Bicycling

I was the original hipster.  I rode a fixed gear, with freewheeling, the only kind I knew for the longest time.  It wasn't until much later did I realize that there were actually bikes that could change gears and can cost over $100.  Surprise!

My father taught me how to ride.  I was 8 or 9 years old, in the football field.  The only protective gear I wore was a pair of Chelsea boots my mom got from god know where.  My father gave me a push and some words wisdom--like brake the back wheel not the front.  The next thing I knew I was in a ditch next to the football field.  We repeated this a few times until I was able to stay away from the ditch.  It was such an accomplishment that I didn't kill myself, bruises and cuts sure.  The worst accident shortly after I learned how to ride was I ran into a pregnant woman.  She was all right, more worried about me than herself.  Why didn't I brake?  Perhaps I used the back brake like my Dad had told me?  Blame it on Dad.  Actually I just read that front braking with the proper technique is the way to go but I always thought braking front would throw one off over the handle bar.

I remember I rode to primary school.  My friends (cool hipsters as well and like me totally oblivious they were hipsters) and I would just do some crazy stunts nonchalantly before school, during recess and after school, like dropping down a slope and coming back up sideways, hopefully; or tried to knock each other down using the back wheel or simply ran at each other.  Back then wearing a helmet bicycling was unheard of and probably a laughable idea.  After school and before dinner I would ride to pick up my sisters from the main roadway when they came back from work and ferried them home in the backseat, one at a time.  When I was waiting for their buses, I would just do some "fish tailing"--braking the rear wheel while turning.  I enjoyed that.

Fast forward to middle school.  The original hipsters still rode their bikes on and off.  My parents had promised me a new bike when I got to middle school.  I think they tried to talk me out of it, monetary or otherwise, but in the end they relented.  I rode my bike to school like so many other kids.  I don't think we did stunts any more not regularly like we were in primary school anyway.

At post secondary school, I moved out only returned home in the weekends.  Me and my flatmates would ride for fun.  I don't quite remember how we got our bikes.  Back then bikes were just bikes: utilitarian and proletarian or I didn't know better.  Nowadays bikes are works of art and objects of desire that can cost a small fortune.  They were just regular bikes but I remember I rode it down some concrete stoop with three or four steps as if it was a small BMX.  And one time I rode it when the brakes were not working.  I think I deliberately crashed it in the underground pedestrian tunnel going down slope and making a turn.  The wheel was all banged up.  I had to push the bike back home.

My affair with the bike effectively ended when I moved to New York.  Bicycling is an acquired and non perishable skill.  Maybe I will start biking again, minus the crazy stunts.