Originally Posted by
Machka
+1
Rowan and I were riding along the Great Ocean Road ... gorgeous day, beautiful scenery ... a few months ago, when all of a sudden I picked up a tail. This guy stuck to my butt like glue for kilometer after kilometer. I tried pulling way over so he could pass. I tired slowing down even slower than I was already riding. Rowan and I rode side by side and chatted, trying to make it clear we were a couple who wanted to ride together. But I couldn't shake him, and I couldn't talk to him because he would not come up beside me and the traffic was too heavy to hear if I tried to shout back to him. It puzzled me why he stayed back there given that my flat ground speed was about 18 km/h and my uphill speed was about 8 km/h. Surely he would have been faster riding alone.
Riding with your spouse can be very romantic.
Rowan and I rode a century during the early part of the day of our wedding. It was our wedding century, to celebrate the fact that we met on a long ride and got to know each other on subsequent long rides. We finished the century about 4 pm and then got married. It was a lovely memorable day ... but if a stranger had come along and tried to ride with us, that would have likely detracted from the day.
Yep, riding a bike isn't always about training or competing...sometimes you just want to spend some quality time together without having to deal with wannabe racers who think they need to suck wheel to maintain their blistering 12mph pace.
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"Let us hope our weapons are never needed --but do not forget what the common people knew when they demanded the Bill of Rights: An armed citizenry is the first defense, the best defense, and the final defense against tyranny. If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the police, the secret police, the military, the hired servants of our rulers. Only the government -- and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws" - Edward Abbey