Where old bikes go to die

Rust in peace
London, ON
April 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

An old bike rusts slowly by the edge of a downtown sidewalk. I'm pretty sure it's been forgotten because it's been sitting in this same spot, locked to a grate, for weeks.

Even when it was new, this wasn't much of a bike, an all-steel, cheaply-made department store special that was bought on the basis of price and convenience. I doubt whoever rode it loved it much. Or bothered to maintain it. Time has done this machine no favors, and bikes like this aren't called disposable by accident.

Yet all bikes are, in some strange way, worthy. Each one is uniquely capable of opening up horizons, taking us places we otherwise wouldn't be able to go, changing lives for the better.

But only if we get on. Only if we push the pedal with one foot, step off the ground with the other, and feel the gentle laws of physics do their thing. It's hard to look through the rusted rims and cracked sidewalls to imagine anyone ever took this machine on an epic ride through the southwestern Ontario countryside. But if I squeeze my eyes just so, I want to believe someone actually did.

I have to lie on the ground to get this particular shot. I get lots of stares - and end up with a generous dose of sidewalk dust on my pants - but days later, the bike is still there. I hope whoever abandoned this machine eventually returns. Because every bike deserves to be ridden. And every cyclist deserves to feel the magic of stepping off terra firma and letting their machine take them wherever they wish to go.

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