I wasn’t anywhere near old enough to hold a driver’s license but my dad had already bought me a motorcycle. It was a late seventies BMW R100 RS, dark blue. I loved that bike; I polished it fortnightly even though it never left the garage. I spent hours sitting on it, twisting the throttle and squeezing the clutch, diving in and out of turns on a twisty road somewhere in my imagination. My dad sold the bike not long after I got serious about Cycling, making the shrewd observation that if I was able to land myself in the emergency room as often as I did under my own power, then from a Darwinian standpoint my chances of survival would be dramatically decreased by the introduction of a 1000cc engine.
To this day, I love speed. I feel it in that layer between skin and muscle that science will tell you doesn’t exist but that anyone who has ever taken a risk will tell you does. On a bicycle, it doesn’t even have to be high speed; descending, cruising along a valley road, or climbing – any speed that comes as a result of that familiar pressure in my legs and lungs is a thrill.
Cornering at speed will amplify the feeling of speed as your muscles press against the change in tangental velocity. But even the slower speeds of climbing can produce the exciting effects of speed; diving into a tight switchback on a fast climb can provide the distinctive exhilaration that comes with needing to brake and lean while climbing. There is no sensation in Cycling that will make one feel more Pro than needing to control your speed while going uphill.
Cobblestones and gravel also provide their unique doorway into the feeling of speed. The bouncing of the machine under you as you push a big gear along the road will amplify the sensation of going fast with the transitions from tarmac to rough roads and back again playing their own part to demonstrate speed through the power of contrast.
Riding along a road that has a lot of shrubbery or tall grass that hugs the roadside, my peripheral vision will quietly inform me that the blurred motion at my side is the direct result of my own burning engine and the effort I’m putting into the pedals. To experience under our own strength that which others require a motor to accomplish is what makes us stand apart. We are active participants in speed. We are Cyclists.
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@Jamie
There are three climbs on one route in Seattle proper (I admit its one of my favorites) which have a corner that if I ride it well enough, I will need to break or keep a pedal up on the way uphill to avoid a problem.
I'll show them to you one day. It is a real thrill, especially because they are on my medium-hard routes, which means I do that route when I'm not feeling 100% so the mental boost is always welcome. When I do them when I'm 100% I curse myself for not choosing a better line. Its win-win because no one curses themselves for their chosen line going uphill unless they're PRO.
@Gio
It is not just you; except it only amplifies once you get how to ride the track. On your first trip up the embankment, your only sensation is how fucking slow you are and that you're about to fall off.
@The Pressure
You and me both, brother.
@titirangisi
OK, haven't experienced that. Chapeau!
@scaler911
Today's ride was intended to be super easy. The normal route has a little leg breaker and I realized a could reverse a section of the route to avoid it, but it meant going down the major 2km climb of the shorter version of this route that I use for hill repeats. Never been down it before (there's a small loop to take to bring you around in about 2 min for the repeats; perfect recovery time.)
Fuck me was that a thrill. Perfect tarmac, perfect bends, only one road where someone could kill me if they pulled out. Feather the brakes, and badabing badaboom. Almost did an about-face to go do it again!
But alas, I know how to train properly and instead headed to the harbor to have a coffee on the shore before heading back home.
Today was Leg Day, but only in the recovery sense.
One of the more exciting aspects of a new bike is working out the braking requirements for certain descents...I have to admit to pulling a Voeckler on one of my fave descents last week after getting the calculations a little wrong.
Thankfully it was on the hairpin with a driveway on the outside of the corner & not the previous one that drops off over a quarry face!
@Gio
Local bike club runs a session once a week at the local outdoor velodrome, road bikes only, but going even at 30kph seems fast when there are 10 of you in a group
Ok who am I kidding, I'm doing 30 all the others are at 33+. I think to myself, och they're not that much faster I'll hang on the back for a few laps but do you think I can close that last half metre, can I balls! I also now realise how huge franks achievement on the track was when I could only manage 30 k in an hour. It's amazing the extra effort you need just for a small increase in average speed.
As for proper speed, downhill inches behind some one else, yah beauty, as we say here! It seems to be easier to draft at high speed and then my extra body mass means I can just put in a little extra effort to get past skinny hill climbing monkeys on the way down.
That's a gorgeous photo to emphasize the point - all the perspective lines are warped by his speed (and the wide angle lense) to move the vanishing point off the page.. I'm always trying to explain the joy of cycling to non-cyclists but they never understand - Bretto, Bianchi Denti, Kah and I rode an extended ride on gravel beside a river in Wellington last Sunday to celebrate Strada Bianche. We were recovering with an ale in a pub when a motorcyclist comes up and says " why would you bother pushing on those pedals?". We had earned our beer, riding miles racing each other, physically tired, covered in dust and satiated as opposed to the fat fucker in the bandana who sat on his machine for a speed kick all day. Like you say Frank speed is best experienced when it's earned through hard toil
For some reason I can't quite explain, I get my jollies from playing in traffic at speed.
My commute home has a lovely set of hairpin turns that terminate in a long straight runout of perhaps a mile. It's two lanes per side with heavy car traffic in this spot. The turns are tight enough that I can beat the cars out of the corners every time, and then it's a flat-out sprint to the bottom of the hill. Drivers won't usually play along, but every now and again some kid will pull alongside and redline his engine. Makes my day.
There's another lovely dead-flat run of about 1.5 miles by the river where the winds are almost always at your back and the speed limit 2omph (which of course means they go 30/35.) There is no excuse for failing to stay on a car's wheel for the entirety of this run. Bliss.
@antihero or Foolish
@frank
Yep, I have been learning this. After a few years of riding cyclocross, my handling and cornering are vastly improved. On the road I feel really strong and confident cornering.
Okay, question for the off-roader background folks - when taking a right-handed turn, inside foot up, weight on right side of bars and the rear wheel starts to wash out/slide to the left, how/where do I adjust my weight? Push harder on the bars? Lean harder to the right? Push back off the saddle?
@frank
FWIW, found a couple of starlists that said #41 was Pierre-Roger Latour. Pozzovivo was listed as #48.