Friendship

I was in my garage yesterday giving my bike a bit of a clean (TOP TIP: Baby wipes are really good for this),changing a tyre and my brake pads, when it occurred to me just how much time I spend with my bike.

I’ve mentioned on here before that I want to get a dedicated race bike and this is something I will do in due course but I still don’t think it will mean as much to me as my current bike.

To everyone else, it’s an entry level road bike, a £1,000 Specialized Allez Elite. Nothing flash, couple of nice touches here and there but on the whole, as exotic as fish and chips.

Strictly speaking, it isn’t my first road bike. I had a brief romance with an Italian little beauty but didn’t get on with the frame size so had to give her the chop. I’m much happier with my current love. To me, it’s not just a bike, it’s something that has truly changed my life. It’s the catalyst for my weight loss, my change in diet and the stress release that I have from the everyday world.

Snatched time where we’ve enjoyed 30 minute rides, a quick time trial after work. Long weekends riding into the sun and then sipping a few beers, wishing it would understand if I patted it on the saddle and said, “Good lad.”

2,500 fairly fault free miles we’ve shared each other’s company, plenty of hard miles in the beginning and as time has passed, each mile becoming easier. Hills we’ve slogged up, where the top seems to never appear. Rainy days, where I’m cold, wet and miserable and just want to get home. They all seem to be forgotten in time, replaced by the memories of the long summer rides, the freewheeling descents and the fast paced miles, zipping along through the traffic as I laugh at the people sitting in their cars, fuming in the fumes.
Riding with the boys from Team Sky, standing pedal to pedal with Bradley Wiggins as I stared in awe at an inspirational rider.

We’ve come a long way together and with my riding plans in place, I hope that we’ll travel together for a long time yet. This isn’t a goodbye or a farewell message, it’s an appreciation of an amazingly, unremarkable bike…..