Why Bike?

My bike-related thought (which consumes much of my total thought) breaks down approximately as follows:

Longing or nostalgic thoughts about biking and touring: 60%
Planning thoughts about future biking and touring: 30%
Epistemological thoughts about my bike obsession: 10%

I shall reflect for a moment on the third category. The first two categories are self-explanatory to any biker, and even, perhaps, to non-bikers such as my wife. It's an obsession, so I obsess. It's easy to guess what I obsess about. But why do I do it? What is it about this child's toy do I find so fascinating?

Aside from the obvious gear-head love of shiny machines, be they cars, motorcycles, guns, boats, sailboards, bicycles, etc, the bicycle can also be seen as a vehicle of escape. Escape from the house, neighborhood, or town, escape from real work, escape from worry. Mostly, though, it's an escape from death. Well, not exactly an escape from death. An escape from thoughts of mortality. An attempted solution of the mid-life crisis, the realization that Dammit I'm going to die and I'm halfway there already.

Somehow, knowing that I'm halfway there makes me want to do something to shake up the status quo. I'm not the type to get a girlfriend or a sports car (classic solutions to the mid-life crisis), so instead I opt for the other classic solution: extreme behavior. Although sky-diving looks appealing, I'm probably not going to do it--too expensive and complicated. Same with hang gliding (which really looks fun). So I bike, both longish distances for recreation, and as a means of commuting, even in the snow and slush.

Does it help? Do I escape my midlife crisis by riding away from it?

Maybe. A little. I do find it comforting when I get in a panic about things to go to my biking "special place" and think about rides that have been and will be, and equipment that I might put on my bike. I try not to spend too wildly on bike doo-dads but I do love to browse the beautiful stuff at Rivendell, Velo Orange, etc.

Not a totally rational justification, but there you have it. Of course, I was obsessed with bikes when I was 15, too, so this isn't new. I doubt that I was having a mid-life crisis then. Maybe I find it comforting to be as obsessed with something now as I was then. I won't grow up.

Winter Again!

Winter has hit mid-Michigan early this year. Obviously not as a
result of global warming, but perhaps it's as a result of global
climate change. Or maybe it's just the weather cycle doing its thing.
I can remember winters in Michigan when I was kid that seemed more
severe than we've had in the last 20 years.

In any case, the snow and ice make it necessary for me to pull out
the slushmobile for my daily commute. But that's OK. I'd never want
to ride it across the country, but for riding five miles through snow
and slush, over slick ice and crusty ice ridges, it's pretty fun. I
put a big Wald basket on the back, so it can carry a big load. I
added a brake enhancer to make the road lever work better with the
canti-brakes. I added an old retro generator and light that I had
lying around for a little supplemental "hey! here I am!" lighting. I
have been riding to work on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:00 am, and
home on Wednesdays at 9:00 pm, so I've needed the lights (which also
include a battery powered halogen front light and two LED blinkies on
the back).

The huge Wald fenders do a great job keeping the snow and slush off
me, and because they are quite high above the tires, snow and slush
doesn't collect very much under the fenders or in the brakes.

By the end of last winter I was pretty tired of riding over ice ruts
and through cut up snowplow detritus, but so far it's OK.