BICECLETAS

I've blogged before about bicycles. With Armstrong and Landis and bicycling becoming such a popular sport, it's hard to ignore.

I had a few bikes in my day, and I have one now that I inherited from Courtney when she left Arizona for California. I used to ride it quite a bit around the one and a half mile loop of our subdivision, but I've ignored it for some time now.

My reason: the seat's too hard. I looked at a bike shop for a softer seat, but none of them looked too comfortable. Bikes seem to be built more for speed now than in the old days. Gears? Are you kidding me. In my day, you coasted or stood up and leaned into climbing a hill.

Helmets for riding bikes? Not back then. You went over the handlebars if you had a bad wreck. And if you were riding on the handlebars, you just got thrown farther. If you were riding on the back, you could get flipped. But I remember a lot more ankles caught in the spokes.

Finally, locks for bikes? Why? No one would take your bike. It was an unwritten code. You respected somebody's bike like their ballglove. You left them alone.

That's honestly the way it was back when. And I never remember my backside being sore after a long day's ride.