Bike Day

Today I went to Kings Plaza with Ricky, Lanson and David Yan to check out stores. I bought a new pair of sneakers (about time). I’m always very hesitant on buying sneakers (or anything else for that matter) because I’m afraid of disliking the product once I use it—hence a waste of money.

Afterwards, we went back to Lanson’s house and picked up bikes. After a long seven year retirement from biking, I've picked up the trade once again. I learned how to ride a bike during my elementary school years. Ever since my dad threw out the old bike (that he found on the streets mind you), I haven’t rode one since. Ricky brought his bike all the way from Canarsie. David Yan had his own bike. I was the only guy without a bike so I wanted to borrow Lanson’s. However, his bike was a lot bigger than I thought and since I was a newb once again, I was intimidated by the height of the bike. In the end I ended up riding Ricky’s bike because it was shorter. For the very first time today I rode on the streets. My parents never allowed me to ride a bike in the USA because the roads are made for cars, not bikes. It is fairly dangerous to ride side by side on the streets where the cars are. I feared for my life as I rode to Marine Park. Cars whizzed by behind us and my adrenaline pumped when the cars were making a turn in front of us.

After we got to Marine Park it was smooth sailing. I biked around the Marine Park bike lane for ten laps. One lap was about 0.81 miles so I biked 8 miles today, plus some extra distance from and to Lanson’s house. My crotch area started to hurt like crazy when after the third lap but I kept going. Ricky’s bike isn’t as good as Lanson’s because it only has one gear and it was way smaller in comparison. I had to pedal much more before I can shorten the distance between us and even when I went full speed, I couldn’t catch up to Lanson when he was at full speed. Today I learned something new about bikes.

The main reason why I wanted to bike in the first place was because Liz inspired me to go biking. Liz, Eric, Lanson and his bike gang biked from Brooklyn all the way to Manhattan sometime last week. Liz described it as “a life changing experience.” Although as much as I would like to do something exciting like biking all the way to Manhattan, I don’t think I am capable of doing so.I’m still afraid of getting hit by a car on the street because I’m still quite rusty.