Hello Linus!

I have an older sister with terrific taste in everything. I never had to work very hard to seem cool as a kid. I just wore her clothes, listened to her music, and pretty much stole her style and flaunted it as my own. There was one exception however which no matter how much I tried never seized to cramp my style. I inherited her old bike.

I think it was a rusty and noisy BSA Champ which was about a decade behind what the kids were riding to school. What I wanted was a Streetcat or a Ladybird or dare I say a BMX.  But my parents wouldn’t have it. They thought it a waste of money especially since in their opinion I didn’t ride my bike enough to justify a new purchase. But the whole reason I didn’t ride a lot was because I had a crummy bike. Catch 22.

So this was The Great Tragedy (“TGT”) of my childhood- that I never got to ride a new shiny bike.

Then at the ripe age of 27 I finally remembered this long lost dream and decided to fix things for good. It is difficult to put into words the feeling I had when I walked out of the bike store with my Trek 7100. I wanted to scream to the world I too have a new bike, look!!. Instead I called my parents who couldn’t understand why an adult with a car would be so thrilled to get a bike. They also conveniently had forgotten about TGT. hmmm.

Sadly my first love was stolen from the streets of Chicago not too long ago. (Yes, it was locked). I had ridden it to work that morning and by the time I walked out to get an afternoon snack it had disappeared. I wanted to cry and then I wanted to kick some ass. It felt like I had lost more than just a bike.

Last weekend, my friend Dottie who is an expert in bike matters, helped me get over the heartbreak by taking me bike shopping. The result of the that trip is pictured above – A marine blue Linus Dutchi3. I picked it up from J.C.Lind today along with a very heavy duty lock which weights as much as a fat baby. I took it for a spin on Lakeshore and it was like falling in love all over again.

This post is dedicated to my Trek 7100: July 15, 2009 – June 5, 2012. I will miss you.