Time for another drunk-on-summer rant about how much I enjoy the season. No cocktails are involved in achieving this state. I’m so fond of the heat and sun and going barefoot and fresh vegetables that I naturally trend to euphoria in July and August. Admittedly, an icy cold beer is extra delicious at this time of year.
In 2024, I’m high on cycling. Previous years it’s been live rock music, gardening, freedom and other things. I still love all these, but let me rift on cycling this year. Not that it’s any more special this year than it has been for the past every summer since I was 12ish but it rocks, is delicious, uplifting, and generally awesome.
Focusing on my bike1. Me riding my bike. A lot. There’s space for bicycles on many great paths and roads where I live. I am so fortunate. When I think about it, I’ve always lived somewhere (but several different somewheres, two large urban centres, one rural, one suburban) with great places to ride your bike. Maybe they are everywhere, maybe I just find them. Whichever, I’m fortunate.
Bike riding makes everything ok. This summer has had a few emotional challenges, but after a serious bike ride (>20km, but more is better), it feels like everything will work out. Like the Glorious Sons sing: ‘everything is alright, if only for tonight’ and sometimes, that’s all you need, to get to the next day. It may be endorphins kicking in, but a solid work out brings fresh perspective. It could also have something to do with taking an hour or three to have fun.
This feeling, that everything is all right, might be because cycling, by definition, covers miles of ground, taking me away from home, the ‘hood and often into natural spaces. When travelling for errands or to social events, I select roads with bike lanes on secondary streets, leading through well gardened and treed neighbourhoods and parks. Even when I lived in Canada’s largest city, I found commuter paths completely covered by a tree canopy, with plenty of vegetation lining the trail.
When going ‘for a ride’, for sheer pleasure, there are paths through naturalized and protected areas along major water ways – either a Great Lake or the many rivers and streams that flow into it. These paths traverse old growth forest and stream beds with willows hundreds of years old, tunnel under eight lanes of highway or major rail arteries supplying goods to half the country’s population. There are moments I pedal soundlessly along the asphalt path, alone with the birds and muskrats and chipmunks, sheltered from the sun’s heat by the moist riverbed floor and dense canopy. Then around a curve is another cyclist, or dog-walker, or couple strolling hand in hand. We smile and say hello, filling me with warmth of the sharing the good with my fellow humans.
Cycling is as close to flying (outside a plane) I can get. This sensation is particularly intense going through tunnels, in the dimness, where the ground is invisible and the walls rush by as I zoom toward an opening at the far end, the sky. Riding at dusk evokes a similar sensation2. When you can’t see or feel the ground you glide over, and look up to the lights above, it feels like sailing through the air.
Back down on earth, there are a number of practical reasons cycling rocks:
- get plenty of exercise, especially if taking the bike replaces the car for regular errands,
- get low impact exercise. Cycling is pretty easy on the joints, compared to running, tennis, basketball, hockey and even walking,
- also good for developing and maintaining balance,
- reduced carbon foot-print when replacing car trips – great for the environment,
- vehicle costs beat a car: A serviceable bike costs less than a month’s rent. A quality bike will last a long time (mine is over 25 years old, with maintenance and replacement parts over the years, amountng to about $100 annually). No insurance costs – unless the bike’s a silly expensive model and is separately listed on home insurance. Fuel is included in grocery bills. Parking only requires something solid to lock it to: I’m partial to no parking signs.
- tightens muscles and improves appearance of legs: Yes, this is vanity but I am a product of my upbringing and so having firm legs is a benefit of cycling. But it’s more than cosmetic, I feel better when I’m fit.
Overall, cycling helps maintain cardiovascular health, a good body weight, muscle strength and flexibility, independence, balance, financial health (because it costs less than travelling by car), takes care of the planet, feels like flying, produces an endorphin rush (free, legal, non-toxic high). Not even sex does all that.
1 My bike uniquely suits me. It’s a bit old, like me, but a high quality brand (not sure that’s like me, but it is sturdy and works well, like me). Although officially a road bike, or multitrack, it has a number of custom components in the tires, brakes, gears handles bars and big plastic basket on the back. I like to push hard rather than pedal fast, so the gears are optimized for that. I travel over mostly paved but sometimes rough surfaces, so the tires are selected for that – a heavier one on the back than front for traction. My gear shift and brake levers are modified because my arthritic hands are the weakest part of me.
2 I avoid riding in the dark for safety reasons because expecting car drivers to see cyclists at night is too much, so it isn’t safe.