Bike At Your Own Risk

I am afraid of my bike. Like, totally terrified. I don't really recall riding bikes as a kid growing up in the south. We mostly rode 4-wheelers (now more commonly known as ATVs) around in the mud where there were no other cars or people or roads, etc. But, Justyn is super-active, and having grown up in Colorado and lived in San Francisco, he's a biker. In my never ending quest to improve myself and open my mind, I told him a couple of years ago that I'd try mountain biking with him (no traffic to worry about) so I searched Craigslist and found this for pretty cheap:



I think we went mountain biking twice in Nashville, both of which involved me getting scared from going too fast downhill or almost hitting a tree and then walking for a good portion of the trail. You see, I'm not a clumsy person (at least I don't think I am), nor am I accident-prone. But I am one of those people who gets hurt. You know, like... I don't always get hurt, but if someone is destined to get injured during some sort of activity, it's usually me. I also don't generally do well with activities which involve some type of device between my feet and the ground (think ice skating, skiing, skateboarding, etc.)

I also had a traumatic experience with a bike when I was a child. I was riding on the back of a bike with my mom, and even though I was small (about 6 or 7 years old, I think), I just couldn't keep my feet on those little pegs that were about 2 inches long. So, genius that I was (even at that young age) I decided I would just stick my legs way out to the sides and I'd be fine. Well, mom turned a corner and my foot got sucked up into the rear spokes. There was crying, blood, an exposed tendon, and a trip to the emergency room with my foot wrapped up in a blue kitchen towel. But the whole time I was sitting there in my mom's lap in the front seat on the way to the hospital, all I could think about was that I had ruined my favorite Strawberry Shortcake socks with the little pink fuzzy ball on the back.

Anyway, you can see why I have a deeply ingrained fear of bicycles. When we were packing to move, there was a moment when we both stood in the garage looking at all of our crap - Justyn looked at me and I looked at him, and we discussed if it was worth moving the bike (that I had only ridden twice) 2500 miles with us to Portland. In the end, I chose to keep it in hopes that I will be brave enough one day to call it my friend.

Because the thing is, that Portland has quite a reputation for bicycling. Apparently it's the most bike friendly city in the country, and number 2 in the whole world (second only to Amsterdam). Almost 10% of Portlanders commute by bike, and there are 164 miles of bike lanes, 66 miles of bike paths, and 30 miles of bike boulevards throughout the city. Almost 15,000 people crossed the bridges into the city by bike in 2007, and that number is growing about as quickly as gas prices. All those statistics should make me feel safer, right? I mean, in Nashville, you don't see many bike commuters... there is no "Share the Road" mentality there, and for that reason I would never consider biking in Nashville. Southerners + Hummers + Bicycles = Disaster Waiting to Happen. But here, I shouldn't be so worried. Drivers are used to bicyclists here, and bike lanes. There is a great biking community here, and even classes for women who are scared.

So, the point is that lately I've been thinking a lot about it. Our apartment was in a super hilly area of Portland (not very bikeable for a rookie/weakling like me). But now that we've moved to a flatter area where there are actually things to bike to, I've been thinking of giving it a shot. Justyn can bike downtown to his job in 15 minutes! I am sufficiently jealous every time I get on the bus to go downtown, wearing my gloves because I'm afraid I'm going to catch the swine flu. Plus, mass transit is not as cheap as I thought it would be. It's $2 for a 2 hour bus ticket, so $4 for a whole day. To me, that's no bargain because I'm pretty sure I would pay less than that for gas in my hybrid to get downtown. But whatever... it's still better for the environment I guess. But, it would be nice to not have to pay that, or pay for parking, and also to be in shape.

So May is national bike month, and this week is national bike to work week. Now, I am not going to be biking to work, for obvious reasons. Gotta start small, you know. In fact, the mayor of Portland, Sam Adams (yep, like the beer) has announced that he will be going car-free this month and ride his bike instead. Wow, he's really in the spirit! (Or, it could be that he totalled his truck last week in a controversial crash that some are saying involved some type of libation. Maybe the whole Beau Breedlove thing is getting to him.) It's a complete tangent, but interesting if you need a distraction for a while. Lots of drama here in Portland politics.

Anyway, this past weekend was really nice, and a friend of mine told me about an awesome breakfast spot pretty closeby (Justyn is always on the hunt for good breakfast). So, on Sunday morning (Mother's Day) we decided to take advantage of the beautiful sunny weather, hopped on our bikes and rode to Bridge's Cafe. It was only about a 5 minute ride, and we didn't have to cross any busy streets to get there. And, it was totally awesome! I have never in my life used my bike as a mode of transport, and it was rad. I loved it! I felt like a real Portlander, locking my bike up outside and walking in with my right pant leg tight rolled up to my calf like the 40 year-old virgin. Oh yeah. It was awesome. It sounds dorky, but it means I'm part of a club now. It's like a gang sign, or a calling card. I'm a biker. And, I'm gonna do it some more too. Just wait and see.