OK, so I borrowed that line from Archer. Here is a picture of the bike I rented on Thursday evening - well, the first bike I rented Thursday evening. Back in Vermont I ride my bike almost every day when the weather allows, and I've been meaning to get in a bike ride here for months. Yas Island is a great place for riding a bike because it is flat and, at least at this point, quiet and also possesses some nice bike paths. Renting a bike is easy because the Crowne Plaza, the posh hotel which is partnered with the more pedestrian Staybridge (or Hellbridge, as the Remnants call is - they still haven't forgiven me for moving out), rents bikes, and all one has to do is tell someone at the Staybridge to contact the Crowne Plaza, and, huzzah, a bike appears. After work on Thursday I decided it was finally time to get in a ride. It had been a long week and I wanted to get in some exercise which didn't include the elliptical machine at the Crowne Plaza fitness centre. Plus, the weather right now is perfect - it might be the middle of winter here, and people are bundling up and complaining about the cold, but it is actually lovely (think eary fall in Vermont, except a tad warmer). The only problem with my bike ride was that it had to be delayed because my first rental bike blew up, and I'm not exaggerating much. I hadn't gone more than fifty meters and during my first gear change the entire gear mechanism fell off the bike (here's the photographic evidence). As anyone knows I am hard on bikes, highlighted by the time I buried my bike (and face) into the railing on the Colchester bike path and the still inexplicable two week stretch last year when I had six flat tires. That said, even by my high standards the explosion of the gear mechanism was impressive. I dragged the tattered remnants of my bike experiment back to the hotel and they happily brought me a new one, while also staring in disbelief at the damage. Not to be denied, I took off on what proved to be a wonderful ride, but more on that later.
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