I've bought a new bicycle at last!!! Of course it's Italian and of course in my eccentric way, it has no gears, it's a 'fixie flip-flop' - so after over 10 years of not having a bike and spending years rowing to my home in a place where there was nowhere to ride a bike, I have bought the toughest bike I could, especially considering I live at the bottom of a HUGE hill and I'm really unfit. That's right, NO gears. Well, perhaps I exaggerate. I can ride with a spanner in tow and change the gear by removing the back wheel and turning it over to use the other sprocket for a lighter gear to head up hill. The likelihood of me doing so is low, but I still love having the option and I harbour a little dream that I will soon be fit enough to ride my 'fixie' sprocket all the time, without the 'freewheel' sprocket I am using now.
BUT it's beautiful to ride! It's smooth and light and inspiring. And it has a blue chain to match its blue handlebars. Sadly I've had a few teething problems with the shop I bought it from, but I'm hoping to sort that out amicably because I want a good, long lasting relationship with them. I brought my 'spunk rat' home today on the train from Central to Woy Woy and then squeezed it into the back of our tiny Fiat Punto - yes, there is an Italo theme going on here.
On the train my bike inspired a friendly conversation with another passenger. I had squeezed the bike into the carriage so I could sit, it was not peak hour, though at Hornsby we picked up a bunch of school kids on their way home. The sweet lad was impressed I had travelled so far to get my bike and told me of his cousin and his cousin's girlfriend who had funky tricked up BMX's. The girlfriend had a pink chain and even pink brake wires... with a black frame... it's apparently such a cool BMX her boyfriend wants it.
My first bike was a clunky fold-up I was given for my 8th birthday. I learnt to ride in Centennial Park and to this day remember the spot where I first rode on the grass without training wheels. River, my 5 year old son graduated from training wheels a few months ago when he was still 4.
Within 3 months of my 8th birthday, I was in Rome with my parents, purchasing my second bike, a Bianchi silver 10 speed! My parents and I proceeded to cycle from Roma, to Firenze, Siena, south to Napoli, Sicilia and then over the Mediterranean by boat to cycle through the Peleponese, the Greek islands ... Rhodos, Cyprus, the birth place of my maternal grandfather, Irsael, Jerusalem, the Gulf of Eilat and back again to Firenze for my 9th birthday.
My last bike was a gift birthday gift from my dearest friends and built by one of them. Sadly it was stolen.
I love Italy and I love to ride and I hope my new toy will bring both loves together. You never know - you might bump into me huffing up Ward's Hill Rd, puffing in Italian some time soon.
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