THE CYCLIST'S MIND GOES EVERYWHERE

Introduction (excerpts)

I was on a long climb on a road in France cycling toward Switzerland. I leaned forward out of the saddle and pushed hard on the pedals. Is it a hill? I could not see the summit. Is it a mountain? With legs and arms straining, I was barely moving faster than walking. It became a race between split personalities: one cycling, the other wanting to walk…both racing against time…my time…my continuity.

I reprimanded,

“You’re crazy…you’ve lots of time…no need to hurry…there’s no one in front and no one behind; however, push that pedal once more!”

What would break first…the chain, my body, or my mind?

That last stroke took all my strength. I cursed adrenaline into my bloodstream. An earlier road sign had indicated a 5.5 kilometer climb at 10 percent gradient, but now I faced 200 meter at 15 percent gradient. Even 20 percent should be doable on a light bike without luggage. That mountain was too steep! It defeated my desire to cycle to its summit, and I started walking, pushing 40 kilograms of bicycle plus load. Adrenaline trembled idly in my hands and fingers.

I wondered,

“How far could I ride today? Where would I sleep tonight? What is my goal? Is my goal to rush everywhere? Is my goal to sightsee, explore and gain knowledge? Should I let my mind go everywhere and discover myself? Could my goal be all of these?”

I rationalized,

“It does not matter. Every moment is a destination, every day the culmination of many destinations. I like that uncertainty…it feeds my continuity…”

As I sped downhill, a sideways-gust, the bow-wave of a passing truck, caused my heavily loaded bicycle to shudder.

It would be interesting to cycle through Paris, but fools rush in where angels fear to tread…Wait! I am cycling ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning.

My story aims to awaken them stuck in inertia.

Motivation and other stuff (excerpts)

Welcome to the cycling fraternity! Let’s mull over basics. You need two things to go bicycling: You need yourself and a bicycle. Have you tried cycling with neither? Maybe, virtual reality will allow you to cycle on a zero-mass bicycle…think of the advantages: no need to leave the comforts of home, no need to balance on a bike, no aches or pains, headwinds or rain. However, once you brainwashed yourself convincingly out of elusive normality, it should be easy to prepare you and your bike to experience reality and explore its myths.

Before we hit the road on stage one, we should say something about the human body and mind. The human body is the most complex thing copied and produced billions of times by unskilled labour, and perhaps for that reason it comes with a lifetime guarantee. Your biological mother and father did not require special skills to make you even if they allowed you to jump out of a test-tube. Over time, you ate, grew and developed your body, and with input from everywhere and much personal reasoning, programmed your mind. Congratulations, reading this is part of that never-ending process of preparing your body and reprogramming your mind, for cycling and other mind-blowing stuff.

A bicycle tour is a physical and mental journey; paradoxically the mental could be harder than the physical or the physical harder than the mental.

The physical

When did you last sit on a bicycle? To function effectively as a cycling creature, you need a head, heart, lungs, and a large bladder; also a few muscles and other bits and pieces like a liver, a kidney or two, and a hard bum.

For a moment, think exclusively about your heart; how exceptionally hard it works and how little it weighs, that faithful blood-pumping organ which pounds regularly in your chest, each heartbeat a complete contraction and relaxation of the heart muscle. Cyclists often fret about weight, but here is excellent news: the average adult heart weighs 286 grams, which is slightly more than the weight of a crash helmet or that of two toilet rolls.

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You do not need all your limbs to play sport, e.g. football players barely need their hands and arms except the goalkeeper. Disabled people may well go on cycle tours and so enjoy self-reliant mobility. However, they might need specially adapted bicycles or tricycles to cater for individual incapacity of hand, foot, leg, or arm. We should admire the disabled wherever we see them moving about self-propelled.

Habitual regular cycling makes anyone reasonably fit for a cycle tour. When I wrote this, I was cycling about 50 kilometers every second or third day, but less in winter due to weather-induced laziness. Occasionally, I go on a longer ride of about 150 kilometers. It all adds up to roughly 10,000 kilometers per year, which includes cycle tours. Cyclists preparing for the Tour de France cycle about 36,000 kilometers yearly, but lesser mortals have softer bums. To add interest and intensity, I vary my route by including a few hills. I do not carry much stuff on practice runs, only a few spanners and sometimes a camera. I prefer cycling outdoors, but others might like spinning in a gym. My bicycle is my gym!

The bicycle

Use a bicycle that best suits your dimensions; otherwise, you might convert simple motion into pain. Surely, cycling should provide more pleasure than pain. On my tour, I used my old bicycle because practical attachment prevented emotional affection for another. Nowadays, I find my bike reasonably comfortable despite the drop-handlebars causing some neck fatigue and other aches and pains. Over the years, my shape adapted to my bike because I failed to hammer it into my shape.