{Part 2} How I Ruined Myself on Upright Bicycles: The "Others"

*If you missed reading the first part of this post, please see here.
How I loved the online blogging/cycling community, and I regularly sought information from them (whether they were aware of it or not). Even though I was blogging myself, I thought of my blog as my own personal journal of events or thoughts, and not as something anyone would be reading. Really, who would want to get information from me, because what did (do) I know? While the (mostly) female bloggers I was reading were (are) a great source of inspiration, information, and motivation for me to continue to ride, looking back on it now, I think it also created an environment for me to wonder what else was out in the world in the way of bicycles. Knowledge is power, but in my case, knowledge created questions which led to doubt. Stuart and I had been moseying right along and were happy together, but perhaps a cruiser wasn't the best choice. I went to something I knew and that I thought I could manage to reasonably purchase: another Electra.

Phoebe, my former Electra Amsterdam 3i in Sunflower green

I spotted an Electra Amsterdam 3i in a local bike shop (which I would later name Phoebe) and was enraptured by her hideously wonderful chartreuse green/pink/baby blue color combination. While I often think of myself as a bit of a wallflower, there would be no hiding from anyone on this bike (of course, Sam will highly disagree that I am a wallflower - and he's probably correct). Everywhere I went this bike received attention. People would stop in traffic to yell out "nice bike," and women would smile and wave as I rode past. I have to admit, I kind of liked it. It was reassuring to have people acknowledging my bike, particularly in a community of mostly non-upright/city bike riders. It made me believe that I had chosen wisely... at least for a time.

Trial with a Brooks B-67 saddle on the Amsterdam

Phoebe had everything I needed. She was an upright bicycle (no hand pain), she had a bottle driven head light and battery operated tail light (I could ride in the dark), she was beautiful in her own odd way, and I could carry what I needed to between the rear rack and front basket I'd attached. Why would I ever want anything else? Between riding Stuart and Phoebe though, I began to experience pain in my spine and lower regions, so I experimented with a Brooks saddle to see if it would remedy the problem. I just couldn't make the Brooks work for me however, and after more reading online, more bicycle purchases, and even more riding, I determined that there was no fixing the problems with the Electra bicycles.

Pepper Potts, the Pashley Princess Sovereign on her first day home

The other online bloggers all seemed to have more expensive, European made bicycles, and I determined that my problems stemmed from buying a lower-cost bicycle (there were other factors involved, but ultimately I believed it had to do with the cost of the bike). After lots of debating, research and test riding, I ended up selling all of my bikes in order to purchase a Pashley Princess Sovereign. Finally, I had the bike I was supposed to have that would cure all of my ailments and that would, of course, bring world peace... or at least this was the high standard by which the Pashley would be judged and held accountable. In my mind at the time, a completely reasonable expectation.

Riding to meet a friend on the Pashley

I don't know that the Pashley and I were able to bring any kind of world peace (I'm guessing not), but we had great fun together. She was a heavier bike than the Electra Amsterdam (which was aluminum, rather than steel), and I often felt as though I was riding slow, but this would be the case with almost any upright bicycle. No matter what I did, I could never quite escape the feeling of that often (painfully) slow ride, and while I loved the Pashley, I realized that our location in the world did not provide me the ideal surroundings to be successful with an upright bicycle. All of the women I was reading about online mostly lived in large cities with lots of things close by. The only thing within a few of miles of my home was a grocery store, a 7-Eleven, and a few fast food chains - not exactly the prime location to justify this sort of bicycle. Since we couldn't sell our house, and we couldn't move, I had all but given up on the idea of riding an upright bicycle. All of the others seemed to be enjoying their upright bicycles, so why wasn't I? Sure, it was a good distance to get to anything, but I enjoyed being out on my bike. By this point in time, I had purchased and we'd put together the Rivendell Sam Hillborne, and I believed that it would have to be my only bike. Little did I realize that between my insatiable need to get more information, and a chance happening, I wasn't done with the upright bikes...(to be continued).

Part 3 can be found here.