Springtimes first bicycle ride, status report - after my dousing the whole system in oil last year, my brakes are still fucked up. Although they no longer scream to the slightest use - after a whole year of trying to de-grease them, they still scream full on air raid alarm on any "final push" to make my bike come to a full stop.
Also, it appears spring sweeping has not yet happened, which means the streets are full of gravel - which isn't a problem per se - but it seems as if we have the dog-shit problem, but with shattered glass (dog shit problem: Norwegians are pretty diligent when it comes to picking up their dog shit - except for winter, they'll let their dogs shit in the snow, cus out of sight, out of mind. This results in a million dog shits coming into view, once snow melts in spring.)
I never thought about glass shards - which prooobably stem from wild new years celebrations? That and just lack of shits to give, since snow and ice will bury all the shattered glass, which now comes to the surface. I also worry about people's pets in this regard. Either way, most of the trip I had to slalom between jagged shards of broken bottles
Finally, after taking my expensive-ass bike to the repair shop TWICE in ONE year, some of my gears keep jolting the chain between them, resulting in these awkward kicks when trying to pedal. I do not remember my cheap-ass non-brand bike demanding this much fucking maintanance, when I was a teen.
There's something about certain price-classes of things, where I suspect an attitude of "if you paid this much for something, I'm sure you won't mind just paying for it again and again, you filthy snob". It's really bothersome to a simple pleb like me, who will save up, believing money brings true quality.
On the positive side, after a full winter of sitting in the sofa, eating meat and potatoes, I'm in surprisingly good shape! I took all those uphills like a champ (the same uphills that nearly murdered me to death when I first got the bicycle, and started to try to shape up!)
My sofa-winter has not contributed to any weight gain, oddly enough - none! But I suspect that is more likely a matter of my muscles (heavy) being replaced by wobbly blubbery fat (light) - and that I'll probably experience some weight gain now that I'm back at physical activity, before it levels out again.
