“You really want to do this?” I ask my friend Louise as she stands before me in the shop, razor blade in hand, staring down the handlebar grips on her bike. “Once you take those off, there is no going back.”
”I do, I need to be able to put on climbing bars, so I can really pull up when we pedal over the mountains.” We are boxing up our bikes for our upcoming month-long, bike tour in Cuba, and what I had imagined would be a two hour task is quickly become a six hour one. But I have nothing better to do today and am happy to putz around and fuss with our bikes, getting to know them and Louise all the better.
”Alright, let’s do it.” I say and she begins slicing her old grips off to make room for her new handlebar set up. That proves to be the easy part, then we try installing the new ones. They are tight and none of the tricks to slide them on more easily, like using hairspray or the air compressor work. They don’t budge.
Louise and I quickly realize that it is going to take both of us, and all our strength to make this work. We tag team the bike, like a pair of WWF wrestlers, one of us holding the handlebars steady while the other twists and pushes the grips with all our might, groaning and growling and forcing them on millimeter by millimeter. We switch when our forearms and palms begin cramping, back and forth and back again. Every once in a while our strength lapses as we burst into giggles at the absurdity of how hard this is. By and by we get them on and cheer for ourselves. Our first of what I hope our many successes.
We also change out our tires to some made of Kevlar and are hopefully more puncture resistant for Cuba’s notoriously poor roads. We attach racks, install pedal cages and collect tools and tubes for the trip and wrap the bikes in all manner of styrofoam and bubble wrap like we are setting broken bones, before we stuff them in their respective boxes.
By late afternoon, we are tired, but satisfied. Louise chastises me for getting bike grease on my sweater while we munch on grapefruit wedges and apple slices that she had packed for our lunch. I feel surge of warmth towards her.
This is what it is all about, working hard, figuring it out, and trying new things and now I get to do that as a team, with someone who cares about my sweater, feeds me snacks and laughs.
We talk about what we are most looking forward to about the trip and Louise says, “This,” she gestures to the day. “just two gals planning and doing an adventure together without always compromising our ideas.” We acknowledge that we both often feel like we give our partners power over decision making because we are pretty laid back and don’t really care all that much about particulars. They aren’t often worth the conflict.
I have gotten used to going on these adventures alone and gutting out the hard parts, feeling like the only way forward was to engage in a silent battle between me and whatever obstacle lies before me. Laughing through our struggles together today, helping each other, taking turns using our strengths and acknowledging the importance of our autonomy is hopefully a harbinger of things to come.
Next week we will embark on a thousand mile bicycle tour from Havana, Cuba to Santiago de Cuba, zig-zagging from the northern coast to the southern, as we make our way down the length of the country. There will be plenty of challenges for sure, mountains to climb, potential food, water and electricity shortages, language barriers and sore bums, but I believe we are off to a most excellent start.