Originally Posted by Rooney

Today, while riding (every time I'm riding, actually), I was having this exact thought. The soft crunch of rolling over wet dirt and light gravel, small pebbles and rocks crackling against each other, being spit out, smacking against the metal fenders. Cushiony, low-pressure tires humming, gliding over snapping sticks, zippers jingling against each other as you ride over tiny mounds. Phantom sounds from inside your bag(s) as the contents get jostled around — somehow hollow and woody even though it's all made of plastic and metal. That mechanical, ratcheting freewheel/cassette. So foreign and out of place in nature, but also somehow in harmony with it all. It almost feels like a disruption to pedal sometimes. And then you nudge the shifter, and it clunks solidly into the next gear, and you spin away.