Handlebars

We grew out the handlebars for the Ride:Well Tour and it looked like this...

When we rolled into a town mothers closed their shutters and called their children inside. Crickets stopped chirping and clouds covered the sun. Young women swooned and old men pulled the brims of their hats down over their eyes and feigned sleep. We always rode downhill. The road leveled out as mountains crumbled and the hills sank before us.

We started in the west and rode to the rising sun. We passed through deserts, hills, mountains and plains and as our mustaches grew so did our legend. But all things pass. Every sunrise brings a sunset. Every Kingdom comes to an end. And so passed our Handlebars.

We entered the Atlantic Ocean and as our journey reached its culmination so did the mantles which propelled us and so it was fitting that in that moment they be shorn.

And so we stood. Three men with faces slightly colder and collectively looking 30 years younger. At first we weren't sure what to do with ourselves...

but with a little time we found ourselves once more, though less intimidating for now we merely stood in the shadow of the glory that once was.

So goes the story of the Handlebars. It was a glorious time in all of our lives. We experienced a great many wonders due to their presence. We got free lunch at the Alley Cat in Nashville, traffic stopped at the raise of our hands, women smiled at us and we successfully biked across the United States of America.

The Handlebars treated us well and I miss them already. I was told more than once that they suited my face and so they may return in time. There are rumors of a new set of handlebars headed toward Kentucky. Though early in their growth there is hope that they may grow into at least a monument of what we have witnessed.

But even if the new Handlebars do not grow to match the stature of the previous sets we know that the legend will live on in our hearts and minds and blogs for many years to come.

(Thanks go to Greg Bargo and the Red Oak Fellowship in Red Oak, TX for beginning the Legend of the Handlebars.)