Workin' Them Angels

"All my life I've been workin' them angels overtime; riding and driving and living so close to the edge." Those lyrics kept running through my head last night while I rode with the Boy Scouts along the Jordan River Parkway Trail. I'm not sure why. It could have been that the river was high and close to the edge 9but the nwhy not select "Close to the Edge" as the song?) or that the Scouts were just randomly wandering down the trail, or maybe just that I like the song by Rush. Whatever the reason, it was the soundtrack for the ride.

These Scouts are working on their Bicycling merit badge, and I'm the de facto counsellor for that badge, given my history of biking. So that means I get to take some rides with them, including the 50 miler they're preparing for this Summer. Last night was only a 28 km event. 

There were some good lessons from that ride, however. One was to make sure that the tires are properly inflated. We fixed that quickly before getting into the ride for one person. Another is to make sure that your brakes aren't rubbing before heading out. You may remember a post about upgrading the brakes on my mountain bike. Well, it turns out that I still need some adjustments to get those working correctly. The front wheel is definitely rubbing, and I've not checked the back. I know the adjustments should be simple, but I didn't have the owner's manual with me and I'm not familiar with those brakes yet. So, I rode with a rub. Another lesson was that it is always better to use a road bike for a paved ride. I worked far too hard on that ride, but my road bike was at the office so I grabbed what was available.

I also learned that I need to come up with a good way to teach the concepts of shifting and using the gears to your advantage when working with new riders. I can sit there and tell them when to shift, but that only goes so far when there are six boys learning how to use their gears. I need to come up with a way to help them all to understand that the gears exist to make life easier; to make it so that at any given point they can pedal at an easy cadence without exerting too much effort to push the bike forward. However, I remember when I was their age, the goal on my Schwinn Varsity 10 Speed bike was to start in the hardest gear possible and crank it. Oh, the foibles of youth. How do I help these new riders to see what I've since figured out: that at no time should they feel like they have to stand up and mash the pedals, but that they can use gearing to make life far easier, especially over the course of 80 km, like they'll be doing this summer?

I guess they'll all be workin' them angels this year while they try to figure out efficient cycling techniques, and how to stay out of the way of traffic.