Thursday, October 13, 2011

Spreading the Love

Before I purchased my first adulthood bicycle I knew literally no one who owned or rode a bicycle. My girlfriend rides a stationary bike about five days a week but I don't think that applies this situation.  She wants a bicycle, but does not want to ride anywhere in this town.  Over these two years I have met other cyclists and introduced even more to the two wheels of enjoyment.  Keep in mind I am more of a utility and commuter cyclist, so I don't really hang around the bike shops much and attend all of their group rides.  I do, however, always recommend people to at least go to Bicycle Gallery or The Bicycle Shop to get their questions answered, figure out what  kind of bike they might want, get an idea of what size they need and to browse what is available.


The first day that I rode my bicycle to work I discovered that a coworker does triathlons, marathons and other feats of great endurance.  We talked about bikes a bit, but even though I was a total noob I could speak competently due to trolling on Bike Forums for the previous year.  Yeah, it took that long for me to buy a bike after I decided I wanted one.  Valerie rode her CervĂ©lo time trial bike to work the next day to show it to me.  I will admit I was a little envious because it was such a nice bike but also knew it would have have met my needs to buy something like that.


After about six months of commuting (and putting up with being called "Lance" every time I walked through the doors) I got a new boss at work.  He started asking more and more questions about about bicycling, bikes, seats, fit....  I answered the things I knew and sent him to The Bicycle Shop for the things I didn't.  Tim ended up buying a Cannondale Quick hybrid for more comfort while riding.  He started riding all over Emerald Isle and recently rode the MS100.


Dave, another manager at my work, starting taking interest in bicycling as well.  This was about 16 months into my commuting.  He was persistent with hounding me about helping him find a bicycle.  Dave had gone to The Bicycle Shop to figure out what size bike he needed and what kind of bike he might want.  Eventually I found a two or three year old Trek (1,000 maybe?) on lejeuneyardsales.com.  He managed to talk the seller down from $300 to $250 because the guy wanted it sold as soon as possible.  The seller recently purchased an amazing custom Kane bicycle.  Oddly enough, Dave's friend got an identical bike out of a storage auction.  They kept the frames but switched many of the components and did some minor upgrading and tuning.  Dave now rides a lot before work and participated in the MS100 ride with Tim and myself.  Another coworker, Seamus, borrowed the second Trek for the MS100 ride and is now wanting his own.  Tim borrowed the second Trek for a recent ride around Emerald Isle and now wants to replace his hybrid with a road bike.


I had another coworker, Emerald, asking about bikes and telling me she was interested in getting one for herself.  She was mostly looking for a very comfortable bike to ride for exercise in hopes of losing a little weight, getting in better shape, and perhaps some utility use.  Emerald had asked me to teach her how to ride a bike because she was scared of braking for whatever reason.  I never taught her and can only assume she now has it figured out.


A good friend and coworker for the last five years had started riding a mountain bike around the same time Tim bought his bike.  I think he might have picked it up at Dick's Sporting Goods but I can't remember.  He rode that bike nearly every day, typically somewhere around 14 miles per ride.  Aaron had talked with me a little bit but just did not see himself riding a road bike.  About three months ago he dropped by The Bicycle Shop and started checking out road bikes.  He ended up purchasing a Cannondale CAAD9 and is still riding nearly every day.  He immediately noticed the lighter weight, better performance, and more accurate handling than what he had been used to.  Aaron lives about a block away from me and we haven't met up for a ride yet, but I think he might plan a commute or two this winter.


There are many other people I have come to know, but this is just an extremely small sample size involving people whom I work with.  On a national, or global scale, there are exponentially more examples of people like me.  I'm not a bicycle propagandist.  I'm not out there preaching about saving the planet, reducing road congestion and all those things political agenda type things.  I just like riding a bicycle.