Over the course of the last week, my youngest son, Thomas, has really taken to his new bicycle. It's great seeing him revel in his new-found freedom. A few days back I showed Thomas how to place a card in the spokes to make cool 'motor noises'. That brought a BIG smile to his face. Watching Thom on his bike got me thinking about when I was a kid, and my bike was my ticket to 'out and about'.
While there were others before her, the first bike I can remember owning was a late 60's model Schwinn Speedster, nearly identical to the bike pictured to the left, with the exception that mine was metallic green in color. I think it was a hand-me-down from my brother Dave.
Alright, it wasn't nearly as cool as the bikes some of my friends had - Sting Rays, Apple Krates, Apollos, Dragspeeders, et al. Its 'coolest' feature was the 3-speed, mounted on the handlebar. One flick of the thumb and I could change those gears!
In retrospect, that Speedster of mine was a geek's bike.
Necessity being the mother of invention (the 'necessity' here being to NOT look like a total spaz on my Schwinn) led to my trying to imitate heroes of the day. When I was a kid, heroes included those darlings of the dragstrip, Don "The Snake" Prudhomme, Tom "The Mongoose" McEwen and Don "Big Daddy" Garlits. I wondered...could I turn my Schwinn Speedster into a Schwinn Dragster?
Turns out I couldn't. But at least I could affect the dragster look. But how to do it? The answer was as close as my parent's hallway closet. It was there that I found a BIG umbrella (similar to the one pictured here) that automatically opened at the push of a button. I theorized that this umbrella could act as a kind of drag chute...after getting up to speed, I could hold this umbrella - excuse me, drag chute - behind me, push the button and end my run just like The Snake and his pals did every "Sunday SUNDAY SUNDAY!"
So it was that one Saturday I met up with my buddies, riding my bike, holding my parent's umbrella. My arrival was met by puzzled looks...until my first 'run'. Peddling down the street like a madman, I then popped the chute. "Cool!" my friends offered, "can I try that?" I murmured something to the effect that I still had to 'perfect' it. The very next attempt was the same as the last...except this time I thought it would be even cooler to change gears in the midst of my deceleration. So there I was, left hand extended behind me, holding the opened umbrella, my right hand moving off the handle bar, my thumb pressing down on the gear shift.
Uh huh. You can see where this is going.
The pressure applied to the right handle immediately sent the handle bar - and, as a result, the front tire - towards a sharp right turn. In very short order, my Schwinn Speedster hit the curb, sending me al la Pee-Wee Herman over my handlebars. Luckily for me, the sidewalk broke my fall. I opened my eyes to see my friends hovering over me. "Are you okay?" they asked. "Sure," I replied, "I meant to do that." As I got up, my friends all exclaimed, "That looked cool!"
Those three words made all the pain worthwhile.
Checking out humor-blogs.com is definately more fun than impailing your manhood on the handlebars of your bike.
While there were others before her, the first bike I can remember owning was a late 60's model Schwinn Speedster, nearly identical to the bike pictured to the left, with the exception that mine was metallic green in color. I think it was a hand-me-down from my brother Dave.Alright, it wasn't nearly as cool as the bikes some of my friends had - Sting Rays, Apple Krates, Apollos, Dragspeeders, et al. Its 'coolest' feature was the 3-speed, mounted on the handlebar. One flick of the thumb and I could change those gears!
In retrospect, that Speedster of mine was a geek's bike.
Necessity being the mother of invention (the 'necessity' here being to NOT look like a total spaz on my Schwinn) led to my trying to imitate heroes of the day. When I was a kid, heroes included those darlings of the dragstrip, Don "The Snake" Prudhomme, Tom "The Mongoose" McEwen and Don "Big Daddy" Garlits. I wondered...could I turn my Schwinn Speedster into a Schwinn Dragster?
Turns out I couldn't. But at least I could affect the dragster look. But how to do it? The answer was as close as my parent's hallway closet. It was there that I found a BIG umbrella (similar to the one pictured here) that automatically opened at the push of a button. I theorized that this umbrella could act as a kind of drag chute...after getting up to speed, I could hold this umbrella - excuse me, drag chute - behind me, push the button and end my run just like The Snake and his pals did every "Sunday SUNDAY SUNDAY!"
So it was that one Saturday I met up with my buddies, riding my bike, holding my parent's umbrella. My arrival was met by puzzled looks...until my first 'run'. Peddling down the street like a madman, I then popped the chute. "Cool!" my friends offered, "can I try that?" I murmured something to the effect that I still had to 'perfect' it. The very next attempt was the same as the last...except this time I thought it would be even cooler to change gears in the midst of my deceleration. So there I was, left hand extended behind me, holding the opened umbrella, my right hand moving off the handle bar, my thumb pressing down on the gear shift.
Uh huh. You can see where this is going.
The pressure applied to the right handle immediately sent the handle bar - and, as a result, the front tire - towards a sharp right turn. In very short order, my Schwinn Speedster hit the curb, sending me al la Pee-Wee Herman over my handlebars. Luckily for me, the sidewalk broke my fall. I opened my eyes to see my friends hovering over me. "Are you okay?" they asked. "Sure," I replied, "I meant to do that." As I got up, my friends all exclaimed, "That looked cool!"
Those three words made all the pain worthwhile.
Checking out humor-blogs.com is definately more fun than impailing your manhood on the handlebars of your bike.
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