Bikes and Family

"I want a bike." I hear that every once in a while when I tell people about all the adventures I have as I ride around Jackson on my single gear Motobecane.
A few months ago, I was able to visit my family north of Lansing where I grew up, and shared with my family how much I enjoy riding and told stories of my interactions with people in the community as I ride through town. My Mom sighed as she stared towards the ceiling, "I want a bike."
She has pretty much always loved riding bikes, but for some reason, she hadn't had a bike for quite some time. I figured that I could probably work something out. I talked with Corey at the Armory Bike Union in Jackson, and told him that I planned to fix up a bike for my mom for her birthday at the beginning of October. He said that it was fine and since I had been a semi regular volunteer, I was able to use whatever I needed to fix up a beautiful blue five speed Schwinn. It took a few weeks of cleaning, greasing, true-ing, and adjusting, but after it was all done, it turned out to be a pretty awesome bike. One I was happy to present to my Mom for her birthday. She was pretty excited. She immediately wanted to take it out for a ride even though it was already after dark and rode around for quite a while. The next week my Dad texted me and told me that he saw her out riding about four miles from the house. She's having adventures of her own now.

This past weekend, two of my younger brothers were able to spend a couple days with me in the "Prison City". I talked to Corey again and asked if I could borrow a couple of bikes for them to ride around Jackson with me. My brothers each picked out a bike and spent the next several hours riding around town and visiting some of the local treasures. Together, we had a total blast riding around town and simply just hanging out. Saturday, we rode back to the Armory Bike Union and I showed them around the shop and together we worked on repairing a children's bike.
I'm realizing that bike culture, at least in Jackson, doesn't have to exclusively revolve around bicycles. Instead, bike culture is all about people and connecting with them through not just the bikes themselves, but riding them, repairing them, and connecting with each other around them. I'm extremely grateful to the ABU for what they're doing in Jackson, and for generously giving my family and myself adventures that we can share with each other.