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Drifting Or Devouring?
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Recently I have been enjoying my kids (mostly - this isn’t social media perfection, and I have also exchanged cross words with both). They are quite different. My daughter is pretty consistent: fashions change, but her interests remain pretty constant. She’s into maths and music, and pretty much always has been, but in a fairly quiet way. She just does them, but they don’t define her, and while she works hard at them she’s not obsessive - and doesn’t have time to be given all the demands of her social calendar. On the flip side, my son’s interests change on a seemingly annual basis, but each one is done with total dedication. He will devour books and documentaries until the thirst is sated, and then the next interest will come along. Not that the past ones are necessarily discarded, he just adds chapters to his pub quiz niche knowledge. Currently we’re deep into karting and motorsport - I’m clueless on the tech, but he’s probably getting quite bored of me saying ‘it’s the same with bikes’ when it comes to ‘interesting facts’ about drafting or racing lines.
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It strikes me that riders of bikes can be a bit like my kids. There are people for whom bikes are life. They wear bike themed jewellery, plan their whole social calendar around riding bikes, watch bike racing, post bike memes on social media… And then there are people who just ride bikes. They probably have a T-shirt with a bike on it, because someone heard they ride bikes, so they must be a cyclist, right? But really, they just like riding bikes, sometimes, and then other times they do other things, like take photos, or play the banjo, or bake cakes.
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I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of the marketing and media narrative around bikes is of the ‘bikes are life’ variety. You need to have n+1 bikes, all holidays must be spent on bikes, your entire living situation is set up around bike storage… But what if that’s not your reality? What if you only have room or money for one bike, and holidays are spent trying to relax while also making sure your kids don’t drown in the pool or eat sand? What if you struggle to find the free time to get out onto the trails more than once a month - are you somehow a less valid ‘cyclist’ than all the obsessives?
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Bikes are life. They’re life-giving. Literally, in the heart-pumping non-pollutant-pumping sense of the word. But also in a more intangible sense. Bikes give freedom, space, time and opportunity. Friendships and connections, discoveries and adventures. These experiences are universal, and wonderful, and valid whether you experience them weekly, monthly, or whenever.
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However bikes fit into your life, may they bring you joy, and add life to your days.
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Welcome one and all to the latest - and some would say greatest - collection of New Bike Related & Bike Adjacent Items that we used to call 'Fresh Goods Friday'.
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Join us by midnight on 24th January to have your name on the list to receive a printed copy of February's magazine. Imagine yourself in February. It's slightly better than January, but a long way behind March. We're pretty sure February's favourite colour is grey. What it needs is an injection of colour, a reminder that the sun will shine …
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Vote Now! Forum Photo Competition
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You've got until Sunday night, 19th January, to cast your votes for your favourite images in the forum photo competition.
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This is the first part of a longer-term review of the Fox Defend 3L Water Pant. The second part will be coming in spring, where we'll have a better idea about the garment's durability. A good set of waterproof trousers is really an essential for winter riding, especially here in the UK. And not even confined to autumn-winter either! Fox …
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Lessons learnt. Myths and truths. The good, the bad, and the ugly. They'll prove useful if you're contemplating starting indoor training - you may also have a laugh at my expense.
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