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Yeah, riding fixed is so peaceful. It's a little-known fact that every time someone converts an 80s road bike to a fixie, a military conflict ends somewhere, or a cycle of domestic abuse is finally resolved.
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[I've been having a shocker at work for the last fortnight. Really stressful. Took the day off last minute and went to the forest to get muddy. Feel a lot, lot better now. Just a shame I have to go back for eight continuous days tomorrow...
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James, no-one here honestly believes you have zen moments when you're cycling. You've left far too many threads and posts behind revealing the pure hatred and rage that you clad yourself in when you cycle. It's different when you're mellow of course, but cycling and you? Mellow doesn't come to mind ;)
To be fair, I have noticed less and less of the agro type of threads since DJ undertook the training.
Cycle training aims fundamentally at increasing enjoyment of cycling, so it's great that it's worked for James, too.
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Rain has been beating down all day up here in the Midlands. I've not been able to concentrate for hours today, thinking about when i'm going to be able to get out onto that lovely brooks of mine.
Its crazy how you can work yourself into insanity, with thoughts of
"oh my god, is it ever going to stop raining.... what if it doesn't.....? Will i be able to...... Oh sorry sir, you were asking about your arthritic knee."
Keep your zen-like descriptions coming, it's helping me. -
Riding wins.
(both kinds)
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Rode along the seafront today from Bournemouth to Poole.
There is a strong easterly blowing, and the kite boarders are playing in the waves,
its is cold and im wrapped up warm however the cold dosent matter because of the heat im generating.
There is hardly anyone around so its an opportunity to open up to full velocity,
clipped in fixed, riding the back of the smooth snaking promenade at perfect steady cadence, the surface is like flat glass, and it is silent, wind totally behind assisting perfectly, this is the closest it comes to track riding outdoors and it feels like youre floating, just regulating the triangle of energy between arms-legs and body.
heaven. -
This quote is about motorbikes, but pretty much covers bicycles too. I love two wheels, pedal or motor.
"You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other. In a car you’re always in a compartment, and because you’re used to it you don’t realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You’re a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.
On a cycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it’s right there, so blurred you can’t focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness". Robert M Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
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That is indeed very strange, cos only 20 minutes ago when riding home, this was going through my thoughts: I never feel as peaceful as the moments when I'm climbing (up a hill on my bike)
Get home, check forum and this is the first thread I see...
Great minds ; ] -
Best thing is a cold but not freezing, sunny Sunday morning. The big great city is asleep and I'm the only one on the streets. Listening to some great music and feeling the wind on my face as I spin around town, through the empty City, down to the river, up north through the parks and home for a nice espresso. Sun has just started to come fully out and the city wakes up. Good morning! Good feeling!
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the utter peace of being in the moment
it can happen in all kinds of disciplines and areas of life - sport, aesthetic, sensory
these are the moments i live for, coming to the peak of a hill, overtaking traffic or just my legs burning after a hard push
in fencing i can find a beautiful stillness mid bout, time turns to plastic, despite the speed of what is going on, the noise, the distraction it feels like i am in the Matrix, everything slows down, different pathways and options are opening up and there is a beautiful sense of relaxation despite the fact I am tense, moving about quickly and attacking and defending
Skully and I have a 2 man club of people who shout "i fucking love cycling" as we bomb around town
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Skully and I have a 2 man club of people who shout "i fucking love cycling" as we bomb around town
That really made me laugh out loud in front of the computer! I used to shout stuff like that while snowboarding. 4000m above sea level, sunrise, no one else. You can just hear the wind and the snow underneath the board. Then comes the speed and you automatically shout as the euphoria kicks in!
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That really made me laugh out loud in front of the computer! I used to shout stuff like that while snowboarding. 4000m above sea level, sunrise, no one else. You can just hear the wind and the snow underneath the board. Then comes the speed and you automatically shout as the euphoria kicks in!
i still do when skiing- esp when you have a mountain to yourself and your friends (see attachments- being a ski patroller rocks....) The first two are in order and poor quality as I nicked them off my friends facebook.
the last is a day when we climbed up to the crater and shut the mountain down late. Stunning day. NZ is never ever like that. I swear.I don't shout much when cycling, but I can't help smiling at people who would normally get me angry and looking at people on the bus with a feeling of absolute contentment as they sit in they're 'cage' and I get battered by snow and winds, and walking into wherever it is I happen to be going and my cheeks burning and turning red with the warmth and the sly nod of a fellow bike commuter in the British Library, or at Tescos. Or the sense of happiness when i see the same women on Sloane St with her Bakfiets and 4 kids in it, or the joy when riding in oxfordshire and another cyclist crests the hill on a winter's morning and waves. Or the feeling of pushing through a pain barrier as you chase down a red car, or......
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I feel happy today. This is a pleasure to read.
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in fencing i can find a beautiful stillness mid bout, time turns to plastic, despite the speed of what is going on, the noise, the distraction it feels like i am in the Matrix, everything slows down, different pathways and options are opening up and there is a beautiful sense of relaxation despite the fact I am tense, moving about quickly and attacking and defending
Lovely description of concentration.
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You look short in this, or are the mountains just high?
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I used to shout stuff like that while snowboarding. 4000m above sea level, sunrise, no one else.
Noise polluter. :)
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in fencing i can find a beautiful stillness mid bout, time turns to plastic, despite the speed of what is going on, the noise, the distraction it feels like i am in the Matrix, everything slows down, different pathways and options are opening up and there is a beautiful sense of relaxation despite the fact I am tense, moving about quickly and attacking and defending
stay off the weed
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Skully and I have a 2 man club of people who shout "i fucking love cycling" as we bomb around town
That really made me laugh out loud in front of the computer! I used to shout stuff like that while snowboarding. 4000m above sea level, sunrise, no one else. You can just hear the wind and the snow underneath the board. Then comes the speed and you automatically shout as the euphoria kicks in!
CV, it made me laugh out loud as well, and I'm surfing the interwebs whilst waiting for a flight cause I missed the first one, through too much drinking. But I digress.
James you and Skully aren't a club of two, I've been thinking it but I will start doing from now on.
Christ I love cycling, and I've been having a lot of those moments just being on the bike, with a grin plastered to my face, looking suitably insane but just thinking why is no one else doing this. IT IS SO MUCH FUCKING FUN!!!!
And there is nothing better than coming to a new place and trying to navigate round it, getting lost, but finding a way back to where you need to be, then as the days go on, getting more and more confident with your location, and when you can confidently get from one point to another with no stopping to look at the map, the joy is unconfined because its just like being at home.
the late night rolls are supreme as well, especially when its shorts and tees weather. loving loving having a bike with me as I travel, don't think I'll ever travel without one again.
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I never feel as peaceful as the moments when I'm cycling
Posted by
@Velocio
Although I used to enjoy riding freewheel, I never felt the peace that you're all talking about until I went fixed.
A mate who commutes on a mountain bike tried my fixie last week for 10 mins or so and came back saying how peaceful it felt. He's now thinking of converting.