Personal Project Reflection

For those who haven’t been following along every step of the way, my personal project was to learn about bikes, and biking around Bloomington with the help of the community bike project. I had the grand ambition to volunteer at the project, learn how to build bikes, build a bike, ride it all around Bloomington, AND do this before the weather got cold and I chickened out and ride the bus. Like I said, it was a grand ambition, and about 3 weeks into the project, I realized that there was no way I can do everything. Following a conversation with Amber, I adopted her bike, fixed it up at the bike project, and rode that bike around town before the days grew colder. I’m sadden that I never learned how to build a bike from scratch, but even figuring out how to install and then actually do it took around 3 hours; I honestly don’t know if I would have enough time and energy to do every single bike part necessary. I had fun learning about specific bike parts, but that was already enough.

I was more excited about actually getting to bike around Bloomington, and having a bike to start out with felt great. Of course,  I managed to fall/ slip/ crash into everything humanly possible during those first few weeks but isn’t that always the case?  You learn by doing, and who hasn’t fallen off their bikes a few times when they first started?

The following is a video of me riding on my bike for the first time earlier in the semester. Notice the speed. 

Fast forward a few months. 

I spent Thanksgiving in Akon, OH and since it was a warm Thanksgiving morning (and the fact that I would eat my body weight in food that night), I went out for a bike ride on the Ohio and Erie Canal Township Trail. The trail goes for over 110 miles from New Philadelphia, OH to Lake Erie, but I only traveled about 6 miles out, and 12 miles in total. And I did it all in about ONE HOUR. Without falling into the canal or the ditch. Granted, I was one of two people wearing a helmet (the other was a 4-yr old boy), but I never felt so exhilarated to ride on an open road. Will be one of many experiences I have out on the road with my bike. 

Throughout the semester, my personal project morphed into something that I believed was more manageable. I felt my personal project goals became impossible the further into the semester I went, and the more I learned about biking in general. So I took a step back (took advantage of a shortcut) and re-evaluated my situation. Life is more or less the same thing. Don’t continue doing things if it’s just going to fail. Wake up world, using fossil fuel resources to run the planet isn’t going to cut it in the future. Stop driving us into a ditch (or side swipe a curb with a bike, in my case).  Okay, I know this isn’t easy- I AM going to graduate school to learn it isn’t easy- but let’s at least get more people to try.  Hell, I relied on two very skinny wheels to get me places, and if I can endure multiple fights with asphalt and concrete, the least people can do is try to better the Earth for future generations.