The traditional big gift for a sixth birthday in the house where I grew up was a bicycle. However there was a caveat. In order to receive a bicycle for one’s birthday, the child had to demonstrate that he or she could ride a two wheel bike. There were never any training wheels in our household. I learned to ride a bike on my sister’s big bike. I had three older sisters and the two oldest didn’t have much interest in bikes by the time I was five years old. They had a large blue bicycle that lived in our garage and was available for me to learn to ride. The seat was too high for me, but the bike had a step through frame, so I learned to ride standing on the pedals, reaching up to hold the handlebars that were at about eye level for me.

Our father had a somewhat lighter weight bicycle. His had two speeds. He could remove the back wheel and turn it around. It had a larger sprocket on one side for power and hill climbing and a smaller one on the other for going fast. He rode up the hill to the airport with the chain around one sprocket and turned the wheel around for the trip down the hill to come home.

My first bicycle was a red one from the Montgomery Wards catalogue. I had looked at and wished for a sleek Schwinn Phantom with metal fairing between the two top bars, but was happy with my red bike. I rode that bike all around town and even took it on multiple trips eight miles up the road to a hot springs pool. We’d take a swim, eat our lunches, and then pedal eight miles back home. It was mostly uphill to the pool and downhill home, which made for some fond memories of riding fast.

That bicycle was replaced with a 5-speed bike with a twist grip shifter that I purchased with money earned by sweeping the feed warehouse once a week. That bike was fun, but its glory was eclipsed a couple of years later by my younger brother’s stingray bike with a banana seat, high-rise handlebars and a t-shifter on the center bar. His bike even sported a speedometer that went all the way to 45 mph. Of course we argued that there was no way my brother could peg the speedometer, which proved to be the bike’s undoing. He raced down the airport hill at breakneck speed and proceeded to miss the turn at the bottom of the hill crashing into a gravel berm hard enough to bend the front wheel and cover himself with road rash. He probably also suffered a concussion in the accident. At least he lay still for quite a while before opening his eyes and declaring that he had pegged the speedometer. It was the first of several dramatic bike crashes in my brother’s career, one of which as an adult, earned him a life flight trip from Whidby Island to a trauma center in Seattle. That accident also earned him a new bike helmet after the one he was fortunately wearing when the accident occurred had saved his life.

After I earned my driver’s license and my attention turned to working on my pilot’s license, I stopped riding my bike. College and graduate school followed and I didn’t have a bike until we were settled in our first parish. We both got 12-speed bikes from a local store and rode them for several years. During that time I made several different kinds of bike racks to haul bikes on the car including a way to attach bicycles to a set of rooftop bars long before such items were available commercially.

My third bicycle was a green Schwinn mountain bike, purchased around the time our children were upgrading to mountain bikes from their first learner bikes. That 18-speed bike is rugged and has served me well for 30 years. I keep it in good condition and have enjoyed riding it with our grandchildren.

Yesterday, however, I went in for another major upgrade. I have been looking at new bicycles at our local bike shop. The shop owner is a friend and we have rented a small apartment that he and his wife rent to visitors for additional income. He has done a tune up on my bike and his prices are fair and his work good. He had an electric bike that he was selling on commission. The bike has a digital speedometer that shows only 27 miles and the owner was asking less than half the price of a new e-bike. I had ridden a friend’s e-bike once a few years ago, but didn’t think I needed one at the time. However, this bike has just the right amount of boost to take the strain out of the hills around here. It is brand new to me and I haven’t ridden it very much, but I think I’m going to really appreciate it. Before I purchased it, I did ride it with the electric boost turned off to prove to myself that I would be able to get home if the battery died, though the range of the bike exceeds any trips I have in mind.

I know that I’m attracted to gadgets and have a tendency to spend money on shiny new objects. On the other hand four bicycles in 65 years isn’t all that extravagant. Even at a greatly discounted price for its used status this bike was very expensive compared to my previous bike purchases. I’m going to have to use it quite a bit to justify the expense. It is probably a good thing that I’m retired and live in a community where people drive golf carts on the streets and the speed limit is low. Unfortunately the road between our house and our son’s farm is too narrow and the traffic moves too quickly to make that a safe corridor for regular bike rides. I am, however, already used to loading up the grandkids’ bikes in my pickup to transport them to bike paths and campgrounds for us to ride together.

All I have to do is to remember to keep the battery charged so I’ll be able to keep up as my grandchildren gain speed on their bikes.