I have always liked riding bikes. Whether it be the good ol' bicycles or motorbikes. The best thing about them is when the wind hits your face. The possibilities of losing your balance, flying off and breaking skin and bones if not your skull or getting hit by faster-moving-vehicles are just added features to the thrill. The wind that hits your armpit as well feels oooh-sooo-gooood.
It took me half a day, the whole morning to learn how to ride a bicycle. A borrowed bicycle at that-from a neighbor, one reason why I had to learn fast since I had to return it right away. And for about two years, I just borrowed bicycles from whomever would lend me. My parents did not approve of the idea as it was unlady-like. "Bicycles were just for boys", they said. Well, little did they know that I would knock on each and every neighbor's door and would borrow their bicycles even if they were a little too big for my size, like the racer ones (little did they know too that I wasn't going to turn out the lady they've always wished for and would end up wearing leather jackets instead-a dyke on a bike). And I would get on it and just ride for hours on end. I remember, my cousin-Eny and my neice-Beth were spending the week-end over. I managed to borrow two bikes from the neighbors but we still lacked one. A boy in his bicycle passed by and so I borrowed his bike. He lent it to us and so we drove off. Three hours later, the boy was crying on the sidewalk. Of course, as expected, I got scolded ... not as bad as when my mother actually found out where exactly we went a couple of months later. Apparently, somebody spotted us biking at EDSA towards Congressional Avenue. That was summer of '71 and in '72, my mother finally gave in and bought me a bike of my own-a splitbike.
Summer of '72 (BTW, there was a hit movie with the same title), somewhere in Queens, New York ... there I was biking around the neighborhood sidewalks with a borrowed bike of course. Speeding downhill ... suddenly Nandy appearing out from the bushes with his red wagon stopped or should I say, blocked my path ... my first big crash. Bone on my shins was visible. But of course, that did not stop me. I suppose, that is why my mother finally bought me a bike-a splitbike.
What's with the splitbike? Well, of all the bicycles that a mother could buy, right? Well, it did split up on me not just once ... Very typical of my mother. Because the splitbike, you assemble and it kinda folds-it's packed tight i.e. less cost for shipping ... imported or stateside as they so put it those days ... and Menchie's Mom was getting him one and mine can not be outdone ... living up with the Joneses (*wink*) ... so much so for bicycles are just for boys ... very typical of my mother ... Hehe ...
I enjoyed borrowing more than having split on my splitbike. I enjoyed flying in and landing in a trash can BUT that was not on the splitbike ... Beth who mostly spent her week-ends over who I had to bribe with Tagalog Komiks (so I would have somebody to play with) ... We borrowed the neighbor's racer bike. I had her in front of me since she needed to be with me to go to the newstand (since it should be HER choice of comic books). So we bought a bunch. As we were riding back, she was holding on to some while the others I sat on. Not a very wise thing to do cause as I pedalled of course, the comic books started to fall off the seat ... So I tried to fix it and as the story goes, my attention wasn't on the steering wheel. Straight towards the canal we went flying into the trash can.
Now, thirty-something years later ... I am still riding the bike and enjoying it. Not as much as I did before although how I wish I still had the energy and the body ... The mindset is there but somehow, I have to work thrice as hard. Downhill is fun but just like rollercoaster rides, there's still the climb. Bicycles have come a long way. Mine's got 24 gears although it's permanently set on 1 at low for uphill and 5 at high gear for flat. My bike is called a hybrid. It's probably the first decent bicycle I've actually owned. I'm happy and quite content.
Now the motorbikes ... that's a different story all together.