I never learned how to ride a bicycle until I was in my mid twenties. Fraternal eight year old twins I was babysitting in graduate school, Micheal and Hanna, taught me how to ride in the spring of 1999. It was not until 2001, after my husband and I bought my first bike for 13 dollars from an old man in Shelby, NC, I fell hard for a bike.

My first bicycle started out as a rusty castaway but my husband nursed it back to health. I painted her (yes, "it" became a "she" sometime along the way) yellow and red. I hung a wicker basket at the front of the handles. I named her Bug-Doodle. And off I went riding in our neighborhood in the evenings, peeking into people's lives through lighted windows.

Once I discovered the joy of riding a bike, I couldn't believe how long it took me to discover it. I loved the way the cool evening air felt against my face. I loved the satisfaction I felt after riding up a particularly hilly part of the roads. I loved I wasn't at home watching TV.

Then, she got stolen.

I distinctly remember hearing about other people's bikes being stolen around that same time. I also remember thinking I didn't need to put Bug-Doodle in our apartment because no one in their right stealing mind would want her. After all, She was just an old bike. She stood out too much with her strange yellow/red paint job. She wasn't your run off the mill cool bike. She was distinct and loud.

The evening I discovered she was gone, I told my husband I was going riding and stepped out the back door of our apartment looking forward to hopping on Bug-Doodle for a spin. She wasn't there.

My first thought was not that she was stolen. I asked my husband where he put her. It was only when he told me he never touched her that it dawned on me... she was stolen, abducted, kidnapped, taken!

Heartbreak.

We actually reported it to the police. When they asked my husband the dollar value of the bike, he wouldn't dare put a figure on her. He mumbled something about the bicycle being "priceless" and "having a huge sentimental value". For the next two weeks, we drove around our neighborhood and in a nearby ghetto looking and hoping we would spot her. No such luck.

It took a while before I warmed up to the idea of a second bike. When I was ready, my husband and I went and bought a green Huffy upright at K-mart for 79 dollars. I named her Grasshopper. The fact that she was new meant she came with good brakes. So, I was comfortable with the idea of riding her to work and back some six miles a day. My husband, on the other hand, was worried the first few weeks because at that time my work day had changed to end at 9 in the evening and I was not yet a particularly good rider. He got me all sorts of safety lights and reflectors. He waited for me outside, by the street, every day at 9:45.

I now live in China. I don't ride a bike here yet because I am afraid one of the crazy Chinese cab drivers would run me over. So, I walk.

I started this website because I am struck by how much, and in how many ways, bikes are used in this country. And because I want to pay homage to one of the most perfect human inventions.

So, in this age of global warming, here is to bicycles!