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OPINION

Ill - Part 2.

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I don't miss riding a bike.

I do miss it's emotional release though, I miss starting out laden with self-loathing and doubt, pedalling ever stronger through belief and finishing with smug satisfaction, I miss the thoughts, and the lack of them, I miss the joy of my body working well, or even just working horribly badly, and knowing the myriad of distinctions between the two, I miss feeling lungs and muscles, I miss The Hurt, I miss the wind, I miss the seasons on my skin, I miss the dressing-up, I miss the hollow hunger of the last few miles and the ability to eat anything with a need and a passion, I miss getting back home with better mood happy chemicals flooding the brain, I miss the gentle ache and feeling things repair, I miss being asleep before I hit the pillow, or being rocked to sleep by the deep rhythmic thrub of blood, I miss feeling clean, I miss being a tight functioning human being rather than a mess of fleshy parts wrapped in baggy greasy skin.

But I don't miss the riding at all.

Jo Burt has spent the majority of his life riding bikes, drawing bikes and writing about bikes. When he's not scribbling pictures for the whole gamut of cycling media he writes words about them for road.cc and when he's not doing either of those he's pedaling. Then in whatever spare minutes there are in between he's agonizing over getting his socks, cycling cap and bar-tape to coordinate just so. And is quietly disappointed that yours don't He rides and races road bikes a bit, cyclo-cross bikes a lot and mountainbikes a fair bit too. Would rather be up a mountain.

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4 comments

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mooseman | 15 years ago
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Next weekend in jeopardy then?

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Denzil Dexter | 15 years ago
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How long has it been since you rode your bike?

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VecchioJo replied to Denzil Dexter | 15 years ago
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3 weeks since I've ridden properly (pootles in and out of town are ok), but this is the return of whateveritwas that kept me off the bike for 2 months towards the end of the last year so the pressure cooker of desperation has just exploded, compounded by the arrival of warm weather, sunshine and a brace of pre-planned weekends of cycling.

gah.

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Denzil Dexter replied to VecchioJo | 15 years ago
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I'm not surprised the pressure cooker of desperation has just exploded

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