Not in more than 50 years . . .

. . . have I been bicycling.

I've ridden a motorcycle since then, but not a bike.

Just bought this Schwinn, but green and with the handlebar more nearly horizontal, online through Dick's a couple weeks ago.

I took it to their local store for free assembly.

It's too big (43 pounds) for a trunk or roof rack - a hitch rack would work but the hitch and rack together cost more than the bike (almost twice the price ), and then there's the cost of installation - and the front wheel does not pop off, but it's a nice hybrid bike all the same.

Oddly, a lighter bike would have cost nearly as much as that hitch and rack.

I've been riding it around the circle at the entrance to Bird Park off Cedar Boulevard, with an occasional side trip up the trail into the park, to get used to the controls and brush up on my skills before trying it out on any of the local bike trails.

I did check with my doctor before buying it (I'm 69 years old) and he encouraged me.

Bicycling is a heck of a lot more exercise than walking for the same length of time.

Particularly since my usual walk is indoors at a mall.

So that's totally flat and zero-grade, of course.

Riding anywhere nearby involves an actual grade - this is a Pittsburgh suburb, after all - , and I do feel it in the legs.

Beautiful day for it, today.

63 degrees F and sunny.

No-sweat biking.

Update 05112018.

Since writing the above I have twice driven to a Montour Trail entry point in Upper Saint Clair - free parking near an elementary school - and biked from there to an entry point in Bethel Park.

A marker near the USC entry point says that's the highest point along the trail, 1223 feet in elevation, so it's a slight downhill grade from there to Bethel Park and uphill all the way back.

The trail is about a car lane and a half wide and has benches - few and far between - and mile markers.

Along that stretch you are mostly enclosed on both sides by woods, but here and there the trail runs along behind the back yards of several houses in a row.

The surface seems to be hard-packed light gray crushed rock, not as easy to ride as actual blacktop.

The interactive map says the surface at Bethel Park is dirt and the surface at Upper Saint Clair is asphalt.

Wrong both times.

The surface is the same in both places, and as I have described it.