Bike Jackets

My First Bike Was A Frankenbike!

$5 in the early 70s was still a lot to pay for my first bike. It was built from parts recovered from the junkyard by some neighborhood kids. I remember the kids coming to the door and negotiating with my single mother while my older brother and sister looked on. The final price for the bike was $5. I appreciated, even then at the age of 4 or so, the entrepreneurial spirit of the young boys. It amazed me that they had taken some junk parts from the junkyard and created from them a junky bike.

I grew up in Butte, Montana, and we were living on Iron Street. Butte was and is a mining town, so many of the streets are named after minerals, metals, or something mining-related such as Gold, Platinum, Diamond. Iron, (or Fe as it's designated in the 26 position on the Periodic Table), is a extremely useful but not an extremely precious metal, and the street itself reflected that a bit. The house we lived in had an apartment above, where resided a kind man who gave us kids sticks of gum.

Returning to the story of the bike. It was a sunny summer day when the two boys came peddling the pedal bike to my mother. I do not know if we knew the boys beforehand, though I do not think we did. I recall or imagine one blond boy taller, the other shorter with brown hair, standing on the street. They wore dark-blue winter jackets. Butte has rarely been hot for more than a day, so most of us kids all wore winter coats long past the time they should have been put away for the summer. .Its body was worn-but-warm red in color. That detail, I recall vividly. I tried to imagine what it looked like when it was new, yet never quite got there.

I loved the bike very much, though I could not ride it when mom bought it. The front tire had to be pumped up when it went flat. The tire went flat on a regular and frequent basis. The back tire was a solid tire which never required pumping. This disparity was a testament to the bike's reconstructed nature. The handlebars had no handles, and was just the bare, metal handlebars. The seat was a plain one, yet it had some of its padding intact.

Familiar as I was with the concept of pedaling my four-wheeled toy fire truck, the two-wheeled bicycle proved difficult for me, I could not ride a bike until we had moved some 60 miles west to Dillon, Montana. Dillon was a farming town with a college. My mother attended Western Montana College as an English Major. On the campus grounds rested a sunken tennis court with a sloped entrance. I imagined the court would make a great swimming pool if ever flooded. To my recollection, it never flooded.

On another nice Montana day, my mother took my sister and I with my bike to the campus. My mother went to work at the library and let us go to the adjacent tennis court where my mother could still see us. My sister said she'd hold onto the back of the bike and push me around the tennis court. My sister lied, as she let go. I soon found she was no longer necessary, as I was riding around the tennis court like Evel Knievel, also from Butte, in no time. I don't know what happened to that bike, but I suspect it just broke down from my riding it to death.

Later in youth during sixth grade, I received my first brand-new bike for Christmas from my grandmother. A multi-colored one with a picture of a cowboy riding a white horse under a rainbow painted on the banana saet. I know what you're thinking, but it was the 70s and the song WILDFIRE continually played on the radio. I named that bike 'Wildfire' and rode that bike to death too. I do not wonder too greatly the fate of my first bike. I just have great memories of the red Frankenbike built from the graveyard of broken things.

By Kevin Noel Olson - Freelance fiction and article writer. Author of Eerey Tocsin in the Cryptoid Zoo and the "World of Tocsins" series of YA books.

How to soften up a new leather 'bike jacket.?
Hey. I've just bought a new leather brando style 'bike jacket to replace my last one (which I got cut off after a crash - doh) but although the leather is the same thickness as the old jacket, its far more rigid and therefore restricts my movement more. So im looking for a decent way to soften up the leather to make it more flexible. any suggestions as to a suitable UK product to use? I already am wearing it as often as I can to break the leather in. Im an all-year round rider so im more used to wearing goretex and cordura so im at a bit of a loss tbh... I live in the Uk so please dont suggest US products - its a nightmare to source! cheers to anyone who answers ;)

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what bike jackets are better Armani or express for men?

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what does my obsession with skulls mean?
im not a goth or anything, but i have a few skull tattoos and my bike jacket and helmet has skulls on it, i got a custom paint job on my bike with skulls, i have many pictures of skulls in my room. everytime i look for something to buy myself i look for something with skulls on it. i know im not gothic i know ive never killed anyone before but ive seen many people die, so i dont know if that has something to do with it.

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Is SHIFT a good brand of Street bike jackets? ARAI or SHOEI?
thanks in advance for your input, i really appreciate it

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Any advice on buying ladies' motorcycle (sportsbike) jackets?
Specifically for sportsbikes.... I'd like to find something reasonably priced, and a little more form-fitting. I don't want anything too 'fancy', just something cute looking, and of decent quality. I'll only wear it every now & then, when I go riding with my boyfriend. I'm looking for one thats sleek looking and all-black. I love the look of Icon's Tuscadero jacket, but I'm not trying to spend $350 and I've had no luck on ebay with it. http://www.cyclegear.com/spgm.cfm?item=PAR_2813-0027_G Are there any good websites with discount bike jackets/apparel for women? I've found some through search engines. Though I still haven't run across any jackets I like all the much, at least for the price. I would like to spend around $150-$200. I'd spend up to $300-$400 if I liked to style enough, if it were comfortable enough to wear in various temperatures and if I knew it would hold up for a long time. Any recommendations or links to good websites would be appreciated =)

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