Bike Intervention
There comes a time (apparently) when a cyclist gets so obsessed with bicycles that friends and family decide they have to intervene. I assumed I had a ways to go before I hit the obsession point as I have not:
- built my own bike
- figured out what gearing ratios are or learned how to adjust a derailleur
- owned more than two bikes at any given time (six or more is the obsession point, right?)
However they argue that just talking about bikes is enough to be an obsession. They requested I stop talking bringing up the following topics in every single conversation:
Presented with this request, I decided to reverse things a little. If conversations about bikes are so hard to bear, how is it that the following topics are okay for them to discuss constantly?
So I will not limit my bike talk. (It would probably will be easier to make new friends.)
When I moved to Rome, Italy, I decided to get a bike to leave public transport behind (like waay behind). I joined a bike workshop and got to know new people who like talking about bikes. Me and my boyfriend contaminated our non-cycling friends with my occasional and his obsessive bike talk. The secret is to corner them alone or in couples, and make them believe it’s cool and popular (even though Rome is one of the less bike-friendly European capitals despite its almost-flat structure.) Great site, keep riding!
The real number of bikes you should own are:
n+1
Where n is the number of bikes you currently own. This equation has been amended by married people to be:
d-1
Where d is the number of bikes required for your significant other to start talking about a divorce.
Hope this helps!
/patrick (from sweden! Yay, you’re an international super-star!)