Forum | I went for a ride yesterday.….……

Often less is more,

I left my parents house in Chester noting the intermittent rain and almost continuous wind and cycled across the river on the first leg of my triangular route. I continued across the suspension bridge over The River Dee, across the city, passing the railway station where other’s journeys were starting or ending and perhaps breaking for a short while. I had bimbled in places and when crossing such things as busy gyratory traffic features or other traffic features where tin can crush flesh - I had scorched .

I joined up with an old railway based path that runs to Connah’s Quay from a place called Kingsway (Sustrans route 5?) and headed South and West beginning the 2nd side of the triangle. It rained a bit and was still windy from the West. I was fortunate to be able to ‘draft’ a couple of lycra and carbon roadies who I latched on to when they passed me (they werent trying ). I minded not though, for the wind was to be my friend on the final leg of the triangle. The path drops about 100′ over about 6–7 miles and I felt like a burn up so onwards. I stopped for a moment to reflect on why I was engaged in ‘the journey’ –the traffic flying beneath me on the bridge over the main dual carriageway into North wales (A56?). I noted the strip of damp up the small Carradice saddle bag and then admired the ‘old’ technology of my chosen transport.

Pedalling again I reached The Dee again at The ‘Blue Bridge’ in North Wales I turned and cycled with the wind along the arrow straight path towards home (Sustrans 89?). The air was saltier and full of tidal river smell for a while as I flew, the wind that had caused me to shelter behind and off to one side of the roadies (who hadnt realised I was there for about 5 mins ) was now pushing me on with every pedal stroke. On this stretch you can stare into the vanishing point miles down the track while pedalling and achieve a momentary, fleeting, odd sense of moving yet not moving. Om 

Back in Chester and along the canal, past the amphitheatre and back through the city over the ‘Old Dee Bridge’ looking left as I crossed at the suspension bridge I had used earlier and then home.

I arrived slightly tired, with a sense of calm.

I had managed to be in a place of contemplation over many things; the old, the new, the journey, the crap I have put up with at work last week , the answers to that crap and for a split second had been in a state of ‘no thing’.

Could I have achieved this reflection on an ‘ordinary’ bicycle? Possibly. However, the Guv[‘]nor is a catalyst to a higher place. It isnt just the tool  to use on the journey which in itself is a means of achieving a mental calm — which I believe is one purpose of cycling . it is an unchanging part of the journey providing road feedback in an almost unique way as well as providing aesthetic stimulus when at rest.

Enough.

The sum of the parts are greater than the whole.

I love rides like that .

TTFN

jmkd said:

“…I presume you mean a racing, hybrid or mountain bike. Just glance at the category labels of each; those bikes have a ‘purpose’, and in this dedication the rider is drawn along too.”

your presumption is indeed correct. I agree - in the same way one can be influenced by a pair of plimsolls which can prompt one to consider and perhaps indulge in calisthenics perhaps in the same way as  our hoody brethren and other ‘gym shoe’ wearing types consider rapid body movement and then disregard that option).

jmkd (also) said:

“My personal take is to draft nobody; the moment your pace or position has adapted to another’s, the solo bewitchment is gone.”

To some degree I agree, however I’m 47 and bit out of condition — even for the occasional sprints that had me avoiding tin. I was utilising my lycra and carbon friends for one of the few real purposes they seem to fulfil in my world view () i.e. I needed a windbreak. For what it is worth it wasnt for long that my pace was adapted to another’s and I resorted to ‘Guvnor time’. 

I will learn in time to perhaps first bend with the wind, to be the willow, to then see beyond the wind, to move through the wind as if there is no wind or to be in the zone where the wind is always behind you when on a bicycle .….….…. perhaps that’ll be on the mysterious journey known as LEJOG where the ‘prevailing’ wind is from the South West