Tuesday, June 1, 2010

WTF Am I Doing?

Today I had my annual eye exam at the world's greatest eye doctor. God, I really love Dr. Wolford. She is so awesome! I decided to go ahead and ride to the appointment because I haven't rode for several days and I had the time, so why not. Since both Stuart and Phoebe are gone, that left D.D. to be ridden to the appointment with her newly mounted cream Schwalbe's. I thought I needed to test out how they rode and to have a decent and current ride to feel out the beautiful girl. I have discovered a few things.
1) The tires really didn't make a huge difference in the ride (at least from what I recall of the ride). While they are beautiful, and certainly of better quality than the original tires on the Ticino, I'm not certain that it changed the ride quality for the better. Nor is the ride worse either, but I suppose I was curious to see if some of the jostling would be kept to a minimum with more solid and thicker tires.
2) My hands and rear are still not loving the ride. It's not a horrible ride, but I felt shaken up when I got back from the 15 miles. When I returned, I shut my eyes for 15 minutes on the couch and awoke to completely numb hands - and they were just laying across my body. My rear I can deal with because I think it's just typical for riding a bicycle and I don't have the spine pain I was having when I rode Phoebe. Not sure what to do about the hands though. It's not unbearable, but at the same time, I don't want to be in any pain or discomfort. I know, I'm probably being completely unreasonable.
3) This item is a bit of a strange one, but the Ticino is a mixte frame, and I find I am having issues because my legs are so large. I find my inner leg/knee fat rubbing up against the frame with each pedal and then I'm trying to compensate by putting my feet farther out on the pedals, but then my feet go numb. I can't be the only person who's experienced this (or maybe I am), but I can't find any real information on a way to pedal to avoid this friction. I suppose most would say, "Just don't ride a mixte frame." Ugh.
4) I realized that I am not entirely sure that I know what I'm doing with a bicycle. I know that I certainly don't need three different bicycles for the same basic kind of riding, but I don't know what I need. I don't want my hands to be in pain or going numb, but I can't deal with being unable to walk because of lower back issues either. I just want to be able to go into town, which is a bit of a ride in itself, and to the grocery store and wherever without too many issues.

So, now what? Do I sell the Ticino too? I don't think it would be wise for me to have a heavy bicycle as my only bike, but at the same time, I don't know what to do about all of these issues. I like that I'm able to go a little bit faster on the Ticino, and I do like the bicycle, but I'm just not sure what I should be doing. Perhaps riding just isn't for me? Maybe I have to many body issues (physical, not mental) to deal with and it's just not the thing for me? I'm getting a little upset about it. I thought it was all set with the upright riding of the Amsterdam, but goodness knows I have enough lower back issues without adding to it by riding this one. I'm sure for most people it's just fine, but I have so many back and hand issues, I'm wondering if I just need to give up. I know mountain bicycles don't work, and a road bike DEFINITELY won't work because of wrist and hand issues. I think now I'm afraid to even try anything for fear that it will just create some new kind of issue. I swear though, if I ever were to find something that worked, I would never give it up.

Overall, a frustrating thing to figure out, particularly as I don't have endless money to spend on bicycles to "try" them to figure out what does work for me. I still like the Pashley I test rode, but now I'm questioning that too because I wonder, as stated above, if I even know what will work. For now, I remain a one questionable bicycle girl.

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