Originally Posted by
woodrupjoe
Zen and the Art of Three Speeds…
I’m back on a Raleigh Sports again, last experienced 6 or 8 years ago, commuting in Manhattan.
For the last few years all my cycling has been on 80s road bikes, drop bars with downtube shifters.
I’d forgotten how completely different the experience was of sitting up straight and relaxed while slowly pedaling around.
On my road bikes (which I love riding!) I feel like I’m seriously getting someplace, but on the Raleigh I feel more like I’m just sort of watching the world go by while pedaling home. (or pedaling to work, less fun)
I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance back when I was in college (1970s). I need to reread it, as I recall it had a lot to say about this sort of thing.
I remember some of the car vs motorcycle travel experience in that book… some of it may translate.
You have touched-on an important and interesting dynamic, which, at its essence, I think, is an equation of relaxation/stimulation. My journey has inexorably been tuned to the former in these later years, as I allow the "dust to settle" (doctor's orders in 2010). Still.., the show must go on. I ride my C&V road bikes on my longer and faster rides, but even then, I try to keep that enhanced activity level in context to what is real and lasting. I have never gotten around to reading Pirsig's book. From what you are saying, I should like it. There is something to be said for balance, after-all.