For the Love of Bikes

Life is better on a bike!

Author: Susan (Page 4 of 102)

May 31, 2021 /
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Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning of my second love affair with cycling. I was in my 30’s then, nearly half my current age – holy sht – when I got another bike and fell in love. I have ridden ever since. Honestly every bike I have ever owned I have loved. Bikes and cycling are like that – easy to love, easy to commit.

I had a record breaking year last year and since it is Memorial Day today I rode again, and most days now that the weather is warm.

So I am still at it. Still doing the thing I love. Still riding my bike.

Life is good. Happy Memorial Day!🚴‍♀️🇺🇸

Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial beginning of summer, always brings to mind the rebirth of my love for cycling. Like most everyone else I practically lived on a bike during my childhood and even teen years. When I was in college, not owning a car, I biked to class and work.  Biking actually wasn’t that prevalent when I was in college not like it is today.

Once adulthood set in (parenthood and work) I put away my bike.  For exercise I ran some, played a little tennis, but rarely considered biking and I’m not sure why. That changed when one Memorial Day weekend my then 10 year old daughter said, “Mom, let’s ride bikes to my school”.  Her school was 7 miles away and partly over dirt and gravel roads, but it sounded fun so I said sure!

I remember I packed for that first bike ride like I would pack now for an all day ride – several snacks and a lot of water and we set off.  I rode my old Sears Free Spirit bike, the same bike I had ridden in college. The old 10speed-drop-handlebar-skinny-tire bike that wasn’t really intended to be ridden on gravel, but we took our time and made it to the school. 

Like kids do, after we had been there for a little while, my daughter was ready to ride  home.  I on the other hand was not.  I stalled like any mother worth her salt until I was rested and fairly confident I could make it back. Although I was only 35 years old at the time, I thought 35 was pretty old, the way people in their 20’s and 30’s do until they get to their 40’s and beyond. I also wasn’t doing any kind of cardio exercise on a regular basis plus, I am ashamed to admit, I still smoked.

After a while we got back on our bikes and headed home.  We both felt a sense of accomplishment and pride that we had ridden our bikes 14 miles! Unfortunately I didn’t get back to riding after that. But lo and behold the next Memorial Day weekend my daughter gets up and says excitedly, “it’s our annual ride our bikes to school day”! I had completely forgotten about the previous year’s trek, but of course she had not.  My response to her was something like I’m too old to ride a bike that far… and the rest as they say is history.

The first time I rode my bike on Free Wheel and all the other years I rode it she reminded me of my “I’m too old” whine. The time I rode the MS 150, 150 miles in 2 days, she reminded me, and each and every time she did, we had a good laugh!

I learned that you’re never too old to begin again, and that in many ways I’m younger now than I was then. 

The following September I got a Schwin hybrid to ride around the neighborhood and on any future treks to schools or wherever with my daughter. That bike is the bike that as an adult I fell in love with cycling. I couldn’t get enough of riding then and I still can’t. In many ways I owe my profound love of cycling to my daughter Jessica, and that first bike ride to her school – thank you Jessica!  

Since that inaugural ride I’ve logged tens of thousands of miles on one bike or another: rides across Missouri, from Burlington, VT to Quebec City, through California Wine County and California’s Central Coast, the Texas Hill Country and along the Massachusetts coast, and most recently, France’s Provence region – as well as many cities across the US utilizing bike share or rentals.

And to commemorate my rediscovery of cycling, every Memorial Day weekend I go for some sort of ride and I always think back to that first ride and smile – that I am still at it and still love it. 

That’s my story. What’s yours? 

*Updated 05/31/2021
*Image is not the property of For the Love of Bikes, but is shared here. Creator of image is unknown.

Cycling = Happy

April 20, 2021 /
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Cycling is something I just count on doing once the weather turns warms enough to turn snow into rain and the sun finally comes out in northeast Ohio.

Chagrin River Road/Gates Mills, OH

Last year spoiled me. I was as strong on the bike as I was 10 years earlier, possibly stronger. In 2020 I rode 600+ miles 4 months in a row, over 200 miles in a week a few times, basically riding to my heart’s content. Cycling was a way to get outdoors, be safe, and do something that made me happy, blissful even — in the middle of the horrific pandemic. When normal life became anything but, I still had my bike, I could still ride. Cycling was one of the very few things that was Covid-safe, and it made life sort of normal while out there riding. Was it like that for you? Maybe we were all just looking for a little normalcy in whatever way we could find.

Life isn’t completely back to normal yet. I am still riding a lot although not as much as last year. The fun is still there out on the road, but there is more traffic on my favorite route now than in 2020, which like all cyclists I am sad to see. If you can avoid work traffic during the week or ride early enough on the weekend it isn’t too bad.

While I enjoy riding on the many trails here in northeast Ohio, my preference is to ride from home through Chagrin Falls and along Chagrin River Road. CRR takes you along the river, bucolic farms and fields, wildlife, parkland, and that beautiful curvy road loved and ridden by many cyclists in the area. We wave, we say hi and sometimes chat and I feel connected to them, to life, to myself. I love that there are so many of us out doing what we all love.

All is right with the world there.

New Wheels – New Ride

September 7, 2020 /
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Granted I ride an old bike by most standards, a 2005 Scott CR1 Pro. A fine bike, one I have ridden almost exclusively – my stable has 4 bikes – with the Scott being my main ride, my road bike. Though she is old, nothing wrong with old if you catch my drift, the frame and fork are topnotch and fit me well. Plus with a few thousand miles of riding each season all the other parts have been replaced at some point, including an upgrade last year to Campagnolo Chorus 11 groupset. All parts except the wheels that is, until recently.

I have put serious miles on the stock wheels and hoped they would need replacing. If something needs replacing it is a repair not an upgrade and easier to rationalize and accept the cost. Anyhow, that wish came true this summer when my rear hub was pronounced toast by the mechanic at my LBS.

Like most cyclists I had heard no upgrade changes the performance of a bike more than wheels and I am here to tell you it is true. Incredibly true. I wish I had done it years ago.

Reynolds ARX41 Wheelset

To be fair, I went from the stock Mavic Ksyrium wheelset to Reynolds ARX41 carbon fiber wheelset with tubeless Schwalbe Pro 1 tires so you would expect an improvement in overall ride, climbing, etc., and I did, but I was cautiously hopeful about any improvements I would see.

The wheels have exceeded all expectations and made cycling even better this summer. So if you have been on the fence about upgrading your wheels I encourage you to take the leap. With us entering the off-season for cycling you can probably find good options at a good price.

My Scott pictured above; I opted for the tan Schwalbe tires to complement that beautiful black frame. I like the look. Thanks for reading!

Cycling and Life

July 29, 2020 /
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A large flock of geese fly overhead while I am cycling. Cycling solo, no drafting for me in other words. This shot is one section of the big V of geese. A peloton of birds if you will. Individuals doing what is best for the group – which just so happens is also best for the individuals.

I rode in a large peloton once, like you see in the big stage races. A mass of cyclists all tightly packed together into a cohesive group, riding as one. What one does affects all so you do nothing without considering the effect on everyone else. It does not even require thought, you simply know it and make decisions from that place. Every one else does too. All for one, one for all.

It is actually a beautiful thing to co-exist together in a group, as a group. An incredible experience on a bike because you are capable of speeds you simply cannot do on your own. Not for a sustained period.

That experience happened for me on Lance Armstrong’s “Ride for the Roses” in Austin. To date it’s the most fun and biggest thrill I have ever had on a bike. We flew! Almost effortlessly. Up and down hills, a buzz of gears and breath and tires.

You go faster with less effort when riding in a group, the bigger the community of riders, the bigger the benefit. The bigger the responsibility too, their safety relied on mine and vice versa. That is true in life as well, but maybe not as obvious as it is in a peloton or a group of geese in a big V in the sky.

Working together as one unit has benefits, geese know it, cyclists know it. Regular humans it seems, not so much as evidenced by the craziness surrounding wearing a mask to protect against Covid-19. Wear a mask, it benefits you and everyone else. All for one, one for all.

Early Morning Ride

June 20, 2020 /
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I head out early. Hazy rays of sunlight shimmer, just clearing the trees and catching the fields of tall grasses along Chagrin River Road, making it luminous.

There is a layer of fog in the distance where I know the river is. It is beautifully quiet. I hear birdsong – my tires and the hum of my gears – and nothing else.

Magical in every sense of the word, I am spellbound, not quite believing my good fortune. I promise myself I will get out early tomorrow too – and I do.

To my right as I take a curve is a deer. In the middle of the field of tall grass. A single solitary deer looking at me, me looking at her. All I see is the deer’s eyes and pointy ears, everything else is immersed in the grass which is nearly as tall.

The sun’s rays illuminate the tips of the grass and the deer. It is an amazing sight. A moment so perfect I only capture it in my mind’s eye. I wasn’t about to disturb the moment or the deer by stopping and taking a picture. That’s saying something for the woman with 33,595 photos on her iPhone presently.

Some bike rides are like that, actually many have beautiful moments, but today’s was extraordinary.

I’ll be out there early again tomorrow hoping to catch that sparkling light again and maybe another solitary soul in a field of grass.

From another encounter, I have a thing for deer

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