What does your bike mean to you?

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Permalink Reply by tmana on December 18, 2009 at 1:24pm

The bike that meant the most to me was my Lotus Excelle. It was the first bicycle I chose, as opposed to what my grandparents or my parents chose for me. Its twelve speeds meant that I had better command over the Bostonian terrain, and the freewheel was easier to service than the Ross's internal hub. Perversely, it is the Ross that had the most mileage. It was my commuting bicycle during my junior and senior years of high school -- not that I used it much, as my grandfather was retired and enjoyed driving my sister and me to and from school. It stood home during my freshman year of college, but after finding how much Boston is a bicycle town, it came up to take me through my sophomore and junior years of college, and for bad weather during my senior year. It went through rain, snow, even a blizzard...

While it's newer and smaller than the Excelle, my Dolce means "freedom". It means not having to wait for buses to go somewhere, or for someone to drive me there. It means "health", in that it's healthier to bicycle than to ride a motor vehicle, and that it gets me an excuse to exercise. It's aluminum-framed road geometry is distinctive enough in this area, where most pedal-powered vehicles are cheap mountain bikes, general-purpose bikes, or what Wal-Mart passes off as a "road bicycle". It's not the priciest or highest-technology bike in the world, but like its name, it's sweet. It suits my size and skill level, and has performance capacity for me to "grow into".

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Permalink Reply by paul thennes on December 19, 2009 at 12:46am

To me my bike means life pure freedom. when its just me and my bike my health problems disappear no pain just solitude. I can honestly say if it wasn't for my bike I wouldn't be alive today.

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