For the Love of Bikes

Life is better on a bike!

Author: Susan (Page 3 of 102)

September 18, 2021 /
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As someone caught in an emotional riptide, this resonates with me so much. I am caught in the flood, overcome by it, drowning. Not seeing a way across or through, but I will begin again.

Do you relate to this, in any way? I would love to know what any of you think if you are comfortable sharing.

From Sharon Salzberg

Acceptance doesn’t mean succumbing to what’s going on. When we succumb to a situation, we collapse into it, or become immersed in it or possessed by it. While trying to cross the flood, instead of moving we linger and we drown, we get possessed by the waves of the flood, we are overcome by them. Yet acceptance clearly doesn’t mean we struggle against the waves. Trying to push against the waves or push them out of the way exhausts us and is futile. We have to use the momentum of each wave on the crossing to help us go along. But it takes a special kind of strength to be able to be this delicate, to be able to be in the middle of the flood, not sinking and not thrashing around. The crossing of the flood is only accomplished one moment at a time. The art of this accomplishment is the ability to continually begin again. This is the other side of letting go, the doorway letting go reveals. We set forth, we struggle or get muddled or anxious, we lose our balance, and then realizing it, we begin again. We don’t need self-recriminations or blame or anger. We need a reawakening of intention and a willingness to recommit, to be wholehearted once again.

Excerpt from ‘real change: mindfulness to heal ourselves and the world
September 16, 2021 /
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I am not sure how many people read my blog any longer since I disappeared on you and have only posted from time to time the last few years. So I feel pretty safe admitting something here that I wouldn’t say out loud or put on Facebook or Twitter. Here it is:

The weather is too nice. Way too nice. Low 70’s, sunny and no wind.

What does that say to you my fellow cycling fiend? Right. And if you read Hit you know I can’t.

Honestly I wish I could skip Fall and go straight into winter and if you know where I live you know just how crazy a statement that is. Crazy but true. Painfully true and I feel bad for feeling that way. Which is why I am only saying it here, where you are the only one to read it, our secret now.

I hate this. It is so hard being stuck inside, hell, in bed or the couch. It sucks. It has been 6 weeks, a long time to do nothing.

I hate it. Did I say that already?

Here it is: Fall has always been my favorite time to ride and it is so hard, so depressing not being able to. Depressing in a way that is darker and heavier, harder to accept than my current injured state. I don’t know how to be this person I now am. Come on rain, gray days. I need you.

September 10, 2021 /
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To be hit is every cyclist’s biggest fear, worry, nightmare. I was hit by a car August 2, 2021 riding a route I have ridden hundreds of times.

I am not yet recovered, physically or mentally. Not even close. My physical recovery could take a year. My emotional and mental recovery will take longer I expect.

If you have spent any time here, or just peruse this blog now, you will easily see that I love cycling. To put it quite simply, cycling is near and dear to my heart. Riding my bike is a core part of who I am and how I live. My thirty-one years of cycling had me at a fitness level that would be unachievable without those thousands of hours of sustained cardiovascular effort and tens of thousands of miles. Cycling is why I have a resting heart rate in the 40’s and a blood pressure of someone in their 20’s. I do not look, move, act or feel anywhere near my age – all because of cycling.

That has now changed. Time will tell to what extent those changes are permanent. I wonder sometimes if the driver ever thinks about what he took from me. First, even if he does think about me, he has no idea what he took away. What he took from me in the present and the future. I am unable to find the words even to explain it to you in this blog post, but I feel it and only a cyclist who has been seriously injured while doing what we all love can understand. If you are one of those cyclists, or have ever been part of this horrible club no cyclist wants to be a part of, I could use some encouragement from you or to hear how you made it through. Because presently I do not see a way forward to being who I used to be.

June 9, 2021 /
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I now live in a part of the country where I have to contend with winter weather (Cleveland, Ohio area). Meaning the weather here limits my cycling activity to about 6 months out of the year – if we are lucky. Last year we were lucky, this year not so much. Typically my outdoor riding begins in mid-May and ends around mid-November. After that I ride in the basement on my Kickr Core. At some point I will write a post about the Kickr, but suffice it to say, I love the thing. It has completely changed my indoor training and made it much more effective and fun; and fun is not a word anyone typically associates with indoor training.

Last summer was perfect weather for cycling from about mid-May to early or mid-November. Neither rain or heat interfered with my ability to ride. Most weeks I rode between 120 and 200 miles a week. It was a blast.

I talked to people here about how much I was enjoying the storybook weather and would inquire, “so is this kind of typical for the summer”? To which I would hear, “umm, no, we are having an exceptional summer aren’t we” (sans Covid of course).

This summer I am told is more typical, to which I reply, “bummer”. Lots of rain, humidity and heat for late spring. I am not digging it and I am still waiting for what we had last year to reappear.

Come on, don’t laugh. If you are here reading this you must be a cyclist and as a cyclist I know for a fact that like me you are obsessed with the weather. We know the 10 day forecast by heart, including expected rainfall, wind speed and direction and which days are optimum for riding.

Today was one of those so-called optimum days – except for the fact that it was humid, warmer than it should be since it isn’t even officially summer, and the rain started up again not more than 15 minutes after I finished my ride. I managed to get 30 miles in so I am good.

I am not good with the next several days but further out in the 10 day forecast looks like a return to those glorious days of last summer. Here’s hoping.

See you on the road.

June 3, 2021 /
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Bicycles certainly deserve to have at least one day set aside to honor them.

Admit it though, every time you ride one of your bikes you celebrate the almighty bicycle in some way. Plus, while we are being truthful here, you may as well tell us you have a few bicycles and love them all equally, like children. Although they are likely all aware you ride one way more than the others. 🤔

Speaking of multiple bikes, the “bike boom” of 2020 is continuing into our post-Covid world and hopefully will just continue to boom. Bikes of all types are in high demand, as well as related gear, and difficult to come by according to two bike shops I frequent here in northeast Ohio.

E-bikes are becoming much more popular as well as becoming a bigger part of the market share for bike purchases. For those of us who ride *regular* bikes aka *self-propelled* we know it all too well when a moped-looking bike passes us on the road or trail. Although they are beginning to look more and more like regular bikes so it is getting harder to tell. If you are like me however, when someone zooms past you just assume they must be riding an e-bike to be going that much faster.

The best thing to come out of the e-bike explosion is how they are opening up cycling to a whole new population and consequently increasing the number of people who ride bikes.

More people riding bikes – motor assist or not – makes it safer for all of us on the road. Study after study has shown the more people who ride, the safer conditions are for all. Drivers know to expect encountering cyclists and most adjust accordingly. Here in the east of Cleveland suburb of Chagrin Falls, drivers will avoid driving on Chagrin River Road I am told because of the number of cyclists riding this very popular road. On some early morning rides I have encountered more cyclists than cars and that my cycling, bike worshiping friends, is utopia.

So here is to World Bicycle Day, may every day be a day we appreciate the bicycle.

person riding on red road bike during sunset
Photo by Pixels
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