Time

 
When I was 17, some 27 years ago I owned my first Bianchi road bike.
It was a major purchase. It cost me £100. I spent a further £140 on getting better components added to it. I only wanted to cycle and I wanted the best I could afford. In 1986 there was no Internet to buy stuff from and shops weren't cheap, one saved and built up ones possessions one by one.
These days there is the Internet and because of this stuff can be found cheaply and gained in fairly quick succession. To that end I've got my Bianchi winter / summer cycling gear fairly easily and without waiting too long either. I also own my second Bianchi road bike. As you can guess I'm a bit of a Bianchi fanboy, and unashamedly too.
In those past 27 years I've always owned a bicycle. Always for the love of cycling but sometimes as my only means of transport too. In those past 27 years I've also put on more weight than I ever wanted to. I'd thought of running but I'm no runner. I'm a cyclist and I should stick to what I'm good at. I needed some kind of encouragement to get back into shape. Of course I'm never going to be a 17 year old, I'm not kidding myself. What I could be was in better shape than I am. So I got myself my Bianchi gear. Strangely enough not to look good but to look somewhat ridiculous. Why? Because by the time I didn't look ridiculous in that clothing I'd have achieved my goal.
That is the position I'm in now. I have my rollers for when the weather is rubbish (as it usually is this time of year, and I've been using them.) and I have my Bianchi clothing for when it's good enough to go out.
The one thing I've maintained in all this time is that whatever the weather, however old or fat I become or how much money I earn, or not. I'll always own a bicycle, or maybe four.
One for work, one for fitness, one for travelling and one for two. That last one, my tandem, being my most recent acquisition.
Time has changed me but the bicycle defies time.