Freedom

For my 14th birthday, my parents got me a beautiful bike.  It was a deep-purple and black marbled Norco Bush Pilot 21-speed mountain bike, and I loved it.  For 4 years, that bike got me nearly everywhere.  It was my pride and joy.

Then I got a car, and eventually the bike was retired to my parents’ garage.  It made a brief reappearance during the summer after my first year of university while I was between cars, but returned to storage shortly afterwards.

Last fall, I retrieved the bike, and found that it was in rough shape – beyond my scope of repair, even with instructional videos – so it sat in my own garage until last month.

Then we had a string of bad luck that included our car being off the road for more than a week, and with both my partner and I having to get to work, transportation started to become very expensive.  I needed my bike.

A new shop had opened up in town – an amazing little coffee shop and bike shop combined, and I took my bike in there to be checked over and repaired.  It wasn’t cheap, but my bike was back to like new within a week, and the owner of the shop says it has another 20 years in it (god, has it really been that long since I was 14?).

I rode it home the day I picked it up from the shop, and learned two things along the way.  One, riding a bike really is the way people say – you never actually forget – and two, I LOVE to ride.  I had completely forgotten how free riding makes me feel.  How happy and relaxed.

Today I went out for what was only my fourth ride since getting my bike back.  I did 5.26 miles before breakfast, and could have easily kept going had I not decided I was hungry.

When I got home, my partner asked how the ride was.  Before I could even answer, they responded “I think somebody has found her passion”.  It’s true.  All day today I have been thinking about going back out to ride.

I just wish I had more opportunity to get better.  There is a women’s cycling group in the area, but one of the requirements to join is a road bike – which mine is clearly not – and it’s way out of the budget at the moment.

Someday.  For now, I ride solo,  and I love every minute of it.