If I were to list the important people in my current life, the three gentlemen in the photograph wouldn’t be far from the top.  The reason?  They keep Laura and me on our bikes.  That is huge.

That’s Jerry Armstrong on the left.  He owns Capp’s Bike Shop on South Topeka Blvd.  His son, Chris, in the middle, manages the shop and Jeremy Hutsell is the chief mechanic.  Thanks to these three and Capp’s great staff, Laura and I ride thousands of miles a year on what I have always believed to be one greatest inventions ever, a bicycle.

A bicycle has always been a freedom machine for me.  I can’t remember how old I was when I first rode a bike.  I know it wasn’t mine.  No training wheels.  I just got on and went.  Buzzing straight from the nearby schoolyard baseball game, I rolled right up to my father and mother as they sat relaxing in the back yard.   The next day my father brought home my very first bike.  My life has always been better since.

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Favorite bike: Schwinn Paramount. Bent spent the early 1970s competing across the Northeast for Somerset Schwinn, hoping for a spot on the national team. Career: Owner, Bent's Cycling and Fitness, 1058 South Florida Avenue. Hobbies: Other than cycling, any water sport including white water kayaking and sailing. Bent spent the decades that followed building upon a legacy started by his father and making a big impact on the cycling community. Hobbies: Reading Time Magazine, National Geographic, Smithsonian, bicycle magazines. Car: Honda Element with a bike rack on the back: "It's practical. At 57, the fourth-generation cycling business owner still competes, sponsors races and supports local riders. The disappointment took the air out of his tires. School: Graduated in 1972 from Lakeland High School. "I kind of lost the drive to try and compete at that level. Facts STEVEN GENE BENT Birth: Sept. But at the Olympic trials in Saranac Lake, N. Y. , Bent was slowed by tendinitis and came up short.

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