Inspiration From the Internets

It's been a good day for discovering inspirational and informative articles on the art of bicycle commuting.

First up - today I was performing my customary daily palm pilot reading of my blog friends while on the toilet. It's only a matter of time before the thing gets flushed. Seriously.

Oil Is for Sissy's posted and lightly ranted about an article by Rivendell bicycle founder Grant Petersen. If you go to the post you should also read the comments, there are some very good ones. To Grant Petersen, regarding your first five opinions I say: bring it.

Petersen's thoughts on clothing are very intriguing. Essentially, wear clothes similar to the drivers that pass you. If you look like a bike geek they'll run over you, if you look like their cousin Larry they will treat you better. That's an interesting bit of psychology that hadn't occurred to me. Unfortunately I quickly dismiss it as not practical for me, I haven't looked but I assume I’d be unable to find wind/water proof dress pants.

I love this quote: "Riding never gets easier, you just go faster..." I first saw it attributed to Greg LeMond in a Mt Evans or Mt Washington Hill Climb ride report. It has replayed in my mind often.

Second up - Cornerstone Life highlighted this Dirt Rag article.

I had a hard time limiting my quoting, the second last paragraph is so poetic - "...making the new day essential, provoking, a nectar rather than a waste-treatment. This is about lifestyle, around which the physical act of cycling must inevitably whirl. It can be DIY, it can be embellished with chemicals, it can be stricken with poverty or uplifted with dirty money, but its foundation is always grease, dirt and blood. And personal success will only be sweeter if a crooked finger is kept on actual satisfaction, the sheer endorphin of experience that defines and galvanizes what you love to do, even if living it is a hard road."

And the last bit describing the reaction of an inquisitor upon learning the distance of a bicycle commute - "There is always a pause after this, as if my interlocutor is trying to envision that distance, followed by an involuntary assessment of their current physical condition based on how they felt after climbing a flight of stairs at the mall recently, following a hearty round of Cinnabon sweet cakes." Yep, that was the barista at my coffee shop Monday.