Becoming a roadie. Pt II.

Last weekend saw a couple of exciting first times for me, making my transformation into roadie a little more closer.

To start with we finally fitted some proper road tyres (skinny 23's) on "The Padster". Eek! I've not ridden on road tyres since my sparkly pink racer in 1988. I was nervous! Unfortunately, the first ride with them was on a very wet May Day Bank Holiday. Argh! It was a tad scary. I've never been overly confident on tight corners but on the skinnys and in heavy rain I was petrified. Somehow and very cautiously, I made it round every corner safely and by the end of the ride (which despite being a bank holiday, was only a mere 12.5miles due to the now torrential rain and gale force winds) I was more confident and happy.... Blimey, if I could ride on skinny tyres in those conditions anything else would be a doddle. ;-) The next few rides were much easier. =D

I also made another debut by riding without my shorts. Oo-er-missus! Baggy shorts that is. ;-) After reading all your comments on the last post I decided I should finally ditch my "baggies" and bravely go without and subject the world to my lycra'd behind. ;-) Amazingly, it didn't take long to get over my self-consciousness and I soon forgot. The only real downside was the lack of pockets for my essentials, ie, inhaler and mobile. (My saddle pack is full of tools and a spare tube and some of my jerseys only have one pocket) Ah well, I am sure I will find a way around it.

On a non-roadie-related note, I also had another first, when I bravely bought my first expensive e-bay purchase! A spangley new pair of Oakleys! Some Radars. What could possibly go wrong? The seller had good feedback, there were loads of photo's of the sunglasses, they looked authentic. I won the auction for just under £100. Yippee. I've been desperate for some decent sunglasses for ages. They arrived 2 days later. I quickly unpacked the box. Dammit! They were counterfeit! Someone had gone to a lot of effort to make them look authentic and the seller was adament they weren't fake. Anyway, now I have to send them back before they will give me a refund, so I don't have the time or money to get a replacement pair before our holiday. Grr... That will be the first and last BIG purchase I make from e-bay!

Anyway, it's not long until our French holiday and I'm getting excited. I've got my fingers crossed for good weather.... but to be honest as long as the wind isn't as bad as here, I will be happy. I'm also hoping for flatter terrain... but surely anything is going to be flatter than the undulating roads of the Cornish Coast.