hillary dixon rust

I've owned a bunch of bikes. Probably more than was ever sensible. I went through a phase where I was buying bikes a lot for some reason. I think I was just trying to find the "pefect bike" which I still think exists but it is most likely a "the grass is always greener" scenario.

Below are a few bikes I've had in Los Angeles that I've loved and ridden for more than a month.

I've owned one new bike in my entire life. It was a Murray BMX that my dad got me when I was like 10 or 11. It pretty much got destroyed. Not because I didn't love it, but because I loved it too much. I loved to jump it off homemade ramps and skid out and try to do stunts that didn't really ever work out. 

I dream of a day when I can find the perfect new bike and buy it and then try to ride it into the ground like that old Murray.

In my search for the perfect bike I've learned a lot. To me, the thing that matters most about a bike is how it feels under you, and how it makes you feel, which are very closely linked. 

Bikes come in as many sizes as humans do and on top of that almost all of the various parts are adjustable so that whoever gets on to ride can make arrangements to make it comfortable for them. 

That being said, I've probably owned over 20 bikes in the 4 years I've been in LA and none of them have had a frame that was more than 2 cm different from one another in its stated size and yet they all rode soooooo much differently.

The angles at which the tubes meet, the rake of the fork, the size of the rims and tires, everything comes into play. Changing one thing can take your bike from a pure bred racer into a air ride cruiser. 

Of course, the one thing that it all really comes down to it how much you ride. Stealing from one of my favorite bands "broken chairs your body conforms to..." Meaning, even if the bike isn't exactly "right" for you, if you ride it enough you won't notice. 

I'm not sure why I wrote all this.

Chirp,
hillary