SIH - The Banana Seat Bike

When I was a kid, I loved riding bikes. Some of my favorite bike riding memories were on an old banana seat bike. I don't remember where it came from (except I don't think it was new when I got it) or the exact year I got it, but I do remember spending many hours on that seat.

One of my favorite parts was the "cycle appeal." I could and did pretend it was my Harley. And just like a motorcycle, when the need arose, you could find a passenger riding on the back half of that banana seat. It was much harder to lean into the curves when you had a friend on back, though.

Countless days you would find us riding around the circle, occasionally it would be me pretending to be a cop and chasing down the bad guys (aka: my brother), but more often than not, he was the cop and had a never ending supply of imaginary tickets to give me for speeding. (Little did I know how true to life THAT little bit of playacting would turn out...thank goodness, not lately though -- knock on wood.)

During the time I had this bike, we lived next door to my grandparents and the shared gravel drive made a loop past both houses. The drive, appropriately branded "the circle" by family members was fairly large (at least in my memory) and had bushes and trees in the middle that were perfect for trying to dodge those pretend cops. One of the bushes in particular, I remember, we used as a drive thru bank, pulling off the "road" (driveway) up to the bush on our bikes to "make a deposit" before pulling our bike back onto the "road."

I learned the skid on that bike, which was especially fun on gravel. If you leaned just right as you were coming to the part of the drive that had several layers of gravel on it, and slammed on that pedal brake, you could skid sideways and spray gravel for several yards before continuing on your way. And with a lot of practice, it was eventually accomplished without a wipe-out between the sideways skid and the continuing on your way. Another favorite maneuver was flying down the hill and jumping the gully in front of grandma's. Those smaller bikes were lighter and you could catch some major air with those babies.

I must have been somewhere between 7 and 8 when I first got that bike and I remember even after I "graduated" up to a grownup bike, I would still occasionally pull that rattletrap out for a ride. I don't know what ever happened to it after I finally outgrew it for good, but it will always remain a fond childhood memory.

Oh to be able to return to the days when life was all about playing, the speeding tickets were imaginary, and there was always sufficient (albeit imaginary) funds for withdrawals....