the cars in the raven cycle and the dreamer trilogy are metaphors for/extensions of the people who drive them (especially in terms of interpersonal relationships and perceptions)- and so is adam’s bicycle. (*warning for brief mentions of abuse in later paragraphs*). adam gets around henrietta on a bicycle because it’s the only form of transportation he can afford, and we know he’s ashamed of this (his narration describes the bike as “somewhat pathetic”). adam's bicycle is present in pivotal scenes: in one of his chapters, he recalls the first time he talked to gansey, and the visceral fear and embarrassment evoked by seeing his bike next to the exuberant camaro (and the awkward fitting of the bike into the camaro’s trunk)- but also their nearly instant friendship once adam accepts a ride to aglionby after helping gansey repair the camaro.
but when adam talks to blue for the first time (described from blue’s pov), they both have their bikes; adam’s is one of several details that endear him to blue, along with his frayed sweater, quiet demeanor, and accent- all of which let blue know that adam doesn’t fit her assumption that all aglionby boys are affluent and arrogant. she notices that adam’s bike is “dolefully squeaking,” which i’m taking to be an oblique reference to a squeaky wheel, or something/someone neglected/in need of care. and when ronan (wakefully) sees adam for the first time (in a flashback in cdth), adam and his bike are going uphill while gansey and ronan ride in the camaro. he refers to adam simply as “the boy with the bicycle." adam, inclusive of the bike, is immediately attractive to ronan, which is a stark contrast to adam’s perception of his bike (and, thus, himself). adam is ashamed of himself, but blue relates to him, and both she and ronan see him as desirable (with the bicycle present!).
in trb chapter 20, adam is trying to get his bike to stand up in the monmouth parking lot, but the kickstand is broken (emblematic of the familial love and support that he lacks/his abusive parents have destabilized him). he then tries to remove the kickstand without breaking it (adam is trying to extricate himself from henrietta without hurting himself or others in the process/ he’s living tensely and precariously. in tdt, he becomes more likely to snap under stress. ronan recognizes adam’s fragility, of being about to break; adam’s spirit breaking is one of gansey’s worst fears). and even if adam could remove the kickstand, a bike without a kickstand (a boy without a family or friends) cannot balance unless it’s in motion (a miracle of moving parts, maybe)- but perpetual motion is impossible, so adam is destined to crash without external support. in this scene, he could lean the bike against monmouth, but he’s not yet ready to accept help or gifts. a bike can only seat an army of one, unlike gansey and ronan’s cars. with the bike, symbolically, there's no risk of codependency or humiliation, but there’s also inevitable isolation and pathological independence. (thank you alli @whoreshoecrab for helping me organize my thoughts re: the kickstand!)
in the same chapter, adam muses that ronan doesn’t need physics/isn’t held back by the mortal, mundane, material restrictions adam has to work around. adam's not serious (and doesn’t know that ronan actually does defy physics when dreaming), but if ronan can waste his time idly and metaphorically use his privilege to launch his bmw through the sky to the moon, adam must drudgingly bike along the ground; he must manage his time diligently and strategically; he must deal with the physical failures of his bike and the kickstand with human amounts of force. this sets up adam’s core frustration with ronan and ronan’s apparent freedom, but this envy gets deconstructed as he spends more time alone with ronan, particularly in bllb.
there's probably a lot to say about the hondayota (and when adam drives alone vs. when he drives blue and noah to the national park and has his awakening, to which his realizations about connectivity and connectedness are crucial), but i'll skip ahead to cdth when adam has a motorcycle instead of a bicycle. the motorcycle reveals some growth (he’s accepted a gift from ronan, he’s healed to the point where he can choose when to leave and return to virginia, ronan says adam has always wanted a motorbike instead of a car, perhaps [metaphorically] because it’s still an independent way to travel but isn’t reliant on sheer physical labor), but also reveals that his life is still unbalanced and marked by the upkeep of a confident façade (he dumps the motorcycle when he slows down/he still falters when he can’t throw himself into a perpetual state of work). he's still adam, always moving and looking at the roads ahead of him, and he's still struggling to reconcile his past with his present without living inauthentically, but he’s no longer balancing his life alone.
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