Monday, September 19, 2011

Tricycle, Psych, It's a Bike!

My heart’s pumping with fury. Pounding, my legs thrust down, musclesl contracting, and then they smoothly roll back up, retracting. My hamstrings throb with a burning sensation as they continue on in fluid motion, contracting then retracting. Booming and swelling with each breath, my lungs reach out demanding the precious air, so they can deliver it to my coursing blood, and from there it’s carried on to fuel my striving muscles. Up is how I carry my head. Like a bubble my neck blew, it’s about to pop with the pressure. Fighting, struggling, and determined, I spin the wheels of my bicycle uphill against the unseen, but definitely felt, force of gravity. What a beautiful machine, the bicycle.
Bicycles are composed of a frame, two wheels, handlebars for steering, and a saddle, or seat. Let’s not forget the little guys, components, or more simply put, the small, chrome, moving-part-thingy’s. Components shimmer shift the gears from easier to harder, and brake, stopping both the bike and it’s passenger, the rider. Components are a seemingly endless world in the cycling industry, with many performance levels ranging from heavy, durable, and economical in cost, on up to the lightest, smoothest, and heart-stopping priced components.
Ever since metal tubing, rubber, and wheels were united to create the wondrous bicycle, cycling has exploded in all ways. Playing a large role in both our societies health and recreational activity; furthermore, it can be found almost everywhere on the world map. The industry is inflating exponentially with the countless empty wallets of people who wandered into bike shops across the globe. Cycling is exhilarating, challenging, fun, healthy and thrusts a persons confidence into the weightless clouds, and those are just a few reasons for the addictiveness of riding a bicycle. With lower weights, smiles, and the re-connection with the child inside of people, cycling continues to grow.
Working as a lifestyle consultant, or salesman, in bike shops for about three years, I encountered a vast horizon of folks with different needs or desires in a bike. The cycling community is vast; from pro to novice racers, road to mountain bikers, or those who ride both, life-stylists, recreational riders, and people trying to lose weight, just to name a few groups. Recreational riders can be seen rolling around town as they spin down bike paths and streets just kickin’ back on their cruise; meanwhile, mountain-bike racers zip up and down mountains in a mere day, and the skinny-tire road racers jet alongside cars and swiftly dive through turns at blood rushing angles and speeds. Life-stylists have no license, they buy no gas, for anywhere they go they’re rolling their bike. It’s as if their bike becomes like an organ, or an appendage, that’s necessary in maintaining their heartbeat. They live to fight their ongoing battle against the four-wheeled-motorized-monsters, or vehicles, they bump shoulders with on the streets. Also, there’s the “coffee shop cyclist” as I call them, these posers ride a whole three blocks to drink coffee, and hoping they get noticed as hard-core riders who rode hours through the hills and sun on their bikes.
Cycling changes the lives of people all over the planet. From obsessive racers to grinning cruisers the sport is captivating and loved by many. Health is benefited, smiles are worn, and life improves with the spinning wheels and twisting handlebars of riding bikes. The invention of the bicycle made cyclists, and cyclists have drawn in demands for a vast array of different bikes. Each style of bike having it’s own community of those who ride it. From a riders smile of victory, to frowns from a loss, and tears of a turn gone wrong, cycling pulls emotions out of those who fall in love with the sport.
Curious? Look into the beauty of the machine known to us as a bicycle. Stroll, drive, take a bus, or hitchhike if you need to, however you have to get to the nearest bike shop, do it. Trust me, and the countless other people who have placed cycling into their lives, or even their soul, you won’t regret it. At your bike shop, ride a few bikes, find a solid salesman, even better, a life-style consultant and ask questions. Give cycling a chance and I’m sure you’ll discover an entire world beyond the one you know now. This world revolves around a simple machine, the bicycle.

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