Love letters to the bike

I just love the principle of cycling: You get from A to B thanks to your own strength, and it's so quick and easy. It gives you such a sense of self-efficacy that blows me away. My bike is my favorite tool, my favorite means of transportation, and it feels good to know that cycling is also a healthy, environmentally friendly thing to do. Oh and of course, my bike just looks super nice....

You are so patient with me! Thank you thank you for putting up with me and still not fallen apart! 

In fact, I have a very unique relationship with each of my many bikes.... For each of my passions I have the right bike, with one I travel, the other is my trickster bike. And then each one also has its own nickname, from my Rose Backroad has at some point become the "Backie" and so on. At some point I just started to love bikes and since then I've never gotten away from it, never had the need to turn my back on it.

Show me your rear derailleur baby, then I'll make your tires smoke....

To my old racing bike Boah, you remind me a bit of an old school friend, of whom one has only good memories, but when one sees him today... Despite all the love, you know that he just took an absolutely wrong turn somewhere, and that hurts a little bit to see...

To my new racing bike, I am always completely overwhelmed by your exterior and interior. I love your sleek design, awesome color, look, and you're so light and performance oriented - that's always been important to me. If you were a person, you'd be a little too loud, a little demanding, but have so much charisma that you'd be forgiven....

Thank you baby for never giving me a a flat tire!

You are very chic. It's actually important to me. It's superficial, but what can you do.

Thank you for always getting me from A to B and being so reliable, even though you are so old and rusty. If you were a human, you would be attractive and quirky, full of flaws, but in my eyes you would still be perfect!

Thank you for 365 days a year: Through rain and sun, freezing cold and scorching heat. Without you, hell would break loose: public transport.

My old road bike I like for style reasons very much - that just has a cool look! And I'm a great lover of these old mechanics and technology, appreciate valuable, how everything rattles and interlocks, that is sau exciting.

And my good, fit bike: this is new and modern, my most loyal sports buddy. I'd like to thank it for doing everything I set out to do on it, because... These are sometimes really the most absurd trails that I chase you down. Thank you for taking it all in and cool that you're not broken yet.

Sorry for leaving you at home in Lyon.... I miss you. Very much!

Oh, my bike can do so much more than me hahah. It is superior to me in everything, I see it standing with me and think to myself: Fuck, I should use you so much more. But at the same time it is a bit my lighthouse, my reminder of what is really important to me in life, of my hobbies and my great passion... and that in turn is a very nice feeling. 

I find nice that I can torture myself on you, and still feel joy.

So first of all, I have to thank the four of you - if you were all screwed together, I would have a whole working bike. That aside, so is actually my favorite feeling in the world to ride in the summer on the road bike through the Adalbertstrasse in Munich, the piece at the old North Cemetery, where it smells so nice and the sun falls in staccato through the trees on the road and the wind is really great in the hair. Alone for such a moment I love my bikes.

Thank you for always being there, so loyal and faithful. You are beautiful and fast and I love your tires. I want to show you the whole world.

Kitsch aside, you are an absolute beast.

I'm totally bad at that... But we had some really nice moments together, also ups and downs. I am grateful for that!

I feel like Batwoman on you, feel invincible! And I love the feeling of freedom that the airstream brings me, the knowledge that I could discover any place in this world with you, the feeling of freedom and peace on you.