Cheating Death!
Kangaeroo recently added a recumbent bike to his collection.
A recumbent has long been part of the Kangaeroo dream.
When Kangaeroo started cycling, he often shared his commute through suburban Tokyo with a seasoned Kiwi cyclist called John.
Kangaeroo was a rookie (and still is, really), but John had been riding for decades, and often shared his knowledge and experience.
This went on for about a year. Kangaeroo came to appreciate and admire John as he put into practice the advice he had been given.
One day, John turned up riding a bike where he was lying down. Kangaeroo immediately wanted to mimic him.
But John worked in finance and money was no problem.
Recumbent bikes are pricey.
And they were out of Kanageroo’s league.
Years went by.
Early this year, a Facebook post arose, offering to sell a recumbent at a price that Kangaeroo could afford.
Only trouble was, the bike was on sale in Nagoya.
Kangaeroo jumped on a night bus, headed to Nagoya and pocketed the bike before anybody else could get it.
The plan was to spend the weekend riding the recumbent back to Tokyo.
It would be a cinch! Except, it was almost impossible to ride the bike.
It was a front-wheel drive and every time Kangaeroo tried to pedal, he’d fall off the bike. The planned nickname of Lay Down Sally soon gave way to the Death Machine upon realization that riding this bicycle would be an invitation to a premature death.
Quick change of plans and it was disassemble the bike and head back to Tokyo.
Unfortunately, unprepared for rail travel, Kangaeroo lacked the mandatory bike bag and the velo was a mess by the time he made it home.
What’s more, the chain broke, parts got lost and the seller had no idea of the brand of the bike to try to track down anything.
Fortunately, Google soon came up with answers. After a few weeks of discussion with the manufacturer overseas, and pleading for help from the local bike store, the recumbent was ready to ride (and the associated costs meant it would have been cheaper and easier to buy an expensive new bike…)
The problem of being able to ride it remained, though.
Weeks of using spare moments of free time finally built up enough confidence to ride on a cycling track.
One cycling track ride was enough to inspire confidence to try out a longer ride.
And that ride finally happened!
And it went perfectly…except for getting lost, but that’s another story.
