Christine

Why do I call my bike Christine?

Well it was just after I bought my bike from a friend of mine at work. He said that he hated to give the bike up, but had to as it was interfering with his home life. Interfering with his home life indeed...

He let me have it for what I thought was a fair price. I mean, she is a Specialized Allez that was just a few years old. She has Campagnolo Record components and to top it off she looks brand new. He said that he would even throw in some extras like Look pedals, air pump, a trainer, extra gear sets, and Sidi shoes that just happen to be my size. What are the odds of this good a bike that could be had for what I thought were peanuts? How could I turn it down? We agreed on a price.

My friend eyes eased as he passed possession of her to me. It seemed as though a great weight was removed from his back. I was ecstatic as I thought of the great races I would be able to ride with her. Little did I know that Christine had something else in mind...

On our first ride, I didn't take her out hard; it was just a get to know you ride. A few days later, one of my friends had stopped by and asked if we wanted to go for a ride. The ride went well except for one spot where I had to stop at a light. There I was not moving and my feet unable to unclip from the pedals. Little to say, but I took a fall. It didn't hurt as I was not moving and the road shoulder had some grass growing on it that prevented any scraps.

The next few rides had similar occurrences happen. I thought it was funny that this would happen, but at least I didn't get hurt and the bike was not being scraped up at all. That is until several months later.

It happened later that fall as three of us rode in a state park that is nearby. We were riding hard and it seemed that I was able to ride away from them like the wind. I got to a spot and looked behind with no signs of them anywhere. I unclipped my petals and waited a few minutes thinking that they would be right behind me. As I waited, I noticed what seemed like a tree with many neckerchiefs hanging from the branches. I thought it was somewhat unusual. I rode around the area for a bit, but decided to go back to see what was keeping them. As I started to ride, I noticed a glint from the road surface. I wanted to stop to take a closer look at what was made the unusual glint in the road. As I applied pressure on the brake levers and started to stop, I again was faced with the horror of not being able to unclip my pedals.

I looked for a place to fall and luck was with me as there was plenty of green grass to break my fall. Christine must have known this, so as I fell the bike fell on top of me. As I lay there, I looked down to see that my front derailer had sliced my right calf and there was lots of blood using out of the wound. I unclipped the pedals and looked for something to stop the bleeding. There was nothing around but I did remember the neckerchief tree. I walked to it, pulled down one of the cleaner ones, and wrapped my calf with it.

As I sat there I looked back at Christine and I could have sworn that she moved. The weird thing about it was that even though I had fallen a dozen times, Christine still looked as new as it was the day I bought her from my friend.

After this occurrence, I decided that I would keep Christine (for now) and take better care of her. To this day, Christine is a "inside bike" and is sheltered from the elements in my office. It seems that as long as I take good care of her (clean her up after rides, oil her components, and keep the dust off of her), that she will continue to let me ride her. That is until the next time she exerts her will... LOL.