Bicycle. My favorite bicycle is the recumbent bicycle. I get to lean back in comfort with my book and let my legs do all the work. That may sound like an odd thing to say about any bicycle. Legs do all the work on any bicycle, but the instant you’re sitting up on a cruiser bicycle, or leaning forward on a road bicycle, the muscles of the chest and arms get a workout. The recumbent bicycle uses mostly the legs and the lower back muscles. Of course I use the recumbent bicycle in the gym, although I would love to try one outdoors. They are outside my price range.
One day about ten years ago, I took a sudden notion to ride a bicycle. At the time I was living in the downtown core, where no one rides bicycles for fear of oncoming traffic. I went to the bicycle shop and those nice folks – who know absolutely everything there is to know about bicycle gear – fitted me out with a cruiser bicycle that they adapted with bicycle parts of which they had a fascinating array. They also had a folding bicycle which tempted me because I could hop on and off public transit with a folding bicycle, but it was priced out of my range.
The joy of a cruiser bicycle is that there’s bound to be one to fit any price range. By the time the bicycle shop was finished adapting my own bicycle with their bicycle gear, I was riding a cross between a cruiser bicycle and a road bicycle. It’s true what they say, that you never forget how to ride a bicycle. I remember so well that day, riding out of the bicycle shop on my new bicycle with its gel saddle seat, pedaling the four miles home in such a giddy state of glee. So I guess maybe my favorite bicycle isn’t the recumbent bicycle after all but my first kids bicycle. In fact it would be any bicycle that gets me outdoors –
what a great feeling!