“I ride a bicycle to get to work, sometimes for work, to keep fit, to bathe in air and sunshine, to travel, to go shopping, to stay sane, to savour the physical and emotional fellowship of riding with friends, to escape when the world is breaking my balls, for fun, occasionally to impress someone, to scare myself, and to hear my boy laugh.”
– Robert Penn
Why do you ride your bike? Let me know in the comments…
I ride to work every day, all year round. It is 6 miles each way. It keeps me fit and it’s a lot quicker than driving as I can leave my bike outside my office. If I were to drive I would have to find a parking space and then walk to the office.
I enjoy building on my base fitness by taking longer routes to or from work so I can take part in cycle sportives or mountain bike enduros.
I ride because I can’t go running :(
What an amazing format in which to write. My own take on it here: http://www.alexhibbert.com/blog/2010/9/1/why-i-haul-a-sledge.html
Thanks Alex – I like what you wrote:
“I ski for miles and miles for work, to find my physical limits, to see and become immersed in the wilderness, to go from here to there, to glimpse at insanity and learn how to stay the right side of it, to experience what real teamwork is, to make a break for freedom from the conveyor belt, for fun, occasionally to impress someone, to terrify myself into appreciating my own mortality, to hear people’s laugh and my own.'”
I’m one of these people who’s always wanted to travel “properly” but is p1$$1ng their life away in an office just dreaming about it or reading about other people who have done it.
The bike for me is a “machine à voyager”, a kind of tardis that whisks us off to another mode of life. It switches off the daily routine and switches on holidays.
I don’t ride daily or even weekly. Too much pollution and some really seriously bad driving in Paris has put me off. I keep it in reserve. My bike is there to take us away from the daily routine to far off places for 3 weeks a year. Its pure escapism. It means that when I’m cycling, its a really special time getting back in touch with the outdoors, leaving the sterile plains of the Parisian area and getting seriously North where man are men and sheep/reindeer are worried.
Its a chance too to feel real weather. We’re (nearly) all in dry heated houses, heated cars and dry heated workplaces. you just don’t confront the elements any more in daily life. Cycling through rain, snow, wind – it makes me feel really alive.
Its also a chance to talk to my 10yr old son who’s on the same tandem for 8 hours a day – time we don’t usually get (or take) during the rest of the year.
Love it.
Thanks a lot for this – really nice. Hope it inspires you to get out there with your little boy this weekend!
Al
I ride for pretty much all of the reasons Penn lists… social (catch up with mates), fitness, fun, sometimes to get to work, and sometimes just to test myself. I’ve been out riding in some pretty miserable weather this year but even those days feel better than not riding.
Work and family mean riding for leisure is limited. (If I’m honest, laziness and inertia are as much a factor.)
Riding to work, even though it’s just 2.5 miles each way, keeps me fit enough that I can do silly things like ride a hundred miles off-road in Kielder Forest last weekend as just my tenth bike ride of the year. (Laziness and inertia can’t stop me riding to work because I don’t drive, walking takes too long and buses take even longer.)
100 miles off-road?! Wow – that’s impressive!
I dragged myself round in 13 hours. The winner did it in 7:58! That’s impressive!
I ride to get fresh air in my lungs, to get the blood pumping round my body, I ride to clear my head. I ride to clear out the cobwebs, to get outside, to immerse myself in nature. I ride to get from A to B, to use less fuel, to try and loose weight. I ride because I can, because I like the wind in my face, because it makes me feel better inside. I ride because I like the sense of freedom, of working to a different time scale, to live life at a different pace. I ride to live, I live to ride.
It probably sounds strange, but lately listening to podcasts has been one of the main things that drives me to keep on pedaling. I love riding and learning and getting caught up in two worlds at once.
I love This American Life podcast from NPR and Start the Week from BBC Radio 4. (And Fighting Talk from BBC Radio 5 but that’s about football so may not be for you!)
Al
For me the initial spark came on December 28th last year, the first day I commuted to work. Cycling in the rain makes me seem alive, I’m a village boy with a banking job and somehow powering through driving winter rain lights up the same emotion as windsurfing in a blow at home.
Since then I’ve thought a lot about life, how my job removes the 5:30 tennis game and most of the leisurely pints or TV routine but when I thought about it, it is my mini adventures that define me and my life so far.
Alistair’s micro adventure site tripped this feeling. I now search for the next challenge. An obsession with self propelled travel, a friend will mention place and I instantly picture a map, zooming in mentally; “can I cycle there?”. Recent mini adventures include, cycling London to Cardiff with tent after work on a Friday on my own, cycling to Southampton and back, kayaking from my parents, round and up the river Arun, cycling the IoW. Brussels and Barcelona are my next big ones but even Saturday in Twickenham makes me eye up the 20 mile walk.
I 100% subscribe to the concept of micro adventures and think it is a brilliant concept for motivation and teaching kids to be addicted to feeling of achieving goals.
Keep up the good work Alistair!
Hi Matt,
That’s a really great answer – thanks very much for taking the time to write that. And good luck with the next ride!
Al
No worries, I work for a big Swiss bank and I metioned the micro adventure idea to community soponsorship people. They were quite keen for me to use it to support and talk with local primary schools.
An idea flicked into my head whilst writing the above. How about a micro adventure site where emplyees (or others) can blog about something they are/will do and you can simply click to donate a pound from your pay?
It is different to usual sponsorship as it is based around the “like” of facebook. It forms a different platform to the usual “I’m training for a marathon, give me £30” type thing
Could work. Let me know if I can help you with anything like that ro other sponsorship.
Matt
You could even create a site that pays a direct debit, lets say of £5 per month, you then go on to the site to donate a pound to the 5 micro adventures you like or the cause you like.
I think that is a cool fun new way to give to charity and read about interesting people.
It’s like looking in a mirror!!
I ride a bike because I love it, and because I still can, at 70 yrs old.
Scroll all the way up to Robert Penn’s reasons, and that’s me too, except for the ‘breaking my balls’ bit! Inspired by Al and other cyclists, my ‘return to biking’ over the last 8 months has given rise to adventures and mini-adventures – and got me to work in a calmer frame of mind, even in the Beijing traffic. My car battery is almost permanently flat these days from lack of use. Love it!
Delighted to hear you’re riding out there!
Hmmmmm…………I ride as a much needed escape from the pressures of self employment in a woefully sloggish econmy here in the States…… sorta like my express ticket to being 12 again and all the wonderfull miles I covered on my Schwinn 3 speed….Escapist? certainly,but I know when to get out before things get too weird to be contended with….definately a pressure relief valve…….Multiday trips are heaven on earth,at least once a year,and in coming years more often as I reach my 60s………
I ride because I love to.
I can’t ride to work because I live where I work. I used to mainly ride off road, but always stopped over winter, so this year I bought a 3-speed urban bike to use regularly; rides when I have time, and rides to the shops 2-3 times a week: 8 mile round trip.
I’m planning to do a wee trip around the outer Hebrides soon, so am also training to do this, and lose the (far too many) extra pounds in the process. I hope to make longer tours each year, but doubt I’ll get round the world!