it's not a spectator sport
Those of you who have read this blog for a long time have been through the chronicles of my new found love affair with bicycling.
It began almost two years ago when I decided I had slumped too far into the couch potato world and needed to do....something...anything...exercise. I started going to the gym, but then in the spring of 2007, someone approached me with the idea of doing what was then known as the MS 150 bike ride. I had always wanted to do that. Year after year I'd hear about the ride from one place or another, and it intrigued me...biking to Daytona Beach and back. Now seemed like the right time to try. I had an old Trek road bike I bought in 1984, so I figured I was set. I added Saturday morning bike rides to my exercise regimen, and began training for my new goal. By the end of May, I decided the 20 year old bike wasn't going to cut it, especially when the bike rides started approaching 50 miles and the bike was making lots of unidentifiable noises. I decided an upgrade was in order.
Since I owned a Trek and was happy with it, I went to a Trek dealer. Why change? When I got there, I ended up buying a different brand....a Lemond. The geometry just fit me better. It's not quite a racing bike. You sit more upright and it's a more relaxed ride. (You can see the difference in the pics below from the ride, of the youngster and me. He's bent over more...more aerodynamic than I am. His is more of a racing geometry.) The bike was made at Trek's factory, but it's Greg Lemond's design/brand/whatever.
Since then, Greg Lemond got in some pissing contest with Trek and the two have parted company. Trek didn't need Lemond anymore because they have Lance Armstrong riding their bikes, and Greg Lemond is an outspoken critic of Armstrong. That's a big part of the pissing contest. I don't know if anyone makes Lemond bikes anymore, and frankly I don't care. Real bike people had (and maybe still have) debates on who was at fault and who's the bigger asshole..Lemond, Armstrong, Joe Biden.
A complete stranger asked me my opinion at a rest stop on this year's MS Ride, I suppose because he saw me get off a Lemond bike. I didn't get into it with him. I just shrugged, and to be honest, that's the short version of my opinion.
For me, bicycling isn't a spectator sport. I don't watch the Tour de France, and think that'd be right up there with watching paint dry. I don't know who won. I don't know the names. I don't know the teams. I don't know the personalities. I don't care enough to learn. I don't care what kind of bikes they ride or why. I couldn't identify Greg Lemond in a police lineup. I might be able to recognize Lance Armstrong, but only if he still has that Olsen twin attached to his hip. I like my bike, and I like riding it. I'm interested in the stuff that will make that experience more enjoyable, but beyond that, it just doesn't matter. For me, bicycling is a doing thing. It's not a watching thing. The egos and drama and doping and yellow jerseys and whatever else lives in that world holds no interest.
I guess part of it is I'm not all that serious a bicyclist. I'm a blissfully ignorant bicyclist, who's responsible enough to know how to be safe out there, but other than that, I'm out there because it's fun for me, and a form of exercise I enjoy.
I had to take the car into the shop for routine maintenance Monday, so I bought a bicycling magazine over the weekend, so I'd have some reading material while I waited. It was the second bicycling magazine I've purchased in my life, but I saw some articles on the front cover that I thought would interest me...like something about exercises to make you faster and have more fun. I like having fun, so I thought, "that'd be good." I read the article...well, part of it. It listed different kinds of bicycling and then exercises to do and duration. I don't know enough to know what the hell they're talking about. They don't tell you how to do the exercises. They just list them. They assume a level of knowledge I just don't possess. Then they tell you how it will improve some aspect of your riding ability. I don't know watts from Vo Max, and really don't care to learn. If I figure out how to improve my wattage (if that's the right way to say it?), maybe that makes me faster. I'm not sure if it makes it more fun.
Now a Saturday morning ride down a road with a tree canopy as the sun comes up and sparkles through the openings...that's hard to beat.
It began almost two years ago when I decided I had slumped too far into the couch potato world and needed to do....something...anything...exercise. I started going to the gym, but then in the spring of 2007, someone approached me with the idea of doing what was then known as the MS 150 bike ride. I had always wanted to do that. Year after year I'd hear about the ride from one place or another, and it intrigued me...biking to Daytona Beach and back. Now seemed like the right time to try. I had an old Trek road bike I bought in 1984, so I figured I was set. I added Saturday morning bike rides to my exercise regimen, and began training for my new goal. By the end of May, I decided the 20 year old bike wasn't going to cut it, especially when the bike rides started approaching 50 miles and the bike was making lots of unidentifiable noises. I decided an upgrade was in order.
Since I owned a Trek and was happy with it, I went to a Trek dealer. Why change? When I got there, I ended up buying a different brand....a Lemond. The geometry just fit me better. It's not quite a racing bike. You sit more upright and it's a more relaxed ride. (You can see the difference in the pics below from the ride, of the youngster and me. He's bent over more...more aerodynamic than I am. His is more of a racing geometry.) The bike was made at Trek's factory, but it's Greg Lemond's design/brand/whatever.
Since then, Greg Lemond got in some pissing contest with Trek and the two have parted company. Trek didn't need Lemond anymore because they have Lance Armstrong riding their bikes, and Greg Lemond is an outspoken critic of Armstrong. That's a big part of the pissing contest. I don't know if anyone makes Lemond bikes anymore, and frankly I don't care. Real bike people had (and maybe still have) debates on who was at fault and who's the bigger asshole..Lemond, Armstrong, Joe Biden.
A complete stranger asked me my opinion at a rest stop on this year's MS Ride, I suppose because he saw me get off a Lemond bike. I didn't get into it with him. I just shrugged, and to be honest, that's the short version of my opinion.
For me, bicycling isn't a spectator sport. I don't watch the Tour de France, and think that'd be right up there with watching paint dry. I don't know who won. I don't know the names. I don't know the teams. I don't know the personalities. I don't care enough to learn. I don't care what kind of bikes they ride or why. I couldn't identify Greg Lemond in a police lineup. I might be able to recognize Lance Armstrong, but only if he still has that Olsen twin attached to his hip. I like my bike, and I like riding it. I'm interested in the stuff that will make that experience more enjoyable, but beyond that, it just doesn't matter. For me, bicycling is a doing thing. It's not a watching thing. The egos and drama and doping and yellow jerseys and whatever else lives in that world holds no interest.
I guess part of it is I'm not all that serious a bicyclist. I'm a blissfully ignorant bicyclist, who's responsible enough to know how to be safe out there, but other than that, I'm out there because it's fun for me, and a form of exercise I enjoy.
I had to take the car into the shop for routine maintenance Monday, so I bought a bicycling magazine over the weekend, so I'd have some reading material while I waited. It was the second bicycling magazine I've purchased in my life, but I saw some articles on the front cover that I thought would interest me...like something about exercises to make you faster and have more fun. I like having fun, so I thought, "that'd be good." I read the article...well, part of it. It listed different kinds of bicycling and then exercises to do and duration. I don't know enough to know what the hell they're talking about. They don't tell you how to do the exercises. They just list them. They assume a level of knowledge I just don't possess. Then they tell you how it will improve some aspect of your riding ability. I don't know watts from Vo Max, and really don't care to learn. If I figure out how to improve my wattage (if that's the right way to say it?), maybe that makes me faster. I'm not sure if it makes it more fun.
Now a Saturday morning ride down a road with a tree canopy as the sun comes up and sparkles through the openings...that's hard to beat.
Labels: It's all about me
John put this out here at 7:58 AM
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