Sunday, January 23, 2005

Gone with the wind!

Today I want to write about one of my many hobbies.. Biking!

I love to bike. Bike hard and fast. I have a size 26 magna great divide bike with front shocks and 18 speed levels. Its a great machine. Until recently my bike was all paralyzed and stuck, what harmed my bike I dont know but thats past now. I took the bike to the university bicyle centre and got everything fixed.

I usually like to ride at a good pace. I define 'good pace' as a speed which doesnt leave me gasping for breath and yet lets me get to work like zip, zip! Bikers wuld know what I am talking abut. The numerous gear options help.

I have always loved biking and I have always had a special relationship with my bikes (which was part of the reason why I didnt sell my bike when I was supposed to ) . As far back as I remember, I had discovered biking in the 4th grade and I used to bike a teeny tiny little bike around a suitable teeny tiny compound at my building back in India. I wuld circle the compound for hours at a stretch and people wuld wonder why I never got bored. Then I graduated to a bigger adult sized bike which I still remember vividly, partly because I had dreamt of having that bike for a long long time and partly because the bike was simply superb ( the most expensive thing on the market mind you! ). It was a model 'Tango', make 'Hero' with front and rear shocks that really did the trick, no gears though but the bike was great.

Today after cleaning my bike, I was admiring 'Rapier' (thats the bike's name) for a long long time. Everything being clean, it reflected the sunlight clear as a mirror and looking at the shiny metal I pondered abut what biking means to me.

U see every biker develops his own style of biking over a period of time. Some styles are foolish, some are boring but thats just my opinion. Every ones style is different and its their own. I like to feel the experience alive with speed. So even if its a short distance, I am cruising at a good speed.

The thing that I really like is to feel the bike accelerating and to feel the power of my own youth being transferred onto the bike and testified by the growing wind. I judge the preferrable speed by the road and the traffic conditions prevailing but I cannot drop below a point where it stops being exciting and many times it gets me into situations where I am going too fast for the conditions. Thus there is always this element of risk involved when I ride. I mean shuld I fall, I wuld get into big trouble and when I am riding I know this damn well. Its one of the things I get a kick out of.

So why risk life and limb and choose speed instead of a safe steady easy going correct pace? I cannot possible answer that question in words. To get the answer, you need to take a well oiled bike outside and ride fast and look at things going by you at speed and feel the great wind in your ears deafenning you against all other noises and know that the source of all of that was your own body.

To passers by on the street, I am just 'Gone with the wind!'


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