I don't remember when I rode for the first time on my bike - I just was too young. But I remember my father mounted a pair of support wheels and I took my first pedal strokes with them. A few weeks later I could ride my kiddy bike without them. Even when this sounds like a baby step in the development of each child, it felt like a huge step toward my independency. I started to ride in front of my house but as soon as I could, I tried to explore my surrounding and caused my parents some serious headaches.
Up until well into my teenage years, different bicycles were my primary means of transportation to explore my neighborhoods and visit friends and distant family members like my grandmom. Sometimes I rode further to visit my Dad at his trucking company. At the age of 15, I inherited the paper route from our neighbor living above - and I ultimately became a cycling pro earning money with my bicycle for the 1st time!
At the age of 16, I passed a written test for a small motorcycle license up to 50cc. With 1/2 of my own savings and the other 1/2 from my parents, I've bought a brand new Hercules Supra 4 mokick or a 'moped with a kick--starter' in Irish green. As a result, my orange Didi Thurau bicycle went into the basement to gather dust there.
This very small motorcycle opened up new horizons for me longing to escape from an already irreparably broken family. It became evident, that my alcoholic Catholic father and my Christian Nazi mother had too different characters and were too stubborn to forgive each other - rather than looking for common ground they got stuck in the same selfish mistakes and insults over and over again. Instead of meddling with my parent's problems, I'd rather focus on my newfound freedom, escaping by just twisting the throttle.
In 1980 I graduated from secondary school and started in a Volkswagen dealership, three days working in the company and two days studying in a vocational school. I still had a white Peugeot racing bicycle for my daily errands which I've sold to a colleague. Even with a low salary, I could move up to a used blue Yamaha XS360 motorcycle and out of my parent's apartment - they already filed for divorce. My new apartment included a parking spot, on which I later parked my 'new' 2nd hand Suzuki GS550 Katana, the sword of a Japanese samurai.
But I found myself riding less and less motorcycle - the German weather was not very biker-friendly and the power of my Katana was sometimes very frightening. I sold it to a neighbor right before I got my draft papers to serve my German mandatory military service for 15 months.
After my military service, I planned to travel the world. For this plan, I had three different jobs working from Monday to Sunday, 7 days a week. When I thought the time was ripe, I sold everything and started a new travel life. Unfortunately, I ran into some problems and had to return. But on the road, I met my future wife in Taiwan while traveling, and, without hesitation, I moved to this 'beautiful Island' in 1989.
I found a job in a trading company and got cheated by a Taiwanese boss and his wife after some initial success as an international salesman. I was so stupid and agreed not to take a basic salary but only the commission, and, as I had some good customers, I become obsolete by the company! At that time I was already married and could legally not be kicked out of the country - as both of my bosses demanded. Instead of complaining, I'd instead focus on my wife, our new baby, and my future life in Taiwan - and opened my own trading company with the help of some family members.
With all these things in my life, It took me around 20 years to re-discovered cycling - I bought a bicycle but the environment plus the air pollution was not very biker-friendly at that time in Taiwan. A few years ago, the Taipei City government started to see cycling as an outdoor activity and recreational sport and invested in new cycling routes. And indeed, every weekend crowded bike paths are a sign that the efforts paid off and other Taiwanese cities and towns started to build their own bike-friendly system of roads.
In 2016 my wife bought me some jogging shoes. I still don't understand why, because at that time I did not have any interest in sports. I focused on my trading company, wanted to be a good family guy, and enjoyed Chinese food. Usually, I am the photographer and take pictures of others until one day when I lent my camera to my daughter. She took a photo on which my belly showed under a jacket - and was shocked about me. I went back home, got on the scale and it showed 114kgs (251.32 lbs) by 183 cm (6.0 ft.). Now I understood what to do with the jogging shoes.
While my daughter and wife watched TV, I started to jog along a nearby newly built road, a roundtrip of 8 km. The first few times I nearly died - could not jog for even two minutes! I ran slowly until I was done and walked until I could breathe again. I started to jog again until I ran out of gas. It took me 45 minutes to finish my 1. roundtrip of 8 km. I started to lose some weight until I came to a point where I seemingly hit a wall. I was sweating but my weight stayed the same. Later, I realized that I should weigh myself without a sweaty T-shirt - an astonishing weight difference of 2 kgs.
As my jogging time improved from 45 to 23 minutes for the same 8km, a friend asked me if I would like to join a triathlon event. I knew that I could run and ride a bike, and with some training, I could survive the swimming part of the shortest triathlon distance somehow. So I started to run three evenings and swim 2 evenings per week.
My wife and daughter attended the Yilan Meihua Lake National Triathlon challenge as visitors in 2017 as part of spectators, cheering me on whenever I passed them during the swimming, cycling, and running competitions. Seriously, I was not our to break some records but I wanted to challenge myself - see if and how I could do it. I was surprised about the 50-plus-year-old of mine.
Swimming was the first, and, as expected, my weakest point. I had fun on the bike and the running part was ok. A few corners before the finish I literally ran into a much younger female out of breath, full of sweat, and very pale. I stopped and asked her how she felt. She did not feel good, wanted to vomit, and felt no power to continue. I told her that the finish is very close and I would like to run with her, that she can follow my short but steady footsteps. She agreed and together we, slowly but steadily, came closer to the finish line and passed it together. After I hugged my family and friends the out-of-breath competitor was lost in the crowd. I felt great about myself - about the challenge but mostly about my encouragement for this person in need.
Later, when we reviewed the videos and photos, my wife mentioned 'You look happiest on the bike'. And she was right! During the competition I felt that I could ride the whole day long, I overtook on my converted cheap alloy mountain many competitors on their much more expensive triathlon and carbon road bikes.
I felt on my bike like I should during my swim - like a fish in its very own home environment.
The photo of a smiling me on a bike at this short triathlon challenge was the start of a 6-year journey to re-discover my 'new' old passion for cycling. Since then, many bike-specific parts have changed and improved, I've made mistakes and tried to learn from them, made friends, and got experiences I never could imagine before.
In retrospect, I think that I should have started much earlier, to go back into the saddle. I've raised my family, and my wife and daughter are independent in their own rights.
I've learned a lot about bicycles and through them a lot about life in general. I just don't buy my bikes but I assemble them by buying the components I like and need online and even importing some parts from Europe. With the bicycle came the interest in accessories like clothing, shoes, and even nutrition in the form of gels, powders bars, and recovery drinks - and finally this homepage through which I share my experiences.
Ride carefully, Gerhard