Bicycle Fixation Weblog
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06/13/2010: "Sunday Spin"
Rode a fast forty today, straight down Wilshire Boulevard, cracked pavement and all, to the Westside edition of San Vicente (the roadie's heaven, and a street that mysteriously ends at Wilshire in my neighborhood, only to recommence on the other side of Wilshire some ten miles west). From there I noodled down local canyon byways to the beach path and headed south to (of course) The Bridge.A lot of "serious" riders dislike the beach path because it gets crowded and they can't go fast. I like because it gets crowded and I can't go fast. I went plenty fast along Wilshire and San Vicente, enough to get it out of my system for the morning, and now I wanted to slow down and enjoy the festive people populating the sand, and the quiet Pacific Ocean rippling under the heavy gray skies of LA's notorious June Gloom. (The June Gloom does keep the temperatures down for hammering, though!)
It's nice to slow down sometimes. My own personal opinion is that bicyclists shouldn't seek to emulate the hurry, nervousness, and aggression of asshole motorheads; that is somewhat at odds with the nature of bicycling in cities, I think. If you change the equipment but not the attitude, well, you may not be blowing smoke out of your tailpipe but you're blowing it out your ass in another way, if you'll pardon my French. (BTW why do people use that phrase? I speak French, and it's terrible for swearing; English and especially Spanish are far superior in that reard.)
And I needed to slow down. Running a tiny business with no ad budget in a down economy isn't for the faint of heart, and I do let myself get wound up now and then.
Fortunately, a spot of hammering, followed by a slow cruise down the beach, followed by a half hour at The Bridge, then a brisk but not hard ride home, set things right for a while.
There's so much much of the world you can see from a bicycle saddle than almost any other perch...it's a pity to rush past it all. So I don't. At least, not most of the time....
