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I’ve Been Saying ‘the Heck with It’ and Riding – You Should Too
Long story short, I’ve had enough “fun” in my job that the only way I’ve been able to stay sane is shut the computer/phone and lay off of social media (including, sadly, Ricochet.)
Riding my bike has been a consistent source of joy that continues unabated as our weather in northern Illinois gets frosty. Here are some shots from a summer and fall of unplugging, riding, sweating, burning calories, but still taking time to snap a pic or two. I hope you all have a similar source of joy.
Taken on a random day off early in the spring
OK, technically this was taken from a hotel, but I was only in the hotel for a bike race — my first in years.
This was after a night at a campsite, where all night long a nasally older gentleman from Minnesota sat by his fire, complaining to his campmate about how stupid, evil, and racist Republicans were. Fun times. Fortunately, I got to ride the next day.
Same trip, and I love how it shows just how pretty Wisconsin is.
And from a cold ride this morning. Just what I needed after work and the news of the day.
Published in General
Looks like a conversation for @thereticulator.
Rides in northern Illinois are good. I’ll bet some of our paths have crossed over the years, even if we weren’t both on those routes at the same time.
Last month I got in four days of riding in northern Indiana, which is also a very good place for riding. This photo was taken at the end of the first day’s ride, at the village of Roann, not too far north of Peru (on the Wabash). The covered bridge crosses the Eel River.
I had my Canon M50 in my handlebar bag, but mostly I took video footage with two GoPro cameras. You can see the 360 degree camera on a stick mounted on the handlebars; my Hero 9 was mounted on a rack on the front wheel. I’ve done that before, but it doesn’t always work the greatest. With my handlebar bag in the way I can’t see when the Hero 9 gets shaken out of level position by a stretch of rough road. For the remaining three days I mounted the 360 degree camera there, as it doesn’t matter if it gets shaken to a different angle.
That camera is my B-roll camera. The main footage is taken from the Hero 9. For the remaining three days I switched the two cameras around.
The Hero 9 footage doesn’t look quite as exciting from handlebar height, but excitement is not the main point, and the net effect is better there. Aside from getting shaken out of position, sometimes the bouncing on the front wheel is too sharp for the stabilization to smooth out the video, even if it doesn’t get shaken out of a horizontal position. With my handlebar mount, there is enough “play” to keep it from happening there. And I can keep an eye on it there.
I need to make some changes to the mount I’m using above the front wheel, as even the image from the 360 degree camera sometimes doesn’t stabilize well enough there.
I’ve been experimenting all summer with different ways of doing it (on three different bicycles, each with its own issues). I have some ideas for improvements next year. Even though the weather is good for bicycling now, I have outdoor projects to do at home during daylight hours, so have started riding indoors evenings with my Wahoo Kickr Snap and Rouvy, getting in rides from around the world. Also, I need to buy some more equipment to carry out my other experiments for mounting my equipment, but supply chain issues mean the things I want to buy are out of stock.
One other item whose mounting I’d like to improve is the phone that’s mounted on the handlebars. I have a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt computer in which my route is programmed, but I need better maps, so I’ve created georeferenced maps for use on my phone, to show me where all the Michigan Road Lands were located, and when I’m riding on or across them.
The Michigan Road is in Indiana. It’s a story that involves the Potawatomi people whose land the road passed through, and the pressures that were put on them to pay for it. If you thought Donald Trump was audacious in suggesting that Mexico should pay for the wall, you should see how the State of Indiana got the Potawatomi people to pay for the road whose northern portion invaded their lands. It involved the parcel of land where my bicycle was standing for this photo.
Just got back from my weekly long bike ride. I took up bike riding again during the lock down and just like you, I have found it a source of constant joy. I had ridden horses for many years but after my last one died, I decided not to get another one. Bike riding has filled part of the void.
Thanks for his. Please edit the text so it’s separated from the pictures.
Really nice post: thank you. You cycle, I swim. Thousands of yards every week, in an outdoor pool, early in the morning; often in the rain – which is The Best. It clears my mind and soul each day for what lies ahead. It leaves little time for ‘social’ media which I am finding more toxic each day.
Our exurban DFW neighborhood has miles of paved trails, so I love watching the sunrise on my 5 mile ride, seeing the changing colors in the sky and the activity levels increasing. Thanks for your lovely photos which of course can’t do justice to the actual experience and your memory of it.
It’s fine to not read stuff that’s just maddening. But if we just go bike ridding or whatever one does to inject balance and health into our mental and physical selves we turn it over to folks who will destroy the Republic. If you think that’s a crazy fabrication, then you might pay a little more attention, not much as it’s obvious.
I got a boat (used cabin cruiser) but it has been such a wonderful distraction. It’s ended up acting as a small, “cabin” where we’ve been able to just hang out somewhere other than the house, enjoy views of the Milwaukee and The Michigan Lakeshore. I can just hang out watch the sunset/sunrise and totally zone-out.
Well, as I said in the post, it’s been work “Fun” that’s led me outdoors.