I started out today's bike ride with a typical elitist cyclist's attitude. I was riding my bespoke titanium road machine, attired in technical fabrics and transferring power with hand made Australian carbon fiber soled "shoes" onto clips pedals. To record the days, activities, I was enlisting the use of Strava, the serious cyclist's training and documentation tool.
About halfway through the ride, I decided to finish up by taking the Minuteman Bikeway from one end in Bedford through Lexington to the other terminus in Arlington. Along the way, I waved to every cyclist I saw coming the other way. Nearly all of them waved back. Only a small minority of both the riders I passed and the ones I saw headed the opposite way were "serious road cyclists" such as myself.
But it quickly struck me that cycling isn't about how fast you can go on the same bike ridden by the stars of the Tour de France or how much better riding single track will be thanks to a couple dozen technologies that the average person doesn't even know exist. I realized that my typical cycling pursuits and outlook have more in common with my snowboarding than those of the cyclists I was encountering on the bike path. I am part of a smug, elitist group that spends silly amounts of money on what an outdoor luxury lifestyle.
What makes cycling great is the joy in the simple act of balancing and riding a bike, and sharing that joy with others. After a long winter bereft of cycling, I was seeing even more giddiness than normal as people rediscovered how fun it is to ride a bike. In watching others, I came to appreciate and savor just how nice my own ride was and had a big smile on my face the whole way down the bike path.
https://www.strava.com/activities/279770026/segments/6555653447
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| The Boston and Maine train at the Bedford end of the Minuteman Bikeway |
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| The Arlington end of the Minuteman Bikeway |
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