Bike Trouble

Now that the spring semester is over, I have decided to start riding my bike/bus to the office as much as I can. This is primarily to get some exercise and build my endurance for our upcoming trip to Honduras. It's also to save money on gas. I costs $2 round trip to bike to the bus stop, ride the bus downtown, and then bike another mile or so to the office. If I get in better shape, I may try to bike the whole way (24 miles round trip). This costs about half what it takes to drive.

So anyway, I had to get a new bike. I don't mean brand new, just new to me. I called one of my bicycling-enthusiast students to see if he would sell me one of his old ones. He happened to be moving to a new apartment and, long story short, his roommate GAVE me an extra bike. I was pretty excited about it. I came home, aired up the tires, rode it around the block a few times, got the seat adjusted for me, and tried to fiddle with the brakes which weren't working quite right.


This morning I gathered my gear in an over-the-shoulder bag, put on my spandex bike shorts (under my other shorts!) and took off with a pocket full of bus fare. I got about four blocks away and something started feeling funny (with the bike, not the shorts). I looked down to see my left pedal and crank arm about to fall off. Rats! The securing nut had come off, who knows where, and there was nothing to do but coast/walk back home - and take a picture for the blog! This is my disappointed face.