In Honor of National Bike Month: Cruisers and Rat Rods

My only real sports accomplishment (ever) came in 1978 when I was ranked 10th in the state of Texas in the NBA - the National BMX Association. I was in love with bicycles before that point and I don't seem to have gotten over it.

But the love has waxed and waned a bit over the years. The most recent renaissance happened about 6 years ago when I spotted a Felt Cruiser. Then I looked at more Felt Cruisers. They are cool. If you live in Lubbock and buy beer at the grocery store, there is a good chance you have seen a Fat Tire Felt Cruiser hanging from the ceiling at one of our Market Streets. When I am buying groceries I always swing by and admire the burgundy beauty with the nice rack on the back. (Wow, that sounded wrong!) And I imagine myself riding in slo-mo down a country lane on a beautiful spring day... Well, you get the picture.

This lucky guy won a Felt New Belgium Fat Tire Cruiser like the one at MS

From the Felt Cuisers (Do an image search and see the amazing variety they have produced.) I web-surfed my way around to a site called RatRodBikes.com where I found some super cool customs that regular Joes and Josies had built. I found rat rods that were in my price range and were eco-friendly.

Courtesy of RatRodBikes.com

Then I ran across the granddaddy of earth-shattering-revelation machines for my DIY brain - a 50mph electric Felt Cruiser on Instructables. I fell in love with electric bikes and I fell in love with Instructables at that moment, and now you are reading my blog entry that shows the birth of a few obsessions for me. (Thank you!)

(Sigh)

On a barely related note, I rode my non-electric bike to work today. I am in less than impressive condition right now. I managed to ride 4.76 miles in slightly over 40 minutes and burnt over 450 calories. (Guess who tried out a new app today.) For me, the National Bike Challenge has begun!

May you experience the joy in something healthy that I find in bicycling!

[Update - In a weird bout of instant karma, I checked my email about an hour after posting this and found that I had won a t-shirt from Felt. I entered their Ride to Hawaii contest about a month ago.

May free stuff fall from your inbox today!]