Imagine the following scene…
A man is riding his bicycle down a sidewalk; the trail starts heading downhill and he picks up speed. He continues his enjoyable, effortless ride down the hill, trying to build up as much momentum as possible for the next leg of the trip in which he will have to work hard to make it up the next hill before enjoying the ride down the other side. As he nears the bottom, he sees a large hole across the entire path – construction!!! They’ve taken out part of the sidewalk and are in the process of repairing it. He looks for any alternative to hitting the hole but sees none, so in a last ditch effort to avoid a serious mishap, he hits the brakes – hard. To his horror, the hand that’s used for the front brake in Canada is used for the back brake in Australia; and the hand that’s used for the back brake in Canada is used for the front brake in Australia. The front brake gets hit hard and the bike stops very suddenly, avoiding the hole. Unfortunately, the man does not achieve the same result. Having hit the front brake too hard, he launches himself into an aerial assault on the construction site. As he’s flying through the air, he realizes that he hasn’t finished his pilot’s training and is not familiar with completing a safe crash landing.
That same scene – or one very similar to it – flashed through my head as I took my new bicycle home and realized the brakes are operated differently out here. What should be the front brake was actually the back brake; and vice versa. Fortunately, I realized this as I was walking the bike to my car which I was using to carry it home; so before I took my first ride, to ensure that scene doesn’t become reality, I switched the brake cables to bring them in line with my Canadian standard of normal. Right hand, back brake; left hand, front break.
Where I’m living now, it should be an easy, and hopefully safe, ride to school and church so I decided to buy a bike so I can get the exercise and save the fuel used in driving my car. By my estimations, I need only take the bike 20 times and the fuel savings will have covered the cost of the bike! (it was second hand).
Classes start today but I don’t have a schedule yet so I’m not going. There have been some big problems with the enrolment process so all I know is that I don’t have any classes today and I’ll find out my schedule someday.
Thought for the day – if today was “Someday,” how busy would you be?
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4 comments:
So was that person OK???? It would have really been something to see and probably makes you think twice when on the bike. Yikes!!!
your quirky mentality makes erading your blog interesting even if it takes you many lines and unnecessary wordiness to say you bought a bike. fascinating! SG
That was a cliff-hanger story, Larry. I wondered who had found themself in such a predicament.
Hey, at least your brakes work, and you don't have to worry about hitting the ditch with your bike due to slippery roads (like someone in my highschool class once did). And you'll be able to appreciate the effects of the windchill factor because for at least a little while the breeze in your face will make the Aussie summer temperatures feel a little more bearable.
"Stay fit and have fun!" (Brought to you by BodyBreak, a TV info-mercial)
Larry,
Dad says, "The faster you go, the cooler it gets." Do you remember where he might have gotten that one from?
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