gusts

riding a bike

in an unforgiving wind

is so like life

it pushes with fingers

sometimes with hands

that are apparently joined

to a limitless body

that flows

around me

like thin cold water

a rip tide of air

pushes me

and my bike

across the pale-grey

ribbon of tarmac

i call "mine"

of course

like life

it's no more mine

than anyone else's

hanging on an edge of rubber

and wish-driven need

i'm compelled

to lean into it

until it gives

and then just as suddenly

i am compelled

to lean back

so i don't fall over

no sense in sense because it makes no sense

this wind

crushed into life between clouds levelled by temperate zones

and then flowing like silvered magma

across the surface of this world

disregards the forms

of buildings

trees

signs

lampposts

and of course

a man

on a bicycle

pushing sideways through

it's roaring mouth

the learning of course

is to work with the wind

to chart a different course home

~

i listen

to the wind's gusts

so like life

letting go

for about a year and a half i've been thinking about a different bike.

strange that isn't it.

the bikes i have - the commuter and the road bike - are both good bikes. they have been well-used and cared for, but there's an itch that i can't scratch. so i've been scouring the net, bookmarking this manufacturer and that manufacturer in the hope that somewhere, i'll see a thumbnail picture and a glowing description that describes the next bike for me.

after much deliberation, soul-searching, head-scratching and several beers over the year and a half, i had settled on buying one of two bikes. the cervelo s1 and the argon 18 krypton.

my first rule of thumb is that bikes - like clothes, furniture, wall-paint and book covers - must look good and both of these do. having become a little more knowledgeable through experience and research i also knew that within my budget i could afford a shimano ultegra drivetrain and peripherals.

not a cyclist? then reading all that stuff likely put you off.

so i'll continue for the benefit of the two of you still reading.

i shop for my bike bits and even whole bikes at wildrock in downtown peterborough. it's an excellent shop with cool, knowledgeable and real people working there, some of whom are chums and even riding friends from africycle in the summer.

so i had more-or-less decided to try and buy one of the two aformentioned bikes through wildrock when an e-mail arrived informing me that my fave bike shop was having a "ridiculous sale" of all 2010 models. i saw two bikes listed that caught my eye and their prices - neither were the two i was looking at and for, but what the heck.

so off i went.

well - there it was.

the glance across the room that sealed my fate.

a trek madone 4.7.

it wasn't the bike i wanted, dreamed of, saved for.

nope. i recognized it as "the next bike" as soon as i saw it.

i don't try on clothes.

i don't take bikes out for a test spin.

either i know or i don't know that i need to have whatever it is i see because it's right for me.

strange isn't it.

that someone so thoughtful, someone who's always thinking things through......

and then bam!!!

i'm handing over scads of cash and saying "i'll be by to pick it up tomorrow!"

and then leaving, now owning three bikes.

so, long story short - the glacier "team ice" has been sold at wildrock's annual bike sale day.

so i'm a little wistful.

the glacier carried me for five thousand kilometres, eleven hundred of which were around lake ontario.

i have great memories of it, some of which have been shared here, but now i'm moving on.

a new relationship with a different bike.

to this point i've put three hundred and fifty km on it so it still looks and feels like new.

stick around and there'll be more about what my new bike and i achieve.

hero

the hero "royal" model

perhaps you can help me understand why i have this deep-seated compulsion to own a bike that is the antithesis of the slick machines that take care of my need to move from point a to point b. for reasons i can't articulate, i am drawn to old english bikes like the raleighs with the three-speed sturmey archer and i get the same sort of butterflies-in-the-gut feeling i get when i see a bike that is far beyond my pecuniary abilities to afford and even more importantly - which couldn't possibly be rationalized to

she who provides reason to my life.

maybe that's what makes my heart sing when i watch this very short but oh-so-lovely video on the hero bike.