I was about 6 years old the first time I remember riding a bike, in Wichita, KS and it was enjoyable, no doubt. A year or so later, my family moved to Colorado and I remember well the day we moved into our new house, I rode my bike down our very steep driveway and crashed. That was the beginning of my bike riding career.
From there, I was riding my bike as much as I could, I remember riding to school and all around town. Fast forward to high school when I was about to go to college, I fabricated a front fork mount in the back of my 1985 Toyota pickup to mount my bike so that I could take it anywhere I needed to go. By that point, I had a red Schwinn 10 speed bike and at some point during college, I acquired a mint-colored Schwinn 10 speed. 2 bikes almost identical except the mint-colored one was too tall.
After college, I bought a Performance Mountain bike that I rode in my early to mid-20s and then I didn’t ride at all for a long time after that. After many life changes and getting my life back on track, my desire to ride cane back and I bought a reconditioned vintage Batavus Champion IC 10-speed in October, 2020 and I was riding once again.
I rode quite a bit up through Thanksgiving of that same year. Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, I was out for a nice ride on the same path that I had ridden on most days for the last month or so and I hit a deep groove in the concrete that threw me off course and my left shoulder hit the ground pretty hard. Hard enough to break my clavicle AKA collarbone.
About a week and a half later I had surgery that left me with a plate and 6 screws holding my body together. A lot of physical therapy later and I am back to close to 100%.
I like the drop handlebars of a road bike and the wider tires of a mountain bike and after doing some research, I learned that a gravel bike was in my future.
There are many big name bikes out there but I’m not a fan of following the crowd however, I am a fan of quality components. I visited my parents in June and my Dad showed me his bike. It was a Jamis, which I had never heard of and it caught my attention.
A few days later, I was at a random shop seeing what they had and they had a Jamis gravel bike. That was definitely an option but I wasn’t feeling this shop. I googled Jamis and found some other shops in the area.
I found a somewhat well-known outdoor store and went to check out what bikes they had and once again, there was a Jamis bike. It was a step up from the one that I saw at the last shop and it was actually a better price. I took it for a ride and fell in love.
It was much lighter and it shifted so smoothly, two things that I wasn’t used to. This was a big enough purchase that I needed to sleep on it, so I did just that. A few days later, we went back and pulled the trigger, so I was now the proud owner of a Jamis Renegade S2.
I have more to say on my bike riding adventures, both what I have done and what I dream of doing, so please stay tuned.
Here’s a picture of my Batavus bike, Made in Holland, as it proudly displays.

