There are a collection of Sea to Sea cyclists maintaining BLOGS in addition to myself and Sunday afternoons always seem to be the time where I can survey the week’s posts by fellow riders. I ran across one today by Ryan Bruxvoort from Chicago. The Entry: Love God with your Heart, Soul, Mind, and Bike commented on the uneasiness that has been sensed by many if not all the riders regarding the expense of putting on a big bike trip and buying cycling gear etc with our money when that money could in theory be used for something else. Click on that above link to read his comments.

It got me to reflecting on the same situation… but instead of having my bike as the second most expensive possession (following a car) I’ve got two bikes as most expensive possessions #1 and #2. So am I twice as in trouble?

No, I don’t believe so, the fact that there is some uneasiness surrounding the idea is comforting. It means that there is a desire to align the life I live with my ideology. Last summer when my quiver of bikes was widened by one (ask me the story about that) I was considering what it meant for myself to put such a large fraction of my time and money into the sport. Where on the totem pole of values was cycling coming? I as aware of the fact but not drawing a ton of conclusions. Within a week a co-op student from out of town commented on how much he hated doing groceries on foot and the sore arms that result from carrying bags of groceries home from the store. I had a bike to lend out, and I caught the opportunity. If those thoughts hadn’t been milling around in my head it probably would have passed me by. My reaction could easily have been one of solidarity, complaining about the times I occasionally did groceries on foot and the dead-arms that always resulted from trying to buy way more food than I could carry. When you’ve got your mind in the right headspace there are opportunities that present themselves. It’s impossible to capitalize on them if you’re going about life with closed fists and your head down.