

Why I cycled a hundred miles to meet my first customer - 3stripe
http://www.cyclelove.net/?p=2190

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mvanveen
I really like how the author enumerated all his "mistakes" along the way.

I was reminded of my mistakes the night I couldn't sleep and embarked on a
full-day bicycle journey up to San Clemente at 3am (mistake #1). Woefully
unprepared (#2) and on my mom's upright commuter bike (#3), I got lost in Camp
Pendleton (#4) after convincing the entry guard I'd walk my bike all the way
to San Clemente since I didn't have a helmet (#5). Pretty soon I started
hearing closeby gunfire (#6), found myself next to extremely fast traffic
(#7), and was eventually escorted off the premises by a friendly, but firm
Military Police officer whose parting words of wisdom were "you might want to
try the 5; the highway patrol might have a problem with it, but you sure as
hell can't ride back this way!" (#8).

As soon as I got off the base, I opted to explore a bit before immediately
taking my chances on the freeway. Sure enough, there was a deserted road a
little off the beaten path, sandwiched between the army base and the freeway.

Pretty soon, I realized the MP had inadvertently dropped me off in familiar
territory. I was on the very beach trail to San Clemente I had taken with my
dad, from many years prior in my childhood when I went on my first multi-day
bike tour.

A few whimsical "mistakes" every now and then can make up for the rest of the
bullshit in life. Oh, the places you'll go!

Great post, thank you for sharing!

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3stripe
Whoooa, that's a fairly crazy outing!

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crazcarl
I really enjoyed reading this. I liked the writing style, and the mood of the
pictures gave the story a good feeling to it.

Thanks for sharing.

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septerr
I agree, it was a very good read.

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cllns
Yea! What a great post. Subscribed to the blog in fact.

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HyprMusic
"No visible lycra — I am not, and do not intend to become, a mammil." "No
fancy gear, cleats or hi-vis — I will make the journey as a human on a bike,
not a “cyclist”."

Although the article is well written, and the t-shirts are nice, I can't help
but feel the author is very narrow-minded. There's nothing wrong with wearing
lycra, cleats, or hi-vis - it does not define the type of cyclist. This does
nothing to integrate and align the interests of the different cyclist groups
(ironically his mission statement is to celibate the diversity of cycling). To
each their own, and if your interest is in cycling on busy roads in the dark
without any lights, hi-vis or helmet then that's your choice. But don't label
those who value their comfort and safety over how they look.

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3stripe
I take your point, and with the benefit of hind legs it does sound a little
like I'm venomously anti-safety/lycra, which was not my intention.

In fact I did have Lycra shorts on for this ride, always use lights at nights,
and wear a helmet for most journeys I make. I've also frequently ridden clad
head-to-toe in a certain stretchy fabric.

It's just for this particular outing I wanted to emphasise the fact that you
don't need loads of special equipment to ride a bike - as I think this is a
misconception that puts a lot of people off getting on a bike in the first
place. The more cyclists there are on the road, the safer it becomes for all
of us.

CycleLove has covered naked riders, pro riders, pregnant riders and slow
riders... I don't really mind how people ride, so long as they enjoy it, and
don't endanger other road users.

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septerr
I am amazed that a human being can cover 100 miles in a day, even if on a
bike. Awesome.

I feel like such a lazy bum!!

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davidw
The bicycle is the most efficient means of human transportation there is, in
terms of distance/energy, as long as you have reasonably surfaced roads or
trails.

 _Sigh_... I dearly miss frequent rides.

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buro9
You should move further away from your office.

Or move your office further away from your home.

I went and chose an office location that allows a 25 minute train ride, but
the cycle ride following the river is far nicer and only takes an hour... so I
do that instead (with the train as fallback if I'm having to make an exception
once in a blue moon).

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davidw
Riding != commuting, for me. I mean, being on a bike is nice, but going for a
ride implies a more care-free attitude, and the complete liberty to go fast
and sweat (there are no showers in the office). My favorite thing, once upon a
time, was to just grab the bike in the morning and go.

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tobiasu
I think you're just looking for an excuse ;)

I do 2h training rides (in full lycra, of course) before work, and we don't
have a shower. Come to work, change all my clothes, put some water in the
face, apply deodorant and I'm set.

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bkor
I also cycle to work and do the same thing (change clothes, apply deo). Only a
25min or so ride though. I cycle differently to work than going back, makes it
more interesting.

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agwblack
He was lucky it was only Peterborough. It could have been Newcastle, or
Glasgow. When you live in London everything is so busy that it becomes easy to
assume that everyone else must live there too.

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papalalu
i just came back from a 100 mile ride - you're a nutter to be doing it without
cleats - you lose so much energy and it's asking for foot/ankle problems if
you don't have stiff soles. i hope you had straps at least.

as for the lycra i have to say i feel the same way.. it stays underneath or is
replaced by too-expensive rapha stuff where applicable.

nice tshirts anyway.

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randomknowledge
That isn't actually true. Cleats or no, the power comes from the down stroke
not the up stroke: see [http://roadcyclinguk.com/riding/bike-fitting-the-myth-
of-the...](http://roadcyclinguk.com/riding/bike-fitting-the-myth-of-the-
upstroke.html) . While there are good reasons to use cleats (mostly so your
feet won't come off the pedals), I haven't seen any evidence of significant
efficiency gains. Furthermore there are plenty of ordinary shoes with
sufficiently stiff soles to cycle in.

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papalalu
that's interesting.. i would have said from feel that accelerating and
especially sprinting up hills i was pulling up - but perhaps the benefit is
just that my feet are stuck to the pedal at the top rather than lifting off.

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buro9
Hey, 3stripe! Good to see you on here, I didn't realise that you were. Great
blog post, drop me an email or PM and I'll put a mention in the LFGSS email
for you.

Are you going to Impetus Momenta on the 6th? If so... see you there.

Velocio

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3stripe
Have been lurking here for a good wee while :)

That would be sweet. I'll PM you on LFGSS. And yes I should be at IM, meant to
be taking some photos for the blog.

Cheers, J.

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ryandelk
Amazing story! Love this.

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Dramatize
Great story and photos.

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sigwann
great. long life to your venture!

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rxooo
Why would he not ship the item via mail?

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bkor
That's explained in the blog.

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earroway
Wow.

