This year I vowed, while I was at Eurobike, that I would take more time and enjoy my ride into work every day. I tend to be a rusher, get up, get packed, cram food and ride to work without stopping. It get’s old. A bike ride is supposed to be fun and let you experience the world in a different way than you would using other modes of transportation. To this end I have stopped in a park and am having some tea. Right now, at this very moment (though probably not when you read this, but I digress). I’m sitting in the sun on this beautiful cool day, watching the light peel through the treetops and cover the landscape in green, and it makes me think back to Eurobike and also Interbike. Or “E-bike” and “I-bike” as I believe people will call them in the far-off future.
The thing that separates the two in my mind has mostly to do with location. It’s true that the two of them are of vastly different size and scope, but it really is the geography that makes Eurobike such a great time and Interbike (at least for me) not.
At E-bike, you begin each day with a gentle 9ish-mile ride up a gradual grade through pear orchards and fields of hops. At I-bike you begin your day stumbling through a noisy, smelly, dimly lit and very smoky casino. At E-bike you finish your day riding back down through the orchards and fields toward the lake that separates Germany from Switzerland and on the other side of that lake are the majestic Swiss Alp’s looking down on you as you ride through the little hamlets past clock towers and over the motorways. At I-bike you finish your day stumbling through a noisy, smelly, dimly lit and very smoky casino. It’s the ride that’s missing, and all that the ride brings with it.
So that’s what I’m going to attempt to add to my ride each day: peaceful beauty, tea, a snack and maybe a blog in the park (or perhaps just a beer or three, drunkeness and a accidental dip in the creek)(who knows?)(could be both). When I add all of that, I don’t have to worry about subtracting anything. The experience takes care of it all.
On a separate note, at Interbike (and Eurobike for that matter) we got all of the ETA’s on our new bikes completely wrong. Our production was pushed back because of means way beyond our control. It sucks and we’re sorry. I wish we were perfect but really I don’t because that would be boring and predictable. I’ll write more on this tomorrow, and give you all an update. Now I have to actually get to work.
Really enjoy that ride today, I know that I am.