![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/bike-maintenance-scroll.jpg\" "\\"bike")
<\/a><\/p>\nI maintained<\/strong><\/span> records on my bike, like car owners keep track of oil changes.\u00a0 Like when I last greased the hub.<\/p>\n I stopped with cleaned power chain<\/em> in 1983.\u00a0 I have winged it since.<\/p>\n My bike has\u00a0 miles on it.\u00a0 I bought it at Heights Furniture & Toy for $169 in 1978.\u00a0 ($586 in today’s dollars.)\u00a0 It’s a 10-speed Kabuki Superlight, which is not super light.\u00a0 The bike has been to both oceans and several foreign countries.<\/p>\n It\u2019s my<\/strong><\/span> wife\u2019s fault.\u00a0 When I met her, she was training to be an American Youth Hostels bike trip leader.\u00a0 On our honeymoon, we biked in the Yucat\u00e1n, where we sucked high-sulfur Mexican truck fumes on jungle roads.\u00a0 It sucked.\u00a0 We parked the bikes in M\u00e9rida and took the train to Palenque.<\/p>\n The bike and skipper, 1978, Mexico<\/p><\/div>\n These days — particularly on weekends — my bike goes automatically to Chagrin Falls, 12 miles east of my garage.\u00a0 Chagrin Falls is very pleasant.<\/p>\n Chagrin Falls has ice cream shops, a popcorn shop and a bookstore.\u00a0\u00a0 Along the way, there are hills and valleys.\u00a0 Novelist Don Robertson called Chagrin Falls “Paradise Falls.”\u00a0 The town is, except when I can’t get a free cup of\u00a0 water at Dave’s Cosmic Subs. \u00a0 Lighten up, Dave.\u00a0\u00a0 How many stores do you own already?<\/p>\n When I’m <\/strong><\/span>in southern Ohio on the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure (GOBA),\u00a0my Kabuki bike is the source of\u00a0 ribbing from bike geeks.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t mind their kidding.<\/p>\n My bike doesn\u2019t mind either.<\/p>\n Ask the bike.\u00a0\u00a0Go ahead, ask the bike . . .<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Chagrin Falls, January 10, 2012.\u00a0 Endless summer . . .<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n