For the Love of Bikes

Life is better on a bike!

Tag: cycling

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.

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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