Fair Weather Riding

Spring has sprung.  More bikes are showing up on the roads.  Roads to work as well as ones leading to pleasure.  And anyone who is anyone at my company rode their bikes to work today.

This is beginning to prompt the questions from others at work.  "I haven't seen your bike lately.  Aren't you riding it to work?"  No.  I am not riding my bike to work.

I love riding.  But I am an "all the gear all the time" type of girl.  I'm only too capable of imagining disaster scenarios that result in my bike being mangled and me sliding along the road.  So suiting up is just a natural and required part of my riding.  It just doesn't mesh well with getting into my work "uniform", then zipping myself into my riding pants.  I'm usually sweating up a storm, enough to fog up my helmet, by the time I get in my gear, move the bike out of the garage, close the garage, organize all my work paraphernalia, trudge everything out the bike and start moving.  When there isn't traffic it takes me longer to suit up then it does to ride to work.  And when there is traffic, well, I'm just sitting in traffic.  So I just don't take enjoyment from riding to work.

I take my enjoyment from my RIDES.  When I ride, I want to ride.  I don't begrudge my friends riding to work.  But I would much rather put a thousand miles on my bike seeing the countryside and not 20 miles a day at a time.  See, some of my friends only put the miles on their bike because they ride to work, not because they actually go out and ride.  But that could also be because it's a Harley.  We all know they can't handle the high mileage.  LOL.

Just kidding...  But where were all these bikes throughout the winter?  So I will take my riding a hundred miles at a time.  Not 10.