My Path to Becoming a Bike Junky
When I was a young girl, I used to ride my bike all around town. It was one of those banana seat bikes with the tall handlebars. Being a country girl and having a father who hunted for a majority of our protein meant that I often had squirrel tails streaming from the ends of my handlebars.
When I grew up and left home, I didn’t ride a bike again until I was in my mid-30s. At that time, I lived in Germany (it was actually West Germany back then) while in the U.S. Air Force. I worked the night shift on the flightline dispatching and repairing ground equipment used on the planes. At some point, I got a bike and would ride to and from work each night/morning, roughly a six mile round trip. I don’t remember where I got the bike, but I do remember that I had a battery operated radio on the handlebars and that I didn’t wear a helmet.
When I left Germany a few years later, I sold my bike and didn’t ride again until I was in my early 40s. I lived in Bothell at the time and would ride along the slough (which I now know is the Sammamish River Trail) to my husband’s job at Microsoft in Redmond. It didn’t last very long, though, because I had nobody to ride with me and I didn’t know about the Cascade Bicycle Club. Plus, I had put on some weight due to health issues and hills were too difficult for me.
Over the next two decades, I didn’t ride at all. In fact, as my weight increased and my knees got really bad, I didn’t do much of anything that could be called exercise.
In 2015/16, I had both my knees replaced four months apart and lost 60 lbs. I bought a used 1969 Schwinn and rode around Green Lake just four months after the second knee was replaced. That was the only time I rode that bike. It was very heavy and I struggled on even small hills. I ended up selling the bike after only riding it once.
As I healed from the surgeries, I got more active, mostly hiking with The Mountaineers.
By 2020, I felt much healthier, though I still struggled with my weight. I decided to go to Tasmania (an island state of Australia) on a hiking tour. By March 1st of that year, I had contracted Covid-19 (probably when I traveled through LAX) and spent the next 10 days battling a high fever, headache, extreme fatigue, a stuffy nose and nausea. There were no tests back then and even a trip to the ER didn’t help. I spent that time basically sleeping and pushing fluids.
When I got back home, I didn’t leave the house for three weeks. When I did, I knew I couldn’t go back to hiking since the trails were so crowded and I didn’t want to risk getting Covid again. On impulse, I went online to look at ebikes. Most were way too expensive for my budget, but then I stumbled onto Rad Power Bikes. Their ebikes were a fraction of the cost of others, plus they were a local company (I love supporting local). I went on a ride the day after it was delivered by Rad’s mobile unit. Riding that bike made me feel like I was powerful and could do anything!
At first I only rode 6-8 miles at a time, but by summer I was riding an average of 20 miles at a time. I also joined Cascade Bicycle Club and did a few free group rides (there weren’t that many because of Covid). Towards the end of summer, I rode 20 miles to my son’s house in south Everett, had lunch, then rode back home for a total of 40 miles. “Wow, did I really do that?” I asked myself. By the end of the year, I had ridden over 1,000 miles on my ebike!
In 2021, I started registering for cycling events, both with Cascade and with other organizations. I rode in the Lake Chelan Tour Lite, the Tour de Lavender, the Gorge Ride, and so many other events, including Bike The Coast in southern California and the Coeur d’Alene Fondo in Idaho. Even a bike crash that gave me a concussion, sutures, bruised ribs, and road rash didn’t deter me from riding! I took my bike with me on a cross-country road trip and rode at Niagara Falls and the Gettysburg battlefields. By the end of 2021, I put almos 1,600 miles on my bike! I also bought a second Rad ebike – one more suited for local rides and errands.
This month, I took my bike to a photo studio and had professional photos taken with it (after taking some regular photos with my husband). You can see from my smile that I really love my bike!
For 2022, my goal is 2,000 miles and I think I can do it since I have just about every weekend filled with cycling events. When I’m not riding, I’m thinking about riding. Planning routes is so much fun and I love seeing new places and things I might miss if I was in a car.
I never thought I’d ever be a bike fanatic, let alone a long-distance rider (my longest to date is 64 miles in 5 hours)! I’m still overweight and it’s a struggle, but I don’t let it stop me from hopping on my bike and clearing my head of all the garbage. It’s helping me get fit and it’s great for my mental health.
I just turned 63 this month and I plan to be riding my bike well into my 90s!
