{"id":32,"date":"2009-08-04T18:06:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-04T18:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ravenfamily.org\/sam\/?p=32"},"modified":"2010-06-04T18:57:28","modified_gmt":"2010-06-04T18:57:28","slug":"well-why-dont-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ravenfamily.org\/sam\/2009\/08\/04\/well-why-dont-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Well, why DON’T you?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was riding back from Real Foods<\/a> yesterday, bags stuffed with veggies, tofu, rice, two types of tea, chocolate covered espresso beans and a selection of bath ballistics (I’d been to Whittard’s and Lush as well — if only I could get all of those things at the health food store). I was on Shackleton<\/a>, my fixed gear Il Pompino and, as I pulled out to accelerate past a slow-moving bus, I had an experience that reminded me why I ride bikes and why, more to the point, I ride fixed.<\/p>\n

It’s going to be hard to describe.<\/p>\n

There’s a moment when, if you get it right, putting the power through the pedals becomes a sublime act that joins the very top of your head all the way down through your feet and the bike<\/i> to the road itself, and you can feel the connection in the backs of your thighs. You don’t get this from pedal mashing — the HULK SMASH!<\/span> stomping technique of acceleration — which is why it is easier to find on a fixed gear. The fixed gear forces you to spin, to work in circles. It forces you to be smooth, serene, sublime. It’s listening to Zero 7<\/a> in the bath with a glass of chilled Chablis. It’s lying on the beach with a warm can of coke and sand in your hair.<\/p>\n

Synaesthetically, riding a fixed gear is the water feature in a Zen garden.<\/p>\n

There’s something joyous about riding a bike, and not just a fixed gear. People sometimes ask me how I do it. Why<\/i> I do it. Mention the Dumb Run<\/a> and the first thing people ask is if you’re doing it for charity.<\/p>\n

“No, we’re doing it for fun.”<\/p>\n

Fun<\/i>. We ride bikes for the moments when your face splits helplessly into a massive grin for the sheer exhilaration of being alive and doing something that’s both insanely silly and undeniably enjoyable. Balanced on a contraption made of a few tubes of metal and a couple of round things; something that’s only inherently stable if it’s moving<\/i>. Bicycles come alive when they move. When they’re stationary they’re cogs and gears and levers. When they move, though, when you’re on<\/i> one…<\/p>\n

Driving to work is a chore. Riding to work is being on your bike. Taking the bus into town is a pain in the arse. Riding into town is a jaunt.<\/p>\n

Yesterday reminded me that the only proper response to people asking why I do it is: “Why don’t you<\/i>?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was riding back from Real Foods yesterday, bags stuffed with veggies, tofu, rice, two types of tea, chocolate covered espresso beans and a selection of bath ballistics (I’d been to Whittard’s and Lush as well — if only I could get all of those things at the health food store). I was on Shackleton, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[150,54,74],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-squee","tag-zen"],"yoast_head":"\nWell, why DON'T you? ~ Singularity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ravenfamily.org\/sam\/2009\/08\/04\/well-why-dont-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Well, why DON'T you? ~ Singularity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was riding back from Real Foods yesterday, bags stuffed with veggies, tofu, rice, two types of tea, chocolate covered espresso beans and a selection of bath ballistics (I’d been to Whittard’s and Lush as well — if only I could get all of those things at the health food store). 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