It can take me all the way back to my early youth, when being on a bike was just about the greatest feeling of all. I felt free and powerful and fast and unlimited. I could go places that until the bike were completely unavailable to me on my own.

It can take me to a place without time, when it's just me and the bike out there, and I can really hear the sounds of the birds and the bugs, the wind through the rushes in the wetlands and the sound my tires make riding down the pavement. When it's like this, I don't know - and I don't care - what time it is. Feels like I could go on forever in that space between the past and the future.

It can take me back a scant ten years, when I first returned do to cycling after a thirty or more year absence. With my new bike, I can relive all the feelings of being new to cycling. I can marvel at how I can make the gears shift and make the hill a little easier. I can ride in awe of the absolute noiselessness of the bike - no squeaks, no unwanted clicks.

It gives me time - time to think, to puzzle something out, to ponder about the meaning of things.

It can even take me into the future, where I can see myself riding ten, fifteen, or maybe even twenty years down the line. I'm 64 (and a half, as the kids would say). Maybe (okay, probably) on different bikes, but each of them giving me pleasure and fitness, smiles and pleasure.

Well and beautifully said! Thank you!

Ah, the bicycle - let it release the child in you again. I did and I love it!

Very well said!

This is definitely what it's all about

Mike

Couldn't put it any better, or more accurately, Gee, thanks for the post.

Bill

I can relate to the feeling.

My bike is a time machine...

Usually I ride familiar roads with a particular destination and schedule. When I do an organized ride, where someone else plans the route, and my schedule is just to finish, it’s enjoyable to become lost to time (of day) and space.

A bicycle is a time machine because it slows down time and aging. When I was a kid I rode everywhere and to school. Mid life I didnt ride much, but when my oldest boys got old enough to ride in the mid 80s I took up riding with them, and have been riding ever since. I will be 77 this year, and am very fit. I ride about 30 miles every other day. While genes have something to do with it, I credit biking for keeping me in good shape.

May I copy this to my blog, with due credit?

If you don't mind, I plan to print out and put on the board in my office.

If you mean my post, by all means.

I'm honored, actually. Thanks.

That`s so similar to my experience. Got back on the bike when I was 41. They had index gears by then. I got a bottom end mountain bike (still wasn`t cheap then) and used it for work and riding over the hills in my area. AQlso some I couldn`t manage when I was 16 or so.

I`m 66 and can still do those hills and enjoy it every time. You think your own thoughts; not all good. . . I`ve succeeded blowing up the Houses of Parliament where Guy Fawkes failed, and (by the time I get home) I sometimes realize the futility of this . . (English Shrug)

Have fun Longer on a Bike!

When you think about it, everything you said about bikes can also be said of ducks.

But is a duck a transcendental utensil?

When I m on a bike I am emotionally and physically renewing my self! I am a teenager in a 70 year old body that can ride 75 miles and still be smiling!
I only hope I never reach the point where I look at a bike and don't want to ride!

I was moved by this post when I read it 3 years ago so I did a search to read it again. I think it deserves resurrection so that those who may not have seen it back then can enjoy it.

Thank you for this. I'm glad it "spoke" to you! These days, I haven't been on this forum in a long, long time. These days, I'm happily cycling on my TerraTrike recumbent trike in Reno, Nevada and still loving getting out on (3) wheels.