I’ve written a lot of posts, over time, about the most negative parts of cycling — altercations with motorists and poor design or condition of road facilities. But thankfully there are mornings like the one last week when I got off the train in Sunnyvale, walked my bike off the main part of the platform, got on, and rolled down a ramp connecting the pickup area to the parking lot. The bike felt smooth and the pedals turned easily with the speed boost from the ramp, and I remembered why I love riding, including commute riding. <\/p>\n
There’s the gentle cadence of pedals turning as the bike rolls forward, the chain humming lightly. Moments when I crest the slight slopes on Laurel, Sunnyvale, or Central, and pedaling becomes suddenly a little easier. Toiling up Sand Hill for the reward of later flying down Alpine or Woodside. Watching the coastside of Monterey Bay pass by, pedaling against a cool wind. Smelling the sweet California spring breeze. Powering up a short hill to show the road who’s boss. Stopping at a light and getting a break to drink some water. Coming to work awake and feeling alive. Using a vehicle for transport that I fuel myself and whose mechanical workings I understand (even if I don’t own all the tools necessary for the fancy fixes).<\/p>\n
In fact, except for the usually brief and happily not too common moments of fear or irritation with motorists (and other cyclists), I love almost everything about riding.<\/p>\n
I finally managed to attach the mirror that I bought a while back to my helmet yesterday, after removing the visor. I’ve been riding without a mirror for about a year and a half now, but I finally decided that I’d like to be able to keep an eye back without turning my head. The trick is that now that I have the mirror, I’m having to learn to adjust and use it, so I spend too much time looking back. Gotta remember I rode for a year without one — I really don’t need it very often! It also creates an odd blind spot to my left front — fortunately, a mobile one. Riding with it will definitely take some practice, but it’s nice to have a panoramic view of Central behind me so I can easily find out when the next wave is due!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve written a lot of posts, over time, about the most negative parts of cycling — altercations with motorists and poor design or condition of road facilities. But thankfully there are mornings like the one last week when I got off the train in Sunnyvale, walked my bike off the main part of the platform, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lyspeth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lyspeth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lyspeth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lyspeth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lyspeth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lyspeth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lyspeth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lyspeth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lyspeth.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}