I Love Bicycling is a website that is geared towards cycling for beginners with road cycling tips, training articles, nutrition tips, weight loss, how to’s and bike repair articles.
The bike brings a lot of different things for all of us but one thing it does bring is joy to our lives. It doesn’t matter how long you live (well a longer time to experience the joys of life can be better) but how well you live. Well in that you live each day the way you want doing the things you want to do and adding life to each and every day. The bike is a great way to do that so keep riding and live on.
Any bike is what you make of it. It can be so ring that gets you around town, a way to meet and enjoy time with friends, show you new places, allow you to race at great lengths. Whatever you want it to do it can do. It’s you that dictates what that outcome includes. Do you want to complete a century, enjoy a sunny day, race in the Tour de France. It’s you that decides, not the bicycle.
Whether you’re a cycling team, a group of buddies, long time friends, or a group that just met, when you ride together you form a bond that makes for great camaraderie. Everyone is looking out for each other be it if someone gets a flat tire, runs out of food or water, or starts to lag behind. There are few other disciplines that bring people together like cycling does. Embrace it. The bonds you make will last a lifetime. You’re not only sharing in conversation but also the effort. Your struggle together over that long climb gives you a closer bond. Ride together, stay together. It sounds like something your parents would say but riding a bike is just as if you were still a kid isn’t it?
Ernest Hemingway is dead on with this quote but it goes deeper than remembering the contours. A bicycle allows you to experience each place on the road as not only are you not traveling at warp speed, you are placed directly in each moment and not removed by metal doors and glass windows. You can hear the wind, the cows moo, people say hi, the hustle and bustle of a town. The best way to explore someplace new is by bike, be it the countryside or a city. You can find the small dirt roads, the back allies, the places the locals revere. You can take the time to ‘stop and smell the roses’. Experience someplace new by bike. Make it happen this weekend close to home. Maybe someplace not too far away next week and within the next year, explore a far off land. A bicycle will create great memories that can’t be found with any other medium.
There are so many reasons why we ride. For ourselves, for others, for just the sake of riding. It doesn’t matter the reason, just that you get out and ride and enjoy it. Let us know in the comments below why you ride.
“Cycling is just like church – many attend, but few understand.” A very good quote indeed. Whether it’s riding leisurely around town, on the trails close to home, or racing on the road, cycling is a complex endeavor that takes on its own meaning for each and every rider. There are a lot of different dynamics in each and you may know what each consists of but the feeling and meaning each gives to a rider is different. Understanding cycling as a whole can be strived toward but it’s one of those things that can never be fully understood. You can understand parts of it, particularly that of your chosen discipline be it mountain, road, commuting, or leisure, but few understand nearly all of it.
You win some you lose some. It’s always good to fail otherwise you never improve as much as you could. Losing makes you stronger and more determined. Go crash, go blow up on a climb, go bonk so hard you have to call someone to get home. It will make you a better rider as you’ll learn from experience and won’t want to make the same mistakes twice. Hopefully you learn some tips here on I Love Bicycling though to avoid making the same mistakes over and over again, unless of course losing is your style.
When you have to ride a bike whether it’s racing, maybe at a higher level, or commuting, it can be one of the most challenging and testing things. When frustration and rage take over and all you want to do is throw you bike in the ditch and walk away, it’s not a good feeling to have. On the flip side when all you want to do is to get out and enjoy the ride, it can be the most fun you have all day. It’s the same thing, riding your bike, but the perspective is what changes it. Make sure you have the right perspective and always want to ride. Cycling can be difficult and it can be easy. Both is what makes it so unique.
Find what challenges you on the bike. It will help make you a better rider. If you’re always comfortably cruising the same easy trails or straight forward roads, you’re not getting better. Better can mean faster but also smoother along with improving you’re overall riding ability. Challenge yourself with a harder ride at least once a week, if not more, be it a more technical trail or a road route with more hills than you’ve done before.
Do you have any more inspirational quotes to add to the list? Leave a comment in the section below.