Life through music: “Bicycle race (I like to ride my bicycle)” by Queen

Of course it was the weeks around my midterms in college that I suffered some heavy blows from life/universe. I’ve had a few incidents with my bike of late that were not life threatening, but definitely enough for me to take a step back. I do think this maybe a sign that I’m really trying to do too much and I need to be careful. Maybe.

The first bicycle warning sign that I should have paid more attention to a few weeks ago was my back tire popping at the bottom of a large hill by my house that I ride down on my way to work. Even with the dangers of what could have gone wrong at the speed I was going at the time of my tire popping. I was very lucky I did not crash or hurt myself. The most that my tire popping did to my day was me frantically changing the route in which I got to work.

I fixed the tire shortly there after and resumed my riding to work, but apparently there was a few more issues that were lingering with the bike that I have had for almost a decade. When I got some time between work and school I took my bike over to a good friends house to have him help me with some of those of minor fixes my bike needed. One of those fixes was trying to stop my back tire from slipping out of place after I have locked the tire into position. This tire slipping issue isn’t a problem once I have the tire tighten down extremely tight, but because of how hard I have to tighten it down its very hard to take the tire off and on. Point is it shouldn’t be that hard to lock the tire in place.That is where my buddy comes into play because he was going to try to help that problem from happening.

My buddy made a few adjustments to the area were the tire fits on the bike frame. All that was left to do was test out the adjustments. He locked the tire in a more normal range of how it’s supposed to lock in place. I got on the bike and pedaled through his apartment parking lot. As I rode the bike around everything was going fine. Then I thought to myself as I was riding around the parking lot that the back tire won’t slip out unless I put the bike into a tougher gear and really rack down on the pedals. I think you might already know where this heading. So I put the bike into a tougher gear and really pedaled hard. Well, as you might of guessed the tire slipped out from its former locked position. Unfortunately, so did I. That’s right I went face forward over my handlebars and landed face first on the pavement. My hands and my chin took most of the brunt of the fall. In fact I would actually say that my chin took 90% of the blow from the pavement.

There I lay on the ground, on my stomach, in full bike rain gear looking down at the ground below my chin. I was looking down because there was an unusual amount of blood pooling in the cracks of the pavement below my face. My buddy who was not too far away was saying all sorts of comments that most people would say after they watch an incident like the one I just described. I know he felt bad about what just happened. I, on the other hand, felt stupid and a bit worried about the amount of blood that was already accumulating in front of my face. It took me a bit to get up off the ground and by then my buddy had pulled my bike off to the side because there was another resident of his apartment in their car trying to leave as all this happened.

After we got out of the way I left my bike with my buddy and went to address the damage to my body. Most of my body was okay, but my chin was pretty banged up. I had a hard time trying to see how bad the damage to my chin was though because I had grown out my beard quite a bit making it rather tough to see the bottom of my chin.

Before I shaved

Once the bleeding seem to have stopped I biked from my buddy’s house to my work nearby. I showed up at work and after trying to clean myself up I explained to my coworkers what happened. All the while my chin would not stop bleeding. Finally, I was able to shave my beard back some so I could see the real damage to my chin. As you can see from the picture it was a pretty deep cut. Turns out it was a deeper gash than even I thought initially. So after trying to work for an hour or so I left work to go to the urgent care. We all know that time honored adage that says, “When a wound won’t stop bleeding then something ain’t right.”

After I shaved my beard back

Two hours and five stitches later I was at a loss on what to say about another crazy situation life threw at me. Quite frankly all I was doing at that point was laughing a lot about it. Mind you it was frustrating as all get out to me, but I couldn’t help laugh about it. As I recapped in my own head or when telling others what happened I couldn’t help but laugh hard about it. Not just light giggles either, but that really deep laughter. That kind of laughter I was happy to have even if it did hurt my chin a little as I did it. In fact I still laugh about it quite a bit now even as I write about it.

I know my family worries about me when it comes to biking and with good reason it’s not the safest thing to do by any means. However, it’s actually something that I really truly love to do and is a very important part of who I am. I will not put the bike down nor will I stop biking because I’m fearful of what has happened or what will happen. Instead I will continue to bike with the intent to keep trying to do things I can to make my rides as safe as I can.

I’m sad to say that my bike troubles didn’t end there. The day after I got my stitches out of my chin from the accident I mentioned above I crashed again. I actually crashed right at that spot where my back bike tire had popped a few weeks before all of this happened. Is it a coincidence? I don’t know, but I ain’t going out like that. I will take some time to heal for sure and then go from there.

The bike that I have now was given to me by a coworker many years ago. That bike has done much for me, but I think it might have too much bad juju on it at this point. I think it’s time to pick out a bike just for myself. I have been riding now for about a decade and why shouldn’t I spend the money on something nice for myself that I truly enjoy?

Okay okay. I know that is a lot to take in before I even started talking about the song that I wanted to mention for my pick of the week. I think at this point it should be pretty apparent why I picked this song. The song is in my mind my current anthem when it comes to how I feel about biking. The song is “Bicycle race (I like to ride my bicycle)” by none other than the band Queen. Most of why I picked this song is because the chorus because it’s just so fitting, but lets go to the lyrics anyways.

Lyrics:

“Bicycle Race (I Like to Ride My Bicycle)” by Queen

Bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like

(YES I DO!)

You say black I say white
You say bark I say bite
You say shark I say hey man
Jaws was never my scene
And I don't like Star Wars

You say Rolls I say Royce
You say God give me a choice
You say Lord I say Christ
I don't believe in Peter Pan
Frankenstein or Superman
All I wanna do is

Bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my

Bicycle races are coming your way
So forget all your duties oh yeah!
Fat bottomed girls they'll be riding today
So look out for those beauties oh yeah

On your marks get set go

Bicycle race bicycle race bicycle race
Bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle bicycle
(I want a)
Bicycle race

You say coke I say caine
You say John I say Wayne
Hot dog I say cool it man
I don't wanna be the President of America

You say smile I say cheese
Cartier I say please
Income tax I say Jesus
I don't wanna be a candidate
For Vietnam or Watergate
'Cause all I want to do is

Bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle, bicycle (c'mon), bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like

I really think the chorus is the only part of this song that I really connect to for this song of the week. That being said its a very strong connection to the idea that I just want to ride my bike universe so just let me.

I have been thought enough the last few years and I won’t let this get me down. I’m still sore and beat up today, but I overall so very feel good. Even more I feel happy. The happiest I have been in a very long time and I’m not willing to let that go. No life, I’m not asking you to keep throwing tough things at me to deal with, but if you do I will continue to adapt and to keep moving on up. I will not be denied.

I truly hope you are finding ways to keep things positive in your own life and please do what you love while being careful to not hurt yourself. I believe in you.

As always I bring this to you with so much love and pure D-lite. = )