Like it's on rails

I have a beautiful blue bicycle. I put out the word to a friend of a friend that I would like a small framed, vintage beach-comber style girl bike. He found me Bluie. For the exorbitant cost of $35 (gasp!), I got an old Schwinn Suburban. I think it’s about 30 years old, my husband says it’s at least 40 years. I haven’t researched it, unlike how I would normally research anything that enters my collection, because I don’t care, I love it the way it is. I don’t need to love that bike on a cerebral level, it just makes me happy.

Bluie didn’t make me happy at first. The Suburban had this funky sticking point when I turned the wheel left and right, and the derailleur was wonky. If I hit a big bump, it would shift gears for me. And if it was very cold out, it got stuck in a mid-range gear. Fortunately this was a gear I could stand to ride ‘cause I’m a super wimp. As you may be geographically aware, there are no hills in Chicago. However I struggle riding up the inclines that lead to bridges spanning the Chicago River. I know that’s sad, but it’s true.

After a few months of mentally wrestling with the sky blue Suburban, I surrendered and put in the effort to take it to my pal at Kozy’s Bike Shop in downtown. He was reassuringly impressed with how great my bike looked and said it “would make a great restoration project.” He said this in a way that was simultaneously hopeful and that let me know he wasn’t restoring it for me that day. After the investment of new tires and inner-tubes, hand grips, some other stuff, a good polish and lots of grease in sticky places, Bluie was re-made into a pleasure-cruisin machine! Yay Bluie! Yay Kozy!

The very first day I took the blue Suburban out for a test ride on my lunch break downtown, someone walking on the sidewalk actually stopped me and asked if I were the original owner of the bike! I told her that no, it was older than me, but she assured me it looked beautiful. As all gracious compliment accepters do, I admitted it had just been polished the day before and rode away into traffic.