The Contagiousness of a Bicycle

If there's one thing most people know about me it's that I like bikes.  Biking, cycling, riding, cruising, road, mountain, townies..pretty much anything and everything related to bikes.  It's hard not to know this because I talk about it all the time.  My house is filled with bicycle decor and a pretty significant amount of my time on most Summer weekends is spent on one of my two wheeled friends.

Why do I love it?  I think that's best demonstrated by putting you on your own saddle, strapping a helmet on your head and pushing you off down the road so you can feel the wind in your hair, smell the fresh air and experience the sense of flight for yourself.  :)

But for one thing I think that bicycles are works of art.  They are truly beautiful human powered machines.  The sleekness of how one aerodynamic tube curves into another, the colors artfully displayed to go with it and the powerfully stiff and fast geometry of the wheels and tires, the way when you sit on a perfectly fit bike it feels like the most natural position your body is meant to be in.  I could go on..

I hope just by reading this I've enlightened or sparked some sense of excitement and curiosity in you, perhaps fueled by a deeply tucked away childhood memory.  Cycling does, in my mind, excite that dormant youthfulness that we tend to lose as we grow older.

If there is one happy side effect of my obsession it has been the people that I've recruited with my contagious love of cycling.  I think the count is up to 6 or 7 people that have taken to adopting a bike under my watch.  Not that I'm taking 100% of the credit but if I am even the catalyst or activity encourager I'm grateful for the chance to be even that.

This past weekend was my latest recruit.  I was visiting a long time friend who just moved to San Francisco.  (Meet Lisa! ..and her new friend Margot!).  She had been wanting to get a bike and escape the dull bus ride to work.  While I was in town naturally the conversation about bikes came up (it just does when you're with me) and we decided one afternoon to just go have a look.  We visited Huckleberry Bikes a fashionable local shop in San Fran and a after a couple hours, a few test rides and many questions Lisa had herself a new bike(Margot).  She was fully equipped and happy!  She even rode it home and nearly beat me in my Uber.  So happy to see the big smile on her face as she rode up!

Lisa's happy with her new purchase!

Perhaps the greatest reward was getting to wave her goodbye on her first bike commute to work.  Knowing that she was going to get a few miles of that bliss every day for as long as she can stand it, is the best joy I could have hoped to have a role in imparting on my short visit.  

Lisa leaving on her first commute to work by bike!

This week I decided to commute the 15 miles to and from work in her honor..and I can say it will probably become a more frequent habit this Summer with the extra daylight.  

For love of the bike.

All this talk..I'm not sure why I'm still sitting here..time to go ride!