This is fun! Age 7: Parents scored a Huffy purple and white with pink roses banana seat bike at a garage sale. Said bike had been run over by the family's car, and someone had decided to "fix" it with a weld job. It was because of this that pedaling the thing was near-impossible, but my scrawny little 7-year-old self managed it. Probably on flat tires. I loved having a bike, and was only jealous when I got the chance to ride my neighbor's shiny, new Rainbow Brite bike. It pedaled like butter compared to mine.
The next bike I remember... Age 11, 6th grade: It was 1992 and Christmas; I recieved a purple/black/gray Huffy (again with the Huffy) mountain bike. It had a BAG and a WATER BOTTLE! The bottle came cracked and leaked. The theme for Leah's bikes must have been, "mostly functional." I'm sure I rode that with flat tires, too. But I was its first owner, and nobody in town had taken a welding torch to it, so I was thrilled. I made frequent visits to the garage all winter to look at it and smell it and touch it. Come spring, I rode it all over my rural North Dakota town and even to my best friend's farmhouse, 5 miles away on gravel roads. She had received the exact same bike for Christmas, so we were "twins." But her water bottle wasn't cracked. We'd ride horse all weekend. It was FREEDOM. It WAS North Dakota, after all, and one does have to depend on motor vehicles for many things, so bikes fell out of favor with me for my high school years. At college, bikes weren't such a big deal, either. We walked or drove. Finished college, got married and moved to the southwest. Had my little boys and suddenly realized they were big enough to be in a bike trailer. My husband got me a metallic blue Walmart Schwinn for my 29th birthday (we knew nothing about LBS bikes) and my in-laws got me a baby-blue bike trailer. Soon, I was flying down hills with my boys and the dog in tow. Still remained clueless about riding flat tires. I was hooked. We moved to Valencia, California and I rode all over it on paved paseos fit for a queen. My older son was on his own bike by now, and my younger was still in the trailer. I loved every single minute of our bike rides and it was contagious. The Indian family next door to us became our best friends, and they caught the bike bug from us. Pretty soon they had bikes and we moms and the kids were out biking together every day. We moved our younger kids onto trail-a-bikes. My Walmart Schwinn started making a lot of strange sounds. Rattling and grating metal were becoming sounds one would associate with me and my bike. One day my husband rode it and said, "You know, this bike has seen better days. If you want a new one, I'll get one for you." Music to my ears! I decided I wanted a "nice" bike and since I recognized the Trek name, I settled on getting one. I found a screaming deal from a fellow nurse on Craigslist - $400 for a barely used Trek 7.6FX. I couldn't believe the difference in quality. I even learned about filling tires! I felt spoiled and proud of my new bike - this was the best bike ever! But that didn't last long. I started disliking the flat bars. I wanted to see the scenery. My neck and shoulders hurt. The saddle was a killer. The skinny tires unnerved me. I couldn't take the gravel when my son asked if we could. I started to toy with the idea of selling the Trek in favor of a different bike. I went to bike shops. People started talking about carbon and drop bars. I started listening to them. I had a dirty thought I couldn't banish - I wondered why the best bars I'd ever had were the upright, swept-back ones on my cheap bikes. I banished the thought as the foolishness of a novice. I was into "nice" bikes now; time to embrace the drop bar and carbon culture. I was set to do it - really I was - and I had a Specialized road bike with drop bars all picked out. But there were some nagging questions; this was the bike people recommended, but they didn't seem interested in the part where I said I'd be pulling a trail-a-bike and running errands. Nobody mentioned braze-ons, racks, or the like. I probably would have just trusted them that this was my perfect bike, but the price tag was hefty - remember, I was only acquainted with cheap Target/Walmart bikes prior to this - and the fear associated with the price tag made me search online a bit more, hoping for a better bike. I came across Just Ride on Amazon.com, and as soon as I read Grant, it was a done deal. I had the perfect answer - a 'nice' bike that could be useful to me! I did some serious fast talking to my husband, who by this time believed I had lost my mind, and I sort of got him on board. I sold the Trek for $200 more than I paid for it and called up Keven to chat about a Sam Hillborne with drop bars. He said, "Why not a Betty with Albatross bars?" Woah, you mean I could be serious about bikes but have the swept-back bars and mixte frame of my girlhood days? Yes, please! He said, "I don't know if we have any 55 Betties left in stock. If not, you'll have to wait until May." It was November. Two days later he said, "Good news! Let's get it taken care of and put your name on it." Honestly, I still didn't know then what I was getting. I do now, and I realize how close I was to making a bad choice that I'd have been stuck with. I really did get the best bike in the world, after all. I don't see another bike in my future unless it is a custom Riv mixte, which I certainly do not need. I like having one bike I can cherish; I can use this bike until I'm an old woman, and then I can be buried with it. Leah PS Nowadays, I keep my tires as highly inflated as possible. Probably scarred from riding flats my entire bike life :) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
