48 today... good grief! I feel no different than when I was 20... but my body has more aches & pains, and they hang around longer.
My life-long love affair with cycling is as fervent, if not more so, than it ever was.
As soon as I could pedal a tricycle at age 2-3 it seemed like I lived my life on a bike - hurtling around my home/neighbourhood having a blast.
At age 10 my Dad came helped me find an old gents' bike in a jumble sale. Once home, I stripped it, cleaned it, attempted the poorest rattle-can sky blue paint job you've ever seen, replaced the cotters in teh cranks (remember those?), put a new gear on the rear wheel (yes, it was singlespeed - pre-dating the singlespeed trend by about 20yrs), bunged a pair of cowhorn handlebars on it, a single brake, and rode the heck out of it all over the commons and woods in the locale. In those days (1975-80) we called them 'track bikes' since we rode 'tracks' in the woods. It was my fun bike, my commuter bike (to school) my get-away-from-home bike to my friends' homes 5-10 miles away.
In my late teens I forsook bikes for cars. My first car being an MG Midget.. and I left bikes behind as at that age they seemed childish toys, as I'm sure they do for many late teenagers taking their first steps to driving and adulthood.
But a steady girlfriend who lived 6 miles away and a desire to see her every night meant I bought an old black 'racer' as I couldn't afford the petrol. Fitted with a dynamo at the rear and one of those old grey box-like battery lights on a bracket on the side of the forks, I commuted in the dark to see her 4-5 times a week for 3 years.
My love for the girl waned. But on those solo bike rides to and fro late at night, with no traffic, on quiet roads - the zipping sound from my tyres penetrating the night's silence as I flew along, reinvigorated my love of the bike. It came to be that I looked forward more to the ride than I did to seeing the girlfriend!
Then, Mountain Biking happened.
I bought a very used Madison Ridgeback in 1988 and rediscovered my youth spent blatting around the 'tracks' (single track) in the woods. Many years - and many bikes later, I've lived on the Continent and in the USA, biked in exotic places like Moab, Whistler, Lake Como, the French and Italian Alps, all along teh Dordogne.
I've been a sponsored CX racer (in California), met Keith Bontrager, Tom Ritchey, ridden with Shari Kain, raced against Dave Weins (he of course annihilated me - and everyone else in that race - Crested Butte Fat Tyre Fest), knew Bob Seals well (inventor of the Cool Tool) , watched John Tomac race the Kamikaze DH at Mammoth Lakes, and have many, many other fantastic memories.
I've gone from clips to flats and back again - and now use both with equal ease. Ride DH every year in the Alps, thrash my trail bike around the trails with my mates as regularly as I ever did, although the trails have certainly changed a lot, ride my road bike probably more these days than my MTB because it's just easier and quicker to go straight from the house, get a ride in and get back in less time than it takes to go MTBing, I have some kind of sickness that perennially sees me going mad on Cyclocross, and about once every 18months I buy another single speed, being caught up in the romance of the idea, the beauty and simplicity if the bike, the purity of the sensation.. then I take it on a few rides, remember just how truly hard/awful a rigid singlespeed really is, and sell it shortly thereafter.. only to forget how bad it was and repeat the exercise 18 months later.
I rode the Tour of Flanders this year and have fallen in love with it - and have been looking forward all year to next years' event.
I still go to bed excited on a Friday night about the following day's ride.. having carefully, and with a big grin on my face, got all my stuff ready beforehand.
I'm like a little kid whenever I go for a ride.. playing on the bike no matter whether it's MTB, road, CX, single speed or just up the road for an errand.
As one of my Birthday cards this morning says: Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional.
Here's to the next 20-30 years of my life on a bike!
My life-long love affair with cycling is as fervent, if not more so, than it ever was.
As soon as I could pedal a tricycle at age 2-3 it seemed like I lived my life on a bike - hurtling around my home/neighbourhood having a blast.
At age 10 my Dad came helped me find an old gents' bike in a jumble sale. Once home, I stripped it, cleaned it, attempted the poorest rattle-can sky blue paint job you've ever seen, replaced the cotters in teh cranks (remember those?), put a new gear on the rear wheel (yes, it was singlespeed - pre-dating the singlespeed trend by about 20yrs), bunged a pair of cowhorn handlebars on it, a single brake, and rode the heck out of it all over the commons and woods in the locale. In those days (1975-80) we called them 'track bikes' since we rode 'tracks' in the woods. It was my fun bike, my commuter bike (to school) my get-away-from-home bike to my friends' homes 5-10 miles away.
In my late teens I forsook bikes for cars. My first car being an MG Midget.. and I left bikes behind as at that age they seemed childish toys, as I'm sure they do for many late teenagers taking their first steps to driving and adulthood.
But a steady girlfriend who lived 6 miles away and a desire to see her every night meant I bought an old black 'racer' as I couldn't afford the petrol. Fitted with a dynamo at the rear and one of those old grey box-like battery lights on a bracket on the side of the forks, I commuted in the dark to see her 4-5 times a week for 3 years.
My love for the girl waned. But on those solo bike rides to and fro late at night, with no traffic, on quiet roads - the zipping sound from my tyres penetrating the night's silence as I flew along, reinvigorated my love of the bike. It came to be that I looked forward more to the ride than I did to seeing the girlfriend!
Then, Mountain Biking happened.
I bought a very used Madison Ridgeback in 1988 and rediscovered my youth spent blatting around the 'tracks' (single track) in the woods. Many years - and many bikes later, I've lived on the Continent and in the USA, biked in exotic places like Moab, Whistler, Lake Como, the French and Italian Alps, all along teh Dordogne.
I've been a sponsored CX racer (in California), met Keith Bontrager, Tom Ritchey, ridden with Shari Kain, raced against Dave Weins (he of course annihilated me - and everyone else in that race - Crested Butte Fat Tyre Fest), knew Bob Seals well (inventor of the Cool Tool) , watched John Tomac race the Kamikaze DH at Mammoth Lakes, and have many, many other fantastic memories.
I've gone from clips to flats and back again - and now use both with equal ease. Ride DH every year in the Alps, thrash my trail bike around the trails with my mates as regularly as I ever did, although the trails have certainly changed a lot, ride my road bike probably more these days than my MTB because it's just easier and quicker to go straight from the house, get a ride in and get back in less time than it takes to go MTBing, I have some kind of sickness that perennially sees me going mad on Cyclocross, and about once every 18months I buy another single speed, being caught up in the romance of the idea, the beauty and simplicity if the bike, the purity of the sensation.. then I take it on a few rides, remember just how truly hard/awful a rigid singlespeed really is, and sell it shortly thereafter.. only to forget how bad it was and repeat the exercise 18 months later.
I rode the Tour of Flanders this year and have fallen in love with it - and have been looking forward all year to next years' event.
I still go to bed excited on a Friday night about the following day's ride.. having carefully, and with a big grin on my face, got all my stuff ready beforehand.
I'm like a little kid whenever I go for a ride.. playing on the bike no matter whether it's MTB, road, CX, single speed or just up the road for an errand.
As one of my Birthday cards this morning says: Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional.
Here's to the next 20-30 years of my life on a bike!
Enjoy.
