February is the month of love. We often tag this love as romantic, but I think sometimes you just have to love stuff and that love can awake you and it is magical. Happy love month!
"Love comforteth like sunshine after rain."
-Shakespeare
This post cannot be limited to one thing I love, it consists of a few things I love.I have always loved bikes. I remember being young and how having a bike gave me new found freedom. The wind in my hair, sunshine on my face and reflective revolutions of the tires and pedals added to that freedom to leave my house and be on my own.
My current ride is a Trek commuter style bike. It has thin tires for quicker riding and a comfortable seat. I installed pedals that are flat on one side for casual riding and clip-less on the other side so I can wear my fancy biking shoes and pretend to be all serious about speed.
I have mentioned this before, but a wise woman said to me in the past few months that the right number of bikes one should own is the current number they own plus one.
I have been looking for a cruiser type bike. The kind that would allow for me to just ride slowly especially on rides with my kiddos. While searching for one, I found these old bikes for sale and I went down a rabbit hole of looking at vintage bikes and came up with a crazy idea to buy one that I would have to work on before I could ever ride it.
Well. I bought not one but two 1961 Schwinn Travelers to fix up.
I have started the labor of love on the bike Reuben will ride along side me. It is dirty and tedious, and I love it. There is nothing like Schwinn chrome as it shines again with some elbow grease. It is as if those 60 years of rusting and dulling are just erased. I indeed do love a good project.
I also love old classic things. I also love my Gramdma Huven, who is classy but never seemed old. I feel a huge connection to her now just as I did before she died a few years back.
Here she is at the age of 16 in 1941. I cannot completely guarantee that the bike she is on is a Schwinn but it does have similar fenders and I did a little research and that bike looks a lot like the 1940 Schwinns. So, even if that bike isn’t a Schwinn, I’m going to pretend it is just to further the connection to her and to generate smiles as I think of those simpler times and as I look forward to this spring and the first cruise I get to do on one my classic bikes.
The time spent in repairing and polishing is well worth it as I am learning and finding purpose in these projects.
I love bikes,
I love old things,
I love a good project,
I love my grandma,
And I have a very new love for all things Schwinn.
