It has been said that the bicycle is the most efficient mode of transportation ever devised. It is the perfect melding of man and machine.
I have been riding two-wheeled bicycles since I was four-years-old. A young girl at the end of our block on Elm Avenue in Teaneck, New Jersey actually taught me how to ride a bike. Until now, I haven't thought about her. I remember that she had a brother named Peter. Her name was Gail. I don't remember her last name. I wonder if she still likes riding bikes?
Cycling has always been a passion of mine. I loved riding. I begged my parents for a BIG bike and for my eighth birthday, I received an AMF Royal Master.
I found a picture of one on Bing Images... here it is:
It had dual headlights and a horn built-in. It was a single-speed "cruiser" by today's definition, and it weighed a ton. I happily rode the bike everywhere. I honked up hills and coasted down the other side. I was on that bike constantly.
My family moved to Mid Ohio in 1968 leaving New Jersey behind us. I didn't want to move to Ohio, but, I didn't have a choice. We settled into a three-bedroom split level house on Alton Road. Our mailing address was "Galloway" and I came to find out that the nearby town of Galloway was named after one of my mother's ancestors (who just happened to be the first white settler in what would become the state of Ohio).
We were surrounded by corn fields and sod farms. There was not much to do, at first, so, I rode my bike. I started meeting the other neighborhood kids. Most of them rode Schwinn "Stingray" bikes with their twenty-inch tires and banana seats. But Chris Floyd had a Schwinn ten-speed bike. Back in New Jersey, we called that style of bike an "English Racer" and, boy did I want one. I dreamed of having one.
My Royal Master was a tank. It weighed so much more than that ten-speed that Chris rode. So, I took off the console with its built-in lights, horn, and chrome trim. I removed that wide handle bar and added a "ram horn" handle bar. I removed the fenders. I took off the chain guard. I removed every non-essential from that bike and it was still a heavyweight. Had I been able to see into the future, I would have kept that bike exactly as it was when my father bought it for me and could have sold it at an incredible price because the Royal Master was a rare bike, indeed. Oh, well.
My parents bought my younger brother and me Columbia ten-speed bikes. My other brother came home from his part-time job late one night and left the garage door open and the bikes were stolen. Well, they didn't last long. So, I was back on the old bucket of bolts.
I started working and bought myself a Schwinn Super Letour. Twenty-six pounds of chrome-moly frame and twelve-speeds! It had a beautiful smoky gray metallic paint-job and it even looked fast. At that time, the bike to beat in America was the Schwinn Paramount. I just could not afford one.
I rode that bike until I was domesticated. I married a gal who just hated bicycles. I never understood that. The relationship went bad really fast.
I found myself teaching fly fishing in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. The West Branch of the Delaware River was the best trout fishery east of the Rocky Mountains. It was a fly fishing Mecca.
One day, I met a guy named Jim. He was a fly fishing nut and a bike mechanic. I built him a flyrod and he built me a bike. It was built around a Tange 900 Chrome-moly frame and had excellent components. Jim got a nice flyrod and I got a nice bike-- it was the best I had ever owned at that time.
Years passed and I found myself in Ohio once again. I still had the bike Jim built for me, but, my son was then twelve years old and wanted to ride with me. I bought Dustin a Raleigh cross-trainer that was almost too big for him, but, he could ride it and would not out-grow it. I also bought a Giant Yukon hard-tail mountain bike with an alloy front fork for me. That way, Dustin could match my pedal stroke and keep up with me pretty well.
I met and married a lady cycling nut from Cincinnati, Mary Rose. She rode her bike every evening-- this was my kind of gal.
Mary Rose had an old UniVega bike --what lightweight riders call "an iron" because it weighed so much. We bought her a new bike... a Giant Yukon. Hers had a RockShox Judy fork on the front. It was just as heavy as the UniVega, but, my new bride thought that it was eminently cooler than her old bike. And so, we rode... and we rode... and we rode some more.
I sold the bike Jim built for me because we had to make room for Mary Rose's bike. I soon missed my road bike. We moved to a bigger place and I had a little more room, so I sold my Yukon and bought a Fuji Newest.
I sold this bike in early 2011 and ended up with a Fuji Absolute2 flat-bar road bike with a more upright posture.
I rode this bike until my wife and I thought that we were moving to Idaho for an in-house copywriting gig that Mary Rose had. I sold the bike, but, the move to Idaho never happened (long story) and I found myself bikeless. Meanwhile, my wife sold the Fuji Absolute that I bought for her.
Not being content without a bicycle-- I started looking online for a replacement bike and I settled on a Fuji Sportif. We went to Performance Bike of Columbus, Ohio to buy it, but they did not have the Sportif in my size (58 or 60cm).
I spent some time in the shop because they were having a big sale and I wanted a bike THAT weekend to take advantage of the fair weather (54 degrees for the weekend and 60+ the following week). I bought a Diamondback Century Disc (as in disc brakes) on sale at an incredible price.
I added my usual choice of aluminum bottle cages and polar bottles. I have since added a TD-1 aluminum rear rack and a Transit bag, and I switched the saddle to a Forte gel-filled seat that is far more comfortable for the long ride. The gel-pad I had on the original saddle (pictured above) is no longer needed. It didn't really add much comfort anyway. The new saddle is priceless!
The Diamondback Century is designed for long rides (what we call Century rides because they are 100 miles in a single day). The top tube is a little shorter than the Diamondback Podium-- which was designed for racing. The shorter top tube, and the taller head tube (below the handle bars), give the rider a more upright and comfortable riding position. It's easier on the back and gives the rider better visibility for commuting, long distance, and recreational riding. Disc brakes give the city rider great stopping power and more control than standard center-pull brakes would provide. They add about a pound of extra weight. Outfitted with the water bottles, the rack and bag, and the new saddle, the bike weighs about twenty-four pounds.
And so it is that my love affair with bicycles continues. Now, I have to ride when it is warm enough to go in comfort. When the weather is cold, like today, I will ride on the trainer in the comfort of my den and think about the road ahead.
It's man and machine. Once a cyclist, always a cyclist. I guess it's like being Irish. You might take the boy out of Ireland, but, you'll never take the Irish out of the boy. Now, I'll dream of my next ride.
Fitness is a lifestyle. If you want to get in good shape and stay in good shape, you have to make it part of your daily routine.
I used to work with a guy who gained weight, lost it, gained, lost it. Over the time we worked together, he was heavier than he really wanted to be most of the time.
One day, several of the guys at the office decided that they all wanted to lose weight and get back in shape. They all went on a diet of some sort and several of them joined the World Gym. Well, the guy I mentioned above decided to join the others in the quest for fitness. To his credit, he quit eating "Wendy's" burgers on his way home almost every day. Instead, he went to a Smoothie shop. He even joined the World Gym.
So, he showed up to work on "Casual Fridays" wearing the World Gym sweatshirt, but, he never actually went there and worked out. Why? My guess is that it's too much like work. :o)
Eventually, he met a lady who loved to ride bicycles and in his eagerness to please her and spend time with her, he bought a bike from me and started riding with her. I don't know if they are still together. If they are, I hope they still ride together. If they are not together, I'll bet my friend no longer rides.
If you want to get fit and stay fit, you really have to make a lifestyle change. That is why I tell people that they need to find some form of recreation that provides entertainment and keeps them fit at the same time. Cycling is perfect because it can be great fun and it is low-impact. Pumping iron, on the other hand is not such a good idea (for the average person anyway).
Let's be honest, telling yourself "no pain, no gain" as you strain every muscle in your body and possibly damage your spinal column by lifting more than your physiology was meant to endure is not going to be one of those moments you will treasure forever. Neither is ascending the Alps on a mountain bike.
The KEY to a fitness lifestyle is recreation. If you are not having fun you will eventually get bored and quit what you originally started with good intentions. It's only natural.
Make fitness FUN and you will be fit for life.
A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. ~James Allen
If you want to make something of yourself, if you want to accomplish anything in life, you must establish goals and work toward them. We are at our best when we are working toward our goals.
When you were a child, did you ever daydream? Some kids grow up daydreaming about becoming a pilot, or maybe an archaeologist. Sometimes the daydream was triggered by watching a movie or television show. At other times, daydreams might have come as the result of reading a book or participating in a really cool discussion in school.
People scoff at dreamers and tell them that they will never amount to anything, yet all evidence is to the contrary. Daydreamers have become the greatest inventors, the greatest explorers, and the wealthiest industrialists. Why?
Success Goes Where Passion Flows...
Daydreamers make successes of themselves when their daydreams actually turn into life goals. It's all about passion.
When James Allen wrote about "legitimate purpose" in his book, As A Man Thinketh, it had a two-fold meaning. The first was that of moral and legal activity. The second was making that purpose a genuine goal. It would be one's mission in life-- a calling, if you will.
If you want to succeed in anything, you must begin with establishing a purpose for yourself, a goal. If that goal is rather large or will take a long time, perhaps even a lifetime, then you will need to set interim goals to complete on the way to that ultimate goal. In doing so, you will see real progress toward that final goal and the fulfillment of your life dreams (yes, you can have multiple dreams).
If you have no direction in life, you will wander, your accomplishments were occur by accident if they occur at all. With that in mind, think of goals as a road map to success.
And one more thing. Don't measure success by the acquisition of wealth. Measure success by accomplishment. If money, alone, is your ultimate goal, you might become wealthy, but, money cannot buy happiness-- accomplishment will --and that's money in the bank.
Life is not the destination, it's the journey.
In our lives, opportunities come and go. People come and go. Things sometimes work out exactly the way we imagined they would. At other times, things get in the way and we have to navigate around those obstacles.
Imagine a little brook coursing down the side of a mountain. Its water trickling and swelling as it flows downhill. Rocks and rubble don't stop the flow of water, they just divert it. Water is fluid. It flows over or around those rocks and obstructions when it meets them, but, it just keeps going. And so it is with life.
I had a job that I quit one time because I was ripped off by a person who stole two $5000 sales from me. I lost a lot of commission on those sales. I handed in my keys and drove home. In ninety minutes I had a new job (inventory analyst in a 500 million dollar corporation). A decade later, I was laid off from that job. A brilliant leader in the company died of cancer and through a series of blunders by other management I watched the place continually struggle and never recover. That one man kept the company profitable. With his passing, the decline began and one fateful day all but a handful of people were laid off.
I found work in about two weeks. I took a job with an e-commerce company-- really, it was just for the health insurance because my wife and I were planning a move across the country to Idaho. Well, that deal evaporated, so, I took the gig locally in order to have health insurance.
In recent days, that e-commerce company closed its doors.
I started my job hunt Monday morning. I had a job lined up before I took time out for lunch. My new job starts today. It's another inventory analyst position with a major corporation that shall, for now, remain nameless.
Life Really Is All About the Journey
My recent history has had its blessings, to be sure. I have met a lot of nice people who worked hard and put a lot into what they were doing. There were a lot of young, talented people with great potential. There were also people who really didn't care to work.
What many people never figure out is that THEY are the captain of their own destiny. THEY build opportunities and open doors for themselves.
If I can give that whole group of people advice, I would tell them to never stop dreaming.
Dreams Are the Seedlings of Realities
Your journey will be smoother and you will have direction in your life when you dream about the good things to come. But you have to believe that you can have them. They are not FREE, but they are meant for you. They are waiting for you to reach for them.
What you need to reach the richness of life that you really deserve is to believe in yourself. You need to be confident. Then, set your goals. What do you really want from life? Write those goals on paper and read them first thing every morning.
I'd love to live long enough to watch every one of you reach the pinnacle in life-- to see your journeys all take you to the highest peak where you can watch the sun rise over this beautiful planet upon which we life. Welcome the dawn with a smile on your face and take a moment to gaze at it in wonder.
Your destiny still lies before you, but it's the journey that really makes you who you are. I am happy to have traveled with you as our paths came together.
May you all be blessed.
