Papa Bear's Bike

This is Papa Bear......



And this is his bike frame......

After I declined my first OMS offer earlier this year, I began cleaning house. Getting rid of unnecessary stuff like every Halloween costume my kids ever wore. I even began selling portions of our library on Amazon.com. Many things are acquired over ten years of marriage. These are seemingly useless things to which we place emotional attachments. These attachments are not always fully understood by our partners...no matter how well we think we know one another.

A case in point is Papa Bears Bicycle. I have known Papa Bear since 1991. During this time he has always had and carted around this red bicycle frame. Since 1998, this frame and a few wheel parts have been in the back of our closet. Periodicall,y I would be accused of mishandling these things by merely placing other unused items nearby. During my previously mentioned culling of our things, I told Papa Bear that he needed to either rebuild that bicycle of his dreams, or get rid of it. I just could not imagine traipsing about the world with a beloved bicycle frame that was not being used.

Well, I created a bicycle building monster I did. The first thing Papa Bear did was to acquaint himself with the likes of EBay. He began bidding up a storm. The result is what he calls his training bike. My appreciation for bike terminology leaves much to be desired, but I believe this may be a campy dream. Below is a view of the right side....

And now the left side.....

And an angle that Papa Bear prefers.....

And MilesChild thought this photo would pull the entire article together as no one wants to look at just photos of a bicycle after all.

So, you may wonder how encouraging Papa Bear to rebuild this bicycle created a monster. Maybe next weekend I'll show you the other bicycles. He has two racing bicycles still in storage, he bought a collapsible bicycle for Mary, rebuilt two for me (one of which he has taken over and uses it for trips to the grocery store), and he has built one for MilesChild. Our living room has been converted into a bicycle showroom. There are many, many extra parts here, there & yon. He did dispose of the child's bike that was sent to us completely taken apart - down to the last nut & bolt. That package was extremely interesting as you could hear all of the pieces and parts moving around.

This weekend Papa Bear has begun to sell these extra parts on EBay. He now intends to go to a bicycle maniac school in Oregon or Colorado with the intent of eventually opening his own shop.