Saturday, September 4, 2010

Look Ma No Hands


My daughter has been saving her pennies and finally had enough to order a bike online.  That's it in the photo, parked in the breezeway outside my front door.  We had to assemble the front wheel, handlebars, and seat.  I think we did pretty good but the saddle is still a little wobbly. 

She told me it was a fixed gear and she wanted to take off the brakes because she didn't need them.  Has she lost her mind?  No way am I letting her ride a bike without brakes.  That's going to fall under the category of  "as long as you live under my roof ".  She seems to believe that a fixed gear bike is something new that her generation invented.  She says, "You don't know what fixed gear is or you wouldn't be telling me I need brakes."  Wrong.  I remember having only one speed and I much prefer my 24 gears.  No way I'd pay 600 dollars for something without derailleurs.     

She wanted to borrow my bike rack so she could take it her father's and I was going to let her at first, but then I remembered I would have to adjust all of the straps to make them the right length for her car.  It took me weeks to get them just right for mine.  We took the front wheel back off instead and tried to put it in her trunk but we couldn't figure out how to put her seats down to create more space.  They look like they are designed to drop (aren't all cars these days?) but there are no obvious levers.  Does anyone know how to do this in a Chevy?  We finally got it in the back seat and she was able to take it with her even though she has to hold the handlebar while she's closing the door to make it fit.

Maybe now I'll finally be able to convince her to ride with me...         

19 comments:

Tempo said...

Once she's huffed and puffed up a few hills and peddled like heck down them again she'll realise why we went to multi speed derailleurs. It's probably not cool to ride with your mum, especially if she's faster...

Anonymous said...

No derailleurs? No pillion seat? No radar trap warning light? Never mind, if she's happy that's all that matters.
Joking aside, looks like a real nice piece of kit. I hope that she gets a lot of pleasure from it.

Have a nice day, Boonie

Vince said...

No gears And a bar. Your young lady is in for an education. An education from your point of view that she paid for herself.
I suspect she will love that bike and the idiosyncrasies she will develop in order to live with it. Love it until she gets her own first motorcar.

Brian Miller said...

sounds like she will get a lot of enjoyment out of that...and getting to ride together will be nice...

Jennifer Louise said...

Take off the brakes??

Hahah classic!

Lourie said...

Why would she want to take them off??? Hahaha. I like control. No brakes sounds too much like no control!

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Kelly said...

No brakes?? Do bikes with fixed gears still allowing braking by "back pedalling"? I remember that was the hardest thing for me to adjust to when I got my first 3-speed with hand brakes.... that free spinning when I tried to brake with my pedals!

Jen said...

On this bike, the brakes are on the handlebars. She did have to adjust something on the wheels to allow coasting. Before she did that, when she stopped pedalling the bike stopped moving and she fell over...

Liz Mays said...

Putting a bike in the car is like solving a puzzle!

No brakes...no way!

Minka said...

Her wish goes very well together with the title of this post! Haha indeed!

Enjoy cycling, both of you!

Amy said...

Yeah for her getting a bike on her own. I want one too. I hope to someday. Have a great Sunday.. I do hope you get to stop by for the Round Robin it is fun. You can talk about your Avon if you would like..

jack69 said...

Come on mom!!!! Kids and bikes aren't the same as when you 'thought' you could ride. These kids can show you a circus act! Amazing how good they are.

Take care!

LL Cool Joe said...

Perhaps we should all try driving cars without brakes too. Sounds just as crazy.

Nice looking bike.

Anonymous said...

Ohh, brakes are just about as important as handlebars, haha!

Glad she was able to get a bike and hope you two have lots of fun bike rides in the future. :)

Linda Bob Grifins Korbetis Hall said...

excellent exercise tool,
I love riding bikes.

Captain Dumbass said...

Take off the brakes, ha. They're making some pretty cool fixed gear bikes these days, but the only reason I'd get one is because I live at sea level without any hills.

Heather said...

Well, congrats to her for saving her pennies and buying i herself! Not very many kids do that now-a-days.

No brakes?? Oh girl, I need my brakes!

Anonymous said...

Concratulations upon this achievement and always a safe road ahead for her - and would you please tell her, that she does need brakes, from someone who wished he would have used the right ones ;) A good Tuesday for you all.

Stafford Ray said...

A mate had a fixed sprocket on his bike, so all us kids would try the trick where you put your right foot in the left pedal and with a stiff leg go up and down with the crank! Looked great but if we had to stop, with no brakes I think we just crashed! Brakes are good for you.

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