Weekly Cyco Gallery: Issue #8
Arizona, Ohio, California, Pennsylvania
Hello cycopaths, old and new.
Welcome to a brand new edition of the Weekly Cyco Gallery, where we stare vicariously at bikes on our screens for a few minutes before we head out for the weekend to hopefully ride them.
If you’d like to participate, you can! Simply send me a photo or two of your bicycle leaning up against something. It can be sent to brazdill.25@gmail.com.
Last week, there was a close battle for the most votes between Max’s blue Norco and Nelson’s red Diamondback. The Norco won in the end. So here’s what Max had to say about that ride.
“In conversation with members of the Mohican-Malabar Bike Club, night riding had been brought up several times. The thought of riding the mohican trail through the night immediately caught my interest. I had acquired the lights in August, but the opportunity to ride in the dark had not come for me until November 23rd.
“There was some anxiety, tons of excitement and honestly uncertainty of the decision I was making to ride alone at night. Mixed with my heightened emotions was the fact that I was sitting on a full-suspension bike, marking only my second ride with it. I would be riding alone so I wanted to start off while there was still daylight. I hit the trail about 4:40 and rode to approximately mile 6.5. This is where the darkness began to set in and also at which point I stopped to snap a photo of the bike that I submitted. It was at about the 5.5 mile marker on the way back that the full lights came on and the real excitement came to life. It was about a 35-minute ride in the real dark as I made my way back the way I came and down through the short loop to my car completing a 10-mile ride.
“As I made my way back I knew there lay ahead several challenging obstacles along with two short rocky climbs on the short loop that I honestly thought I would be walking. On the downhill portions I most remember the feeling of submitting for the first time to the bike, letting the bike do the job it was made to do — eat up the trail. It was an incredible feeling as the dark makes it feel like you’re going twice as fast as you really are. Floating over rocks I would normally avoid, making the short challenging climbs that I don’t always complete with daylight, and smoothly cornering turns. It was as though one sense was debilitated and my other senses heightened and my body and bike doing things that in my short time of riding I didn't think I could do. The night now has my heart."
Awesome. Just awesome.
Thanks Max for the description. I think it will resonate with us all, even if we haven’t ridden a MTB in the dark.
Thank you to John, Nelson and James for the submissions this week. I hope you all enjoy!
Take a minute to pick your favorite and cast a vote. The one with the most votes get a small write-up in next week’s installment of the WCG.
Oh, hey. I have some announcements.
This publication is still free to read and consume, but if you’d like to show some love in the form of currency — you can now! There are three ways.
Buy a $3 sticker.
Give a one-time, name-your-price donation.
Give a recurring (monthly) donation of $4.
And one more thing before you go: watch your inboxes on Sunday, when the first part of an ongoing series I’ve entitled “Defining the Ineffable” drops. Featured first is a writer/cyclist named Eben Weiss from New York City.
OK, I lied. One more thing. It’s basically the weekend. So for all the weekend warriors, where will you be riding this weekend?
I kept a journal on crazyguy on a bike web site.
If you haven’t check the site out some great journeys on there.
Mine was titled “ searching for peaceful waters”
I rode all over Argentina and Chilie December/ February 2014
I love cycling I’m a loner so I enjoy solo touring now. I’ve been all over the US and some of South America. I use to compete in triathlons but those days are over