The Bicycle Workshop

Red Bike was a gift from my brother. It was a hand painted old red bike with twin headlights and a big wire basket. It wasn’t pretty but it was art. I took about a million pictures of Red Bike this winter as it sat outside and the snow crept up to handlebar height and back again. I had never ridden the bike until after the winter when my friend Scott pried the fender out of the back wheel and got it to roll.

Then one windy night it crashed over on some rocks and the headlight cracked. I knew it was bicycle abuse at that point and that since I would realisticly never get it riding, I would do better to cut it loose.

So I made a sign that said “free to a good bike friendly home” and put it at the end of the driveway. It had been living for a year, unlocked at the far end but the sign and moving it to streets edge was all it took. About an hour later a white Vanagon pulled up with a smiling couple. They asked if it worked and I said it sort of did. Did it have brakes? I said it might. They did a short lap around the van and off it went. How fitting. I had a white VW once. They have good karma. I mentioned this to the driver and we talked about engine repair briefly, a commonality that can’t be ignored by another VW driver. And they were off. We all smiled.

She said I would see it around Bath. I told her to look for us on the tandem. It’s so good to see Red Bike end up in a good home.

My goal is to make a photo montage of the winter of Red Bike. In the mean time, here is what she looks like.

I’ll miss her.

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