ChiWhoBike #92
There’s so many reasons why people get on a bike. There was a guy who lost 300 pounds, joined a bike group, and never gained the weight back. Another guy, who lost his wife, and said once he joined a bike group, his whole outlook changed, because he thought before that he was gonna spend the rest of his life alone. Another guy, a recovering alcoholic, hasn’t drank in 12 or 15 years, because all his focus is on his bikes, bike rides and bike friends. There’s so many reasons why people ride a bike or join a group. But in all the people that I’ve talked to, men and women, it has affected them in so many different ways. We did it because we were empty nesters and it was something fun and easy to do, but all these other people have so many other reasons why they do it.
Pookie ordered this bike for me for one of my birthdays or anniversaries, and it was just a plain silver bike, but he had it custom painted for me by a guy that normally only does cars and motorcycles. He put the shark and the bear, because I’m the shark and Pookie’s the bear, and on the other side is my favorite fish that passed away. He customized it for me, got that custom light for me, put lights on the tires and it’s my favorite bike. It’s fun to ride, It’s low, it’s cool, it makes me hip. So I get a lot of compliments on it and people look for it on the tamale ride.
My poor husband’s been hit so many times, and it’s the greatest fear for my kids, myself and his mom. You could be the best biker in the world, but traffic can be crazy or somebody just throws their door open. I had that happen to me when I was a kid, and that just happened to him last year. And like I said, you could be the most skilled bike rider in the world, but it could be anything that’s going on. Construction, a careless parker or careless worker. And people don’t care too much about bikers, they don’t have any consideration. So that’s why the bike lane is so important to us now. If there’s a bike lane, I feel much safer. But you also get to see more and you get to cover more miles that way. You don’t have to park a car, pay for parking, you don’t have to do all this stuff. So I do like biking for that reason.
