I was kind of lollygagging around the house when Larry, a friend and new bike rider called. “Hey John, I’m down the street on the bike path, can I come by?” He did, with bike questions. Larry suffered his first flat last week and couldn’t find a replacement tube at Walmart so he settled for a cheap patch. I told him that it would not hold for long and to go to another store and get a good patch kit.
He also mentioned that he had to take the brake pads off so he could remount his front tire. I gave him a quick show and tell of how to open the brakes, and the proper settings of his pads. He had them rubbing the tire and the rim.
I rode with Larry back to his start location and offered to take him on a longer ride. “How far” was his response. Larry is gradually learning about the bike culture and all that goes along with it, and no longer thinks six miles is a long ride. He is at double that for now, but soon enough he will be doing the twenty miles rides without giving it a second thought. For now though, he is bound to the local bike path. No road riding yet. It will come.
I decided to ride into the city to have lunch at Destination Soup. It’s a hip downtown place with soups that make you moan at the first spoonful. mmmm. But they were closed.
Continuing to the WiFi hotspot I came across a riding friend Charlie, who does all his online Facebook photo posts from there. Riding my bike in New Bedford is the title of every post.
Last stop of the day was the drive through ATM to resupply.
A Midnight Rider 