For many of us, the fun of bicycling starts as a kid. The adventurous independence of biking around neighborhood streets, wobbling on winding sidewalks to school, or bouncing along rutted dirt paths criss-crossing through open fields.
My early biking adventures took me to elementary school, to a nearby dirt trail that circled a small lake, and to the suburban homes of my childhood pals. I would later hone my cycling skills with a newspaper route, awakening before sunrise to balance bulging canvas bags over my front handlebars and chuck papers in the general vicinity of front porches (or sometimes at bike-chasing dogs).
Those were good times on two wheels. But as years passed, I would eventually give up the paper route, move on to high school, and advance to the four-wheeled pursuit of delivering pizzas (slightly more lucrative than newspaper delivery… and with fewer dogs chasing me). The lake and it’s wondrous dirt trails would be overtaken by a housing subdivision. The boyhood magic of bicycling would fade.
Bikes were still a part of my life – an old 10 speed for dashes to college classes, a cheap mountain bike for an occasional weekend ride. Nothing overly adventurous.
Then, in 1998, I plopped down $1,000 on what turned out to be a life-changing investment. A sleek new Bianchi Eros road bike, with 27 gears, shiny components, and clip-in pedals. The magic of cycling was rekindled for me, and I rode that bike all over the place… feeling like a kid once again.
This blog is a celebration of that spirit of cycling. I hope you enjoy this chronicle of biking adventures past, present, and future.
~Dan
Domagala.Bike 