I've had bikes most of my life, like many kids that lived in the suburbs.

But the one I remember best, I got for Christmas, maybe when I was 9 or 10?

I had been asking and begging for a bike for ages. I wanted a tenspeed, a sleek little bike with those cool curved handles. Christmas came, and no bike was under the tree. I was upset, so upset I didn't really notice that I didn't have nearly as many presents as my brothers.

In fact, I hardly had any. Just as we were about to leave the tree my mom said, "Oh... looks like we forgot something! Santa must have hid it!" (I don't think I believed in Santa at the time, but even to this day my mom signs our Xmas present cards with Santa).

We usually kept a blanket draped on the back of our sofa, and lo and behold, under the blanket was a shiny brand new bike, the color of seafoam, with black handles. It was gorgeous.

I rode that thing as soon as I could, and all of that summer I spent in the saddle, riding around our neighborhood and pretending my beautiful bike was a horse (I was horse crazy, too). I must have put a ton of miles on her, riding around all over the neighborhood, even back into the woods where my mom told us not to go, trying to catch the fabled gigantic snapper turtles as big as a dog that lived in the water drainage tunnels (love tunnels, we called 'em).

Got a mountain-bike type thing later on, don't remember when, but that sucker lasted me until last year (I'm 25 now). It was just a cheap dept. store bike, but I rode that sucker like it was an expensive mountain bike, trying to keep up with my friends on the Wissahickon trails and generally learning to love cycling again.

I literally rode that bike to pieces last year, and being too cheap to buy another bike, was given by a friend yet another Walmart beater bike that I rigged up to commute to work with. Only could do it once or twice a week, because of my early morning schedule, but it felt great! And I vowed to get myself a road bike the minute I could.

This year the second my bonus came in, I was off to the bike shop. And now I'm just waiting for it to be a few degrees warmer so I can get out on the road!

K.