Ducks @ Oregon - University of Oregon

Bicycle Fear

Katie D.

January 5, 2010 - 11:59 PM

It's finally time to talk about New Year's Resolutions. There's plenty to talk about, lots of the normal resolutions: take better care of my diet and exercise habits, stop playing online games like Sudoku and Mahjong (I can never play just five games-I end up losing entire evenings this way), and spending more time on creative activities. But there's one goal that is a real doozy.

I am terrified of bicycles. I always have been, I think. I learned to ride relatively late in my elementary school years, and have never ridden without the fear of falling over. I was the last kid in my age group who learned to ride without training wheels, and I think it was my little sister learning that finally propelled me into two-wheel status when I was about twelve. Before that I had a humiliating (but helpful) broom handle attached to the seat so Dad could run along next to me and help keep me up.

This is not a good start for a bicycle lifestyle.

Then when I learned, my bicycle-enthusiast father would take the family on lovely rides in the mountains, where I would be exhausted after the first ten minutes and would be facing mountain steep inclines and downslopes at high altitudes. Not that I blame my father for my irrational bicycle phobia, but this is also not the greatest way to inspire confidence and love.

But now I live in Eugene, one of the most bike-able places in the world. Almost everyone I know bikes. They bike to class, they bike to work. My professors bike to campus. My friends bike to each other's houses, and I'm stuck starting twenty minutes early to get there in time.

Now I love my life on foot. You really get to see the place you're walking: you take the same route enough times and you end up knowing every tree, every friendly neighborhood cat. I use that forty minute commute to campus to talk on the phone or listen to the news or books on tape. I get to have some time that's just for me, and that keeps me mobile and in touch with the world around me.

But. If I was bicycle capable, I could get everywhere so much faster. I could go more places. I could have the flexibility to miss the bus and not arrive late. And I love Eugene so much: if I was on a bicycle I could see more of this city. I could hop on and take a half-hour ride to parts of South Eugene that would take me hours to walk to.

Plus, then I could wear those awesome "I [picture of bicycle] Eugene" shirts they sell at the Saturday Market. I love those shirts, but it would be such a huge lie right now!

I decided bike riding would be a major goal of my senior year way back in September. My mom encouraged the goal and bought me the biking essentials: a helmet, a lock, and bike lights. I rode a couple of times in the early fall, and then got completely derailed.

But it's a brand new decade! Anything can happen in 2010. I have got to beat this phobia. The irrational fear that I'll fall over, or that my wheel will decide to uncouple from the frame for no reason while I'm going thirty miles an hour... Irrational. Irrelevant in this new year. It's a new phase of Katie's existence: the era of the bicycle.

Readers, I want you to hold me accountable on this one. I need someone to answer to. If I don't report back that I've been out riding, I need you to call me on it. I've decided to go the "Public Humiliation" route to maintain this New Year's Resolution: once I've made the promise public, I'd darn well better start peddling.

If you're the praying type, I could use the prayers. Or cosmic vibes. Or blog comments. Whatever it takes, I'll be biking Eugene this year.

Hold me to it.