Bicycle Built for Two

Yesterday, I took one of our bicycles in for repair. This was the second time that it had been laid up in the dozen or so years I have owned it. It was repaired in about fifteen minutes and the part would have cost about a buck if I had just bought it and installed it myself. I really like the bike repair guy though and wanted to give him some business. The chain had popped off and the beast needed a new master link. One of the seats was a bit past it's prime, so I bought a new one of those as well, but the old one was serviceable. I figured that, since the new seat would be an upgrade, cost less than a tank of gas, and really look sharp that it would be a good investment.
This ride started as pure frivolity. When I bought it, I didn't even have a partner to ride with. My girlfriend would not ride with me and my children were too small to reach the pedals. I was at the home of a friend of a friend, many many moons ago, saw the frame on a scrap metal pile, and offered my pocket change to the guy for it. The old Schwinn Twin tandem has a tiny bit of surface rust and the fenders were in bad shape, so they went to the scrapyard, but the original chain guard, handlebars and pedals are serviceable. There are several cool things about old Schwinns, one of them is that meticulous records were kept of their manufacturing dates and serial numbers. This allowed me to narrow down to the week, when it was created. This ride is nearly fifty years old and after putting a new chain and two new wheels on her, she may last another fifty years with a bit of care and some luck.

I have logged many miles on her as a single rider and many more with each of my children as they have grown. In a few more years, the grandchildren will be able to reach the pedals. It is not a fast bike, but it cruises in style. It never fails to get the attention of folks who see it and especially when people see me riding solo, they almost always want to be riding it with me rather than watching it go by. As a conversation starter, it is nearly unparalleled. She keeps working, making people happy and moving her riders with the least cost imaginable.

When she was plucked from the scrap heap, it took a keen eye to see her potential. She looked as if she had been put in a barn for twenty years after sustaining a wheel bending crash. Her forlorn appearance was made all the more poignant by her location, lying on her side, atop a giant heap of rusty metal. At the time, metal prices were much lower than they are today, so the $1.67 that I paid for her was probably more than the salvage yard would have paid. Even after she was refurbished, she cost less than an entry level bike that you might find at the local department store. Two wheels, a new chain and a pair of white wall tires set me back most of one hundred dollars. I had two saddles for it in my garage, one new, purchased from a garage sale for under five bucks, the other came off a bike that I built up for my son out of parts from several other bikes.

After years of service, she still performs as intended. Two people can talk quietly while riding, enjoy the hum of her tires on pavement and listen to the birds over the sound of the wind rushing past as they go. Each spring, when the trees blossom, in the full flush of summer and in fall with the rustling leaves, riding her puts one into nature rather than apart from it. That alone is worth the cost of fixing her up! Many hundreds of miles have been traversed by her since I got her and in her old life, perhaps many hundreds more. What is the biggest thrill is not how many miles have been put on her, but the quality of the rides. Every time I throw my leg over the frame, I get a sense of embarking on an adventure. Every time I think of her age, I respect the fact that all those years ago, people put their hands to work that would provide me a better quality of life. The memories that she has helped to make are invaluable and the next time we take her out I'm sure that we will be blessed with another sweet ride.