Bike Seat

During our first summer here I bought a bicycle. An old fashioned ten speed with narrow tires which I used it to bike to Chinese class and just get around town. Yang got a bike too and we would take Aidan and Lydia out. Elisa was just a concept.

No baby wagons here, kids sit on the back in a simple seat. Here’s what the bike seat looked like when it was relatively new

The bike seat made my retro bike look a bit uncool, at least in my eyes. I was after all entering middle age and the bike seat was akin to a man older than 35 wearing a black leather jacket and jeans without a belt.

Because of the narrow tires, it wasn’t great when the kids got a bit heavier and soon Lydia was too big to take a ride. Then Elisa came along and I biked her all around the area we lived when the weather was warm. When the weather was cold, the bike sat idle and one fall was banished to an outside stall where it endured a harsh winter.

With my return to work earlier this year I’ve been biking to and from the subway as part of my commute. The kids seat served extra duty as my backpack holder. Weekends found me taking Elisa to the park with it.

But then Elisa got too big for it as well. So with winter upon us and one of the foot stands rusting through, it was time to retire the bike seat. I thought I would be happy when this moment came with my recapturing the coolness lost when I put the seat on in the first place. But happy I was not, for something else, something far more important, is lost.