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| Photograph by George Angus |
“When I see an adult
on a bicycle,
I do not despair for
the future of the human race.”
H.G
Wells
Initially I had my doubts about writing
this. But before I get to the reason for that, I have to provide some
background.
For a number of years I have been walking
around with this deep longing to get myself a bicycle. During my childhood and
teenage years I’ve loved cycling but somewhere along the line I’ve sold my bike and haven’t had one
for decades. But now the urge has grown so strong that I had to do something
about it.
And when I talk about a strong urge
I am not overly dramatic or saying it in a figurative sense. Like a massive
glazier slowly moving and not being detered by anything in its way, this astonishingly
deep desire arrived unannounced and grew in strength. Despite my constant,
mostly financial, objections it just wouldn’t budge.
I applied different filters to test
its validity:
- is it merely a craze I am going through, some sort of a midlife crisis? With all the activities and manual labour here at the Restory I get more than enough physical exercise. I don’t want to prove something to myself. This feeling is coming from somewhere deeper than that.
- am I bewitched by the world of cycling with all the high tech equipment and dazzling garments? Do I feel like an outsider longing to be part of the in-crowd? No, it is bigger than that.
To be honest this last point might
well have been another reason that it took me a while to get myself a bike. In
general, I do not like the modern cycling image and the costs of bicycles and
gear the experts are proposing put it in the sphere of rich men’s toys.
The whole image-thing is also the
issue that made me hesitant to write about my cycling experience. A modern day
culture has somehow developed around cycling that I find very difficult to
relate to. And by merely talking about bicycles and cycling you get associated
with a sub-culture that is known by elements that’s not my scene.
- I do not want to compare bicycle prices around a braai. I want to ride a bike.
- I do not want to go into long discussions about brand names, graphite versus steel frames, the advantages of disk brakes or the fact that padded pants are indispensable. I want to ride a bike.
- I do not want to turn my life into one long training session for the next race, or my days into logbook spaces of distances traveled. I just want to ride a bike.
About a month ago I said to myself:
“Enough of this – just get the bicycle.” Through the internet I got a lovely secondhand
mountain bike in Wakkerstroom at an extremely reasonable price and have been
riding very early in the mornings for the last week or so.
I did not buy any special clothing
or shoes. As one of my favourite authors on cycling, Grant Petersen puts it:
“When you don’t race, almost every shirt, sweater, jacket, or coat you own is a cycling garment. You can dress for the weather and your own sense of style, just like you do off the bike. You won’t look like a racer, and that’s just another benefit.” (From: Just Ride. A Radically Practical Guide to Riding Your Bike)
At this stage the handle bar is
still too low and needs adjustment. I find the mountain bike racing posture
where you lean heavily on your arms and hands not very comfortable. A more
upright, relaxed position in a comfortable saddle – one that doesn’t resemble a
piece of broom stick wrapped in cellophane - is more to my liking.
Fortunately my bike’s saddle isn’t
bad at all. And should I need any components or want to make some adjustments,
I go to Jadwat’s Cycle Store in Newcastle. In this old fashioned Indian store,
the assistants behind the counter conjure up bicycle parts from drawers and
boxes stacked to the ceiling at a fraction of the cost you’ll pay at an
upmarket bicycle shop. Practical rather than trendy, that’s their motto. I couldn't have asked for more.
Besides these few minor tweaks, I
just love my morning rides.
(Pictures taken during this week's cycling. The mornings were so clear and crisp)
I take into consideration that I’ve been out of
bicycle action for a long time and that we are living in the mountains,
so I am taking it very slowly. But already I am experiencing being in touch
with everything around me while traveling at a good pace. In that regard the
bicycle is a mindfulness tool par excellence. I do realize that it is even more than that. For that reason I am grateful for one of my
other favourite cycling authors, Eben Weiss, also known as Bike Snob, who
manages to verbalize my suspicions or intuition:
“Any cyclist will tell you that one of the things they value most about cycling is what it does for their heads. It cleans out the clutter. Cycling allows for reflection. It simultaneously offers time to mull over problems and to escape those problems. It’s both meditative and contemplative. Whether you’re weaving through traffic or climbing a long country road, the effect is the same. Your body’s working, and your mind is working. And when those two things start working in concert, other aspects of life can start falling into place too.The absolute truth about cycling—and the very best thing about it, better even than the speed and mobility—is the fact that it can be a key to fulfillment as powerful as any religion, psychoactive drug, or therapist.” (From: Bike Snob. Systematically and Mercilessly Realigning The World of Cycling)
There is another side to cycling.
That is what has drawn me, what I want to experience and that is what I want to
tell about.
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