I have mixed emotions about tracking my adventures. I know folks who LIVE to share their conquests. To the point where it feels like the only reason they actually go on adventures is to tell others what they have done. I do not feel this way. But, the other side of me, the accepting side says “Well, if that is what it takes for them to get out then so be it, and perhaps their doing so will inspire others.” It is with this idea I log posts like this. Maybe you will see something that makes you say “Hmm, I think maybe I want to do that too.” And with bikes, this is precisely what we need.
I love to ride. I always have and my hope is for you to either share your love or rekindle a love you once had. It is cold here now. Ten degrees yesterday morning, so riding for me is not easy. Hands, feet and head, all critical warmth protection required. I have almost no winter riding clothes. Seriously, even after all these years. So, I layer up with everything I have. Cheap CostCo underlayer, ten-year-old frayed wool layer, epically smelly cycling layer and buff, beanie, twenty-year-old ski headband thingy and wind shell. I looked like I robbed a yard sale.
Lungs burning in the cold. Sun in my eyes. A twenty-five mile per hour wind with gusts even higher. And it was grand. All of it. Every single thing was fantastic. Came home and collapsed. A forty-five-minute nap. One of those naps where you are so deep you aren’t sure you are coming out of it. You see Jesus and Krishna and all the rest reaching out for you, “Come, come to our warm embrace,” but you think “Wait, I’m having burritos later I don’t want to miss that,” and you somehow pull yourself out of nap death. Mouth gaping and bone dry. Walleyed. “I made it,” you say to yourself. “Madre de Dios.” I want to do that again, all of it. So if you are on the fence, just do what you can. Ride where you can. For however far.
Comments 8
“Looked like I robbed a yard sale.” Might steal that one for use one day – it’d be true.
Author
Scott,
Effective but not pretty.
Inspiring, undoubtedly sharing these things inspires others to do it. I am asking myself now why not going by bike to the office tomorrow? We read your post because we have similar interests, so sharing your ride and the map is not useless… Let’s go for it!
Author
Fabrizio,
Commuting is the best. If there is a way to do it safely, and for a lot of folks here that is debatable. We are so corrupt here it’s nearly impossible to make gains for things like bike lanes, etc. Oil and gas and the auto lobby, not to mention things like local, state, and federal insurance policies make doing the right thing almost impossible and far too expensive.
As for sharing these adventures – it’s a good thing to question. This is one person’s opinion, but I think there are people who share out of an interest in collaboration and come along with me, and there are people who share fraudulently – look at the wonderful things I do…tell me how wonderful I am. You’re the former, not the latter. My guess is that most of the people who follow your site and your videos like working with other people and exchanging stories. Just a hunch.
Off top – hey Shifter Community – if you like photography and music, do yourself a favor, listen to this 30 minute interview with Bob Gruen about shooting rock in the 60s 70s and 80s. There’s not a single (explicit) reference to equipment. No camera types, no film speeds, no technique. It’s wonderful.
https://www.npr.org/2020/12/08/944164817/cameras-chaos-and-cognac-how-bob-gruen-photographed-the-spirit-of-rock-n-roll
Author
Scott,
I’ve been fortunate to meet a few of the great music photographers in my time. Jim Marshall, William Claxton, Herman Leonard, etc. The only reference to anything technical I ever remember was Marshall getting up at a talk in Hollywood and saying “On the seventh day God created TRI-X.”
I love bikes, have an old Gary Fisher Tassajara that I still ride occasionally, but at 69 I find that the hills around here have gotten a bit much. Hoping for a folding ebike that I can carry in the back of my car, play Bill Cunningham.
Author
Chuck,
Good news. You have options. A folding Ebike would be grand.