2024-04-14
a small black bike i had when i was around five. maybe a huffy? it had training wheels, and a thick foam pad velcroed to the center of the straight handlebars, presumably so that if i hit my face or chin on the handlebars i would hit foam and not metal. this piece was fascinating to me, and i would constantly remove it and replace it.
some bike i had, possibly the same one, when my family moved in the first grade. before the move, my dad was trying to teach me to ride without training wheels and i couldn’t do it. after the move, i hopped on that bike and rode it like i’d been doing it all my life. magic.
skip to high school. a white mountain/hybrid bike that hung up on hooks under the back porch of my parents house. i remember riding it maybe once? the tires eventually rotted due to disuse.
a small blue bike that i bought at a bike store in san diego. way too small for me. i used to ride it to work. my first bicycle adult as an adult. kicked off a (so far) lifelong obsession. i don’t remember what happened to it.
a blue schwinn. craigslist find. love of my life. i ended up plastering the frame in all kinds of stickers. got me through many years of year round commuting, and lots of trail riding. took a bicycle mechanics course at the local co-op, and endlessly wrenched and tinkered on this thing. it was eventually stolen right off my front porch. years later saw somebody riding it down the street, and then saw it in the bike cage in the parking garage of my office building! no mistaking it with all those stickers. left a note on it wishing the new owner luck, and hopes that enjoy it. left my number in case they wanted to get a coffee and bond over our shared experience. never heard back from them. so it goes.
a giant orange fixed-gear single speed. craigslist find. a real fixer upper. i was kind of scared of this bike. it was slightly too big for me (a first!), and the frame had a slight dent so it wobbled at high speeds. stolen from outside a restaurant downtown where i left it locked up over night.
surly crosscheck. black. the first store bought bike since that small blue one, and my first “nice” bike. heckin good bike. stolen right out of my backyard. followed by a bikeless period of mourning.
blue gitane. current bike. craigslist find for ridiculously cheap. kind of worried it was stolen, but what can you do. helped me get through the pandemic. because of a back injury, this bike is probably currently being ridden less than any other bike i’ve had in my adult life. but i still love it. it is a good bike.