Dec. 30th - Hug a Bike Day
A couple posts ago there was made a heartfelt and humbling salute to the bicycle mechanic. With this post, I hope to continue with a salute to the labor that is the love of a bicycle mechanic, bicycle enthusiast, bicycle tinkerer; to all of you, bicycle riders, what brings us all together... The bicycle itself.
You see it all the time. Stories in Bicycling Magazine, thousands of blog postings, forums, books; how a bicycle has transformed the life of it's owner. It's a topic of common discussion, but yet it never seems to loose it's power or it's meaning... a seemingly inanimate object, made of metals and composites, riding on air inflated rubber, sometimes controlled my moving cables, and powered by it's rider, the bicycle has transcended time and carried countless people to better places, both literally and figuratively.
We ask, and sometimes demand super-human things from our two wheeled companions. We line up at races with our hearts pounding, trying not to pee ourselves before they finally fire the gun, yet our bicycles remain calm, and find their way to the finish line. We put them on the roofs of our cars, drive them across the country in the rain, wind, and bugs, then expect them to complete a 150 mile organized ride in the mountains. We load them up with groceries and other cargo, letting them bear the burden while we simply pedal. We ride them in dust, mud, snow; we sweat on them. We crash in rocks, in loose corners, in finish line sprints; we fall off teeter totters, we slip on the ice... and when we get up, we hope our bikes will be able to get us back to where we started from.
So far, it seems, all of our bicycles have done their jobs. Here we all are, riders of different styles and skill levels; different brand and bike shop preferences. and different groups of people that we ride with; some of us never knew one another before NIBU came about. And what is the single, core value that has brought us all together? The bicycle, and our love for all the things a bike represents and stands for... all of the possibilities; all of the places our bicycles will take us in the future.
I'm grateful to all of my bicycles, for taking me all of the places we've been together, for all of the races they've gotten me through, for all of the cold, icy winter nights they've gotten me home safely. I'm grateful to all of our bicycles for bringing all of us together, at Cranksgiving, at the Roller Derby, in the blog, on Facebook, on the road and on the trails. Bicycles are the glue that will hold us together, sustain our lifestyles and bring us joy. So, in the spirit of saluting our compadres, go give your bikes a hug.
You see it all the time. Stories in Bicycling Magazine, thousands of blog postings, forums, books; how a bicycle has transformed the life of it's owner. It's a topic of common discussion, but yet it never seems to loose it's power or it's meaning... a seemingly inanimate object, made of metals and composites, riding on air inflated rubber, sometimes controlled my moving cables, and powered by it's rider, the bicycle has transcended time and carried countless people to better places, both literally and figuratively.
We ask, and sometimes demand super-human things from our two wheeled companions. We line up at races with our hearts pounding, trying not to pee ourselves before they finally fire the gun, yet our bicycles remain calm, and find their way to the finish line. We put them on the roofs of our cars, drive them across the country in the rain, wind, and bugs, then expect them to complete a 150 mile organized ride in the mountains. We load them up with groceries and other cargo, letting them bear the burden while we simply pedal. We ride them in dust, mud, snow; we sweat on them. We crash in rocks, in loose corners, in finish line sprints; we fall off teeter totters, we slip on the ice... and when we get up, we hope our bikes will be able to get us back to where we started from.
So far, it seems, all of our bicycles have done their jobs. Here we all are, riders of different styles and skill levels; different brand and bike shop preferences. and different groups of people that we ride with; some of us never knew one another before NIBU came about. And what is the single, core value that has brought us all together? The bicycle, and our love for all the things a bike represents and stands for... all of the possibilities; all of the places our bicycles will take us in the future.
I'm grateful to all of my bicycles, for taking me all of the places we've been together, for all of the races they've gotten me through, for all of the cold, icy winter nights they've gotten me home safely. I'm grateful to all of our bicycles for bringing all of us together, at Cranksgiving, at the Roller Derby, in the blog, on Facebook, on the road and on the trails. Bicycles are the glue that will hold us together, sustain our lifestyles and bring us joy. So, in the spirit of saluting our compadres, go give your bikes a hug.
I asked Santa for 2 things. A good lovin woman, and a double-wide bike pro travel case for planning future winter snowbird trips in Hawaii.
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