Cycle to the Natural Rhythm

                          A short story to a long love affair - How it all started in Japan 1987

                                                 Being open to slowing down

    I have been a long distance touring cyclist since the first time I saw a mountain bike in Japan in 1987. Until that point in time I was a dedicated motorcyclist. In my early twenties my motorcycle was giving me the adventures I was craving. Wind in my hair (which I still had), the thrill of two wheels, being in the picture, not just passing through it. I had it all. Or so I thought. The one thing I was lacking was a more autonomous ride, which I accidentally found on my way to buy a motorcycle in Japan. We stopped so I could have a look in a bicycle shop because something caught my eye in the window display. I walked in, saw my first ever mountain bike, and instantly knew that my life had changed forever.
                                                    Truly Part of the Landscape 

     On the way to the bicycle shop I was riding pillion on the back of my friend's motorcycle. He was taking me to buy my own motorcycle to continue my travel adventures in Japan. Everything passing by at motorcycle speed felt normal. I was part of the scene, but something still niggled. The food stalls were there, the steam rising, but I just couldn't smell the odours that I knew must have been filling up the streetscape. Then a chance stop, an entrance into a bicycle shop and what would seem like an impulse buy of my first ever mountain bike. These were not just coincidences, they were destiny knocking, and luckily I was awake enought to open the door. On the slower ride home I was exhilarated being able to easily stop and smell the udon, taste the fried octopus, and hop right back onto my bike. Memories of rides through my Bronx neighbourhood back in the seventies kept replaying in my mind's eye. Before I had a driver's license, I used my bicycle to tour around my neighbourhood and further afield. My first job was delivering meat on a truck bike for a local butcher. Now I had accidentally refound those moments I thought were just fond memories - exploring the world at a slower speed under my own steam. 

                                                  A Different Direction

     My life took me on a different ride after that first mountain bike ride home from the bike shop in Japan - I have since worked in, managed and owned bicycle shops between my long tours. I have put together many bicycles over the years for diverse people going on their own cycling adventures near and far. My experiences have given me a lot of insight into what makes a nice bike so much fun to ride. For example, if a couple is going on a long tour, let's say three weeks to a month on a normal bicycle and they are in average shape, they will get stronger as the trip goes on. They'll also get faster going up hills, and their daily distances will start increasing with their fitness. What seems hard on day one will seem like a breeze on week two. It just naturally happens. 

                                      A Human Pace in our Fast Paced World.

      To move at a human pace on "Man's noblest invention", as the writer William Saroyan called the bicycle, is such a pleasure. To offer our future selves, and our younger generations the idea that we can still do things without electricity, in the shape of batteries, and with more autonomy would indeed be a gift that keeps on giving! Is it any wonder H.G. Wells had this to say about the simple bicycle, "When I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the human race."