Over midterm break, my best friend, girlfriend and I decided to take a little biking trip on the trail behind the St. Bonaventure University campus. It was a chilly day, but it was a very typical fall day with leaves falling and the trail was covered in those fallen leaves.
My girlfriend and I were having a wonderful time, while my best friend was struggling with keeping up. Over the summer, I brought my girlfriend’s bike home with me, so that during the school year she could bike with us. Unfortunately, this bike should not have been ridden by anyone of our age and body weight.
My girlfriend has had this bike since she was little, and we overestimated its limits. We thought it would still be able to function properly, even though she was quite a way past the age limit and the height required to be riding a bike that small.
By the time we got down the trail a bit, we concluded that this bike needed to be thrown into a dumpster far, far away where nobody would ever have to ride such a death contraption ever again. The back tire was completely flat, the brakes did not function at all, it made a horrendous squeaking noise and you were so scrunched up when sitting on it, your legs were constantly bent making it almost impossible to pedal.
Unfortunately, we were too far down the trail to turn back, and nobody wanted to ride the bike. We only had two other bikes with us, so somebody had to suffer through the pain of riding that bike the rest of the way. So, we did the only thing that made the most sense: making the only guy in the group ride it. My best friend had to take one for the team and take on this challenge.
This was a tragic day because my friend lost some pride and he had to try to convince us and himself that it was okay that he was riding the small, girly bike because of how great of a workout it was for his legs.
Eventually, we ended up near Francis Hall on the Bonaventure University campus and my friend finally got to end his suffering. We left the bike unchained with the hope that maybe somebody would take it and ride off (slowly) into the sunset with it. Our worst nightmares came true, and the bike was not taken by anyone, which is something we did foresee.
My friend once again had to hop on that bike and bike it back to the main campus area. Enough was enough for him after having to climb that hill with a flat tire and no brakes behind Doyle Hall. The first bike rack we saw, we left it there and walked away without saying goodbye, hoping to never have to see that terrible child bike again as long as we live.