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Like Riding a Bike

Chris Farmer RSS / 03.10.2010. u 10:36

The expression, "it's like riding a bike" generally means it is something easy and something you do not forget. Whoever said this probably forgot.

The following started out as a letter to a good friend who gave me his mountain bike before absconding to the jungles of South America, but in the meantime has taken on wider significance for me.

Dear Cameron,

The day started out on an optimistic note - sun shining over a generally cold fall morning, perfect weather to take out the bike and ride. This was my morning thought over coffee and cigarettes (training supplements of choice to the serious cyclist).

I knew things were headed downhill (actually uphill would be more accurate) when, after kitting myself out in heretofore unused biking clothes, I found that the tires were both deflated. You conferred the bike on me already several months ago, but I have not used it more than once. It required a small investment in a lock and somehow I did not get around to getting one until now.  The reason for this is simple: ONCE I BUY THE LOCK I HAVE NO MORE EXCUSES NOT TO RIDE.

So I took out the little pump I bought from you and set to pumping. After about 30 minutes, I realized I was doing something horribly wrong. I was sweating profusely and the tires had lost even more air. This was a decisive moment. At this stage I stupidly decided that this bike will not defeat me, and I carried downstairs and onto the street to look for a gas station with a compressor.

An unexpected benefit of this was the discovery of my neighborhood.

I found that my neighborhood in Palilula (I am sorry I just like to say this name: Palilula. It sounds like a Baptist minister who had been sipping the communion wine. "Praise the Lord, sing pallilujah!) has no fewer than five gas stations. Each of them has an air compressor, but not one was in working order. As I arrived at each, I was sent to the next one in a kind of treasure hunt.

When I arrived at Number Five, the guy sent me to a Vulkanizer. He gave me instructions which sounded a little like this: "Mnjadualjalalamnjadualjala Vulkanizer." Maybe I was just tired by then and could not process words anymore. I had been walking the bike around the streets of Pallilujah at this stage for about an hour. I set off along the road to which he pointed and, after about 20 minutes, found a line of Vulkanizers.

SIDE NOTE: I fairly sure Vulkanizer is not a real word in English....

Happy to see the busy tire shop, I walked the bike up to a guy who was standing next to an air compressor which seemed to be in good condition. I asked him if someone could help me and he said No. No time. Wrong nozzle. Wrong valve. Busy.

Disgruntled and not believing his excuses, I proceeded to the next three tires shops. In the last of these, I found a guy who was ready, willing, and able. He made quick work of my vexing problem which first beset me two hours and about sixteen kilometers ago. I thanked him profusely.

Now the world suddenly looked different. Suddenly I was enabled to ride this bike. I realized a few things straight away. I no longer knew where I was - having traipsed around aimlessly for so long I was now in an unfamiliar corner of Palilula (if indeed I was still in Palilula at all, or Belgrade for that matter). I also realized that any way back from this place was uphill. And finally, I realized that I had forgotten how to work the gears on the bike (I know you showed me, but the information was just gone).

This all happened, my dear Cameron, yesterday. Today, from the calm perspective of my kitchen table, it all seems like a fable. How I got on the bike and rode up the hill in the hardest gear (and I am not sure if this is 1 or 18). How I rode through the traffic on Belgrade's bigger streets and boulevards, making every driver furious with me, because it was the only way I knew. And how, sweating and palpitating, at the end of my journey which finally took about eight minutes even if it seemed like hours, I parked and locked the bike in front of my gym. For exercise.

In a very few minutes, I will start this two-wheeled odyssey again, although the car keys are sitting next to me, and I feel my hand moving closer to them. And I probably have not yet had enough cigarettes and coffee to enhance the experience yet. But as you told me, it will get easier in time.

I think ten years may just be enough.

Atačmenti



Komentari (4)

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yugaya yugaya 11:18 03.10.2010

riding a bike

...for some reason my balance on the bike got skewed around the age of 16, at first I started falling off of it in most creative ways when it was dark (scrapped knees were not my thing, I somehow always landed either on my heead or the elbows ), and after a while I started panicking that I was going to fall even in daylight...so I walk - keeps me bum tight and it's much more fun looking at people passing by when they have enough time to smile back
mlekac mlekac 11:25 03.10.2010

Little advice

Move to Novi Beograd.
It's heaven to riding bike! (And many other things, for that matter)

Nice letter, you really made me laugh, but I know the problem. First thing I've learned, after returning to my dear home town and my old bike, was where the hell are those bike repairing shops. So now, just in case, my bike riding route is always somewhere near them...
myredneckself myredneckself 13:56 03.10.2010

Re: Little advice


Bike riding on hold for a while. Until I find a grassy path so at least I have a soft landing. Pallilujah!
jinks jinks 13:25 03.10.2010

...

try estimating your bike's tire flatteness while riding a bike ... can be dangerous some times :)

Arhiva

   

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