Riding like we did when we were kids

     Oh my, so much to catch up on! First cycling with my childhood friend on the streets of Shoreline, and my time in the human cage known as a car, then the wedding (pictures! Eventually!), and of course, beginning my first year of 30 Days of Biking. No more news on the LINK rail yet, but if you've attended one of the recent meetings in Shoreline I'd love to link to your post about it.
    When we were kids my friend Susie was just a kid I babysat, then a cooler-than-average-kid I baby sat. When we became adults we found we had so much in common, and continue to this day. She flew down, which shows just how much she cares since flying ranks higher than going to the dentist in things Susie hates. Of course I had to push the limit by getting her back on a bike. We used to bike as kids, we biked everywhere, because there was no way I was going to walk with all of those kids, and also I wasn't going to carry anyone older than three.
   She was so nervous, probably because I made her wear a helmet. We didn't grow up wearing helmets in Alaska, and it sort of gave her the impression that it might be dangerous, after all they wouldn't tell us to wear helmets here unless it was dangerous here, right? She giggled when I went over signaling, and proper strap wear. I set her on Pinkie Pie, who is a stable upright stead, the equivalent of a gentle mare to help her get back in the swing. I pointed out they wouldn't have the expression "like riding a bicycle," if it was something you could forget. We set off for the mall and before we got to the next street she was terrified. I turned us off Meridian N to 162nd, it leads to 1st eventually, but through a suburban neighborhood rather than the main road.
    She explained she really couldn't go any further, biking next to cars was terrifying for her, she was a mom and couldn't risk her life like that. She couldn't see how I did it. I begged her not to give up, and picked a closer destination, the Dollar Store (this is a novel treat for Alaskans) and turned her toward the Interurban trail. She had to push her bike up Densmore, complaining all the while how out of shape she was, I had to resist the urge to mock her for using a truck. Its not fair, but it biking in Alaska is not for the faint of heart. Furthermore, as a mom she had limited time, but she spoke with real desire to bike with her son over the summer. She flinched every time a car passed until we got to the trail.

 The first shot is her on the streets, the second and last on the trail 

I look and I can barely tell its her and not myself. There's a few differences, but it looks a lot like I did years ago. Helps she's wearing my flannel, helmet, and kerchiefs, but that grimace? Yep, that was my own bike-face years ago. Really not even that long ago. I was not a confident cyclist when I came here, and it took a lot for me to have the courage to take the lane. I'm not really all that confident either, but I feel that way with a real beginner to 'vehicular cycling,' which is bike speak for 'riding next to cars with no protection like you are a car' and is not for those with poor nerves. Susie felt better on the trail, but not much better on the greenway. When I asked why she pointed, "The cars are still right there!" and that there was nothing to stop them from entering the greenway. Nothing, but the law.
I assured her we were fine, and we rode onward, completing our journey, shopping, and of course, gossiping. We had a cigarette before we took off, snickering that while we were dumb for smoking we weren't as dumb as the guy smoking next to the propane tanks. On our way back she marveled I hadn't given up the habit. I wish I could turn up one eyebrow like my grandfather, because I totally would have as I replied, "lung resistance training,*" and waited for her at the top of the hill leading back to the trail. At the top I assured her I would seek healthier habits if she did, and we laughed hard enough to need to catch our breath.
I wished we had more time, that the ride was longer. That we still rode together. Compared to other cyclists I'm practically a fair-weather type. If I'm not feeling physically up for it due to a myriad of conditions, I don't (this has presented a challenge in feeling the 'joy' in 30 days of cycling, but more on that later). But in the eyes of my friends, my family, and my coworkers, I'm so hard core I could do the Tour de France. This is because many of my friends don't cycle at all, my family that does bike uses motorcycles, and my coworkers can only vaguely recall the last time they rode. Moreover, I look fairly healthy enough, so to them I'm perpetuating a stereotypical cyclist; young, fit, white, and a "special" bike, and confident in her abilities.
But I'm not a stereotypical cyclist. For one thing, I'm only half white at best. I'm not that confident. At least, not when I ride alone. When I'm with someone else I'm totally confident, the more people, the more confident I am. I'm practically Wonder Woman on a group ride. I sound confident, but when I'm alone, I'm not. I'm so scared I'll get hit and there will be no one to call for help. I'm scared the person who hit me won't even know they did so, and I'll be a ghost bike. I'm scared I'll die in the saddle and Ben will never ride again because he won't be able to look at a bike again. That he'll buy a car and forget it ever made him happy too. I'm afraid of others, who, if I died biking, would never take it back up, or begin at all because it is too dangerous.
My bike isn't special. Okay, no that's a lie, my bike is special, its so special it had to be in my wedding somehow because I love it so much, but that's all that really makes it special. There are hundreds of folding bikes out there (hopefully not a hyperbole) and many that I know have more gears than Scamper, many made with carbon or titanium, many can carry more pounds and many are built to be faster. And most cost far far more than Scamper. A basic model of folding bike, with the basic number of gears. It is in fact a rather humble appearing bike if you know techs and specs, and let's face it, not even that many in the cycling community would know offhand Scamper wasn't a top teir kind of folding bike.
Its these things that make me the truly stereotypical cyclist; young, nervous, cheap bike, This is what the cycling community sees as the typical cyclist. The middle aged men in lycra, and the young racers? That's what the outside sees as the typical cyclist.
The only thing that makes me really stand out is not owning a car or having a licence, which most cyclist do, even the ones you can't peel out of their spandex.
A lot of progress has been made in changing how we cyclists are seen, even as we cyclists change. We move from being children just gaining independence, to adults who bike for so many reasons. I've gone from a traffic avoiding rider to someone who rides beside cars with no more protection that a stripe of paint, if that at all. Am I scared? Yes. Do I want better? Absolutely. Because I know now that I should have never changed, I should have stayed scared like Susie and the infrastructure should have been built with us in mind, instead of forever putting us in some subgroup whose needs must be "special interest" instead of perhaps the most non-partisan issue ever.
I hope Susie rides more, but I'm not going back North anytime soon to ride with her. But the Interurban is just a little more special for me in the meantime, its a place we rode together, and, just for old time's sake, I did the 'ol drangonfly maneuver, where we laughed, and, just for a moment, I could feel the girls we were riding with us.


That's all for now (surely you didn't think I'd be able to cram all that in the intro into one post? Dude, tl; dr) In the meantime, if you're going to make the pledge do so now, its closing soon!!!!




*a quote from Sister Sprocket from the Kickstand Comics

My love rides two wheels

      As I posted earlier in December I am getting married. Actually, in about two weeks from this day I will marry the guy I had a crush on when I was 16 1/2 years old, who became the man I dated when I was 23, who became my best friend in the whole world when I was 27. We've taken our time, but its also taken me time, we started dating when I was in the middle of a divorce, and it took me a while to take him seriously, who could blame me? He had a car.
      Oh sure my cats adored him, but frankly I was repairing his car so often that I thought he'd never actually give up driving, even if we did move thousands of miles to a major metropolitan area that had bike lanes and cars. He seemed utterly tied to the convenience of a car, and if I'm to be honest, he's not an outdoors kind of person. Or even an out of the house kind of person. He's funny, a deep thinker, an empathetic listener, a god at Guitar Hero, but not naturally inclined to look at a cliff and think, 'I must climb that! for... Reasons!' and then scurry off. I think just initially dating me he lost 15lbs. Now, many countless adventures later, we're formalizing our partnership.
      Before we even got on the plane I was pushing him to rethink purchasing a new car when we landed, it would be expensive, (a major deal since getting from Alaska to Seattle alone can be expensive), we probably wouldn't need it if everything everyone said about transit there was true (it mostly was), and anyway I hated driving so he'd end up shuttling me again. He said he'd think about it. Which is Ben's way of saying he will think about it for a long time considering every point, and the tangents therein, and get back to me.
      After a month he'd agreed even entertaining the idea of buying a car here in Seattle was crazy. He realized how much he missed biking, and when he realized there would be no snowfall heavy enough to force him to give it up, he rejoiced. Sure, he'll never join a club, or go to bike events on his own, or even have it occur to him to go to a biking event. To him its always going to mostly be a way to get around.
     That's a good thing, for myself I'd just make more trips to the store, Ben, the practical as ever, decided a trailer was just the thing we needed, but wisely let me go crazy with research. He may not ever be a MAMIL* (in fact, he is unable to ride with no hands), but I wouldn't want him to be one, I like him just as he is, because while he's not a racer, and I'll probably always need to wait for him to catch up, its not like he'll ever ditch me either. He agrees all my clothes are cycling clothes, but still encourages me to consider biking when I'm getting clothes.
      He's always on my wheel when I need him to be there, and while he doesn't have my passion for bikes, he understands it.
      Planning a wedding with bikes isn't the easiest thing either, especially when your mother tells you she's renting a car because "our people don't bike or bus," (read that in a haughty east cost voice) and the rest of the party is of the same sentiment. His family is of course, also renting a car. I suppose that's good because that's probably the best way to transport the cake under the circumstances. Still, I'm hoping to show at least a few people in my wedding party the beauty of the bike lanes here, and my best friend from Alaska is eager to see my saddle bound world (no surprise since we rode everywhere together as kids).
       I wasn't able to find wedding rings of a bike themed nature, but I did find invitations and a cycle themed wedding topper that I actually liked, though it required some changes, You can see how mine is different here. My step-mother, and probably one of my sisters will be making the cake, I say probably one of my sisters because my step mother fractured her arm because winter is furious I'm not getting married in December again. Don't worry, my step-mother made sure all of her girls know how to make and decorate a cake, also I'm going with a simple wheel and spokes design. After the wedding dinner Ben and I will be taking off on our bikes to our home to change for the after-adults-only party.
     I probably won't be able to bike to my wedding because Seattle has a ridiculous helmet law, so even though there is a perfectly safe path to the park I can't use it to get there because no matter what the all mighty helmet lobby might want you to think, helmet hair is not cool. It will never be cool. However, after the dinner I won't have to care about my hair anymore so I can strap it back on. Besides, I can't really express my joy in any other way, someone like Michael Bennett understands, when joy overtakes your heart, well, what else can you do but get a on a bike?

Speaking of joyful cycling, I've made the pledge for this April's 30 Days of Biking, you can see my pledge as number 496, I should've just waited a tick and snagged number 500. I encourage you all to make your pledge, it doesn't matter the distance, it doesn't take money, it just takes joy and it gives kids bikes.

The Major Taylor Ride for Seattle is coming up on the 18th of April, and yes, if I'm mentioning a bunch of April stuff, well, its because I'm trying not to think of all the awesome March stuff I'm missing (so much much women bike stuff in March I'm missing), and concentrating on what's ahead. Because nothing is going to help me de-stress from this madness like a good spirited group ride.

This is probably all I'm going to have time for, blog wise, until after I've married Ben, so you can probably expect a LINK rail post coming up in the near future, as well as another post about the wedding which will have pictures.

Oh and don't think my friend from the previous post has given up, her continuing cycling saga will be shared in coming days as well.

Until April, wind to your backs my friends.
 




*middle age man in Lycra