Friday Follies ~~ My First “Bike to Work Day”

I will be riding my bike to work today.  This is sort of a celebration.  I’m recovering from and injury, and I haven’t been able to bike-commute yet this month.  It’s an activity I truly enjoy.  My best days are the ones on which I ride to and from work.

“Bike to Work Day” was invented by the League of American Bicyclists*, back in 1956.  I didn’t know about that at the time.  I hadn’t yet started to work a job.  (Believe it or not, I was once that young.)

Fast forward to a time when I was in my early twenties.  I had discovered road cycling in a big way.  I had also discovered organized, sanctioned, bicycle racing.  I had, as many before me, and many since, entertained the idea that my early success in racing indicated that I would be something.  I succumbed to the “I need more stuff syndrome.”  In fact, I contracted a particularly nasty form of the disease, the virulent, “I must have a faster bike” strain.

I didn’t want to settle for just any faster bike.  I felt that a mighty man such as I deserved only the very best faster bike.  Unfortunately, this particular bike cost a bit over $1,800.00.  In 1972 dollars no less.  I was working a job, but it didn’t pay enough to keep me in cheese sandwiches.  So I hit on a rather radical solution.  I sold my car. 

My reasoning was simple and direct.  I could use my then-current bike for transport, and with the money from the car, and the money I saved by not putting gas in a car, I could buy the bike.  Done.

I completed the car sale on a sunny and balmy May Thursday afternoon.  That meant I had to ride to work the next day.

On that fair Friday, I woke up at my usual 1:00 P.M.**  I rode into town on my bike, rode directly to “my” bike shop, and placed the order for my “bike of all dreams.”  While at the shop, I explained how I had managed to afford the thing, and mentioned that I was now without a car, and was, basically on my way to work.

“Far out, man!”  said my friendly bike sales guy.***  “Like, you’re starting riding to work on Ride Your Bike to Work Day!”

Truly, I hadn’t known there was such a thing.

*Back then the “League” still went by it’s original name, the League of American Wheelmen.  You see, the “League” was founded  on May 30, 1880.  In those days bicycles where the “Penny Farthings,” or “High Wheelers.”  Bikes were often referred to as “Wheels,” and the people who rode them as “Wheelmen.”  By 1994 the term “Wheelmen” was both increasingly obscure and somewhat sexist, so the League changed it’s name to the current League of American Bicyclists.

**The job that didn’t pay enough for cheese sandwiches was also a midnight shift job.

***The one with longer hair than mine.  We all spoke like that then.