Jett's Auto Bicycle-biography

1966: Learned to ride on a used bike with a metal seat that was broken and could pinch you. (At least no one wanted to steal it.) Kept my training wheels on for several months after I learned to ride just in case.

1968: Got a new 3-speed with a banana seat. I became a fighter-pilot on a bike. We played hide and seek on bikes. We played capture the flag on bikes. We rode to football practice. We rode to our friend's house. Lots of time we would just ride to be riding.

1973: Out-grew the banana but got a single-speed bike that was actually yellow (my favorite color). Used this until I learned to drive. The bike couldn't get me to Savannah Beach, but the car could.

1979: While attending Georgia Tech, my roommate kept about 4 bikes in the room. It rubbed off on me and I got a used 10-speed and put toe clips on it. Started commuting from my apartment on Delk Road to Lockheed. Learned that you had to fend for yourself trying to "share" the road.

1980: First (and last) collision with a car. The car had more damage than me and the bike put together. Smashed the car's windshield, but I got only a cut and a bruise. Maybe I was immortal.

1981: A new Fuji Royale. I loved that bike. I had moved to Virginia-Highland and had ditched the car. I rode everywhere on that bike: school, grocery store, out on dates. Boy, that was something.

1982: Lots of bike rides to Rock Eagle, Kennesaw Mountain, Lake Lanier, Savannah (130 miles on each of two back-to-back days), and all over town.

1983: Got a real job, my bike friends moved away. Last big ride for a while was a trip through N Georgia mountains between graduation from Tech and my first day of work at Hewlett-Packard Company.

1985: Met a girl who was to become my wife. She did a better job of getting me into running than I had done getting her into cycling.

1986: Before asking her to marry me, I took a long bike trip with a college buddy from Seattle across the Cascades, up into Canada, over the Rockies, and eventually ended up in Minnesota. Beth and I were engaged shortly after I got back.

1990: The Fuji wasn't getting many miles until I rode with my brother and a friend on the Bike Ride Across Georgia. This was about the time we learned Beth was pregnant with Kala so I had to find a real job. The job ended up being about 24 miles away.

1992: I participated in Bike to Work day (May 19, 2007 Schedule) by riding from Virginia-Highland to Duluth. It wasn't the best commute, but I did repeat the commute a few times after that.

1995: Got a job only 9 miles away and rode the Fuji into the office 2-3 days a week.

1996: Assigned a position downtown at Georgia-Pacific right before the Olympics. Those were some fine days on the bike. We rode to many venues. On a couple of days, I volunteered to man the bicycle parking at the Stone Mountain Archery and Velodrome venue.

1997: Began work at Delta. Unfortunately, the car was simply too convenient for this job.

1999: BellSouth in Midtown. Easy cycling and walking distance. Itching for a long bike tour, but coaching two daughters' soccer teams conspired against my plans for longer rides.

2005: We won the grand prize on America's Funniest Videos and each of the family members chose a "toy" with the proceeds. I got a new bike, a Trek 1200. The Fuji was donated to a good home (did I ever say, I loved that bike?). Since then, I have joined a group of riders that had been asking me for years to ride with them. We are known as Aurora Cycling.

2006: Was fortunate to ride the 2006 BRAG with my daughter Kala. It was so good that we often found ourselves singing down the road.

2007: So far this winter has been warm enough that I've continued riding to work, and cool enough I can take longer routes into the office before breaking a sweat.

What does my future hold? I want to cycle around in Europe, but there is plenty to see by bike on this side of the Atlantic as well.