Feelings about your first real bike?

Question

ok, so this is the sort of personal rambling you'd ask you best friend...but I needed people that may understand me so here goes.

My first road bike was given to me, a 79 Mondia with all original campy components. I loved that bike, I spent hours cleaning and staring at that bike. I rode it like a maniac. I had never felt so free and happy in my life. I kissed that bike goodnight. It stayed in my room with me.

Then I got a boyfriend. He wanted to ride but didn't have the money to fuel it. I thought,well the bike is a little big and bought a new updated road bike. To my happiness he took to it like I wouldn't have ever dreamed and now he's riding with me all the time, riding to work and everything! At first I was so happy and felt so lucky.

It's been two years now. He still rides my bike. He honestly doesn't have the money to get one of his own (at least one that would be fair to ride with my carbon fiber, ultegra monstosity). I completely understand that. But every

Answer 1

I think most "true" cyclists can feel some of what you're saying.  I also, think, however....that you should take a small friendly reality check and realize that your bike provided you with some GREAT memories that YOU helped it to provide to you!    Meaning:  it's just a product, a tool that you used to do what you wanted to do.  

The emotional attachment you have to your bike is cool, but it's a little over the top, y'know?   To me, what's more special in this situation is that you let someone you care about use your beloved bike, and it apparently opened up a love for cycling within him!  That's awesome!  

My second bike (after a little black Huffy when I was a kid) was an old 60's Fuji 10-speed that was heavy as heck and waaayyy too big for me.   When I got a newer 12-speed bike, I proceeded to take apart that old Fuji and learn about bike mechanics.  I did a lot of things right, I trashed a few parts, and eventually I cut up that frame with a hacksaw and used the tubing sections to shoot bottle rockets with my friends!   LOL   :o)

The 12-speed bike became my baby, and I was heartbroken (and without much money as a 14 year old kid) when I bent it up terribly in a crash while racing a car across an intersection from a red light.   Smack!  Right into a concrete median.

Then....my replacement frame got most of the old parts from the 12-speed and sooner or later, it became my new favorite bike, enabling me to ride great places in the sunshine and make good memories.  I thought about selling it a few times over the years, but hung onto it and just recently converted it into a singlespeed with vintage parts that I'd saved over the years.   I have a great carbon fiber $3600 20-speed road bike now (along with a few mountain bikes), but it's nice to still see the old red bike in action.   So I feel  your pain.   I'd be ok without that bike, though, because there are other bikes that can provide the same thing to me.....getting me out rolling under my own power.

The important thing is....take away your memories and experiences, and let the bike just be a bike.  If you really want it to be in a good home, then sell it to someone who will give it that.   Otherwise, just focus on the love of riding and the love for your boyfriend....that's what life is really about, after all.  There will always be bikes and ways to make yourself happy and create new memories to cherish later on.  

(and unless you think you're going to marry this guy, I wouldn't go into debt buying him a new bike!)

Holy c**p, I can't believe I just typed all this.  lol.  :o)

Answer 2

You are making no sense, first you say he took to cycling, and now he doesn't take care of the one you gave him.  Face the music sister, have him save his cash, maybe you throw in a few bucks, and have him buy his own.  A '79 Mondia is worth nothing, except to a collector since it has original Campy.

Answer 3

Don't sell it by all means. Obviously it means a lot to you. And yes your boyfriend might break it-if he does so be it, but it will always be yours. I have sold a few bikes in the past and always regretted it later. But I still have my first real bike, a crappy Giant Iguana mountain bike that currently lies in a garage with a ton of new parts on it from a recent restoration. Will I sell it? No way.