I’m known for growing addicted to various hobbies like playing piano and dancing salsa, to name a few. Additionally, I firmly believe that setting time aside for hobbies and outlets is just as important as setting time aside for obligations. From 2017-2020, salsa dancing (taking classes, teaching classes, going out dancing until who knows when) had been my main outlet. It’s an activity that consumes and relaxes me and gives me a natural high like I don’t know what. To have been robbed of that hobby in March 2020 when COVID began was so painful and damaging for my physical, emotional, and mental health.
Last year, I started really getting into biking once it got warm outside. I started with my mom’s hybrid, then transitioned to my uncle’s fixed gear bike (her name is Roxanne), a family heirloom. Once I found Good Co, the rest was history! Good Co has been a way for me to safely be around people and make new friendships after being tortured by isolation. It has been a way to find people to motivate me to push myself physically. It has also been a way for me to advocate for making biking accessible to everyone and not just people in affluent, non-minority neighborhoods. Through riding by myself and with Good Co, I started noticing that I get the same high from biking as I do from dancing (which I still hope to get back to soon). Biking helped me to feel like myself again. To me, biking has come to represent freedom, happiness, and therapy.
Around Christmastime, I was blessed enough to win the ever-so-generous Good Co Schwinn Bike Raffle WOOT WOOT
As I mentioned above, I’m used to riding fixed gear, but I wanted to learn how to use a geared road bike so I’d be able to join my friends on long rides (aiming to complete a century sometime, maybe this year
). Once I started riding my Schwinn Fastback (his name is Jamaal), it took a couple of rides for me to re-adjust to ordinary biking experiences that most might take for granted, like coasting and your pedals going backwards (feels so weird lol), but once I did…LET ME TELL YOU!!! It was a beautiful experience. Might I add that Jamaal is hella fast!!! He has me feeling like a speed demon going down these hills!!
Although I’d consider myself to be a fairly experienced biker by now, I am so excited to have this new challenge, and I can’t wait to see what new cycling achievements I’ll make with my new Schwinn in the near future! Happy to be part of the Schwinn and Good Co Family!!!
From Monique: Cycling brings back so many childhood memories. When I was a kid, I rode almost everyday after school. Sometimes with friends but mostly alone. I didn’t really need a crowd, just my bike and I. Going into adulthood, I just stopped riding. No specific reason. I outgrew my old bike and never bought a new one.
Watching Good Co Bike rides via Instagram got me so excited and wanting to ride again. Everyone looked so happy and fit! It looked like good vibes and fun. I imagined even if I was tired, just having the crowd of people riding alongside me would push me to keep going.
I now have a Schwinn Bike, named Benjy, that I’m in love with! Courtesy of Good Co Bike Club and Schwinn. Now I’m riding a lot more. – Just to run errands or clear my mind. Cycling is really a stress reliever for me. I feel like a kid again! My best ride thus far, was with Good Co, riding to Shirley Chisholm State Park. It was EVERYTHING!
– Monique Daley
