After several stops and starts and stops over the last two years, with spare parts, donated bikes and my physical energy becoming hard to find, I made the decision a couple of weeks ago to shut down the Brain Trust and with it, the refugee bicycle effort I'd been running for the last five-plus years out of my little shed.
Once I made the decision, it got a lot easier, and I found that I was glad to let that part of my life go at last. I'd been wrenching on my own time for almost ten years since leaving Citybikes, and now that I've been diagnosed with Long Covid it seemed like a good time to stop.
I've had a great run, all things considering.
I advised Portland-area friends on FB of my intentions, and advised them to donate adult bikes, accessories and parts to Bikes4Humanity-PDX going forward. I've started selling off the larger shop tools and a few parts (the repair stand will likely be the past big thing to go, but almost everything else is up for grabs; check FB Marketplace for new items as I dig them out).
I'm not able to ride my bike now, and won't be riding for at least a little while as I begin breath and balance therapy to deal with the effects of Long Covid. At some point, I may choose to keep Just One Bike for short rides around the neighborhood, but my more ambitious rides are behind me.
While I didn't acheive everything I set out to do -- a solo ride across the country never happened, and in fact I was never terribly successful at S24HO rides, either -- I still got to do a LOT of things I'd dreamed of, including short-track and cyclocross racing and a few bike overnights with friends and alone. And while I was still going to school and/or working full-time, I was a daily bicycle commuter for over 40 years. I started riding for transportation back in the 1970s when almost no one my age was doing that, and continued all the way through my last outside-the-house "regular" job that ended in 2014.
These days, I have few reasons to ride for transportation, but I hope to resume at least a little riding for pleasure before too long, when my heart and lungs are stronger again and I get my balance back.
Which leads me to this.
I'm going to shut down this blog. What that means is that, while I will leave it here for folks to read, I won't add entries to it anymore, and I'll disconnect the message settings so no one will be able to comment (because that needs my approval and I don't want to be bothered with all that now).
I'd rather just ride if and when I can, and not curate it anymore.
AndI'd like to encourage all of you to do the same.
Write about riding less, and ride more.
Just go out and enjoy yourselves and the freedom of going everywhere under your own steam, stopping to watch a beautiful bird in flight or to enjoy a sandwich.
Just ride your bike and don't boast about it.
The more people see you ride, the more they'll think about doing it themselves.
Thanks for reading, and happy riding.
