Normally I don't give my Brooklyn commute much thought. But this afternoon coming home, the air was cool and I just didn't want to rush home like usual. So I took a more pleasant and longer route, feeling in a bit of a playful mood. What I didn't realize was that this was going to get AWESOME with a capital AWESOME

I have one bike that fulfills all my duties: commuting/groceries, occasional touring, recreation, etc. It's a circa 1990 Raleigh road bike that I got cheap and have been incrementally augmenting and improving to suit my needs. I love that bike. I run it with fenders and a rear rack, upon which typically sits a bag with my work computer and office clothes.

So anyway, back to my ride home. As I left my usual route, turning to a more hipsterific neighborhood with lots of bike lanes and lighter traffic, I saw a guy decked out in roadie gear ahead of me. I wasn't trying to race him and I don't think he was trying to be ultra fast, but somehow it felt fun to catch, pass, and leave him.

As I continued on, I found myself midway through my journey in a slightly more industrial neighborhood with rougher roads and traffic flowing more freely. As I sat at a red light (respect red lights, kids), I heard an unmistakable sound of a small two-stroke engine idling behind me. I looked back and saw a young lady on a Puch moped. I smiled and gave her a thumbs up. When the light turned green, she passed me with ease, but as I broke away from other bicycles, I found myself keeping the moped in sight and eventually reeling her in. When she hit a bit more congested traffic, I caught up to her and passed her as well, after which I was able to maintain a decent rate of speed down a long descent. I stayed in a low tuck the whole way, the Puch never catching up to me. As I slowed down to make bumpy tight turn, another cyclist yelled at me from behind, "You look so aero!"

Shortly after this, I was rolling through my neighborhood, just blocks from my building. There was a guy on a mid-1990's Honda CBR900RR -- a motorbike I've always loved -- catching up to me and eventually going by, making lots of vroom-vroom noises coming out of a nice pipe. He was clearly enjoying himself and I dug his bike, so I found the whole situation agreeable. I took a different route than him, but soon our paths intersected, when I found him turning onto the same street, but now behind me. Soon he was in front of me yet again, but was stopping at a red light close to my place, as I was coming up behind me. I caught him, just as the lights turned green and he began to accelerate, but not until I passed him on the right. As I did so, I reached over with my left hand and momentarily and lightly pressed his front brake lever -- in the same way motorcycle road racers used to "cheat" in the 1970's. I didn't really cause his bike to brake, it was just a little joke move. I don't know why, but I didn't think for a moment that it would be taken the wrong way. I looked back at him and smiled -- and he laughed, then opened the gas and left me in the dust.

Fun ride.