Biking season is upon us and we are EXCITED. Ellie has mixed feelings as she has outgrown her beloved little blue cross bike by Redline. It has been wonderful for her, but it is simply too small now. I think she equates her improvement, her success and her speed with the bike, and not herself. Her friend has also outgrown her Fuji cross bike. It has seen a lot of races, but it is still in great shape and has had some nice upgrades, like Salsa handlebars and great brake levers added. We need to sell her little blue bike and buy the Fuji. To help her ease into this transition we took the Fuji down to Uno Bicycle Studio (I included the link here - it is fun to see his site. The shop is even more fun in person. It is full of high end bikes and original artwork.) which is owned by our friend Bruce. Bruce is this amazing and wonderful guy who also happens to be one of our coaches, in addition to a bike wizard. He helped fit the bike for Ellie. He also helped her see that the power she has is in HER, not the bike. Bruce also mentioned that a full size bike will make her get more power out of her pedal stroke, which means that she will go faster. He also help Ethan be more sure that his bike is still a good fit for him. (Ethan is just a bit envious that Ellie is getting an upgrade and he is not.) They also put on a better fitting seat and changed out the handlebar tape. Ethan is now pretty jazzed about making his bike look a bit more custom. We went away a happier group than when we had arrived. Tonight Ellie will ride the Fuji for the first time. I am excited for her. I think it will be good.
Oh yes, so back to the title of the blog entry - We had to go on the highway during rush hour to get to Uno. We were talking, listening to loud music, and so on. I had my turn signal on. Two people went by me and started pointing. At first I thought they meant that I needed to move over behind them. Then I looked in the rear view mirror (this is where I still gasp when thinking about it) and I noticed that the bikes were bouncing, that Ellie's bike seemed to be missing something. I pull over to find that her back tire had come off her bike. Ellie shrieked, Ethan lept from the car and started to run, looking for the lost wheel. This was such a freak thing to have happen! Amazingly, he found the tire leaning against a fence, unharmed. (What's the likelyhood of that ever happening again?!) He returned like the triumphant warrior with the tire tucked under his arm. Ellie, who was crying all this time as her brother bravely jogs out of sight, starts to jump and holler. She vowed that he was the best brother ever and that she would do his chores on Friday. We were amazed that no one was hurt. That is where the miracle comes in. I am astounded that it did not fall off and cause a crash, or bang into a person's windshield, or at minimum get crushed by cars on the road. We were thankful on so many levels for how this little story ended.
The man who runs the store where we parked came out to help. He was so sweet. He immediately offered to get his mechanic. He says, "My mechanic could help you. If you can't get your wheel he could probably get one for you. He rebuilds bikes for fun and has a ton of those sitting around." The sweetness of strangers - you gotta love that, too. Who knew it would be such a dramatic day. That little incident showed Ellie that maybe she could grow to love that bike, too.
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