Fairy Blog - Ronan and his First Bike

Ronan got his first bike when he was six years old. The bike was a golden flecked, hunter green sting ray with a banana seat and ape-hanger handle bars. He got the bike for his birthday, which also happened to be his last day of kindergarten.

Knowing he didn't know how to ride the bike just yet, he walked his bike to school. He didn’t want any help from his parents to learn how to ride. This was something he wanted to learn how to do by himself. 

After school let out and he was officially promoted to the first grade, Ronan climbed onto his sting ray in the parking lot. He grabbed the handlebars as he straddled the frame and began waddling himself forward to gain momentum.   After a few strides, he jumped up and landed on his banana seat.  But his feet accidentally slammed onto the pedals forcing the bike to skid to a stop, which made him fly completely off the bike.

His new first grade teacher called out to him from the classroom window, “Ronan, you can’t do that. You can’t ride that bike yet.”

Dusting himself off, Ronan pulled a couple pieces of gravel out of his elbows. He tore his school pants but he didn’t care because it was the beginning of summer. It was at that moment that he realized that he didn’t really understand what the bike was doing under him.  Ronan seemed confident that if he could just understand how the bike works then he’d easily be able to ride it. 

He flipped the bike upside down and decided Ms. Trotter was wrong about him.  "I can and will ride this bike," he said grunting to himself.  He revved up the back wheel by rotating the pedals as fast as he could with his right hand. In a quick flick of his wrist, he slammed the pedal backwards causing the wheel to immediately stop moving. 

“Ahhhh,” he said while releasing the pedal.  

Ronan figured out that pedaling backwards makes the wheel stop moving.

With a new appreciation of how his Sting Ray worked, Ronan took off in one sweeping motion by flipping the bicycle onto its wheels by the handlebars while outright sprinting forward.  He leapt mid stride and landed perfectly on the oblong seat. Riding down the school’s long hilly driveway, Ronan found his balance and his feet found the pedals.  He made it to the bottom of the hill and then slammed on his brakes making a perfect crescent moon design in the dust kicked up by his speeding trick.  

That’s how Ronan learned how to ride a bike and that’s the day his bike fairy was born.  TL burst into being midway down the hill in the wake of dust, laughter, fear, amusement, and serendipity.