Lion and Magic Boy

Tired of me talking about bikes yet?

Ummm. My coffee tastes strangely salty today. Have no idea why.

[fingers drumming, thinking of something to write about that has nothing to do with bikes]

Enough of that.

Too bad.

I’ve got a new baby. Sort of a test-drive deal. Yep, I left a bike shop a tentative credit card amount almost as high as the price of my first car, and yesterday and today I got to ride a real road bike before it goes back to the shop.

Oh, yum.

First, the clipless pedals: they are not all they are cracked up to be. Took me awhile to get my feet actually into them while holding on to the roof rack of my car. And once they were in, my feet! Were stuck to the bike! How weird was that!

I would characterize my first ride therefore as tentative.

For one thing, there’s the handlebars. I had forgotten, in my tentativeness, where actually to put my hands, for fear that I wouldn’t be able to reach the brake when needed. of course, I was hoping anxiously not to have to brake at all, because that would mean I might have to stop, which would mean I would have to get my feet out of the pedals, to avoid falling over. But since I’ve already done that, no problem, right?

So I rode several miles in a lower position than necessary. For which my back is commenting to me, right now. Why hello, back, and you’re welcome!

I noticed after a mile or so that the stuck-to-the-pedals position my feet were in was very different from how my feet usually feel in the pedals. In other words, my natural inclination, apparently, is to pedal like a duck.

This new position, of my feet being pointed actually forward! imagine! created a feeling of stress in the hips. Hello, hips! Nice to meet you! What have you been doing all these years? Ow.

However, one thing on this bike is definitely a huge improvement: a woman-specific saddle. Trust me. HUGE improvement.

Despite all the strangeness and tentativeness and new little pains, I did find myself eventually falling into a rhythmic cadence. Apparently, from the reading I’ve done lately, there are two ways to approach riding a bike, spinning and mashing.

Evidently I have been a masher.

It’s pretty much what it sounds like: MUST. WORK. PEDALS. KILL. HILLS. BRUTE FORCE WILL WIN!!

Spinning, on the other hand, seems to be about allowing the bike to do some of the work for you. By increasing the speed at which you pedal, you actually get more power (speed) from each stroke. Or something like that.

Being naturally philosophical, I can of course apply this to life. What, you don’t view cycling as a metaphor for life?

Spinning takes a lot of shifting, because the goal is to maintain, as much as possible, the same cadence at all times despite hills and all, so you’re constantly moving into and out of various gears, up and down through various levels, if you will, to maintain an equilibrium (today I am liking, cadence-wise, the speed of this song).

I was reminded of the biking we did in the rain up at Whistler a few weeks ago. I could hear Matthew behind me, constantly moving through his gears, shifting much more than I was. At the time I didn’t think much of it, just a different riding style, whatever (okay I really thought he was just playing), but now I’m wondering whether it has more to do with his approach to life. Which has been much more about flow than my approach, which has been more like insisting on being shot out of a cannon.

So the spinning thing, it really seems to work. On a bike at least. I sailed over the Sisyphusean hill with much less effort than usual. However, I noticed that with all the increased revolutions, the wear and tear on my hips is noticeable. In fact, I would say that my hips haven’t seen this much repetitive action in quite awhile.

You can take that any way you want. It’s true, though I would in no way mind a change.

Actually, I’ve already begun to take the spinning approach to life. Rather than managing life, trying to MAKE things happen, there’s an advantage to allowing things to flow. To spin, much like the earth spins, merrily and unceasingly. I’m learning this.

But there’s the problem of the Puppy Close. Are you familiar with this? It’s an old sales technique; to sell the puppy, you allow the person to take it home. After all, who can resist a puppy once it feels like it’s yours? Puppy, reallycoolroadbike, whatever. Same thing. [sigh]