Riding Gear
What you
wear and what you ride helps keep you comfortable, safe, and efficient. Within our group, we had Jason, who enjoyed
new gadgets, and was willing to buy new things.
Jason also was also very safety conscious, with reflective clothing, a
locomotive style headlight, and a red pulsing taillight. Brad was somewhere in the middle. He got a deal on a nice used Trek Madone bike
he bought online, and assembled it not knowing for sure if all the parts were
there. Then there’s me. I like nice things, but I am cheap to a
fault. When I replaced my twenty-two
year old bike, It became easier to hang with Jason and Brad and a bunch of
other riders without hurting myself.
Jeff, when it came to gear, was a rebel from the word go. When he first started riding with us, no
matter what the weather, he wore a Tullahoma basketball t shirt with the arms
cut out, long gym shorts, white tennis shoes, and no gloves. If it was really
cold, maybe a toboggan to keep his head warm.
Some of these mornings were in
the forty degree range. We aggravated
Jeff about cutting the sleeves out of all his shirts. His bike was a nice, older bike, similar to
the one I had recently replaced. Jeff rode with us, and kept up with us. He was a tough guy, and in good shape. Jeff always said he was going to buy a new Specialized
bike. One morning sure enough, he showed
up on a new bike, a Specialized Tarmac, just like he said he would do. And the most amazing thing, that same
morning, he was wearing real bike shorts, and a real bike jersey with the
sleeves still attached. I remember we
gave him a really hard time about when was he going to cut the sleeves out of
his new shirt.
One question
Jeff asked before one of those morning rides I’ll never forget. He was all serious, and looked right at me
and said, “ Do yall wear a cup or something when you ride?” At least three long seconds of complete silence
followed. I really thought he was
joking, but he was serious. “Uh, No”, I
said. “Never really needed one. Maybe if you adjust your bike seat that might
help?” After that, we aggravated him about
needing a cup to ride a bike. Jeff had
that middle school boy innocence, and sense of humor about him. He provided a lot of reasons for us all to
smile and laugh.
Specialized Tarmac similar to Jeff's new bike:
Specialized Tarmac similar to Jeff's new bike:
