Freedom of the Bike

There’s nothing quite like riding a bike: it just feels like a natural extension of my body. When I bike, I’m almost always standing up. Being able to swing my arms to gain speed makes me fast and nimble. Especially with the wind blowing in my face.

Time flies by

I can get between any two places on Waterloo campus within 5 minutes. From Waterloo to Laurier campus? About 10 minutes. There’s nothing better than sleeping an extra couple minutes knowing that’s how much time I’ll save by biking. Plus, biking can really wake me up.

And it got stolen

In the wee hours of Oct 1^st someone stole my bike, leaving nothing but my cut lock. This was something I never expected. I’ve seen how other bikes get vandalized. How the front wheel goes missing, or only the frame remains secured to a bike rack. But I thought those were just abandoned bikes. Bikes that were left by their owners, waiting to be stolen from. Why would something happen to my bike?

Back when I still had my bike, I didn’t think too much of it. I got it in grade 10 when I outgrew my smaller bike. The front and rear suspension wasn’t as good, but switching from a front caliper lever to disc brakes was just amazing. The stopping power was incredible. I pretty much used only my front disc brake.¹</li>

The bike being 5 years old, it had been through a lot but it was still in pretty good condition. I popped the back tires twice. I also managed to break the rear wheel axle (the plastic package that kept the ball bearings evenly distributed aroud the axle had broken, and the axle snapped). My dad had helped me salvage my other bike’s rear axle (bike cannibal?). The trick to keeping a bike in good shape is really just regular maintainance (and my dad was really good at that).

Thinking of my bike now makes me treasure my bike more than ever. Even though it wasn’t some professional mountain bike, it still meant a lot to me. Did I mention the bike was orange and black?

The lock

Yeah, the lock doesn’t seem that secure now that I can see how thin the metal wires really are. The hard surrounding plastic actually feels comparable to the wires.

Well, lesson learned: invest in a good bike lock.