Changing Riding Styles

Cycling, like any hobby, can become redundant. Recently, I've had a lot of down time mostly spending my time going on road rides into the hills or further. But as the days went on I found myself less enthused to put on the shorts and ride for the sake of riding. I needed something different.

Shadows on Skyline.

Then one day as the sun was starting to go down, I really just wanted to sketch or read somewhere, for whatever reason I was compelled to load up my handlebar bag and ride up the hills with a book. The ride up was a little dark, as the Caldecot Valley cast some shadows on Old Tunnel Rd. I watched as every time I spurt back into the sunlight, it would be lower on the horizon. I made it up onto Grizzly Peak just in time to watch the sun go down behind the Seven Sisters of San Francisco, something I've been wanting to do since that first evening ride along Skyline.

Twin Peaks, what a view. (Backside photo here)

I didn't get a chance to read, but having a destination, instead of just a route, made this ride different. Riding this way reminds me of when I first started riding my dad's old Iron Horse around Buffalo, leaving the noisy city for quiet spots along the extensive creek systems of Western NY. I was filled with nostalgia on my decent thinking of how these quiet casual bike roads brought some sort of peace in just getting away. As opposed to road cycling, where I usually just pass these places by, this casual style of riding made these the places to go.

This park was about as impressive as expected, not very. The noise of the freeway covered the whole park.

Since that reinventing ride, I've nabbed my books and hit some other nice spots around the Bay, including a quick nice ride up Twin Peaks, overlooking the city, and another short ride up the Albany Hill to get some writing done. The rides may not be as epic as getting on top of Diablo, or hitting your 60 mile mark for the day, but that's the point, it's treating the bike as leisure, not as sport.