Commuting - Toys On the Road

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LittleBigMan
05-10-01, 01:11 PM
Occasionally, I have seen the odd pickup (Toyota) with the "..ota" removed, leaving "Toy." Or the bumper sticker, "Whoever dies with the most toys, wins."

My bike is no toy. Only a real man (or woman) has the muscle and guts to drive a bicycle. It's this childish mentality that still plays with toys, and whines until the biggest toy is owned, that thinks bicycles are also toys.

They are far from it, "kid."

Cambronne
05-10-01, 01:48 PM
Well put.

I was washing one of my bikes one afternoon after a particularly muddy ride home, and my next door neighbor wheeled up the drive on his loud, showy, expensive... and predictably... H-D motorcycle. A "toy" if ever there was one.

He dismounted, then looked at me in my drive as I scrubbed the hard-to-reach parts of my bike with a toothbrush, and he said...

"You need to get yourself a REAL bike!"

It was in jest, he knows how passionate I am about my sport. I had to reply, though...

"A REAL bike doesn't have a motor."

I picked up my bike and held it in the air with one hand.

"This is a REAL bike. What you have there is some kind of two-wheeled car."

(Motorcyclists everywhere, take no offence: I ride those as well. In Paris, I started out with a Lambretta 150, progressed through such notables as Honda CL250, Kawa H1, and on up to a Honda Pan European 1100. Here in the USA, I ride a Yammie R6. It's rather nice, for a two-wheeled car.)