Can I share my bike story? Maybe it'll serve as an introduction since I'm really new to the list. It'll be pretty long...
I've always loved bicycles. I remember my very first "big girl's" bike - a red, white & blue Free Spirit girl's bike with a white banana seat and streamers on the handlebars. It was the Bicentennial year, after all. It had training wheels, but I had my dad take those off pretty early on. Thanks to his patience, and firm yet friendly discipline, I was riding without training wheels after only about a day. Thanks, Dad - wherever you are. I moved to Vancouver, and noticed how many people rode bikes around for transportation and recreation, so I decided to get a bike for myself. went to the local bike store that specialized in race bikes and got a cold shoulder because I didn't look like a racer, but eventually they sold me a Norco hybrid. I rode that bike everywhere, even though it didn't fit me well. A few years later, I decided that I wanted a bike with a more comfortable riding position. I went to a Trek dealer, and was again soundly ignored. The sales guy didn't ask any questions, he just directed me to the Trek Navigator bikes and pushed me out the door on a test ride. The bike was way too small for me and showed an absurd amount of seat post, but I was fond of it. I even used it to do my very first long-distance ride: a 66km overnight trip with friends. Look at all that seatpost. *shakes head* http://www.flickr.com/photos/cecily/6015311810/ I discovered the Cycle Chic Manifesto in 2009 or so and set out to find an elegant bike that would let me ride in real, fashionable clothes without working up a sweat. I purchased a Batavus Fryslan - an honest to goodness Dutch bike - which I absolutely loved. Little did I know that being a heavy rider on a 50 pound bike in a hilly city might not be the best recipe for success, but I loved this bike and rode it daily. I have my issues with Cycle Chic and Mikael Colville-Anderson in particular, but it revolutionized how I thought about fitting biking into my life. http://www.flickr.com/photos/cecily/5155901984/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/cecily/5170608203/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/cecily/5395060058/ I rode that bike until March 2013 when an inattentive driver clipped me at a traffic light. She just needs a new front wheel, but the distributor no longer does business with Batavus, so I'll have to get a new front wheel built from scratch. http://www.flickr.com/photos/cecily/8541421970/ I had a brief flirtation with wanting to get into race biking. I bought a friend's hand me down bike, but riding it twice and feeling like a circus bear on a toy bike, I gave up that dream and sold it to someone else. http://www.flickr.com/photos/cecily/6133260879/ Right now I'm riding this baby blue Norco City Glide that the guy who hit me bought for me. When I say there is nothing special about this bike, I mean there is *nothing* special about it. http://www.flickr.com/photos/cecily/8614713698/ Last year I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. While I'm mostly OK, I know that I'll probably get worse, not better. That made me take a long, hard look at riding bikes and adjusting my thinking about what I needed. I've long had a photo of a Betty Foy with drop bars pinned to the cork board behind my desk at work. I convinced myself that the only "real" bikes were ones with drop bars, but thanks to my diagnosis, I had to shift my thinking. I know a number of women bike bloggers who have Rivendell Bikes - some with drop bars, some without, some ride Hilsens, Hillbornes, or Betty Foys, but they all rave about the bikes. One of my colleagues rides an A. Homer Hilsen to work everyday, and someone else at the library owns a Hunqapillar, though I don't know who it belongs to. I knew I wanted a steel bike because the cushy ride of my Dutch bike forever cured me of riding any other kind of frame. I knew I wanted something that would last as long as my body would allow me to ride, and, as shallow as it may sound, I knew that if I rode a beautiful, comfortable bike built for me, I'd be more likely to ride it farther. So I decided to pick up a little work on the side so I could finally buy a Rivendell of my own. That leads us to where I am now: on Monday I'll be phoning Keven and putting in my order for a frame. I would've ordered it today, but I didn't know that Rivendell doesn't do frame orders on weekends. :-) I'm building the bike locally at Dream Cycle in Vancouver with very similar specs to the Riv build kit with a few slight differences. To say I'm excited is a tremendous understatement. So, that's me. Thanks for reading, and thanks for making a n00b feel welcome. Bonus round: here's a video of me that was shot by the really nice guys behind Vancouver Cycle Chic: http://vimeo.com/68082943 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
