dykes on racer bikes

i got me a new racer bike. well it's an old fluoro racer bike that came to me in bits and my ace dad put it back together. so now it's my new bike. dad has since bought me tools so i am less lame on this front. but i like giving him projects.

so today (being sunday) me and some of the crew from friday are jumping on our bikes and heading nowhere in particular. we punished our bodies at blonde and now it's time to be wholesome and make up for it.

when i was little bike riding was an everyday activity and at one point i thought that grown up girls must get sick of bikes or forget how to ride them. you see my mum was unco at anything mildly sporty and wouldn't even try... and as far as hanging out with grown ups, i only really saw my uncles riding bikes... push bikes, motor bikes, side-car bikes, tandem bikes... there were always lots of bikes... and most of them were in bits.

(FYI... i have a million uncles. dad is the eldest of 8 kids (7 boys / 1 girl) and they are all bikers / tradies (except dad)... he is the black sheep... or whatever the opposite of that is. they are some of the toughest but nicest folks you will meet)

i remember the first time i realised that my dad was just as tough... even though he doesn't look or sound much likes his brothers... i was about 10 or something and dad and i hopped on our bikes to head down to the creek where there was a grouse bike track. we did this nearly every weekend. so we were riding along beside the creek (me in front as always with a bright orange stack hat) and these two teenage boys on bmx bikes were heading towards us.

anyways, one of the boys did a slag as he approached us and it landed on my arm. i made some grossed out noise and dad saw what happened and with one fell swoop he lifted this boy off his bike the moment we were about to whoosh past each other... and because i was setting the pace we were riding pretty fast. the boy's friend skidded to a stop and the boy who slagged just looked terrified as his bike crashed to the ground. somehow dad had managed to stay on his bike and stop while restraining the slagger. i just stopped and looked (at the boy and at the slag) wondering what was going to happen next.

then dad said "i think you should apologise to my daughter". and the boy did. and dad got out his hanky and wiped the slag off my arm. and then it was all ok. he let the boys go and we continued to ride along the bike track heading nowhere in particular.