Cycling is one of the fun activities I enjoy doing, and aside from the fact that it's fun, it's also a medium of exercise to burn fat in our body systems. Although I missed out on this for many years due to my cyclophonia condition, I was able to get over that and have gone on to learn, get used to riding, and master it. Along the line, cycling has helped me get some tasks done in the nick of time due to the fact that it can't be held down by gridlock, and today I'll love to tell you all about it.
So prior to overcoming the cyclophonia I had, which I spoke about sometime ago in this post, I've always run late when there's gridlock, because most of the public transportation I boarded is usually affected by such gridlock, and one thing this part of the world here in Lagos is common for is gridlock. In fact, if you're not careful, you might spend 5 hours on a trip you weren't supposed to spend more than 40 minutes on, and that's due to the consistent traffic congestion we experience.
But since I knew how to ride, the situation has changed gradually because now I can easily ride a bike and navigate through the side paths of the vehicles held up by the gridlock. While that was great and a good way to get tasks done at the same time, I'm still slow and usually experience pain around my lap region. I guess the stress of peddling is what causes it.
This could have been easily avoided had I been perfect at riding, as cycling doesn't necessarily require strength to paddle, so my inexperience caused me a lot back then, and I can remember getting into trouble on one of those days as an inexperienced cycler, and it goes thus.
That very day I was asked to deliver a package to one of our bosses on the other side of town, and due to the heavy traffic congestion, I decided to go with a bicycle rather than a car because cars would make me run late due to the traffic congestion, and that's what we're trying to avoid, so I stepped on the bike and started paddling as hard as possible, and when I got to the heart of the traffic congestion, the unexpected happened.
I literally rammed into a roadside hawker who was trying to sell goods to the people in the vehicles affected by the roadblock. It's very common to have roadside hawkers around here, especially in a place where the gridlock is high, and there you'll see them selling all sorts of items like drinks, cold water, snacks, and vehicle beautification accessories.
It was late before I saw the young man who ran in front of me as he tried to sell his goods to the occupants of the vehicle, and before you knew it, almost all his goods were on the floor. I was afraid because what if they got damaged beyond what could be paid? I stopped and helped him up, even as I apologized and tried to help him pick up his goods.
While we were rearranging them, he kept on insisting I'd pay for everything, and had I not been a lagosian myself with street OT, I would have fallen for his trap, but then we checked everything and realized four drinks were damaged. I begged him, but he refused, so I had no choice but to reach for my pocket and pay him. Unfortunately, I had just 500 naira with me, and the drinks were worth 1000 naira. But thankfully, someone in the multiples there bailed me out, and that's how I was free to go.
After that day, I narrated my ordeals to my friend, and he inquired about what I did after seeing him. I said I only tried to put my leg on the floor in order to stop the bicycle, and he said that where I failed, he told me the break was very important, and had I pressed the break rather than putting my legs on the ground, I would have avoided that incident.
He later took me out on one weekend to master the act of paddling and using the break, and that's how I learned further till I was aquinted with how it's used perfectly, and since then, the experience has been nothing short of exciting and ease, and rarely have I ever got into an incident while riding that would have me as the defaulter.
That's about all for now, I hope you enjoyed a good time reading through my story, have a wonderful day.
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