I like to ride. I ride road; I ride dirt. I ride the beach path in the winter when it’s overcast and quiet with pounding white surf. PCH south of Sunset to the bike path is SCARY. I like to go slow with the sun shining and I like to go fast when it rains. I like the snap in my legs on a long climb. I like Tuna Canyon in a LOW gear where there are no cars and there are stands of oaks and sycamores filtering sunlight. I like the blue Pacific dotted with sailboats all the way to Palos Verdes. I like to lean into a banked turn and feel in control going FAST. I like the sun coming up behind me in Red Rock canyon after a fire and new flowers I've never seen before are growing everywhere. I like the top of Bull Dog because I've made it. I like coming down Yerba Buena on my road bike flat out because I can and there's clam chowder at Neptune's Net. I like the sun at dawn and dusk when it casts a golden hue to the greenest Spring I can ever remember. I like knowing I have everything I need to go all day in any direction I want. I like knowing I don't need a gas station or grocery store or a paved road. I like riding centuries and double centuries because I can ride for hours. I like riding because I can imagine being in any decade of this century. I like long rides alone so I can work things out and become self attuned. I like Sunday morning group rides so I can have the camaraderie of good friends and feedback to keep me real. I like to race the clock when I am alone and I like to leave unsuspecting riders in the dust when I can. I like to brake hard on loose dirt and slide through a turn. I like to take it easy and experience the gestalt. I like to slow down and surprise hikers with civility and respect. Yes, I like to ride my bikes and I like to fix my bikes and I like to clean and tune my bikes and sometimes I just like to look at my bikes. I like to ride ...

If there ever was a poetic tomb to the beauty and wonder of cycling, you just made it. Well done!

Tome? I thought CA90290 did pretty well; just needed a few line breaks.

Yeah, you know, a burial chamber. That’s exactly what I meant.

Wow, really inspiring. I need to do more of that type of riding. Leave the house at 6am and whatever. Thanks for posting.

Grocery stores are handy when on tour. So are gas station c-stores.

I also like to ride, and I acquired that love of cycling on the very same roads you describe. From the Santa Monica Pier, to Oceanside, I loved to ride along the coast. But in those days I wasn’t yet old enough to shave, and going through the usual emotional gauntlet experienced in one’s early teens. Cycling was my drug, it was was calmed me down, and brought me peace. Unfortunately, some of my friends, despite also having bikes, preferred to use actual drugs and alcohol, which led them down less pleasant roads, and a couple to untimely ends.

I often liked to ride at night, and dream about riding in distant places. I used to watch the moon set over the Pacific, and wondered what it was like when it rose on the other side. And some 40 years later, I live on the other side, and the moon rises from over the Pacific rather than setting behind it. I still like to ride along the coasts, usually from place like Atami to Kamakura, but I have been as far south as Okinawa and Miyakojima, and as far north as Hokkaido.

My younger days of teen angst are behind me (unfortunately), but cycling is still my drug of choice, but made a little better with a cold beer at the end of a long ride. The coastal roads here are like those in Northern California, minus the lumber trucks and forest fires.

No, six feet under ground not to be seen or heard from again sounds good to me. I'm sure it will be a musical on Broadway soon...

I'm working through a medical issue and haven't been able to ride for about 6 weeks. This post put into words why I'm jonesin' to get back on the bike.