One day a thought entered my head and I asked myself: "Why isn't there a bicycle merchandise company or even a cycling-centered blog named One Track Mind?!" Well today I decided to start up the blog as a new chapter of my life is about to open up.
I got my very first bicycle at the age of five, which was called "Sweet Misty". I learned to actually ride my bike without training wheels around the age of 8 at the park across the street from the house I grew up in and I recall crashing into a tree, crying, and vowing to never ride a bike ever again. Fast forward 9 years and I find myself in the process of getting my driver's license. Just like a lot of other 16-year olds, I was excited and impatient about learning how to drive. I thought I would be a great driver and I didn't expect to lack so much discipline and patience in the process. I had hit three different cars in the first month of having my driver's permit. I felt self-centered, anxious, and trapped every time I got behind the wheel. I thought I would love driving and as it turned out, I fucking hated every second of it. I'm not a very competitive person by nature, but every time I would get inside the '98 Ford Taurus, something inside me turned on that was better left turned off. After failing the driving portion of my license test, I laid in bed one night and was thinking about how expensive it was to drive (with gas, car insurance, the prospective price of getting my own car), and how I wanted a way to exercise without going to the gym. It didn't take long for the epiphany to find it's way into my head-- a bicycle!!! I had already been vegan for a year and I thought how counterproductive it would be for such a conscientious person like myself to drive a car, and to go what, 2 miles to school every day?
During my next driving lesson, I brought up my idea to my driving instructor who was very skeptical, and laughed and asked how I would be able to ride a bike when I couldn't even walk in a straight line. I'm the type of person who loves to do what I'm told I won't be able to accomplish, so having my driving instructor tell this to me made me even more determined to go out and get a bicycle. Shortly after that I canceled my driving lessons, and canceled the car insurance (but not without being heckled by the insurance rep), and told my parents that I wanted a bike. About $450 later I walked out of Livermore Cyclery with my first real bike, a Trek 7300 Hybrid that I fell in love with. I became known as the girl who rode her bike to school and was quite proud of it. At first I rode on the sidewalk because I was too scared to ride in the bike lane, but a family friend who races got me into the road and helped me to increase my confidence on the road. In a town where most people only lived within 3 miles of the high school, I found it absurd that I was one of the few kids old enough to have a license that chose to ride instead of drive.
The amount of joy riding my bike has brought me is insurmountable. In about a week's time I am going to have my first single speed, soon to be fixed gear bicycle. This will be the most expensive thing I will have ever owned, costing me about $3,200 because I'm choosing nearly all American-made parts, and what isn't made in America is made in Europe (minus about 2 small parts). I'm a big fan of fair labor and paying the true cost of what it takes to produce a quality item. I'm not selling the Trek, as it will be my back-up bike for days that I feel too tired to ride fixed or simply need to lock up for a long period of time (I've been riding in the city for 3 years and I've never had anything stolen off the Trek).
Well I know this is a long first post, so I'm gonna wrap it up. Posts will be mostly bicycle-related, and from time to time will be about food, music, or whatever-else-I-find-rad.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment