The Road to Recovery

Sometimes you never know what you're going to ride into, for better or worse. This was for the better.

Continuing off my last post, I patched my tire on Wednesday, good enough that I could get it home to change the tube.  As luck would have it, I had a bad replacement tube, so I would have to go to a bike shop for the final fix.

I live in South Philly, but I still frequent the bike shop closest to where I work, Kayuh Bicycles all the way up on 19th & Girard, for a couple reasons:

1. I get a discount there for being a member of the Bicycle Coalition
2. The head tech, Izzy, is pretty awesome at what he does and always takes great care of my bike

So...I rode all the way up there yesterday evening.  I walked in and noticed there were chairs set up lecture style in the cafe. Izzy greeted me and said, "Hey great!  You made it!"

I asked, "Haha, alright...what did I make?"

Izzy told me his friend Nick was speaking about his organization, and of course he instructed me to stick around.  I asked if he could fix my bike, not knowing that in the last week or so, their hours had changed and the bike half of their shop had been closed for about a half hour.  He did me a favor and fixed it anyway, and since I had nothing but time, I owed it to him to stick around.  I'm glad I did.

Nick Basalyga was the featured speaker last nite (side note: Kayuh does events like these every week, and you should check them out if you're in the area), speaking about his newly-formed non-profit, In the Saddle:

Nick and Izzy

For starters, his non-profit focuses on cycling as a means to help individuals in recovery, be it from alcohol or any other substance abuse.  Nick himself is a recovering alcoholic and has been sober for 6 years.  I encounter more individuals like him the more I continue to ride.  It was inspiring to hear him talk about the positive impact that cycling has had on his life, and that's where the inspiration came to start his non-profit.  You can read much more about In the Saddle on his website (they're just getting started and could use some funding).

My favorite part of the evening was hearing his story of his fundraising bike ride across the country, leaving from San Francisco on July 29th and arriving in Philadelphia on October 1st:

Nick with his touring bike that made it across the country in about 2 months

As you may or may not be aware, Wash Cycle partners with organizations like Nick's to help individuals in recovery or re-entering the workforce (Including GearingUp, with whom I've ridden in support of several times), so I pledged my support.  I foresee working alongside them in the future...

All this because I needed to fix a flat.  Who knew?