I inherited my bike from Husband's old business partner. This guy kept a herd of $400 bikes on the side of his beach house, and when he moved I graciously accepted one. It was mistreated, rusty, falling apart, but I replaced things, tuned it up and patched her up with stickers. She rides almost perfectly now. Her name is Loops. Mina named her and I'm not exactly sure what Loops means, but I like the sound; it stuck.
I hung a Chinese prosperity bell on the back basket. It jing-jing-jingles over a every bump in the road. Ah, prosperity, Loops, prosperity.
Mina's caught the bike craze too, now. Look at her bike that I picked up at a garage sale for $10 two weeks ago. When Mina practices riding it on her school grounds, she gets that look of contented freedom on her face too. She named the bike Pippi.
Tell me about your bike.
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11 comments:
So, in NYC the Freegan community hosts a free Build-A-Bike workshop every weekend, in which they teach anyone who wants to learn how to build a great working bike out of found and donated bike parts. I'm not sure where you are in Cali, but I know LA has the Bicycle Kitchen. I'm sure there's something similar wherever you are. I recommend checking it out if you haven't already. Bike riders in the city are a lot like RV communities in middle America...with the whole comraderie and such. And, there are always some cool cats there. You and the girls may just be able to soup yourselves up for nothing but an afternoon of good conversation. Happy riding in the meantime!
Ah man, this is why I love the blog community. I'm so happy to learn about all this, Julie. I read almost every word of the Bicycle Kitchen site. It's not that far from me and I'm considering signing up for the basic wrenching workshop. Thanks so much for sharing.
SSB often encourages me to get a new bike but I looooove my old green Schwinn, which belonged to SSB's grandpa. It is rickety but I dig it the most. It's the only way to go!
Cool bike Madness. I love your prosperity charm and that the girls have the fever now as well. I keep trying to talk my girl into practice so we can take the training wheels off, but she's captivated by the town pool opening.
Also, my bike has a dangling twisty tie on it from a past temporary solution. The brakes squeak and you can hear me braking down a hill--rrrrrawwwwwwrrrr. I have a really crappy white metal basket that pops completely off if I hit a big bump. I need to fix that.
I wear a blue helmet--I never ride without it because my love works in the Emergency Room. When I ride to work, I roll both pant legs all the way up over my knees in one huge cuff. It looks ridic but I feel like the coolest kid in town.
I don´t comment all that often here, though I read all the damn time, but I couldn´t resist this one. When I was younger I had a light pink bike called Sweet Thunder. I rode her all over the side streets of Albuquerque.
Now, ironically, I hate bike riding. Not in concept, but it really, really hurts my back.
Love it, Marigoldie.
And I don't think there's a better name than Sweet Thunder.
i miss my bike. but more, i miss living in an actual town, a place that you can actuall ride your bike to and fro. i love the beautiful countryside we live in now, but cannot wait to be gone.
for the last few years we've taken advantage of nearby rivers and lakes and gotten kayaks. my kayak? my dream car.
lucky for me, it's likely only a matter of time here in the sunshine state 'fore we can use them as such. hehe
I used to do these 500-mile bike trips with a church group when I was a teen. We would ride from Minnesota, through Wisconsin, back to Chicago. Cycling through Wisconsin, we were perpetually downwind of a dairy herd, so I just got used to the smell of manure. Nowadays when I'm driving through rural areas in the Midwest, I find I sort of like the smell -- it's nostalgic and takes me back to all those wonderful bike trips of my youth.
I have a 15 year old mountain bike - Art & I got matching ones when we were married. It pulls a trailer that my two girls ride in. It's a bummer, though because we live at the top of a very steep hill (no way in hell I could get myself to the top, forget the trailer & kidlets) so I have to load up the bikes & trailer, drive to the bottom, unload, hitch it up, then, finally we're free. I actually go through this ritual quite a bit. cool post. :)
I really think every household, heck every person, should have a decent bike for short-distance travel. Even if you have a car, biking is a great way to exercise. I still have my Japanese bike with the basket and bells. It looks goofy, but I like it because it's cute.
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