My History With Bicycles

The question I get asked the most lately is "Why a bike?" For people who know me, it's a valid question. Bicycles and I have had a weird relationship over the years. Most kids get a bike around 5 or so, but I didn't get my first bike until I was 7. My dad finally got around to teaching me how to ride it when I was 8.

All of the neighborhood kids I played with had bikes. For two years I would just run behind them while they rode around. I was a natural runner so it didn't bother me at first, but as my friends got older, and we could explore farther, running began to get old. So I made my dad teach me how to ride that two-wheeled thing in the garage. I don't remember who made the bike, but it was black and gold with the word "piranha" on the down tube. It didn't have hand brakes and pedaling backwards was so foreign to me that I almost rode into traffic on more than one lesson. I would ride with my friends, even though I had absolutely no control over what I was doing. Most of the time I would pedal with my left, and push off the ground with my right in a half riding/half running manner that made my piranha an awkward shaped scooter more than a bicycle. I was a laughing stock to my friends, but I didn't care. I was going to get it. Eventually, it clicked, and when it did I was addicted.

I lived at the bottom of a steep, long hill, which had a sharp right turn at the end. The hill owned me. It became my life mission to make it up the hill without having to get off my bike. I used to fly up the hill in a fit of fixed gear fury, only to have to stop half way and walk up the rest. All so I could bomb down the hill at stupid speeds and take the sharp right hand turn as fast as I could, followed by slamming on the brakes to make the longest skid mark possible... and not ride into traffic.

By the time I was 9 I could not only make it up the hill, I could sprint up it without thinking. I would ride my bike for miles. My dad one day asked me if I wanted to go for a bike ride. I said "sure!" and he threw my bike and I into the back seat and we were off. Little did I know that by "bike ride" my dad meant "you want to do a 30+ mile ride down to the Philadelphia Art Museum and back?"

It was hot, I was less than 10, which meant I had the attention span of a gnat, and neither of us were prepared for how long it was going to take. When I said above that I would ride for miles, I didn't mean these kind of miles. To this day I still wonder what the hell my dad was thinking.

Valley Green (also known as Forbidden Drive) is a gravel path that follows a stream that eventually dumps you in Fairmount, which is a section of Philadelphia. From there, we would have to make it to Kelly Drive (East River drive then) and ride down to the Art Museum, circle around and come back up West River Drive and go back through Fairmount, find Valley Green's path, and make it back to the car.

It was so hot that I went swimming in the stream for a little while. My dad allowed this, probably knowing the ridiculous amount of chafing I was about to endure on the rest of the ride. When we made it close to the Art Museum, I was so hungry we had to stop. My dad bought me the worst tasting hamburger I have ever had. A homeless man asked if he could have a piece and I handed him the whole thing. He said "you know I'm not going to give this back, right?" I responded "Good, It taste terrible." Somehow, we made it back. My dad and I never did that ride again.

After that, things went back to normal. As we grew, my friends all got larger bikes. Most of them were mountain bikes, so I naturally wanted a mountain bike. Not just any mountain bike. I wanted Huffy's White Heat. For those of you who don't remember, White Heat was probably the ugliest bike ever created. It was white with black and neon yellow highlights and had motocross style hand protectors on the handle bars. It also had hand brakes which was a huge plus for me. My parents got me White Heat. A few months later I got into skateboarding and bikes were no longer cool. So at age 12, I stopped riding, and wanted nothing to do with riding a bike. Because of how obnoxious BMX bikers were when I was skating, I grew to hate bikes. When I got a car, this feeling only grew because now bikes were traffic obstacles that slowed me down. I could never again see myself on one.

Fast-forward 10 years. At 26 years young I was working all of the time, eating like crap and couldn't run anymore because of stress fractures in my ankle. I was getting fat and was so out of shape that the first time I tried doing anything athletic I threw up. A lot. In a gym full of people and my girlfriend. It was embarrassing. I wanted to do something I could ease into and was low impact. I was going to buy a bike. I had a friend who worked at a bike shop, and I only knew two things going in: I wanted to ride at Valley Green, and I wanted a Trek. Why a Trek? I think it was the only manufacturer that I knew. He pointed me towards a hybrid. My test ride consisted of three circles in a parking lot big enough for 5 cars. I took it. I regretted it. The hybrid had a triple crank up front and shifted like crap. I could barely make it up small inclines because my legs were so weak and I had no idea what gear to be in when, and the few times I did have an idea, my bike wouldn't shift. The deal breaker was when my girlfriend (Jen) got a bike. She had been doing spinning classes and decided to get a bike. She bought the cheapest road bike REI had and we went down to the Schuylkill path. At a blazing 12mph she would get so far ahead of me that I couldn't see her anymore. I was agonizingly slow and weak, not to mention embarrassed and pissed. I hated my bike again.

Jen went on to ride all summer. She found out her cousin Niko was riding too, and they became riding buddies. They signed up to do 75miles of the MS 150 in September of last year and they did it. I was there as they crossed the finish line and I couldn't have been more proud of Jen. I also couldn't have been more jealous. She had been having so much fun on her bike all summer, and it made me think of how happy I was as a kid riding my bike and I wanted that back. So then and there, at the finish line in Ocean City NJ I decided I was going to get a bike I loved.

After the MS ride, Jen got fitted for a custom frame. She got herself a carbon fibre frame made by Guru called the Geneo. Weighing in at less than 4lbs for the frame, and aerodynamically shaped, the bike is a looker and a performer. It evokes the same kind of response from cyclists that a Ferrari does from car enthusiasts. It made me even more resolved to get a bike I loved.

In late January, I finally found it. I had decided through research that I was going to get an aluminum frame with a carbon fork and rear stays. I wanted comfort, speed and a price tag around a grand. Something that I could keep up with Jen and Niko with. I went to Highroad Cycles in Wayne and talked to Lauren and John about what I wanted. After a few test rides, I walked out with a $2,400 Specialized Tarmac Comp. It's a carbon frame with Shimano 105 components. The second I got on the bike it took me back to being 10 again. At one point on the test ride I had passed a car I was moving so fast. I was hooked again.

That brings you up to date. I now ride about 2-4 days a week, and anywhere from 50-100 miles a week depending on weather. I signed up for the City to Shore MS 150 (donations can be made here:http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/PAEBikeEvents?px=4568102&pg=personal&fr_id=8150) to ride with Jen and Niko in September. My goals for the summer are to be riding 150-200 miles a week, climb the wall in Manayunk and do the Art Museum ride, and the Audubon Loop in one day (approx. 55miles or so).