Ride or Die - My transition from Biker to Rider...

2007 Harley Davidson Dyna "Fat Bob"

to

2025 Trek Dual Sport Gen 5

"From American Steel to Pedal Power...what once took minutes now takes an hour...but there's no rush, no fire to race...And I still get to enjoy the wind in my face..." (From "Wheeling"...original lyrics by Bob Gehman)

I loved my 2007 Harley-Davidson Dyna and rode it for years but as any rider will attest, no matter how good of a rider you are, you've always have to watch out for the other guy. On one hot summer day, I was riding in the left lane of two northbound lanes going about fifty miles an hour when a guy in a Honda Accord decided to switch lanes and turned into my lane just as I was about to pass him. In my mind, my options were to run up his trunk, slide under the frame of his car or to slam into the concrete center medium separating north from southbound traffic. Turns out there was a fourth option that I believe to this day was Devine Intervention. I locked both wheels, slid the bike sideways and wound face to face with him between his car and the concrete medium. He never saw me coming. I lost a bit of nerve that day and decided it was time to sell the bike.

Our daughter, who lived in Denver for a time was a major bike freak - she bought bikes, built bikes, rode a gravel bike for three months from Seattle to San Diego on the Pacific Coast Bicycle route with a girl she met from Hawaii on the internet. She was and is a major enthusiast.

Fast Forward to 2025 - As I was getting ready to retire, Aria encouraged me to try biking - said it was great exercise, not overly expensive and a good way to get and stay in shape. So, I did what any red-blooded American would do. I started asking advice from EVERYONE I knew that rode. There was Joe, who still rode the Huffy 10 speed that he rode in high school 50 years ago, Mark, who had a pretty classy road bike with all the bells and whistles, James who rode a mountain bike and Rick, who owned a $10,000 bike made of titanium that he rode in Germany; it was so light and balanced that you could lift it with two fingers.

There was a local bike shop near me (Fitness Central in Schnecksville, PA, so I took a drive down and met "Steve". I told him I was getting ready to retire and wanted a bike. He asked me what kind of bike, and I just sort of stared at him, so he changed tactics and asked me when the last time I rode a bike. More staring. He looked over at his assistant and then took pity on me and started pulling bikes off shelves and racks and setting them up out back. I believe I rode about eight different bikes that day and settled on the Trek Dual Sport 3 Gen 5 (Pictured above).

The Dual Sport 3 Gen 5 is considered a hybrid bike designed for both urban commuting and off road, it's pretty lightweight aluminum with Shimano hydraulic disc brakes and 650b tires that worked for different riding styles. (Don't feel badly if you don't know the tech above, neither did I - I just nodded my head a lot).

Once we established WHICH bike to get, Steve helped me modify it a little for better handling and comfort. We switched out the grips for ones that had a flat spot for your palms, put flatter larger pedals, a bike stem lift to raise the handlebars up so I wouldn't look like I was bent over like Quasimodo and a water bottle rack on the frame.

Steve's team adjusted the seat to my height and said they'd get everything ready for pick up in a couple of days. When I went to pick up the bike, I saw that it didn't have a kick stand. Evidently, kick stands are somewhat passe in today's biking world, but I didn't want to lay my brand-new bike down every time I got off it, so they appeased me and put on a kick stand. Turns out kick stands are a pain in the butt, and you really don't need them.

My daughter at this point is now living in Cape Town, SA doing her digital nomad thing, so I sent her pictures of the bike. She started laughing and told me to take the kick stand off as well as the clear plastic chain guard if I wanted to be regarded as a real rider. She liked the rest of the bike I'm happy to say.

I'm going to end this here - Look for Part 2 of my bike story in the near future.

Thanks for reading! Bob