...And Lest We Forget

How To Become More Grounded in Our Bike Obsession

By Johnny- A Bicycle's Point of View

When we first get on a bike, we are not paying any attention whatsoever to the machine that is below our seat. Our objective is simple, to get from one place to another while exercising. Along the way, some of us start to pay attention to the nuances of the experience. We start describing our rides as harsh, compliant, fast, slow, labored and the list goes on and on. In our search for a heightened and more enlightened cycling experience, we start to shell out the dollars on parts, components and eventually complete bikes that in our minds will bring us closer to the desired outcome. Some of us are collectors by nature, some with addictive personalities that get consumed by our hobbies and passions. Some of us are trying to fill a void left empty by the absence of an important person in our lives. Bike riding to some may replace an experience that otherwise would have involved a mother, a father, a brother or a sister. We cling on to the one thing that makes everything else not matter while we are doing it. The mental, emotional and physical escape from life is a welcome relief at times, especially when things aren't going particularly our way. Loss of a job or unemployability, a forced living situation, loss of financial or emotional independence can make bike riding even more important for some of us. We come to see the world in two halves, when we are riding a bike and when we do not.

Some of us take it a step further and research everything there is to know about cycling, from the professional sporting side of cycling to the mechanics involved to finely tune and calibrate our machines. Some of us end up owning every tool you could find at a local bike shop and some of us even become bike mechanics by trade. Steel, spokes, wires and rubber all of the sudden become mobile art projects rather than the transportation tools they were originally intended for. Satisfaction only comes when we can take a rusted pile of bike and turn it into a shiny bicycle that rides like new. Our appetites are satiated only momentarily, then it's on to the next project. Some of us spend our winter months in our garages, fixing every $20 bicycle we picked up earlier in the year. Some try to sell our projects to our friends, in the often vain attempt to get them involved in our world. More than anything, some of us want to be understood by those closest to us, not realizing that we are the ones who have strayed from reality. While we have a window into their world, they can only see a mirror into ours.  

So why am I writing this? Because Bike Obsession is something that a lot of cyclists have. Heck, if you found this blog on a Google search, chances are you too are as obsessed about bicycles as I am. Bike Obsession has been well documented throughout the blogosphere and even in literature, just read "Need For The Bike" by Paul Fournel and you'll see what I'm talking about.  But is all that obsession healthy?

Sometimes we need to go back to square one and remember why we started riding a bike in the first place. The bike has always only been just a machine, a means to an end. No matter how much we romanticize it, nothing can change that fact. It's hard to look at our passion objectively, but we will miss out on the here and now if we are not at least a little bit pragmatic. It's like dating a beautiful woman who is physically divine and all you want to do is paint her on a canvas and worship her beauty. She might have flaws about her that you are willing to ignore or worse yet, she might not be as much into you as you are into her. You can lose years of your life if you do not see someone for who they really are, not as you imagine them to be. Likewise good relationships can be ruined and good experiences can be left out of our lives if we impose our need to always be on our bikes instead of enjoying our time with others. That may require us to bend our will to the activities they enjoy doing. Just remember that relationships are give and take and one day you might have a new biking buddy if you are willing to be a friend first. The bicycle is only there to connect the dots in between, a vessel to transport us to and from meaningful activities, people and places. After all, it's only a machine and a means to an end.