Too Tired

What with a combination of being a weakling and easily frightened as a child, I didn't learn to ride a bike until I was about 8 or 9 years old. When I did finally learn, I spent months in a state of permanent bruisedness - unable to operate the brakes properly I tended to use walls and trees to stop.

Not much has changed on that front (I spent last weekend crashing expensive Demo bikes) but I now appear, according to Bike Snob NYC blog, to qualify as a proper cyclist:

1) A “cyclist” rides a bike even when he or she does not have to.

Aside from the fact that I could easily catch the bus to work each day instead of the 6 mile grind, I'm not sure I could ever pass off a trip to Glen Tress as 'necessary'.


2) A “cyclist” is someone who owns a floor pump.

Damn right I do, and I am secretly suspicious of anyone who doesn't know what pressure their bike tyres are at.

Anyway, reading BSNYC's post about the nature of cycling I'm inspired to blurt my own musings about the joy of two tyred transport:

Zoooom

Remember the scenes in Return of the Jedi where they're on those nifty wee speeder things going through the forest? Remember wanting to join in the fun? Go maountain biking, and ride as fast as you can - it's pretty much the same thing. (Riding road bikes fast is fun too, but harder to describe.)

Calories Out >> Calories In

Anyone who eats as much cake as me should be a massive fatty. No prizes for guessing why I'm not.

Shiny

I'm as prone as many to succumbing to the lure of sexy carbon fibre thrunge brackets and rotary combobulators, but bike porn is a fairly shallow enjoyment. What's far more satisfying about bikes is their sheer simplicity. Even a doofus like me can understand how they work, and indeed fix them. You barely notice when you're riding a well designed and well maintained bike because you're having too much fun.

Pretty

You can use a bike to get to places you'd never bother walking to or that you'd just just speed through in a car.

Lycra

Ok, maybe not.

So, what to listen to while pondering such things?

Why, bikeforthree! of course!