pedal

i almost found a bike today!

riveting, i know

for the past few days I have been going to various bike shops looking for a replacement for my current to-small-to-old-to-broken bicycle. I had narrowed it down to the trek 7.5 when I remembered Harris cyclery the near by bike shop. at the time i saw it as a mixed blessing. i had to look at another shop, but i might find a better bike. so i got a ride and went off. about 10 minutes later we (that is my mom and i (shut it. im not old enough to drive)) arrived at the store. we headed in and were greeted by one of the "crew". this one was an odd one by normal standards but by bicycle-shop-workers he was perfectly ordinary. he did the oh so common run away from you while your trying to buy something routine that is the trade mark of all bicycle-shop-workers. when i cought up he was waiting impatiently to show me this bike. it was nice looking. not great, but i could put up with it. the thing that really got to me was how the red and white ( the only 2 colors) really seemed to clash perfectly. so he aks me how old i am and i say 15. ahh! why do thay always need to ask? shouldent they have some underground cycle-net by now? ITS 2007! any way, i stood on the bike. it was PERFECT fit! it just felt right. kind like those slippers from the sharper image. you know, the really plushy ones. so next thing i know im sitting on the bike outside. coulda teleported and i wouldn't have noticed. so i start biking and i decide that this was THE best bike i had used. really! it just fit. after i turned the corner i could pedal steer and shift places with no hands. the next corner brought me to a kinda dingy parking lot. the kind where you'd think that druggies would meet. as it turns out they do meet there, that would explain the smell! just past the third corner i stand up on the pedals do a full rotation and im on the ground. the left pedal is about 5 feet behind me and my leg is jammed under a bike that is jammed under an SUV. "ouch. that musta hurt." nope. it really didn't at the time. it does now however. anyway im stuck under a bike that is stuck under a gargantuan SUV. oh yes. gargantuan i mean HUGE! it was one of those Chevy's that would serve as a small RV. the other car was a gray Honda i remember that one well because it was the one tuning the corner where i was pinned. obviosly it stopped. but it was only 2 feet away. yeesh that this was NOT clean. also it was from the '80s i think. plus the muffler was hugging the ground quite nicely. the guy in the car had thjis bewildered expression like he had never seen a kid pinned under a bike that was missing the left pedal that was trapped under a small RV sized SUV. gotta prepare for these thing ya know? anyway i manged to pull myself ( and the bike loose (no thanks to the smelly civic.) an i even remembered the pedal! so needless to say i went home. in addition even though the bike was good, i DONT want one from Harris Cyclery. just... no

night!

~John