Saturday was busy.  At least, a lot seemed to happen.  In the morning I went bike-shopping (see my previous post about why I needed a new bike), and came home having only been to one shop.  £105 bought me a nice mountain bike with 21 gears and front suspension, and included a new saddle (the one the bike came with was a tiddly little one, which wouldn’t have been any good at all, so I upgraded to a slightly nicer one).  The most scary part was in fact not buying the bike, but getting it home again on the back of my Mini!  Still, I know what I’m doing with that bike rack, so it was on good and tight and bike didn’t move an inch, even over the bumps in the road.  It’s just rather worrying when you see the bike sticking out either side of the car by a substantial distance!

When I got home I took the bike for a ride, something I’ve not done in years.  My leg muscles complained almost instantly, but thankfully I managed to ignore them long enough to get a good long ride out of them.  At first I just cycled round the block, getting used to the bike and working up some confidence.  Then I started exploring some random roads in Wivenhoe that I hadn’t been down before, found a few footpaths I never knew existed, and generally enjoyed being back on a bike again.  Then I ended up taking the bike off-road for a bit, and found some fields that I didn’t know were there.  It was hard going, and I found a fair bit of mud, but I guess if nothing else it was good for the bike to know what it was in for!  After about half an hour of cycling I came back home again, thoroughly worn out but satisfied that I had had some exercise and shown the bike who was boss.

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