Day 74. - 4.6 lbs to NEW 50 lb goal.

Well, after a couple go arounds of false labor and being sent home without a new bundle of joy, we finally had a successful delivery. A 24 lb, 6 ounce healthy, happy, blue Torelli Gran Sasso, last night at 7:30 pm. I promptly snugged Baby T into the SUV and drove carefully home to share with the rest of the family...who weren't quite as excited as the proud father.

One thing that's different about riding this bike than Nick's for the past two weeks is that I'm in clipless pedals for the first time. If you're not familiar with clipless pedals, they basically snap and lock your shoes into the bike, and they don't release them until you do the hokey pokey in them to get then to un-release. The LBS owner had me on the bike in a trainer for about 20 minutes, clipping in and out, telling me how to be a tripod at stops, choosing a side and sticking with it, etc, etc, etc.....'yeah, yeah, give me my bike and let me get out on the road fella!'


Now everyone I've talked to, and I mean EVERYONE, tells you "you're gonna put the bike down at least once with those clipless pedals." Some people said it's a rule that you put it down twice, and one guy I knew said he put his down half a dozen times the first week or so, so I've been hesitant to try them out myself, but I know the power and efficiency gain is great, and that I'd always wonder if I should have put them on, so I just did. The great thing was that Nick said he just took his time his first ride to clip and unclip several hundred times, and consequently hadn't actually put his bike down due to being unable to clip. (Some funny story about eating donuts at midnight , and solving a Rubiks cube in a trackstand, while on his bike and falling over, but you'll have to ask him for the deets on that one.)

Anyway, I didn't really get to ride last night, but thought I'd hop up on the bike, snap in and out a couple times, maybe rip around the block, before parking it and going in. So here's Rule #1 of my Riding With Clipless Pedals. Don't Clip In If You're Not Planning on Going Somewhere. After clipping in the left foot, I thought 'hmm, now how do I clip in the right foot without the trainer to hold the bike nice and steady for me while I climb up like on a horse?' Stupid me...you move first, then clip in the other foot. Cause what happens if you don't get moving and try to figure out how to balance a bike in mid-air so you can (stupidly) try to clip in the other foot, is 212.8 lbs of prime mexican hitting the driveway with a bike between his legs. Yeah baby.

So the first time trying to get on and ride the new addition, it threw me. Bucked me right off. With a scraped leg and elbow, I just wheeled it right into the garage, and turned off the lights. At 5 this morning, I mustered enough gumption to give it a go once again, and actually took a spin at The Loop. Since I was taking a little extra time to test out the clipless, and listen to the wheels, tires, gears and chains to make sure everything was ok, I didn't set any land speed records, but did get in 50 minutes of quality time with the Blue Bomber. (Hmmm, ok, I thought I'd try out a name, but not sure that worked. A little nod to Pastor B for the name, but don't know if it really fits....maybe I'll keep trying.)

40 degress is chilly at 5 am, but at least I didn't pull the bike down on top of me!

Hasta!