Lately, I have been thinking about the nature of cycling, how people use their bikes, what they use for bikes, why they ride bikes, things like that.
Some I know use them purely as transport. They ride upright bikes, often with racks and fenders. Simple and practical bikes. The kind that might be left locked up outside and largely be ignored by someone passing by while the owner is in a coffee shop enjoying a warm beverage. The kind that get used to commute to school, to work, to get groceries. Ones that take to having a trailer attached. Get left in the rain. Not expensive Dutch bikes, but these fit this category well. I refer to inexpensive, almost cheap, lock them and leave them bikes. Plod along bikes, the kind that do not get ridden fast (although they could) because their very nature suggests a slower more relaxed pace.
Some I know ride them in the dirt. They use cyclo cross bikes, mountain bikes. Bikes with knobby tires, with slick tires, with big hit suspensions, hard tail back ends. Bikes with exotic suspensions, bikes with none. Bikes with xtr rim brakes which stop you so fast you get nose bleeds, bikes with huge diameter disks. All sorts of tire sizes, all sorts of tire types. They go fast, very very fast, in the dirt. They come alive when they leave the asphalt and pavement of the city. Lumbering and truck like when out of their element, they possess a soul transformed by the place they are meant to be.
Some I know ride the roads and ride them hard. Race bikes, some steel, some titanium, some carbon fiber, some aluminium. All share common features - hard, thin, skinny tires that roll fast over pavement, and skitter then on gravel. Low drop outs. Low weight. High speed. High control. Low center of gravity, and cornering prowess. Touring bikes, loaded, filled with things, go slow but go far. Explore what is over the horizon.
Some I know ride the urban scene. Trials bikes, fixies, odd ball cruisers. Hipster been seen bikes. Making a statement. Part of the urban landscape. Battered, bruised, well loved. Often old, sometimes new.
It is their use that defines them, and their use that defines how they are often ridden.
And it is that which made me think.
I am a cyclist.
I ride for transport, in the dirt, on the roads, and to some extent in the urban scene.
But I don't fit in any box that anyone might try and put me into.
What I do, no matter what I ride, and for what purpose, is 95 to 115.
And it is in that wonderful pedal cadence that I float away and fly, dancing on two wheels. Regardless of the bike, or the purpose for which I ride.
Nice post, at the end the day none of us fit into a box ... I wonder if its really advertizers who push us into nice tidy market segments (or they just prey on our instinctual tendency to categorize).
ReplyDeleteAnyways wondering where your bike picture was taken?
Thanks for the kind comment. I think you are right and that it is advertisers that do it to a lot of us. I also think it is cyclists themselves, self catagorizing and separating into niches within the greater mish mash of "cycling". People love to do this in general I have noted.
DeleteTo answer your question, the picture was taken along the Cambridge / Paris rail trail in Southern Ontario. This trail runs along the Grand River through (mostly) Grand River Conservation Authority lands. This spot is closer to the Paris end of the trail. Round trip from Cambridge at the rail head, including stopping for truly excellent coffee at the Brown Dog in Paris, is approximately 43km. I often do the run from home, making it a 109km round trip. The trail goes on, with some wiggling, to Brandford and then Hamilton making a 157km round trip (give or take a bit) plus 60 more if I do it from home. Have not done that yet, but might this summer for giggles :)