This is gold. Your boys will remember these times fondly, not sure the pup will/did but dogs don't like to be left out of anything so I bet he had fun! Good stuff. Doug
On Saturday, March 4, 2023 at 9:40:18 AM UTC-5 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote: > Ok, first up. > > This is the inaugural ride of my Betty Foy. I was living in Southern > California at the time and had arrived home with my new bike after picking > it up at RBW HQ in late 2012. I decided to make us all ride our bikes to > church that Sunday morning. Please note how tiny my littler boy is. I saw > this photo and remembered how many times I insisted he was not pedaling > hard enough when we were riding up the hills. For Pete’s sake, the kid was > 3 years old and weighed like 30 pounds. I was certain he was not doing his > part. > [image: image0.png] > > You’ll notice my older son, who was almost always smiling and never > complaining, has this Haro bike. It was the best we could get because he > was too small for most everything else. It was a BMX bike, and probably not > well-suited to what we were doing. However, I’ll draw your attention to the > next photo… > > [image: image1.png] > > Which is this one. Look at this atrocity. We are visiting my parents, and > they have sweetly bought him this new bike from the best sporting goods > store in town. Pacific was supposedly made by the Schwinn people, the only > reputable bike company we knew of by name. If it said Schwinn, it must be > quality. This said Pacific, which meant Schwinn, so it was clearly quality. > We had no idea at the time how monstrously heavy this bike was. Look at my > tiny boy, suffering with every pedal stroke. The bike was way too big for > him (“He’ll make it work, it’s what I did as a kid,” said the helpful > salesman) and it outweighed him, easily. Is it even put together correctly? > Is the fork right? I don’t know, but my sunny child is clearly not enjoying > himself here. I’m sure I told him he was being ungrateful after his > grandparents bought him a brand new bike. And also, pedal harder. 😩 > > Finally, these last two. I got my act together and ordered that Islabike > you see in the far right, so at least my poor kids were better off. But > what about our dog?! Here he is, stuffed unceremoniously into a Backabike > bag. I knew it was a bad idea but I consoled myself by believing it was the > dog’s fault. He was desperate to come along and was making quite a fuss. > His riding basket was full of backpacks, so this was the only way. > > [image: image2.jpeg] > Also, here is he again, all 15 pounds of him, with a heavy wooden > skateboard laying across his back. I’m sure he felt every bump. I am also > sure that I was feeling smug for figuring out how to carry all this stuff > on my bike. > [image: image3.png] > > I’m sure there are more of these regrettable photos, and when I find them, > I’ll put them here. In the meantime, go ahead and post your guilty bike > life memories/photos here. I could use the company. > > Leah > > On Mar 4, 2023, at 9:23 AM, Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! <jonasa...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > I was looking through an old photo album of my bikes. My boys were tiny, > my dog was young, and my Betty Foy was sparkly and new. But you look at > things through different eyes over the years, and today, I came across a > couple of regrettable old photos that made me want to cry and then laugh, > simultaneously. It was 2013. I was obviously the most excited person in my > family about biking. I had just gotten that Betty Foy and thus I could do > just about anything. I invented all sorts of adventures for us - fun things > but we had to get there by bike. I dragged my two tiny boys along, > regardless of their sub-standard bikes. Even the dog was not spared. Surely > this must be List-appropriate? There will be lots of photos of a Betty Foy, > and that very bike was the source of all the “adventures” I inflicted on my > tiny family members. > > > (I’m going to post the photos, with commentary in the following entry. > This, because I have never figured out how to get photos posted in the body > of this message - I only can do it from email after the first post arrives > there. If anyone has a hot tip about that, I’m all ears.) > > Who else has tortured their family with their own love of bicycles? Who > else has told themselves, “Well, it’s good for them.” Who else was a slow > learner but eventually got their act together and bought better equipment > for a better experience for the tortured family members? > Leah > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/topic/rbw-owners-bunch/-mwPmOvcu5Q/unsubscribe > . > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/8b89aeaa-9687-4367-90bc-7e7a891ee2dbn%40googlegroups.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/8b89aeaa-9687-4367-90bc-7e7a891ee2dbn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. 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