Rising up

Welcome gentle reader. The very first time I walked into the class room and saw the ordinary bicycle I remember thinking man this was bigger than I remembered it. It was after sitting down I nervously said to the class 'is anyone else here a bit scared of riding this bike' a few people nodded. Right I was in the right place then.

There are a few peculiarities to riding an ordinary bike that must be acknowledged
- the header is the most feared accident and was common in early days. As you essentially sit over the pivot point if you apply the brake to hard or hit something that stops the wheel over you go. (or in this case have someone try and over take you dangerously)
- Going downhill is much harder and scarier than going up
- You'd be lucky to turn an ordinary bike around on a two lane road
- When you turn the wheel your legs essentially rub against the wheel and stop the wheel turning too far.

Now we have some context and officially finished the formal classes almost all our bikes are able to be ridden it was time for a practice. I've been practicing riding up and down the driveway at home and down the flat part of the bike track near my house. This was the first time I've taken it out on the 'open road' or in reality riding around an industrial estate at Brendale. There were a couple of unexpected dismounts but overall everyone did very well. However this youtube video explains better than I can why letting someone else ride your bike needs to be carefully considered

La la la isn't this fun I'll follow on behind him so nothing can go wrong and give him instructions on how to ride it.  

He rode around safely for a while. Now time for the dismount.

I don't recall telling you to put both feet in the middle of both wheels 

He did get a sorry though.... They managed to pop it back into shape.

Friends don't let friends ride p-fars unless they are comfortable replacing it.  Reflecting on this I recently came across an animal that seems far better suited to riding a p-far than homo-sapiens.

He called them an extinct bicycle and rider. I guess that makes our beasts a kind of Jurassic Park of bicycles.

So without further adieu here is the photo montage from this weeks practice ride. (BTW it's 4mb or so but so worth it! Trust me I'm a p-far-ophile, I think I'm going to have to think of another term just quietly)

Yeah that's the stuff it was fantastic to see everyone get up on their bikes. I went and visited the full time class today they were rolling their rims ah the memories. I've still got a few things to finish on my bike such as the brake. I've got a functional brake but it's not that aesthetically pleasing. I'll leave that for another blog post.