I'm going to miss this bike.
I've cleaned her up, checked all the bolts, the wheels, lubed the chain and pulled my name stickers off the frame.
But then I got to my black tape.
As many of you may know or remember, when Anthony passed, I put his initials on a black piece of hockey tape around my seat tube. I've looked at it every day I rode since he passed away. I've looked at it on days when I was not able to ride. I have a similar piece of tape on the right housing of my skates. His memory is there every day.
I assumed after a year passed, I would remove the remembrance and on. But a year passed not too long ago and I was not able to remove the tape. Just as I have not removed his hand writing from my whiteboard at work.
My 575 is sold and the new owner is on his way to our house right now. Everything is done but I can see my bike silhouetted in the garage door from my seat in our kitchen. I can see that small strip of tape wrapped around the seat tube. Despite all the work I have done on the bike, despite all the rides I have been on with my 575 and despite the fact it has been over a year since Anthony left, I just can not seem to do it.
All this with Anthony's sprite-ish sense of humor hanging over my shoulder with a Seinfeld line, "You should just do it like a band-aid. One motion. Right off!"
I had decided that the tape would stay on my skates. But it would stay on that pair of skates. I go through a pair every season or so but I save my old skates in the garage so that pair, that memory, will be with me for the rest of time. Not so with this bike. Most of my bikes will stay with me but my mountain bikes move on to new homes every year or so.
I'll miss the memories. They will not go away but they will fade, just as the memory for this particular bike will fade. And I suppose that this is the process for moving on.
I've cleaned her up, checked all the bolts, the wheels, lubed the chain and pulled my name stickers off the frame.
But then I got to my black tape.
As many of you may know or remember, when Anthony passed, I put his initials on a black piece of hockey tape around my seat tube. I've looked at it every day I rode since he passed away. I've looked at it on days when I was not able to ride. I have a similar piece of tape on the right housing of my skates. His memory is there every day.
I assumed after a year passed, I would remove the remembrance and on. But a year passed not too long ago and I was not able to remove the tape. Just as I have not removed his hand writing from my whiteboard at work.
My 575 is sold and the new owner is on his way to our house right now. Everything is done but I can see my bike silhouetted in the garage door from my seat in our kitchen. I can see that small strip of tape wrapped around the seat tube. Despite all the work I have done on the bike, despite all the rides I have been on with my 575 and despite the fact it has been over a year since Anthony left, I just can not seem to do it.
All this with Anthony's sprite-ish sense of humor hanging over my shoulder with a Seinfeld line, "You should just do it like a band-aid. One motion. Right off!"
I had decided that the tape would stay on my skates. But it would stay on that pair of skates. I go through a pair every season or so but I save my old skates in the garage so that pair, that memory, will be with me for the rest of time. Not so with this bike. Most of my bikes will stay with me but my mountain bikes move on to new homes every year or so.
I'll miss the memories. They will not go away but they will fade, just as the memory for this particular bike will fade. And I suppose that this is the process for moving on.
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