Bicycle Network Victoria: Ride On magazine

I recall all the bikes I’ve ever owned. There have been six. I was about nine or ten when I got my first bike. I was able to join my older brother riding about the unmade road in front of home. It was so easy to ride, fast, tough. Everything about my first bike was wonderful in my child’s mind. In reality it was a free-wheeled 24 inch that my grandfather had salvaged from a tip, repainted, replaced tyres and fixed up. I rode the bike everywhere; raced around the local paddock, to the milk bar, and the new estates with paved streets but no houses.

When I was about 13 I took up a paper round. For the first run my father suggested I run alongside the boy I was taking over from. This was as it would be dark that early in the morning and I had no lights. I’m sure my father would have bought some lights if he had some spare money. He worked as a clerk in the railways and my mother looked after the three, then four children. My dad often brought me things that my heart desired. But just not that week. I ignored him and rode my bike without any lights. I used hessian bags to carry the papers. With my first pay I bought a battery light set.

I saved up to buy a better bike. My old bike kept slipping its chain and I could not fix it no matter how many links I took out. I’d even repainted it by hand; pale blue. I liked hanging about the bike shop in Watsonia. They had shiny new bikes, spanners, tools and fire crackers twice a year. There was even a high riser Malvern Star, ala Easy Rider! I picked up my “real” new bike one Saturday morning. It had hub-gears; three of them, dynamo lights and was dark blue. I rode it on my paper round, to Tech School, to the swimming pool in summer, and even out to Whittlesea (about 20km) with my best mate. We took lollies, water bottle and bike pump.

Oh, but we grow older and my bike was less used. There was tennis, ice skating, girls, hiking, work, beer. I bought a car. Years passed and dust gathered on the frame of my bike. Then, I decided to go to university. As economy measures I lived at home and bought a 10-speed Apollo bike from Greensborough Cycles. I needed a helmet too. It had been made a legal requirement by this time. I rode to Uni and to night jobs. I met and married a girl with pretty curly hair. We kept the car between us, with me on my bike. One day while cycling to work I had three punctures in a row. What burr had I missed each time? Then one, two and three sons. Still one car. I rode about when I could, but it was not so practical with crèche, school and after-care. We replaced the car. I took my sons cycling. If anyone knows a good way to teach a child to ride, please let me know. Excursions were mostly me watching them hurl around the local park on bike, trike or scooter.

Life has its twists and turns. Years later my wife and I went our different ways. So my 10 speed Apollo found a second lease of life; an economic measure again. But it was 20 years old by now, with fickley gears, breaks needing constant adjustment, and one day the hub just collapsed on the way home from work. I wandered into Melbourne Bike Centre in Clifton Hill, picked out an Apollo hybrid that was on special and put down a deposit. I paid off the lay-buy over the next few months. This says more about state of my finances than the cost of the bike. Oh, but what a gem to ride. 18 gears! It could bound over potholes and curbs with a breeze, and almost no punctures. I beat the tram down High Street Preston to work in Fitzroy. I acquired two old children’s bikes so my younger sons and I could go riding when they came over on access. I missed my sons so. I routinely cycled to the gym of an evening so as to avoid being home on my own. I lost 15 kg and there wasn’t a lot to begin with.

Going to gym gave the benefit of meeting other women, some of whom I went cycling with. I found many neat bike paths that were then being laid-out around Melbourne. Cycling picnics were cheap dates. And helped me avoid having to explain that I just didn’t have a car. I met one particular woman. She had a bike but hadn’t ridden for a few years. I soon rehabilitated her bike. Oh, there was a disparity in our riding styles. There was just a disparity between us over the almost next decade; along with good times too. I once tried to hide a new bike for her one Christmas, but she found it! She bought her own daughter a bike, although she was never keen on cycling. We shared a home for a few years. I bought a new Apollo Zap lightweight hybrid and was riding much further to work; up and down hills between Box Hill and Preston. My younger sons were with me full time now as their mother, my former wife, had died. Step-family life is difficult; don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. We tried living apart. I brought my adolescent son a bike for his birthday. He is keen on body building so a sturdy mountain bike was in order. He rode it up and down the street trying it out like a ten-year-old. I had updated my other son’s bikes as they grew up. We often cycled to supermarket to avoid parking bothers, and carried the groceries home in saddle bags. I cycled to the library, swimming pool, around bike paths, but less and less to my partner’s.

Things move on. My sons were less inclined to accompany me, I joined the Melbourne Met-Up Bike Group, and soon became its organiser. I’d always wanted to go on the Great Vic Bike Ride and went along the Great Ocean Road in 2009. My sons were old enough to stay at home on their own. It was wonderful. My Zap bike carried me with aplomb. Even on that heady day through the Otway’s. I met lots of interesting folk. But sadly I stripped the peddle thread when taking it off for transport on the truck home. The gears had always been sloppy. I figured that a light weight hybrid is too much of a contradiction; too slow and not tough enough for urban runabout. And when laden with shopping lost any advantage of being light weight. When I took the Zap to the bike shop to be serviced after the ride, the items to be repaired were significant. It would be cheaper to buy a new bike. I was already hankering after a road bike. Not only did many of the members of Met-Up Bike Group have road bikes, but they were much younger. We can’t get younger but we can get a better bike. I really needed two different bikes; one I could load up with shopping, and another for speed and distance.

Another gorgeous woman has come into my life. She doesn’t have bike, so maybe I need three bikes so I can take her riding. I saw a moderately priced Apollo FIAMME hybrid; dark grey, and bought that. It is rugged and gets me about superbly. I also put a Orbea Aqua with carbon alloy on lay buy. It was so smooth when I test rode it. I also ordered some clip-on shoes. As it is a couple of thousand dollars I haven’t picked it up yet. The usual children’s shoes, power bills and so forth take priority. But when I do!!!