Try Something New (Tandem Bikes)

Last night, I was playing that game with my friends where you have 10 fingers up and each person takes a turn saying something they have never done in their life. If you have done what someone says, than you have to put a finger down. The last person with a finger or more up wins. I guess it’s a game that rewards the biggest loser for leading an uneventful life. One of the things I said that I had never done was a ride a bike by myself. It needed some explaining because I have been on a 30 mile bike ride, but I don’t know how to ride a bike. So how was it that I went on a 30 mile bike ride without knowing how to ride a bike? Well I’ll tell you…

This summer I lived with my dad in Salt Lake City, but I would come visit my friends in Provo almost every weekend to have some fun. On a particular Saturday afternoon, my friend Matt told me about a church activity his congregation would have in which they would all bike about 15 miles up into a canyon and would have dinner there. He then explained that he was thinking about driving up to the park they would eat in and just meeting everyone there. I was cool with that.

Later on, two girls in the apartment complex expressed their desire to rent two tandem bikes and bike with us up the canyon. I was still unsure I wanted to do this, but it seemed like Matt really wanted to do it. I thought it couldn’t hurt to try something new, so I reluctantly agreed.

The next challenge was renting the bikes. There happened to be a house across the street that rented out tandem bikes. We tried knocking on the door at different times of the time, calling their number, and talking to their neighbors to see where the owners were and if we could rent the bikes that were so very lonely in the front ward. To make a long story short, we never got a hold of the owners, stole the bikes, and left our contact information on their door.

If that wasn’t bad enough, it then became apparent that the two girls wanted to bike together and not go boy-girl-boy-girl. So we had just stolen two tandem bikes on which my friend Matt and I would have to ride together on one of them. Luckily, Matt was an excellent biker and I could sit in the back and just help peddle. It was then that we also realized that the bike had no gears or brakes… potentially vital to biking through the mountains of Utah.

We all gathered outside the apartment complex and many members of his congregation thought our situation rather humorous. When we started on the streets, things were easy enough. We just got a few funny looks and honks from passing cars. Everything was fine. That’s when we encountered our first 30 degree incline and struggled up it and it hit us just how hard the mountains would be.

To shorten the story, the trip was filled with many steep hills in which we could barely make it up. The trip took about an hour or more. We received many puzzled glances from those we passed, ringing our 50’s style bike bell as we passed. I thought I would die by the time we got to the top. I’m happy to say, however, that we were the third bike to make it to the park, even without gears! At the park, we pigged out. Then we knew we had to start our return journey because it looked like it was going to start raining.

The way home was pure chaos. We were just two guys flying down a steep mountain with no brakes on a tandem bike almost hitting a million people on the path and ringing the little bell as a warning to everyone. We almost hit a family on a narrow part of the path. Yelling at them the whole way down the hill, we saw their faces of distress slowly turn to smiles as they realized what was going on. A group of bikers gave us a hard time for a bit too. Then, in order to avoid someone on the path, Matt steered to the side and I hit my foot on the rock wall that lined the path. It took about a half an hour to get back!

When we got home, we returned the bike and all was well even though we stole them. All in all it was a very unique experience and I’m glad I did it. It’s always fun to try new things and you never know what can happen or what stories you’ll be able to tell.