I learned to ride a bike when my family was visiting friends near Philadelphia, and one of their kids had this bike in the garage. I also found this neat soapbox derby helmet, so I was wearing a helmet when bike helmets were virtually non-existent. (Although I know now that this helmet wouldn't have done much in an actual crash.)
I took the bike out and taught myself to ride. Every morning, I couldn't wait to get up and take the bike out.
Yeah. I know. It's a girl's bike.
Maybe somewhere in my mom's house is a photo of me on my first bike. It was a kind of BMX-styled bike, with kind of a curved, cruiser black frame, and the inverted-U-shaped seat struts like the bike above, but the seat was not so long as to describe as a banana seat. It had a plastic fake gas tank on it like a motorcycle. I thought that was cool. That was a requirement for my bike. The handelbars had to have a cross bar on it on which to hang a number plate. It had 20" wheels with knobby tires and single-speed transmission.
That bike got abused in the Pittsburgh suburbs. The plastic gas tank soon broke off. I recall riding down the steepest dirt hills I could find, including our front yards. I remember my mom getting upset with me for riding through her "fox." Some kind of flowers she had in the yard.
When I was 11, we moved to Birmingham, AL. I had a friend with a "ten speed." Which is was a road bike was called then. Sometimes I still hear people refer to road bikes as "ten speeds," although my current "ten speed" has 27 "speeds." And you can now get a 30 speed drivetrain from Campagnolo. I don't remember the kid's name, but despite being my age, he was quite a bit bigger. We rode around the area, I on my black "BMX" bike and he on his ten speed. One some of our adventures, we rode the uncompleted I-459 that ran behind our house. The right-of-way had been cleared of trees, but not smoothed, so it was hilly. Apparently, this had been done years before as grass had grown back, and a double-track ran along the strip.
I remember asking for a ten speed, wondering if I were big enough for it. My friend laughed at the idea of my riding a big ten speed. But I got one shortly thereafter and rode it fine. I don't remember anything of it other than I had a generator light on it, and eventually added a speedometer!
I'm not sure what ever happened to the ten speed. But when I was ready to go off to Auburn for college, my mom and I went to Sears and got a blue Free Spirit TWELVE speed. Wow! Twelve gear combinations! I got a bike rack at a garage sale, bought a cable lock and carried the bike off to the plains, where I dutifully got a campus bike permit for it. After a month or so, I realized a couple of things. One, it was illegal in the city of Auburn to ride on the sidewalks, and those streets were scary. (I didn't know then, as we do now, that a cyclist is at 2-10 times greated risk of an accident on the sidewalk than on the street.) Second, I was so close to my classes, that I spent more time locking and unlocking the bike than it would take for me to walk.
The bike went back home to Birmingham.
A couple years later I came back home and thought I'd ride my like-new twelve speed. I found its carcass in the garage, having been cannibalized for parts by my brother. I don't know what he was thinking.
Fast forward to June 2001. I was fed up with my excessive weight. Trying to watch what I ate did nothing, apparently, without exercise. I evaluated what I could do that I might enjoy. I could not stand to use some exercise machine in the apartment. I had tried swimming some, but I think I needed something to build some cardiovascular strength before really being able to do that much at all. I was now in Florida. It was flat. The area I'm in doesn't have dense traffic. A lot of the roads actually have bike lanes. Hmmmm. I'd try biking.
I went to Sports Authority and bought an $80 Huffy Alpine that was on sale, realizing the disadvantages of the "department store" bike. I figured in a couple of months, I'd either decide to stick with it, and go buy a good road bike from a real bike shop, or decide it wasn't for me, and hide it away or give it away.
This photo was from the day that I gave it away.
OK. I didn't give it away because I gave up biking. I gave it away because I bought the good road bike. Within two months, I was at Bob's Bicycle Shop in Melbourne talking to the owner, Ginger, whose name is not Bob. My new Jamis Quest was ordered.
I took the Alpine to church and gave it to our minister in charge of missions. I understand that it was taken to the Honduras and left for someone to use there.
Lucky me stopped by the shop the afternoon the day it came in, and Ginger invited me to open it myself! That added a lot to the excitement of buying my new bike.
Of course, it took a couple of days for them to assemble it, make the changes I'd requested, and check it out. This is a picture from the morning after I brought it home. Coincidently, both the Quest and Alpine had a silver and blue theme going.
A couple of months later, I had the correct handlebar stem put back on, the clipless pedals installed, the rack adjusted better, and lights and a handlebar bag added.
This is a photo my mom snapped when I was in Birmingham for Thanksgiving (2001). I'd lost about 20 lbs since June. Compare to the first photo.
Christmas morning 2001. I just got the frame pump for my birthday and the panniers for Christmas. They are stuffed with all the family's wrapping paper in this picture.
