The first bike that I really owned was a gift from Mister. On my birthday of the first year we were living together I came home to find the apartment canopied in streamers, and in the middle of the rustling, rainbow scene sat a frosty blue cruiser.

“Happy birthday!! Is it okay?”

We tested it out, made sure it fit- and it was okay. More than okay. She was a cruiser style mountain bike and she rocked-  I rode her to work, on the weekends, to the movies. The only problem was she was heavy. If I rode her home from work at my usual pace, I was tired when I got home and would nearly fall down the stairs hauling her up to the apartment. So we made room in our storage locker, but I would nearly fall over trying to rock it up onto it’s back wheel so it could fit into the tiny space we’d cleared for her to hang.

At every apartment and now at our house I got my hopes up that the arrangement would make it easier to use my bike, and everywhere we’ve lived in the past four and a half years? It never got easier. I loved the bike dearly but eventually stopped riding. It was just such an ordeal to haul the great thing outdoors!

With the wedding and moving house twice last year I didn’t ride my bike much, if at all, but I got a nagging thought stuck in my mind – that a lighter and prettier bike would be a vintage cruiser. I’ve “casually” stalked the Antiques malls and classifieds since the Spring, but haven’t found anything under $300 – way out of budget. I figured I could sell the old heavy bike for $200, so that was my new bike budget. Straight exchange, or no deal.

This weekend I made another run around to my favourite vintage haunts, hoping for a new sundress and maybe to see the glint of bargain basement priced fenders. No luck. I pulled the car up at home to find Mister on the front steps.

“I think I saw a bike at Lune Vintage a few mintues ago. It might have been the owner’s, but it would be worth checking.”

I hopped back in the car. This was my favourite little shop/craft studio. The owner (one of them?) is so young and beautiful, and watches the shop with a little boy some of the time I’ve been in. She’s my hero. I want to be her when I grow up. I would love to give her my money.

I turned the corner and there she was- a vintage 1977 Schwinn cruiser, for under $200. I called Mister in a happy panic, he ran to the bank and over to the car at top speed, and I fended off the scores of brunettes with blunt bangs and slight hangovers lurking behind their vintage sunglasses as they gravitated off the main drag and towards the baby blue fenders.

Before they could flip their hair and swing a leg over her, I hit them with an “Oh, excuse me – I’m sorry, I just bought it!”

Like you wouldn’t lie for this beauty too. I can lift her with one arm, and as of Sunday morning I sold my old bike for the required $200.

It’s official, I’m totally smitten.