zen on wheels
 

any comments on peaceful, zen-like late night, early morning, or midst of traffic, union with the bike?

I mostly get it late at night on the quiet residential streets behind my building. Particularly sweet when the road is wet and I bust a long-ass skid that feels like flying...

Anytime of day...Nirvana is finding the perfect cadence on a flat road...that exact rotation that takes virtually zero power to spin, yet you are cruising along at 24 mph.

Every so often I get it on my commute. The feeling of perfection as you hit everything perfectly...

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=54179

That says it better than I can now...

it hits me a lot at night when I can see my own shadow cast on the street - upper body motionless - legs spinning fluidly

then i'll botch a trackstand and lose it =]

Usually when on the ride home from band practice - it's about 10pm and the west side is quieter than the rest of the city. I make my way east to home, the music is humming along quietly in my earphones as I take the streets as my own, the few cars on the route home don't bother me and neither do I them. If a tailwind is with me, I'm spinning all the way home and if the lights are in my favour then everything melts away. The ride is all that matters in this moment, the steady hum of my legs and if the pace is quick enough I know my tongue is gripping my lower lip just like Jordan. This is the moment that no on else shares with me, the moment that I wish more people did because I have a smile on my face.

Sometimes when I ride my bike I don't have any real notice that I am riding a bike or that I am in traffic. By which I mean that there is nothing at all special about it, I just do it. That to me is Zen. Or I need to go 10 miles and I go 10 miles. Or it's raining or it's snowing and I do that. Like this morning it was raining and I got wet.

Midwinter morning in Helsinki - minus 20 celcius, dead streets, sun just peeking on the horizon. Wake at 7, ride to center through snow. Peace

I'm glad someone has brought up this somewhat spiritual topic. It doesn't happen to me every ride, maybe one ride in 15-20, but when it does it's amazing. I don't think this 'experience' for me is dependent upon weather conditions or terrain, although it would be pretty unusual to happen in say, a driving rain or a stiff headwind. Generally speaking it seems to happen when I'm relaxed, working hard, and 'open' to all the sensory input flooding in around me. I know it sounds weird, but in a very tangible sense 'I' cease to exist... I don't turn into a zombie or anything, it's like 'I', the learned self that is Dave, is sublimated and vanishes... everything is forward motion and breathing.

I'll come back from this state and be 20 miles down the road sometimes. It's extremely cool.

Dave

oneself at the lake on last piece of concrete before you fall into the lake, going ever so slowely, trying and trying again to track stand

I am at one with the road. The pavement is a part of me.

Now lets hope I don't become part of the pavement.