“It’s just like riding a bike”.
Countless times this phrase will ring in a vague reference to any action or task that may take adjusting to. For it is a difficult concept for a child to grasp; sitting on a piece of metal that doesn’t even balance, propelling it forward through one’s exerted kinetic energy.
Yet a balance is struck, the wheels spin faster, the cuts and bruises heal up, and it begins to make sense.
So much so that you begin to feel a peculiar familiarity with the bike’s motion and subtle character as an independent, yet co-dependent, entity. Because beyond the romance of riding for its pleasure, practicality, eco-friendliness or its cost-cutting benefits to name a few, cycling can surpass this to become an outlet for, and extension of, your own physiological and psychological expression..
Just as in managing one’s own temperament, emotions, and decision-making, riding a bicycle is very much a mirrored exercise in measure, balance, and dexterity. Take the concept of gears; whether upon a flat plain, steep incline or a gradual descent, you find yourself unconsciously measuring the required combination of power and pace, potency and perseverance, in deducing how to pedal most effectively from A to C via B. There may be times when you battle a steep ascent sat with a steady pace using a lower gear, countered by occasions when you decide to shift the gears upwards and stand up to the climb with greater weight & leverage.
Either way, and irrespective of method, you crawl ahead as the bicycle has but one sense of direction; Forward. And but one universal speed setting; Go.
There are no reverse or neutral gears.
To stay static on a bicycle is to fall by the wayside, and to freewheel backwards is to descend into decline, hence the bicycle favours those with a forward sense of direction and balance.
That balancing act of staying in control whilst sitting high above the blur of spinning wheels and solid ground beneath, as the bike is perpetually in flux; tyres rolling, gravity pulling and frame swaying. Thus it is how we channel our energy and apply our force upon the bike that we are able to stay in command, in sustaining a steady rotation and transferring our weight from side to side without leaning too far one way or the other. All whilst maintaining focus in avoiding any static or moving obstacles scattered en route, ably adjusting trajectory at speed in swerving past potholes and straying from animals let loose.
As said obstructions are but two potential hurdles encountered whilst getting about on two wheels, for the modern bicycle is a beast of many breeds – be it bmx, racing, touring, tandem, hybrid, folding, road, or mountain – that have evolved to prowl all terrains and topographies.
With all sub-species possessing and requiring a different form of finesse, characteristically distinct by the environment and intensities encountered. Yet none so distinct as to stray away from the universal diamond-shaped frame set as standard across all cycles, from which stems the undeniable substance and spirit that the bicycle embodies.
Consider cycling to work in the city, weaving between the road’s traffic and the pavement’s footfall... There’s something almost adolescent about the bike’s own spirit in shape-shifting between pedestrian and vehicle as and when it pleases. For this element of pick and choose is a teenage weapon, being young enough to live by kids’ concessions and irresponsibility yet old enough for grown-up chat and adult vices. And this stirring sense of mischief whilst dodging passers-by or bypassing static traffic rouses a certain arrogance in the biker’s ability to scamper through the gaps and alleyways that other vehicles cannot chance. One can almost feel the onlookers’ resentment for your speed, agility and perceived lack of obedience to the rules, further fuelling your love for the freedom the bicycle affords.
For freedom and liberty become the pollution-free by-products of the bicycle’s output, powered by the passenger as its engine, with each motion and emotion generated in the process. A process so cohesive in its pairing of biological and mechanical dynamics that it almost melts into the human body’s musculoskeletal wiring, whether it be for the purpose of transportation or pleasure.
As the bike is both the guide and the guided, leading one to his desired destination yet forever following its rider's own direction.
And despite Lance Armstrong’s claims otherwise...
It’s always about the bike.
Daniel Bowen.
