Bicyclist Evolution-Getting Back to Basics
Do remember when you were a kid and old enough to really take advantage of the freedom of your bicycle?
My first real non-hand-me-down bicycle was a single speed Huffy Eldorado. Spandex hadn’t been invented yet. My brother and I rode all over the rural roads of our farming community on our bikes.
We rode in our jeans and sneakers. Nobody used helmets. Hell we didn’t even use brakes. We could stop by putting our feet down on the gravel and skid to a stop in a cloud of dust. I think I could do things then I wouldn’t even dream of doing now.
One annual tradition was to ride our bikes the six miles from the farm to school on the last day of the year. School was out by noon that day. We would spend a few hours in town riding around engaged in squirt gun fights with other kids and basically terrorizing the town.
Freedom at last and no school for three months.
My bicycling gradually evolved. Now I have clipless pedals and a drawer full of spandex. The money I have spent on bicycle related gear would have been considered a sin in my younger days.
A year or so ago I started on a path to get back to the simplicity of the bicycle. Gradually I got back to doing some cycling in regular clothes. I started riding now and then on flat pedals with ordinary shoes. I admit that sometimes I even ride sans helmet if I am riding the mile and a half to the store.
If you haven’t ridden on flat pedals in awhile I suggest you get out and try it. Ignore you bicycle computer and just relax.
Be a kid again. I think you might surprised at how fun it is to get back to basics.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I tried flat pedals a couple of weeks ago. When accelerating away from a stop sign my foot slipped and I almost injuryed a part of me, which I think would be very painful.
However, slow riding without the computer and helmet almost feels wrong but fun. Sort of like riding farther from home than you were allowed when you were a kid.
If you listen to the advice of the so-called experts is makes me wonder, how did we ever survive as kids, riding bikes without helmets?
October 28th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I won’t deny that there aren’t advantages to clipless. Accleration being one. Riding up steep hills another. I wouldn’t want to give up my clipless entirely.
It just makes for a nice change of pace now and then.
October 28th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
That is one funny picture, where did you find it? You do realize of course that you can get killed by a car even if you are only a mile from home. Just giving a you a reminder from my childhood…
October 28th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Go back to basics is ok as long as your keep the safety rules in mind. I totally agree with Inger-Lis, you can get killed within a few feet of your home without a helmet. This is analogous to going a mile in a car without a safety belt and getting into an accident - it has been known to happen. Cliched but so true -accidents happen only once without warning
October 31st, 2008 at 6:16 am
I ride clipless and I ride on flat pedals. Clipless pedals are great (though I found yesterday that I seem to have worn out the cleats on my shoes again so they weren’t working so well as they ought to)
These days I do more distance on the flat pedals. Lots of short trips, but it adds up. Thus far I’ve failed to get into any trouble at all, as of course do the majority of the world’s cyclists in their helmet-less and flat pedal world. I wouldn’t consider using clipless pedals, or toe-clips, on a town bike.
My “like a kid” moment came a few years back when I first took a hire bike in this country. It was the first time since being a kid that I had a bike with a coaster brake (and only a coaster brake). Wonderful. They’re still tops for long skids.