Easy As Falling Off A Thingy
by Wassername
part 227?

The day after our rescheduled Christmas dinner, I decided I needed to start organising myself for hospital, so I laid out nighties and dressing gown, slippers, toiletries etcetera. By that time it was mid morning and I was fed up. I decided as it was a dry day without too much wind to give Ruby a quick ride.

I thought ten or fifteen miles would be enough to decide how much I liked it compared to the Scott. They are both carbon fibre frames and gave a similar ride, I suspect the damping on the Ruby felt a little better and the steering felt a little sharper, but in terms of performance they were comparable. In other words it's a nice bike.

Simon kept saying, 'he'd have to get his bike out'. It never materialises though, and I don't recall seeing one at the cottage, and neither of mine are big enough, he is quite a lot taller than I.

He said it once too often today, I called the bike shop and asked if they had a bike we could hire for him to ride. They did, he he! I informed him in front of Stella who backed me up.

"I've got too many chores to do to go bike riding, it's okay for the chattering classes," he looked at me as he said this, which made me more determined to make him ride.

"You did say you'd have to get your bike out," I reminded him.

"I don't have one any more, so I can't."

"I've arranged to hire one for you."

"I don't have any cycling kit."

"We can sort that."

"Nah, I haven't got time."

"Yes you have," said Stella, "You're just chicken because you're afraid she'll beat you."

"Cathy cycles fairly regularly, I don't. She will certainly beat me. It worries me not one jot."

"Yes it does, I know you brother o'mine, you do not like to lose."

"I wasn't aware we were supposed to be racing."

"If you thought you could win, you would."

"That makes me sound tremendously shallow."

"Simon, you are tremendously shallow. Shallowness is the only thing you have in depth."

"Oh how could you, you've cut me to the quick?"

"Rubbish, you are so thick skinned I'd need a harpoon, unless the bike saddle does it for me." She laughed at this thought.

In the end with two of us at him he agreed to use the bike if he deemed it suitable. I laughed at this. I offered to buy him a pair of cycling pants, and Stella coughed up for a helmet. They would loan him some shoes.

He drove to the shop, I rode there. Due to the traffic going to the sales, we got there at pretty well the same time, which annoyed Simon. I wondered if he'd had some plan for the guy to say he didn't have a bike, but my turning up stopped it. It also acted as a nice warm up for me.

I suppose it took about half an hour for them to measure up a bike and fit him out. He ended up buying a jacket because the one he had in mind was a bit too loose and would flap.

The bike was another Specialized, an Allez, with aluminium frame. I didn't tell him it would be a hard ride. The bike shop owner chucked in a pair of gloves as Simon had spent nearly two hundred on a Gore tex jacket.

Eventually we were done and then it was time for Simon to try and get used to the bike, especially as he hadn't ridden for years and certainly not with clipless pedals.

We walked over to the university campus and I had him riding around the car park, engaging and releasing his shoes from the pedals. He was doing okay, except I knew the problem occurs when you have to disengage at very short notice. I tried to make him aware of this in the car park by almost getting him to do emergency stops. Each one was perfect, maybe he had the hang of it, but I doubted it.

Anyway, Simon decided he was competent enough to go for a ride. I wasn't as sure and asked him again and his reply was of confidence. He was getting some speed up too, although I doubted he'd be able to sustain it for long and I knew the perfect place to call his bluff. I was beginning to enjoy this.

We set off, having agreed a route before hand. He knew the way well enough by car, I had cycled it. I also knew there were two long pulls on it as well as a long downhill. The ups in a car are fine, on a bike it is very different. The route would be about ten miles, he seemed momentarily to get smaller when I mentioned the difference.

"Are you sure you're up to this?"

"Are you?" he replied.

"I'm okay, but I've ridden it before, on a good day I can do it in the even half an hour."

"So I should be able to do it in an hour then?"

"I don't know, it's not a race, we agreed that. So time is irrelevant except to say there are no lights on that bike, so we need to be back before dark. It's just past eleven, you have four hours.

"I could just about walk it in that," he said sounding more confident.

"Not in those shoes," I retorted.

He clomped about a bit and agreed.

We set off and within a mile met the first climb, a long pull up a rise rather than a proper hillclimb. He was having difficulty staying with me on the flat and I was going slowly to try and avoid demoralising him.

"Don't wait for me," he said and when I queried it, he was adamant I should cycle at a comfortable pace for me. I shot off and waited for him the top of the rise. I'd only cycled about two miles, he arrived ten minues later. I have no idea what he was doing, but it wasn't riding on my wheel as he'd suggested he would. Just because he'd read Lance Armstrong's book didn't mean he could cycle like him.

For the next part, I sent him on ahead. I would wait ten minutes before starting to give him a chance.

I did wait too, but had caught him half way up the next rise, no more than two miles ahead. I shouted at him to unclip a shoe. He waved two fingers at me. So I put on a bit of a spurt and shot past him. I waited for him at the top of the rise, he was exhausted and he'd come off. He had run out of steam on the climb and couldn't get his foot out quickly enough.

I think he understood why I kept him practicing the technique of release although he didn't say so directly. He had discovered that there aren't too many things easier than falling off a bike.