Freedom on the Bike

From the days when I had the ugliest yellow BMX bike with no pads whatsoever to the stupid 21-gear mountain bike that I ride around NYC everyday to this day -- I'm down with bicycling.

I already told you about the best broken bone I ever had which came from riding a bike. But that wasn't even the best wreck I ever had on my bike. No, the best wreck I ever had was back when I was just about 6 years old or so, and I had this hand-me-down blue banana seated bike from my brother. Down the street from our house, we'd found this incredible motorcycle dirt track with a monster 8' foot ramp in the middle of it. My brother who was 9 or so had a new BMX bike and we rode our bikes down to this track, pulled them through the barbed wire fence and started riding around on the track. We'd line up on the south side of the track and ride down this slope and around the curve to the ramp and ride it up and down.

A couple of my brother's friends in the neighborhood showed up and decided that we should try to really jump off the ramp and have a contest to see who could fly the farthest. Being the youngest, I had to fight to participate in the contest, but they finally let me go last. So I got on my bike and went into the woods on the hill far above the track to get an even better run way. I pedaled like a bat out of hell and caught the turn so fast I was leaning sideways as I went around it.

And while the other kids had caught enough speed to at least catch a little air, I came over that jump going probably 25 miles an hour or so. Given that I'd never jumped a bicycle before, I immediately slammed on the brakes (the old kind that you push backward on the pedal to stop the backwheel). Oops.

I landed slightly off center and the bike slammed onto its side and I went rolling into the brush. My jeans were torn, my knees and elbows covered in blood. But I'd won! And, what a rush the jump had been.

That's what bike riding is about. It's about getting the wind in your hair, feeling the adrenalin flow as you pedal hard and wonder if you're about to lose control. It's about smelling the air, and seeing the world around you with no windshield or other incumbrence. It's about going somewhere.

That said, I'm all down with riding the stationary bike -- I'd bet that I've ridden thousands of miles on them over the years when warming up and/or treating injuries.

Someone want to explain this though?

http://www.busbike.com.br/siteimagens/





Why, I ask, why?