The Thursday Ramble: Riding

I have vague memories of struggling to balance myself on  a bike, learning to ride on a tiny 20-inch childs bike. I remember thinking that getting half of me on each side was the key, then a fast roll down the slight slope of the gravel driveway and I realized that momentum is what keeps a bike upright.  

The little bike was bought for my sister to learn to ride on. Dad took the training wheels off when she started to ride well, and said it was too much trouble to put them back on when I was learning. He said I would get it soon enough, after a few spills on the gravel driveway.  Ultimately he was right, but I still thought it was cruel that she had the training wheels and I didn't.  

A couple of years later, a new full size bike came into my life.  It was ordered for my birthday, and Schwinn workers in Chicago went on strike and it was delayed.  It arrived a couple of months late, and it is red, instead of the blue I wanted.  I use "is" I still have it. It is old enough to be classified as an antique.  Air up the tires and it is still a joy to ride.   

My parents bought similar bikes for three of the four kids, I am the only one that somehow held onto mine.  When my middle brother and sister stopped riding theirs, my mother sold them. I insisted that I needed to keep mine.  It is secured in the storage room off the parking garage.  

When we started spending winters in Florida, I bought a ten-speed. The first one at K-Mart, and a couple of years later a much better one at a discount store that was going out of business.  I rode those back and forth to school in Florida, stored them in the summers they were not well suited to gravel roads in Michigan.  

After I moved to Orlando there was a long dry spell when I didn't ride much.  Then in my late 20's I lost a ton of weight, and started riding again.  After a while I bought a better 10-speed at a garage sale. 

A year or so later I bought a dream bike.  A Trek 1200 Aluminum.  At the time it was Trek's top of the line racing bike.  (The first Trek Carbon Fiber frame came out a few months later.) The Trek was built for speed. I remember shopping for a super fast bike, several bike shops tried to push me into something heavier and slower.  The shop I bought it from was honest, he said, "it is fast and can get away from you easily, work on it, build your skills, respect it and it will take you places you never thought you could go." He also taped his card and a quarter under the seat and said, if you get in trouble with it, call me and I will send someone to rescue you.  I never needed to make the call. I only laid it down once, a street that I thought was a through street that came to an end faster than I could stop. 

That bike took me to the nation sprint triathlon championships in 1989.  I passed Mike Pigg on the bike course.  I finished in the top 1/3rd of the field.  I was glad to be there, passing one of the fastest in the sport was a bonus.   

It hangs on the terrace.  I should part with it, but I don't want to. My ramble down memory lane on this Thursday.