The Ten-Speed Bike

When my brother graduated from his childhood one-speed bicycle, which was a darker, boyish color. The most prominent thing I've always remembered about his adult bike was that it was white, & had handlebars like this. I don't recall when it was, or how old he was, when he got this bike; I remember it had ten speeds & was a better fit for him now as he was getting bigger & growing up.

With the bike having ten speeds, it came along with a manual. I'm not sure that manual was ever really read; I'm not even sure it was ever skimmed. Dad probably walked him through it & showed him how he could learn to really use each speed that the bike had.

And I remember notches. I remember that bike having notches on each handlebar to signify a speed. At that age, it seemed there were at least ten notches on each handlebar; obviously that's just not possible. So I apparently found it intimidating. Yes, yes I did. Moreover I felt it bizarre. As the days turned into weeks, & the weeks turned into months, & yes, the months into years too, I watched my brother not really seem to make much use of those notches of speeds on his adult-size bicycle.

He'd fumble through a few, switching it up a bit; I'm not really sure he had any clue of whatever change, or shift, the speed he'd switch to had made. This impacted me immensely; watching all of this. He'd had a front row seat, basically complete control, in the selection of his ten-speed bike. In fact, he's actually picked it out! In many ways our parents made our first adult-size bicycles, our first sign of independence; they wanted to make sure that what we got was what we wanted, what we'd really use.

He did use it. He used it all the time. He rode wherever he needed to get on it & when we'd be on family vacations, he willingly took it & used it to get from A to B. I need to give him fair credit for that. I just know that he didn't use it as fully & completely as he could have. And therefore I knew, just by observing his decisions, that when I'd be picking out mine, that is, my first adult-size bicycle, I'd not be bothering to get a bicycle with nearly so many speeds as his ten-speed.

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