Best Possible

My new article on Embro dropped. Read it... or else.

Best Possible

By: Amanda Sundvor

There is nothing original or unique of my love for bikes, I just love them.

I feel a special bond with this tool. It is kind of like I am in a relationship with it, it can make me the happiest I’ve ever been or it can utterly wreck me. In bicycle repair when everything is going smoothly, I feel content and a respect for the bike. When a repair is a complete hell ride, I get more frustrated then I ever get with anything or anyone else. I am deeply, emotionally invested. I am in it to win it. For the good and the bad. Until death do us part. Its because of this that when I see what used to be a quality older bicycle, until someone hammered the crap out of it, it kind of pisses me off and I want to punch a hole in the wall because I am metal and that’s the only way I know how to express my feelings.. with brute force.
In a just world there would be a bicycle equivalent of the Child Protective Services. Someone from the BPS (Bicycle Protective Services, that’s what we’re calling it) would investigate an anonymous report of bicycle abuse and neglect. They take one look at this poor bike with it’s corroded cables and housing, it’s worn drive train, it’s concave breaking surfaces, it’s loose bottom bracket and declare the owner an unfit rider. From there they would take the bike to a foster home where the bicycle would be safe until its adopted by someone proper. Have you ever read that book “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstien? Its a story of a relationship between a boy and a tree. The boy takes and takes and the tree gives and gives until it has nothing left to offer except a place to sit. The tree is your bike. Don’t be that jerk face little boy. Give a little back to your bicycle for all that it does for you and you two will live a long and happy life together. Really, that could be said for most relationships. Kind of like, “Hey Buddy, don’t beat up your wife, instead buy her flowers. I know, I know… it’s a crude analogy, but you get the point. What’s that? You don’t?

Read the rest HERE