My Bike

Hello Everyone,

As I am still terribly heavy and am plagued by my arthritic knees, I find weight bearing exercise very hard to do at the moment. I see various members of the low-carb community doing all sorts of amazing physical feats and am most impressed, but sadly I cannot aspire to pushups, squats, running or even anything other than the most gentle of strolls.

However - I have a wonderful bike which I picked up in the Netherlands a year ago. I had a mountain bike before that, but I suppose mountain bikes are better for going up and down mountains - not my more sedate urban cycling down to the shops and to the office. A mountain bike tends to throw the weight forward onto the arms - and if one weighs forty or fifty more kilos than one should this can cause very achy shoulders.

Because of this, I decided to splurge a bit of my hard earned cash on the above bike. Mine is a Batavus Staccato, a good solid bike in a nice burgundy colour and suits me very well indeed. I have also invested in a good comfortable saddle which ensures that I do not suffer from saddle soreness (which can get particularly nasty with virtually all my weight resting on the most DELICATE parts!).

Before I decided to start getting myself back into shape, the bike was gathering dust in the front hallway of my house! - it certainly looked good and probably enjoyed its time doubling as a piece of furniture or urban sculpture - but it was not exactly fulfilling its purpose in life. So I dusted it down, oiled up the chain, pumped up the tyres and am now trying to make sure that I use it to get into the office at least twice a week. I am hoping to increase this to three days a week soon, but am taking it gently for now.

Added to the exercise benefits - petrol prices have recently shot up - so my rediscovered activity also has the added benefit of saving me money (and protecting the environment).

Keetje