They snapped your spokes and punched your tires; they rusted your axles into dust. They laughed at you, said you couldn't make it. I spit to think they were right. You were beat down but never defeated. O the asphalt is a fickle hellcat, and the automobiles like destructive mammoths - but I will have my satisfaction. Your daughter will avenge you.
RIP Peaches: June 2005-March 2006. Peaches gave till it hurt, then gave some more, til she collapsed finally of faulty brakes, broken spokes and terminally flat tires. A hearty steed, a roadworthy companion and a friend.- Kilometres traveled: 3,000+
- Bike-a-thons: 2
- Flat tires: 5
- Unreliable kickstands: 1
- Warped wheels: 2
- Busted spokes: 1
- Rear-basket malfunctions: 2
- Bike computers destroyed: 1
- Water-bottle-holders destroyed: 1
- Spontaneous chain derailments (on lowest gear): ~50
- Collisions with autos: 2
- Collisions with pedestrians: 3
- Rear-brake failures: >20 (any time the temperature was below -10C)
- Near-fatal wipeouts on College Street: 1
Made for a woman, but strong enough for 10 men: Peaches defied the laws of physics and common sense. She was born a 1980s Free Spirit, reincarnated in 2005 as a 'FrankenBike', recycled with the wrong brakes and handlebars. She had a 50-lb lady's steel frame and no apparent virtues - aside from enough butt-rusted-ugliness to deter the urban thieves. Yet she did me right when I needed her - got me a job even - and I loved her true.
I bought her for $80 in a Kensington alleyway... She may as well have been born in a manger.
You will ride again, and we shall pedal the boulevards of paradise - when the roadway is righteous once more.
4 comments:
well written
I still have an old Peugeot racer. I rode it around the Great Ocean Road in 1989. The best ride in the world. But scary. They closed the road to cars for the mass ride - there were about 3000 bikes. You couldn't do it with cars on the road. Cars are insane around that road.
My first bike was a girls' bike - they called them ladies' bikes in those days. I bought it from a friend's sister to deliver newspapers in 1972.
Very sweet ode here.. I love it.
blue free spirit bike
spirit free indeed and gone
where good bikes go
we hope..
I'm on a haiku roll.. forgive me.
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