It's Just a Bike... Right?

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Tyler

Miss Demeanor
FJR Supporter
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It’s just a bike.

Right?

Today I took my first Spyder - named by my beloved daughter, Shannon, from a favorite children’s book series about a young girl named Emily and her big red dog, Clifford – to Santa Clara Cycle where it is on consignment. I didn’t think much about it when I picked it up at the dealer in Livermore where it had been serviced. I threw a leg over and had the most amazing thing happen… all these memories started flooding into my brain and I got all schmoopie (a term Shannon used the other day… seemed to fit).

I remember the day I went to test ride it… wondering if I would be able to ride it. I remember the day I picked it up to take home with me. I remember Shannon coming out to the garage to check it out and, when I said it needed a name, she just looked at me and said, “Clifford.” And I thought, PERFECT!

I remember the first short ride I took on it in the hills behind my home. I had flashbacks of so many amazing trips – multiple states, Baja (where I got to pet a whale!!), Canada – 30K (s)miles with some of the best people on the face of the earth. And I remembered how much a part of my healing – mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical – that Clifford had truly been. It was part of my physical rehab as the Spyder is a much more physical ride than 2-wheels so my legs and arms got stronger the more I rode it. It allowed me to get back out into the world and explore and feel and see and soar.

And while I continue to do all of that on the new bike, and I know that Clifford needs a new pilot to take it on new adventures, I still couldn’t help feel a little sadness at letting that part of my life go. I mean, it’s just a bike, right? Just a thing… but it allowed so much more to happen in my life so there is an emotional attachment and I will always be grateful to the big red dog… and I truly hope the next owner will find as much enlightenment and fun as I did.

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It's hard letting go of the old, and embracing the new.

Heh ... last time I did it I at least got a magazine article from the experience :D

Enjoy the new ride with knowledge that the old one will bring fresh smiles to a new face.

 
Tyler you are so awesome. I have to get out to California some day just so I can meet you.

As for the new owner, they may find enlightenment and fun, they may enjoy Clifford as much as you did, but Clifford will never have as wonderful a cargo as he did when he carried you.

 
schmoopie
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That's your new nickname...
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What he said!!

Tyler you are so awesome. I have to get out to California some day just so I can meet you.
As for the new owner, they may find enlightenment and fun, they may enjoy Clifford as much as you did, but Clifford will never have as wonderful a cargo as he did when he carried you.
You are SUCH a kiss ass!!

Now, that being said, "things" are NEVER just "things," they are a part of us. I've had trouble of letting go of stuff way less tied up than Clifford. Hell, you named the dammed thing. That's never good!! Except it is. It's good for us to place trust and make memories with something that isn't really too heart wrenching to let go of. We're humans, it's just the way it is. Our stuff isn't alive, but it's still important.

Clifford took good care of you, and you did the same for him. You made memories with him, but had to move on. Now it is someone else's turn.

 
Few machines get to go to as many places as you take yours. Clifford served you well and may the next owner have as much fun with the Spyder as you did. We are just thrilled you are still riding and producing world class ride reports.

 
Maybe not 'just a bike'

A skittish motor-bike with a touch of blood in it is better than all the riding animals on earth, because of its logical extension of our faculties, and the hint, the provocation, to excess conferred by its honeyed untiring smoothness. Because Boa loves me, he gives me five more miles of speed than a stranger would get from him. -- T.E. Lawrence on his Brough Superior he called 'Boanerges'


Oh, and:

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