It's a beautiful thing

As you can tell from this picture, my bike arrived on Monday as planned. What drove me crazy was that it was "OUT FOR DELIVERY" from 7 AM and wasn't delivered until 4:40 PM! Talk about anticipation. Oh well, when it finally arrived it was like Christmas.

I had it shipped to work because that's just how things go in NY. I mean, nobody would have been home to sign for it or anything and it's not like that's something I want sitting on my porch outside all day. In anticipation of its arrival I had brought a sharp pocket knife and some tools to work in order to unpack and put it back together (thanks Sean for packing it all so well and for keeping the putting-it-back-together process simple). I just had to put the handlebars, front brake calipers, pedals, seat, and front tire on and she was ready to go. Oh, and I had to walk the bike over to a bike shop to air up the tires.

(NOTE: always let pressure out of bike tires when shipping. You never know what kind of air pressure differences the tires might go through while in transit on planes and...trains and...zeppelins. You should also loosen the strings of your guitar and other such instrument before shipping or extensive travel. Sean knows this. He's smart. Thus the reason I needed to run to a bike shop to use a pump before my bike was truly ride-worthy once again.)

Anyways, due to the lateness of the bike's delivery I wasn't able to put it together Monday night. I got it all unpacked and left it locked up in a room at work where we keep the servers and extra computer equipment. After leaving work I met up with a friend and headed into Queens to Shea Stadium to watch the Mets vs Nationals game with a bunch of other Mormons. It was a good activity. There was plenty of socializing and I was able to see some of my friends from other wards that I don't get to see too often.

Tuesday after work. I put it together, got some air in the tires and rode it home---from 4th Street and 2nd Ave all the way up to 128th and Lenox. It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't all that great either. Traffic was horrible. I'm really unfamiliar with which streets are best for biking so just headed north up 3rd Ave. There was a lot of stop and go up to 60-something where I turned left and into Central Park. From then on, the rest of the ride was great. I rode the loop in Central Park up to 110th Street and then went straight up Lenox.

Once I got home I couldn't not try out my new rollers, so I set them up in the living room and hopped on for a couple minutes.

I rode them again tonight for a short little ride. I didn't want to go crazy, but I did want to get a little riding in so i can ease myself back into shape and get use to the rollers. In case anyone is interested, here's what I rode tonight on the rollers:

Ride Time: 21:45
Distance: 8.6
Average Speed: 23.7 mph
Max Speed: 33.7

PS - both times I've ridden on the rollers nobody else has been around to go downstairs and tell me how loud they are (I've been riding in the living room directly above my room rather than in my room above the neighbors downstairs.) They seem pretty quiet to me, but I'm wondering what they sound like when you're directly below them.