Month: May 2025

Maybe I Won’t

I lived in the northeastern US for the first 28 1/2 years of my life. I moved to the DC area to get away from brutal winters. Alas, I learned that DC has brutal weather of its own. Tree pollen knocked me for a loop for about a week. No amount of medicines helped. (Maybe this is why I usually leave on a bike tour in mid-May. DC area thunderstorms can be scary and very entertaining. (It helps if you don’t own big things that can get damaged.) Last week a violent storm passed through our neck of the woods. The winds and soggy ground caused scores of tree falls. Two people in cars were killed when trees fell on them. Last night we endured a tornado warning. Big fun. Next up is the suffocating heat and humidity of summer.

So what else happened in May?

Reading

Faithful Place by Tana French. The third in French’s Dublin mystery series. Frank Mackey, from French’s second Dublin mystery The Likeness, returns to solve the murder of a old girlfriend back in the neighborhood where they grew up. French captures family dynamics, particularly of working class Irish Catholic families, as well as any author I’ve ever read. The story was promising but the resolution I found to be lame.

Riding

I spent about a week test riding an HP Velotechnik Streetmachine, a short-wheel base, underseat-steering recumbent. I loved the seat design but could not get comfortable with the high center of gravity. I fell over while trying to start and had to admit that this bike was unsafe for me to ride. Two and a half weeks later my right arm, which took the brunt of the fall, is still achy.

I replaced the stem on Little Nellie with the original longer one as a last ditch attempt to make the bike usable. I also lowered the seat a half inch or so. I’ll be damned if it didn’t work. I rode the bike 130 miles over four days and my back and neck lived to tell about it.

I turned my attention to The Tank, my Surly CrossCheck. As of the end of the month no amount of adjustments seems to work. The longer I ride it the more I think of buying a recumbent tadpole (two wheels in front) trike. Stay tuned.

For the month I clocked 802 miles on five different bikes. I ended up at 4,260 miles for the year, on a pace for 10,297 miles. Watch this space, y’all.

Watching

Andor, Season 2. Andor is easily the best Star Wars product. Diego Luna as rebel Cassian Andor, Stellan Skarsgaard as the undercover mastermind of the rebellion, and dozens of other actors raise this to a higher level. No lightsabers or Jedi knights. Just oppressed civilians plotting against an impossibly powerful empire. The story is nuanced and complicated and ultimately sets up Rogue One.

Rogue One. Andor is a prequel to Rogue One. Until I watched Andor, Rogue One was my favorite Star Wars flick. (Aside from the first two, the rest are meh.) We watched it right after finishing Andor. Oddly, it didn’t hold up as well as I thought it would. Maybe that’s because it’s much shorter and stuffed with battle scenes instead of intrigue.

The Good Life – Mike Birbiglia. The latest comedy special from the whitest guy this side of Jim Gaffigan. He pokes fun at his father’s stroke, his daughter’s trip to urgent care, his visit with Pope Francis and other light-hearted subjects. Funny and poignant.

The Only Girl in the Orchestra – An Oscar-winning short documentary about the double bassist who in 1966 was the first woman to be made a member of the New York Philharmonic. The daughter of film actors (who’s physical beauty she inherited), she had no aspirations to be a soloist or a star. She lived for being part of the collective sound of the orchestra. Short and sweet, a great documentary. On Netflix.

The Quillters – Another Netflix documentary about prisoners in a maximum security prison in Missouri who make quilts for kids in need. It blew my mind that some of the men in the film have been in prison for decades. When they enter the quilting space they drop their tough guy personas. There is calm in their voices. The quilting project gives them a reason for being. Another terrific documentary.

Captain America – Brave New World. This one looks like they tried to make a worse Marvel movie than Thor Love and Thunder and succeeded. Not one actor had the slightest bit of presence or chemistry. And just to insult DC area people, they nonsensically put a mature forest in East Potomac Park where a golf course is. Just a mess.

Little Nellie Born Again (Again)

I bought my Bike Friday New World Tourist, the bike I call Little Nellie, about 18 years ago. It was a fun bike to ride but it was tough on my back. I bought a shorter stem which helped a lot. As my body aged, the bike became less and less comfortable.

A couple of years ago I had all but given up on riding it. Nearly every day I saw a local man riding a green Bike Friday on the Mount Vernon Trail. He seemed perfectly contented with his. I noticed he had different handlebars. Mine are drop bars; his were flat bars.

In an effort to revive Little Nellie, I bought some flat bars. It made a remarkable difference in ride quality. For a while, that is. As my back aged, even the new bars were not enough to keep aches at bay. Over the last year or so, I rode Little Nellie for only about three percent of my miles. Basically, it was just taking up space.

I thought about selling the bike but there is not much of a market for Bike Fridays these days. Bike Fridays are designed to pack into a checkable suitcase to avoid oversize baggage charges. Now a days, many airlines treat bike boxes as a regular piece of luggage. Bike Friday also fold but there are better folding bikes like Dahons, Terns, and Bromptons.

Little Nellie before I changed the stem and lowered the seat.

I decided to try one more thing before giving up. I pulled the old, longer stem out of storage and put it on the bike. After doing this I compared the seat height to the seat height on my two other non-recumbent bikes. The Bike Friday’s seat was one-half to one-full inch higher. I lowered the seat a half inch.

I took the newly configured Little Nellie out for a 30-mile test ride. It rode great and didn’t make my back ache. The next day I rode it 15 miles to Friday Coffee Club. And back. Same result. On Saturday I did a 40-mile ride to and from the National Cathedral in DC. The Cathedral is the highest point in DC so this climb put Little Nellie to the test. No problem.

I woke up rather stiff this morning but still rode Little Nellie to Nationals Park for a ballgame. This was another 30 miler. No problem.

One thing I like about the Bike Friday is that its small wheels make it easy to maneuver in traffic. It turns and accelerates much better than a conventional bike. The small wheels also make the gearing lower which made the ride up to the Cathedral much less of a slog than usual. (I have often wondered why Green Gear, the makers of Bike Fridays, doesn’t make a non-folding version.)

So, long story short, I’ll be holding on to Little Nellie for a while longer. Until my back catches up to it again.

While all these shenanigans were going on, Little Nellie broke 26,000 miles.

Recent Doings

I haven’t been posting pictures lately so I thought I’d remedy that.

I was on my last test ride of the Streetmachine when a passing bicyclist on the Mount Vernon Trail asked if I had a pump. I did and after much struggle he had fixed his tire and was on his way.

Almost fixed!

A local homeowner has humorous road signs outside their house. Here’s this month’s sign.

My backup eyeglasses are falling apart it’s time to replace them.

Time to ditch the metal frames after 25 years or so.

My in-laws live in northern Indiana where you can get an awesome Italian beef sandwich. My wife and I recently were bemoaning the fact that you can’t get one anywhere near home. A day later I stopped for lunch at a deli in Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood. The special of the day was Italian beef.

Not bad.

A short-lived but very violent thunderstorm passed through our area the other day. Winds whipped through the trees and rain fell at times like it was poured out of buckets.

Two people were killed near my home when trees fell on their cars in separate incidents. Our power and cell service went out. We were literally in the dark and had no idea how much damage had been done. We feared a repeat of our experience with the derecho of 2012, when we lost power for ten days during a heat wave. Luckily our power came back on after a day. Our property was undamaged. Others were not so lucky. (My friend Reba’s shed took a direct hit from a tree fall. )

One part of the storm came straight up this road, Morningside Lane. The neighborhood to the left was a mess. A half mile behind me a car was crushed by a falling tree killing an occupant.
A widow maker hangs above the Mount Vernon Trail just yards from the fatal tree fall.
Just one of several unfortunate homes in Hybla Valley near US 1
The George Washington Memorial Parkway was closed for a few miles for storm clean up.

With the Streetmachine experiments done, I put the Catalyst pedals on Big Nellie, my long wheel base recumbent. They weren’t an improvement over my usual mountain bike pedals and Power Grips so I tried them on The Tank, my Surly CrossCheck. As the Catalyst manufacturer recommends, I lowered the saddle a half inch or so. It was a big improvement. I did a bike-about into DC and went by my friend Dave’s ghost bike. It’s a memorial placed where he was killed by the driver of a stolen van whose speed topped out at 74 miles per hour.

Dave was a vocal proponent of protected bike lanes. A few years after his death, the city redesigned the section of Florida Avenue NE where he was killed. The protected bike lanes serve two purposes. First, they give bicyclists a safe place to ride. Second, they effectively narrow the street making it harder to reach absurdly dangerous speeds.

Dave’s ghost bike next to the bike lane he should have had

Will this ever heal?

Today was a day of steady rain, as good an excuse as any to stay off the bikes and recharge. It’s been six days since I fell down and went boom on the Streetmachine. I figured by now my body would be recovered but that is not the case. In addition I have been feeling very lethargic all week. Do I have an infection or something? It was time to go to the doctor.

I lucked into a noon appointment with a physician’s assistant. We focused initially on my lower left foot which sustained a laceration above the ankle, probably from the biggest chain ring. It looked pretty nasty when it happened and it doesn’t look a whole lot better now. There is swelling above and below the cut and a strange looking bruise on the right side of the heel of the left foot.

The PA inspected the wound and said it showed no obvious sign of infection. She said I should put ice on the area and elevate the foot. Pretty basic stuff that I knew I should have been doing but hadn’t. The bruise, which doesn’t hurt, is likely blood that worked its way down from the wound.

The road rash on my right knee is healing fine.

I took most of the fall on my upper right arm. I didn’t realize until today that I have a bruise on the outside of my right elbow. My upper arm hurts whenever I raise it or lift something. The PA sent me for x-rays of my elbow, humerus, and shoulder. They came back negative for fractures, showing only some age related wear and tear on my right shoulder.

The PA offered to send me to physical therapy but I declined. If my arm isn’t fully recovered in two weeks I may reconsider.

No infection. No fracture. Just some lingering pain and swelling.

As for the lethargy, I am guessing it was pollen-related. There’s something to be said for rainy days.

The Reluctant Return of Johnny One Bent

After a day of pain from my fall off the Streetmachine and my inability to start the bike reliably at intersections, I had serious second thoughts about the bike and me. When I am rolling, the bike is a ton of fun. The seat is super comfortable and great for my back. But the negatives are undeniable.

First, for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to reliably start riding. The problem is partly a balance issue (my balance stinks) and partly the inertial resistance from the bulky tires. These tires combined with the suspension provide a comfortable ride but they are a beast to get rotating. This is a manageable shortcoming except when I am dealing with cars at intersections. It was obviously dangerous and downright scary to be stopped at a highway crossing knowing that I might not be able to get underway.

Second, I could get on the bike about half the time on the first try. And I could get off about 90 percent of the time without trouble. When I was tired, however, I struggled. I once fell when getting on my Tour Easy which is much easier to mount. I had spent the day in the sun and I was tired. My foot didn’t clear the top tube and I went over the bike face first. Not fun. I also fell dismounting The Mule at the lunch stop of the 50 States Ride one year, after probably 10,000 successful dismounts over 25 years. Given the design of the Streetmachine, I think it was only a matter of time before I fell getting on or off it.

I am nearly 70 years old. My legs strength, balance, and flexibility are likely to deteriorate over the next few years. Even if I kept the Streetmachine it would only be useful for two or three years.

When Tim and Beth saw me struggling to get on and off the Streetmachine they suggested I try a tadpole (two wheels in front) trike instead. After witnessing my fall, Charmaine said the same thing. My biggest issue with these trikes is that I’d have to buy a trailer hitch and a hitch rack. Somewhat ironically the same company that makes the Streetmachine makes a trike that takes the same comfy seat. My guess is that getting a trike, hitch, and hitch rack would set me back $6,000 (before tariffs).

I slept poorly last night because of pain and anxiety. This morning on four hours sleep I rode The Mule to Friday Coffee Club. It felt odd being on a conventional bike but I was soon spinning along just fine.

So I have decided in the interest of self preservation to return the Streetmachine to Tim and move on. I’ll let the trike idea roll around between my ears for a while. One of these days a proprietary part on the Tour Easy is going to fail. The manufacturer is no longer in business so that will force me to find a substitute and a trike, maybe even one with e-assist, will be top of the shopping list.

I am planning on taking the Streetmachine back tomorrow, provided my right arm and rib can tolerate lifting the bike onto the car bike rack.

So it goes.

Johnny Two Bents and One Arm

Yesterday’s tip over made for a painful night. The ugly cut on my ankle and the road rash looked nasty but they were well under control by nightfall. Mrs. Rootchopper acquired numerous sizes of bandaids and, without seeing the cuts, acquired the exact sizes I needed.

As for the arm, it looks fine but hurts like hell. I can’t raise it without pain, in the upper arm not the shoulder. It also appears that I bruised a rib on that side. Ow.

I tried to sleep last night and pretty much failed once the ibuprofen wore off so I took some more, put on some brown noise, and fell back to sleep. I awoke at 10 am. I NEVER sleep in. I guess my arm decided that I was going to rest no matter what.

This afternoon I contacted Tim about the bike computer glitch. He suggested a new battery which did the trick. At 2:30 I went for a ride. I started up in my lowest gear and it worked well. Otherwise I was not comfortable knowing that another fall would put me in an entirely new world of hurt. So it was a careful ride. I somehow managed to avoid cars at intersections. I tried to cross the GW Parkway but gave up after realizing that a fall on the highway would turn me into road kill. I sheepishly dismounted and turned around.

I cut the ride short as dark clouds moved in. Only 15 miles. Tomorrow is decision day. It’s also ride to coffee club in the rain day. I hope I can handle The Tank or The Mule with this arm or it might be sleep in day.

The Continuing Adventures of Johnny Two Bents – Recumbent Test Pilot

Today was test ride number 3. After a false start, I skipped doing laps in my neighborhood and headed straight out to the main road near my house. Unfortunately, my new wireless bike computer didn’t get the message so I stopped after a half mile to try to fix it. It started then stopped then stayed on. I have no idea why it worked perfectly for the first two test rides and now was glitchy. Maybe the battery in the sensor is worn out. Time will tell.

I rode over to and across the GW Parkway. No cars were coming so I didn’t get to test my starting skills. They need work as you will see below.

I headed north toward Old Town, Alexandria by way of Fort Hunt Road. This is a 35 mph two-lane road. It features a quarter mile long downhill. I feathered the brakes and kept the top speed to 25 mph (I could easily hit 35 with more confidence.) There was a traffic light at the bottom but I had the green so once again I didn’t get to practice starting from a standstill. Over the next half mile I climbed up two small hills. Another traffic light failed to cooperate so I rode unimpeded all the way to Old Town. I encountered still another traffic light at South Washington Street. This too was green. I was beginning to think my Streetmachine had some sort of traffic light sensor on it.

I rode under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge passing through some bollards without clipping them, up Union Street, and across two sets of railroad tracks without stopping or any other incidents. I picked up the Mount Vernon Trail and rode through a chicane at a decommissioned power plant (every bike trail should have one.) Here I encountered the world’s slowest pedestrian, a young man deep in conversation on his cell phone. I couldn’t pass him because we were approaching a blind curve. (Good thing I didn’t because a bike was coming our way.) I slowed and stopped for Mr. Cellphone. When I stopped I was in the middle of a cloud of midges. Ack. It took a couple of attempts but once Mr. C cleared the blind curve I was underway again and free of the bugs.

I made it to Daingerfield Island, a convenient turn around point. Before the ride, my friend Charmaine had invited me to have lunch at a pizza place on busy Duke Street but I told her I needed to do more test riding and Duke Street is a car sewer, unsafe for test riding. She hooked up with Reba, a mutual friend. They both are bicyclists and were interested in seeing the Streetmachine. After hanging out for a bit on the Island’s river side deck, I texted Charmaine that I was heading back south.

After a couple more false starts I was underway. The ride back was a piece of cake. No issues at all. I stopped a few times to drink water and got underway with just a wobble or two each time. I crossed the GW Parkway again. I made it halfway across and had to stop at the traffic island in the middle. I made it across the second half of the highway with nary a wobble at the start.

My route took me mostly on the relatively narrow Mount Vernon Trail. I managed the width much more confidently than yesterday.

I shifted to neighborhood streets with little traffic. As I approached Fort Hunt Park I heard someone call my name. Charmaine and Reba had tracked me down by borrowing my wife’s cell phone which has a tracking app. Clever.

We had a nice chat. Then they wanted me to show off my skills. I started to push off with my right foot and lost my balance to the right. I pulled my foot off the pedal to arrest my tilt. To my surprise. my right shoelace had somehow wrapped around the pedal. When I pulled my foot off, it yanked the bike sideways and down I went. Hard, bearing most of the impact on my upper right arm. Ow.

After the appropriate interval of cussing and pain assessment, I stood up and righted the bike. The bike didn’t have a scratch on it. Me not so much. I had a nasty straight line cut above my left ankle (from either a pedal or the big cog on my chainring). I also had some road rash near my right knee. Reba, being a nurse, insisted that I clean my wounds and even provided some unopened bottle water and clean paper towels.

Once I cleaned up I got going and did a few turns for my audience. Then we parted ways and I rode into the park. Oddly, my front derailer stopped working. The shifter kept slipping into my (easiest) granny gear. I stopped and checked the cable. All good. I tried riding holding the shifter in place but found this annoying and let the chain drop onto the granny gear for the last three miles of my ride.

There is a silver lining in these clouds. Since I was stuck in my small chainring, I discovered that starting in the granny gear is quite a bit easier than using the middle or large chainrings.

Interestingly, the distractions of the computer and the shifter meant that I wasn’t paying much attention to my riding technique. I was riding on automatic pilot and the last couple of miles went by very smoothly.

I called Tim Fricker for advice about the shifter. He explained a simple adjustment was all that was needed.

As for the bike computer, I’ll probably put a new battery in. If that doesn’t work, I’ll take it back to the shop.

Another 31 miles in the books. Tomorrow, another nice weather day, will be the final test ride. Hopefully, I will keep the rubber side down for this one.

A Better Ride

Today’s weather was good enough for another test ride of the Streetmachine. To be honest, after Saturday’s 31-mile ride, I had very low expectations. In fact, I had all but decided to take the bike back to Bikes at Vienna, tip my helmet to Tim Fricker for letting me try it out for a week, and moving on.

The ride started with yet another precarious bike mounting. I then rode the 3/4 of a mile circuit around my neighborhood. I made it a point to consciously keep my shoulders against the seat back, something I didn’t do on Saturday. Within a couple hundred yards I could tell the bike was handling much better. I suppose the change in position had put more weight on the big, fixed rear wheel and less on the underseat handlebars and the small front wheel underneath the seat.

After one lap, I stopped. Instead of planting my left foot, I slid off the front of the seat and popped up to a standing position, just as I had seen in a YouTube video and just as I do on my Tour Easy recumbent. Bingo. I dismounted surprisingly smoothly. After an awkward re-mounting, I slid back on the seat, pushed my shoulders into the seat back, and pedaled. I wobbled a bit but I was underway more or less in a straight line.

As I did another lap I tried to focus on technique. Shoulders back, arms relaxed. Find a comfortable gear. Head up. Success. This time the pop stop worked better. As I slowed to about three miles per hour I slid forward and let the momentum of the bike push me into a standing position.

Now it was time to leave the cozy home loop and try some other skills. I rode to a nearby neighborhood and went down about eight different cul de sacs. Initially, I tried to consciously steer the bike with the handlebars. Nope. After a few 180s I learned the secret. Pedal, lean, relax. Let the bike do the work instead of my arms. Success. After a few left handed 180s, I did a few right handed ones. No problem.

I rode over to Fort Hunt Park and took the bike on less-than-perfect road conditions: asphalt with some gravel, slick spots, and tight squeezes through orange traffic barrels. After a couple of 1.75 mile laps I had things down. I also learned that after the pop stop I could easily reach my water bottles. While I’d prefer to drink while riding, I don’t think that’s a skill I am ready for just yet.

I left the park headed into two more neighborhoods, each with a circuit and a small hill. As I rode and gained confidence, each passing mile was a bit faster. I did notice that if I was distracted I tended to drift a bit. A few times I seemed to be headed for a curb. Relax. Lean. Recover.

Next up was a bigger downhill and uphill. The downhill was a little sketchy (I tensed up) but the uphill was straightforward using the granny gear.

The last challenge of the day was crossing the George Washington Parkway. I was in a too-high gear and my bike was pointed up about one degree making the initial push of the pedal difficult. After a couple of false starts, I made it across easily.

The last mile or so my form deteriorated. I can’t say I was tired physically but my mental focus was pretty much gone. I turned onto my street, rode past my house and did a low-speed u-ey. I didn’t quite have the room to complete the turn and ended up pivoting on my left foot. Bad idea. My knee did not like it one bit and is barking a few hours later but I am sure it’s fine.

So lessons learned: (1) the pop stop means that my left hip doesn’t bear nearly as much stress as on my first rides. (2) The bigger stress to my left hip comes from my awkward mounting of the bike, not the dismounts. (3) The more I ride, the better my technique becomes. After Sunday’s ride, I was exhausted from mental stress and my upper body was spent from trying to physically control the bike. After today’s ride, I finished feeling very good both mentally and physically. My upper body was not the least bit tense.

Another thing that is working well is my choice of pedals. I took the Catalyst pedals off The Mule and put them on the Streetmachine. These pedals are extra long and have grippy studs. My feet are pretty happy.

So, tomorrow afternoon, I do another test ride. This one likely will feature bigger hills and more starts at road crossings.

Stay tuned.

Hip Don’t Lie

This week I was planning on test riding the HP Velotechnik Streetmachine I have on loan from Bikes at Vienna. Since I do not own the bike, I am being careful not to ride it in rainy weather. I did manage to ride it in gusty conditions during my 31-mile test ride the other day. The bike handled just fine. The weather forecast for the last two days has called for intermittent rain so I haven’t ridden it since.

Yesterday I decided to ride the Tank, my Surly CrossCheck instead. The reason was twofold. First, I don’t much care if the Tank gets messed up with rain. Second, I needed to test out a problem I had after my Streetmachine test ride. It involved sharp pain in my left hip.

Back in 2019, I rode The Mule 3,000 miles from Indiana to San Francisco. My left knee and hip were screaming at me the entire way. When I returned home I had a series of cortisone shots that put things right. An MRI revealed that my left knee has very little cartilage in it. I suspect that several crashes on my bikes which nearly always involve a fall to the left have damaged my hip as well. As long as I am careful and refrain from mashing big gears, both the hip and the knee behave themselves.

After riding the Streetmachine, the sharp pain in my left hip returned. Aside from my decrepit anatomy, the cause could come from a number of factors.

First, when I stop the bike, I have to put my left foot down. I need my right foot ready for the first pedal stroke at start up because my left knee won’t tolerate the initial mashing. Also, the seat is rather high so when I stop, the bike leans hard to the left. The bike (and the engine) are quite heavy. I suspect this weight is part of the problem. When I stop the Tank, also a heavy bike, I only put my left toe down because much of the weight is borne by the wheels. My body weight is mostly on my arms and my right foot which is pushing on the right pedal. On tour, there’s an additional 30 or 40 pounds of gear to add to the equation. Thus, the pain during my 2019 ride.

Another issue with the Streetmachine is the process of getting started. Getting rolling is ungainly to say the least. It usually takes me two or three tries to get rolling. Each time I have to start, I have to re-weight my left hip.

A third possible issue is the shape of the seat. The sides of the seat curve up. When I stop my left hip bumps awkwardly into this curve.

Finally, when I get off the bike, I swing my right foot over the front of the bike, supporting the bike and all my weight on my left foot. I then pivot on my left foot toward the rear of the bike. This spinning motion probably adds stress to the left hip.

My wife took a short video of me riding away from the house the other day. I rode down my front lawn, over some root heaves, and into the street. The bike was quite stable but I noticed in the video that my shoulders and head were leaning forward. All the videos I have seen online show the riders’ shoulders pressed against the seat back. So I might just not be riding the bike properly. Given my lower back issues, this may not be correctible.

The forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday looks pretty good. My plan is to take the Streetmachine to a local park and practice starting and stopping, mounting and dismounting. I will also try to concentrate on committing to the seat with my shoulders more.

I have until Friday to make a final decision. Fingers crossed.

Use the Force, Luke

Yesterday I brought the Streetmachine home on a garage sale, trunk bike rack. I had concerns that it might end up falling off the car on the Beltway but all went splendidly. At home, I made a few adjustments to the mirror, bell, and bike computer and rode around the block a few times. With each lap, I mounted and dismounted the bike. I am proud to say that I didn’t fall once.

I used the YouTuber’s mounting technique which worked well. Take hold of the seatback and stand up tall. Tilt the bike a wee bit toward you then lift your foot over the boom and plop it on the opposite side. Done. For dismounts both the YouTuber and Melissa use a spin move that takes the right foot over the cranks and ends up with you facing backward. It’s actually easier than getting on.

I had heard that stopping would be a problem because the seat is somewhat higher than most recumbents. That extra inch or so before the left foot hits the ground will take some getting used to but it’s not a big deal.

Starting the bike is another matter. You push forward with the right foot then quickly lift your left foot off the ground so that it can complete the pedal stroke and send you merrily on your way. If you don’t succeed, gravity may send you not so merrily onto your left side. This sort of thing happens with all bikes but the twicthy underseat steering adds a bit of excitement to the process. If you fail and put you foot back down you can start again, of course, unless the procedure leaves you in the middle of an intersection with an Amazon van bearing down on you.

To start the ride today, I rolled down the front lawn and over a half dozen tree roots. The suspension made easy work of the bumps. I rode what I call the perimeter ride, a circuit around the Mount Vernon neighborhood. It features plenty of curves and a few very gentle inclines.

In Fort Hunt Park I encountered a couple of short stretches where the asphalt was torn up. The Streetmachine handled the gravel and bumps without trouble.

During the entire ride, I had flashbacks to when I first rode a bike without training wheels. I kept feeling like I was going to fall over. I could feel my shoulders rising up whenever some normally innocuous situation arose. Sit back, relax, and trust the physics!

One cool feature of this bike’s design is that you can pedal through turns because the pedals are high up and half a leg length in front of the front wheel. Once I realized this, turns became much less scary. And more fun.

The ride did highlight some other interesting aspects of the bike. Most bikes have the front wheel in front of the rider. The Streetmachine’s front wheel is beneath the seat. This means that the wheel encounters bumps a split second after it normally would. Tim Fricker, the Bikes at Vienna owner who is letting me do a week-long test ride, mentioned that one odd thing about underseat steering is that people are used to steering cars and bikes with their hands in front of them.

It’s ironic that today’s entire ride was stressful. I don’t have the muscle memory for this kind of bike so I have to think about every little thing. I have to keep reminding myself, sometimes out loud, to relax. Use the force, Luke.

You can carry pretty much anything you need on this bike. Unlike all my other bikes, everything you need is behind the seat. There’s nowhere to put stuff in front of you. In a way this is a good thing since you will be fully immersed in the riding experience. This came in handy when the driver of a humongous SUV back up into the road in front of me without looking.

About 20 miles into the ride, I tried out the Mount Vernon Trail. It is substantially narrower than the road so this was not a trivial exercise for the wobbly newbie. Along the way I stopped to help Jonathan and Shareen (sp?) fix a flat on Jonathan’s bike. It turns out the pump that I bought and don’t like is pretty useful on skinny tires.

Fixed it!