I must decrease….to a fixed gear

Can I let you in on a secret? I’ve recently fallen in love.  Her name is Ms. Pista, Bianchi Pista and she is my new bicycle. Well I’ve had her for about a month now.  My eyes have been opened to a new world of freedom, poetry and motion in traveling by bicycle, seeing my neighborhood with all my senses as I see the houses free from the cage of glass windows, as I smell the aroma of some Latin Bar-B-Q, as I feel and touch the breeze as I fly through the narrow streets on my sleek road bike, and hear the commotion of everyday life and cars approaching and children playing and squirrels squirreling.  By decreasing my mode of transportation from car to bike I have increased my awareness of life around me, taking a sabbath break, no, a fast from the clutter and fabricated comfort/ease of modern transportation.

My bike has something else up her sleeve. She is a fixed gear bike.   Now how do I explain this?  Kent Peterson states it best when he writes this;

“And how is it to ride? It doesn’t coast. You don’t coast as you start out and put your foot in the second pedal. No, you grab the pedal on the fly. The bike won’t ever let you forget — it doesn’t coast. If you want to go fast, you pedal fast. To go slow, you pedal slow. When you stop, it stops. How are the hills? Really fun to go up, really a workout coming down. I am the engine and the brakes.The big brakes are my quads and my kneecaps working to slow those big wheels down. And in one instant I have to be strong and in one instant I have to be fast and always I have to be paying attention. This is riding. This is a bicycle that teaches me something every time I ride it, that makes me more by virtue of it’s being less. It’s the bike I ride until the street lights come on and sometimes even longer. It’s the bike I put away sadly and take out joyfully. It’s the bike that never forgets why we ride.”

So as you see, the gears are fixed to the pedals. I can not coast. And my thoughts on that? It is so much fun to ride, ride for pleasure through my neighborhood, ride to school, ride to get groceries, ride for exercise, even ride to pray.  The excitement and competition that arises between me and the terrain due to me not

being able to coast, that I always have to keep peddling, is great.  I’m continually pushing my self to see how far I can go, what hill can I overcome.  My city and route to school takes on new dimensions never seen before in a car.  Experiencing the hill God made in a new light that physically burns my thighs and pushes my lungs, which in turn causes me to rejoice in the beautiful creation of an incredible creator.  My first time on the bike, testing it before my purchase, seemed retarded. Really.  It was like I didn’t know how to ride a bike.  You forget how much you coast on a free wheel bicycle, especially getting started.  And I kept forgetting I couldn’t coast while riding which almost ended up with me several times being lifted up off my seat by the pedals and flying over the handle bars.  Now, now I don’t even think about it….I just ride, continually pedaling, always going. If I want to stop, well I slow down my legs, there are no brakes because there are no need for brakes, I am the brake.  If I want to go faster do I switch gears? No there’s only one gear, its fixed, so I pedal faster.  This to me is truly riding a bike, always in tune with whats going on, always aware of whats coming ahead, always enjoying the journey because it’s actually me putting in the effort of getting to my destination.

So if you see me riding through Hyattsville, Riverdale, College Park, Greenbelt, or Lanham say in your mind, “there goes a blessed man.” (=