Thank you for sharing your “bike of life “project with youth in Ottawa, Ontario. It brought back fond memories of when I first heard you present in November of last year. Although many things stood out for me while listening, it was wonderful to envision how different parts of the bike helped to facilitate a meaningful rich conversation with a young person, starting with the rear tire and asking “Where is home for you”? As well, I appreciate how the metaphor of the bike chain provided opportunities to having a re-membering conversation and linking to hearing a person’s culture, relational history, including significant meaningful places for him. In hearing your project again, I found myself excited to envision how I could use the “bike of life” exercise with adult learners in our Academic Upgrading program at George Brown College in Toronto. This metaphor would be relevant for many students who bike to school and have a history with biking. It can also be an opportunity to invite students to speak and write down their hopes, dreams and goals for the future as was reflected in your questions connected to the front tire. I equally appreciate how the spokes identify significant figures in a person’s life, drawing on who would be part of their club. I also love the idea of the bicycle basket as a metaphor for who would you bring along with you on your journey to sustain, nourish or orient you. I often ask students what they would carry in their knapsack or school bag get through difficulties.

Your project has further encouraged me to think of different metaphors to use with students to connect to their varied interests, including music. Different components of a musical instrument guitar strings could offer opportunity for rich story development. This is relevant because I also work with many students who have a strong relationship with music. Perhaps the strings could represent significant figures in the person’s life. And like the frame of the bike, I’m wondering how the frame of the guitar could represent skills, knowledges, abilities, intentions and values, and how the front of the guitar could represent future journeys. I also valued the question linking unique outcomes, “How would you manage to stay connected to these interests despite your relationship with depression? What kinds of skills/abilities will you need to draw upon?”

Thank you for sharing your practice project; it is a wonderful way to engage using different metaphors that contribute to both second story development and collective practices. Many possibilities of your project reflected thoughtfulness, including hearing how taking different bike paths have helped young people deal with stress.

At the same time, I really appreciate hearing about the community development and initiatives that included creating an opportunity for young people building a community bike while honouring and exploring their connections among land, community and social action. I also appreciate how you situated yourself in your work in terms of the dominate culture and how feminism has challenged you not to reproduce privilege. I just recently came across this article (https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2016/02/29/how-bicycles-helped-liberate-women-in-the-1890s/) and thought of your reflections on the history of biking for women being connected to the suffragette movement. I equally appreciate the “road conditions” metaphor, such as road hazards (violence, abuse and obstacles) in reading the world in relation to power and privilege. For example, due to gender, ability, race, class, sexual orientation, some routes in life are risky, dangerous and just simply boring. What are the alternative and non-narrative roads? What are some ways spaces are unsafe for women and why, and who benefits from this? I also appreciate the Road wisdom collective document and recording insider knowledges.
Finally, I appreciate how your project has encouraged me to reflect on my lengthy relationship with biking and how it has allowed me to travel and to see places, shift my worldview and think differently of my life while feeling safe exploring unfamiliar places.

With thanks, Chris Caron

Ray