So I dropped into the garage to make a service appointment for my Van (which is no where near as reliable as my Trek), and the mechanic/owner mentions that he saw me on my bike WAAAAY over by the Burger Stand. The location is maybe all of three miles from my house and I live 6/10ths of mile from his shop. And he honestly thought I was a long way from our neighborhood on a bike. He couldn't imagine going that far on a bike (or I look older and fatter than I thought and he was being kind). I mentioned that I had been riding home from work when he saw me and the conversation drifted over to my Van.

I've always held Bob (the mechanic/owner) in very high regard. In my mind anyone who can and does keep up with all the new automotive technologies and/or be a successful business person has to be not only talented and inteligent but also highly motivated and ambitious. Not necessarily talents I can personally relate to, but I do highly respect those who have them. But poor Bob, as talented and intelligent as he is, has been so busy learning and managing his sucessful business and raising his family that he has missed out on the joys of cycling. He has been so automotively focused that the flexibility, dependability and unlimited freedom of bicycling has escaped his world.

I guess I'm gonna have to work on that......

Funny-but my mechanic and I have had similar conversations. He has a Harley that he rides all over the place. From time to time we'll cross paths with he on his Harley and me on my bike miles from where we live. He calls me a "biking machine" and just shakes his head whenever we randomly meet.

I've offered to trade bikes with him pointing out that mine gets better gas mileage but so far he hasn't taken me up on it.

Yep, that's the route to go.

I live in a small town and several times a week receive questions such as these;

....."Was that you W A Y out by the lake? " (its 12 miles)

....."Was that you W A Y out by the country club? " (its 3 miles)

....."Didn't I see you on the side of the road with your bike broke down? " (probably fixing a flat)

....."I saw some guy on a bicyle way out at ----------. "(pick a place within 30 miles)

And just yesterday, at a gathering of business associates...
"...you're going to Indiana and ride 400 miles on a bicyle next week? Are you crazy?" (the guy who said this is about 6'2" and probably weighs 300# or more)


To each his own.

I know. My sister thinks me riding 10 miles is a big deal. I do remember when it was a huge accomplishment, but now, it's like nothin'.

It seems to me that the 20 or so miles away from home is relatively short in comparison to the 20 or so miles back home.

Relativity of Distance -
didn't someone once propose E = MC squared; where the Energy to ride was equal to the Motivation times the Countryside covered. And since the scenery of the countryside is so important they squared that component.

I know that someone must have been a cyclist, at least I've seen a picture of him on a bike.

When I first started at this job my coworkers would ask what I did on the weekend. When I told them I rode 40 miles on my bike, their jaw would drop. Now, after 2 years I hear things like 'Gee your in such good shape and in such a good mood most of the time I might have to try this biking thing'. None of them have yet.

Try telling someone that doesn't ride you're signing up to ride a century, they'll dismiss you as a total nut job so fast it'll make your head swim. Very amusing (at least it will be if I get the century well and truly done, since it will be a first for me).

Unless you are riding 20 miles to work.

Well, when I drive past my usual Sunday route with the family which is 30mi each way they are amazed that I ride that far and to be frank it seems farther to me as well when I drive it in a car. I have some relatives that I tell how much I ride and when we go to family occasions it is not uncommon for one of them to grab a neighbor and come by ask me to tell them how far I ride. Compared to most on BF I don't even really consider myself much of a distance rider.

It is kind of like being in the circus freak show.

I commute in to work and back most days - 15 miles each way. Many of the people here are convinced that I am totally crazy. The funny thing is that several of these people have longer (in terms of time) commutes, but they don't consider that crazy. Most of them do not look forward to their commute home like I do - so who is crazy?

The bike portion of my commute is too short (2 mi from train station to home), but I am clearly faster, cheaper, and healthier than other neighbors who ride in those stink cages. And yet they marvel at how strange I am for riding that short two miles year round. It leaves me speechless when they bring it up. (That would be me standing with palms up and shoulders in a shrug position slowly shaking my head. And to myself I'm saying, "which one of us doesn't get it?") Ask Scott Bradner used to say, "there's a clue-density problem here."

I rode to a breakfast of our church "seniors" group this am. A very nice new lady commended me for riding my bike, and I told her it was "only" 3.5 miles. She about fainted when she heard it was that long. I then told her that I have been averaging 20 miles per day this summer.

That 20 miles absolutely floored her.

Eight miles to work commute and I had a woman at work ask if I was a professional cyclist.
Today it's beautiful. On the way home during our morning ride (we had the day off) my wife and I stopped in to pick up my new glasses. It's 84 degrees and gorgeous here. The woman behind the counter said "Isn't it way to hot to be riding?"
Let's fac eit. We have vastly different perceptions than many of our non-riding neighbors who can't imagine a $1500 bicycle but have a ski boat and an SUV.

After telling a freind about a 100 mile ride I had done, they said, so how many days did it take you?
DAYS!---it took six hours.
Their mouth just dropped open in astonishment.

Ha! I had the exact same thing happen.
Someone asked "what's the furthest you're ever ridden?"
I answered, 223 miles. They asked, how many days?
I answered, 12 hours, 18 minutes.
They did not believe me even though they see me ride to and from work everyday.

My doctor asked the same question when I told him I had done a century He couldn't believe someone could actually ride 100 miles in a day.