Cycletherapy

Frankenbike, with Kermit Looking all Innocent

I took Frankenbike out for a couple of relatively short road test runs this weekend. Some things were as I expected and others were not. As expected, my left shoulder; seriously dinged on Monday, made some things more difficult when riding, but overall it hurt less to ride than it does to drive an automobile. Unlike the car, most of the action involving getting a bike from point "A" to point "B" involves fairly small body movements. There is no real major motion of the left or right arm. As it transpired, getting on and off the bike was easier than I expected and left turn signals were also easier than I expected, since a little wobble could be employed to help the old left arm up. Right turn signals, braking, and shifting with the right hand turned out to be a total nonissue. On the other hand, I did not expect to experience a general arm soreness that gradually accumulated. It appears that long rides are not in the equation until the left wing heals a bit more. This seems a doubly wise policy because, while normal bike handling is pretty much normal, I'm not confident I could perform emergency maneuvers at 100%, and didn't feel like doing parking lot drills to verify the impression.