Ami gets her first road bike and goes on her first solo ride.
Episode 5 - "Change the World"
Heh.
After another hiatus, Long Riders! returned with a new opening credits sequence featuring the Cycling Girl and a new character yet to be introduced. There were still a couple of scenes where the girls' faces didn't match their character designs, but much less annoying than the last episode. I suppose we'll just have to suck up this inconsistent production quality for the rest of the season.
Ami's schedule says "work" almost every day. Cycling is expensive, right?
Aw, bye bye Ponta-kun. Maybe we'll see you during Ami's commute to college.
Ami's new Focus came fully loaded to ride off from the shop, complete with hand pump strapped to a rear seat stay (yet Ami insisted on those CO2 cartridges).
Hey! It's that Cycling Girl!
Hey! It's that Cycling Girl!
Of course she knows Hinako and Yayoi. It looks like Hinako was the "different" girl of their little cycling club, before Ami joined anyway. Aoi fit the same kind of build...
I like this Saki girl. She doesn't go in for that modesty saving skirt crap.
Ah, there she was in the opening credits too.
Ami's first group ride covered all the basics for her first experience on a road bike.
They didn't show her having any trouble clicking in and out of her pedals, which is usually a big deal for newbies dealing with shoes and cleats and the anxiety of putting a foot down for a traffic stop.
Did Ponta-kun not have more than one gear? Ami got used to index shifting pretty well.
The big deal of the episode was Ami getting excited to ride her new bike, she even went on her first solo ride when everyone else was busy.
Her little adventure captured pretty much everything an inexperienced rider would face. Getting lost, posting pictures and selfies and meeting other friendly riders when you think you're in trouble all by yourself.
The important thing Ami learned is that she enjoys group rides much more than going off by herself. Also, Aoi will go just about anywhere for some good ice cream!
I liked how the episode paired Ami's solo adventure with her cycling seniors at Hinako's family restaurant. I'm still waiting to see Yayoi in one of those get-ups!
Ha! Hinako gets paid double to wear the bunny outfit!
The girls noted that they wanted Ami to enjoy her time on the bike because there's so few women their age riding. They also want to make sure Aoi and Ami join the brevet team...
Cycling Porn.
This week's cycling porn includes looks at Ami's new Focus with old components, Aoi's Felt road bike instead of her usual Giant hybrid, making sure you don't get run over taking a picture and assorted jokes about how expensive cycling is.
I just noticed that Yayoi is riding on two different colored tires. This is a usual occurrence when one of your tires suffers a cut or tear so bad you have to use one of another pair before you're ready to. I usually rotate my front and rear tires before slapping on a new pair on my wheels because the rear tire always wears down first. But if one of your tires is damaged before its time, well, you have to replace it. But since tires can also be expensive, there's no sense in not using one up until its tread is gone. So what if the colors don't match... cycling is expensive!
Speaking of expensive: eyewear. It's always interesting to me what the Japanese decide to borrow from English. Hinako calls her sunglasses "eyewear." American cyclists like to call it "eyewear" too, but we also say eye protection or sunglasses. And they are expensive. I'm not sure which brand Hinako is holding up here, since there are several with that ovoid logo in the middle of the frame.
By far, the most fun I had while watching the episode was during Ami's solo ride.
Schwalbe tire levers, of course. It's Park Tool for me...
I almost exclusively ride by myself on my long rides and my flat rides involve lots of time on river paths like Ami took. All the little things, like passing, wheel sucking, hand signals and tire changing, were all done right. With all the time Ami has spent riding with her small group, I'm surprised she hasn't figured out what the hand signals mean yet. Except for turn signals, pretty much any other hand signal is pointing out something bad and telling you which line to take to get around it.
This. All of this. This is the hell of changing an inner tube. Like the nice group from Miko Cycling that came up to help Ami, there are tricks to make sure you get changed quickly and properly, but you have to practice them. The worst time to practice is when you're 30 miles from home and you pop both your spare tubes and get down to one last patch in your patch kit. The only thing they didn't show is how dirty your hands get and why you should always wear black bike shorts to wipe that dirt off.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please don't comment on posts more than 4 years old. They will be deleted.