The Continuum

I rode with my friend Fez the other day. Fez has written for the site. He’s a yoga and meditation teacher, a two-time cancer survivor, a musician, and he came back to bike riding in his 40s. He’s a lot of fun to ride with, because he REALLY, REALLY feels the joy of riding bikes.

On this particular ride, he cleared some obstacles he hadn’t been able to clear before, and he was stoked. I was stoked too. We were stoked. And he asked me, “how did you guys wind up as mountain bikers? Like, how do you get here from road biking?”

And that got me to thinking about what’s good about the different kinds of riding I’ve done in my life, because they’re the same, but they’re also different, and sometimes I think we divide ourselves up, as cyclists, in ways that aren’t helpful. I mean, that’s a thing humans do, right? Focus on our differences (which are real) instead of on what we have in common.

I explained to Fez that mountain biking, to me, is just a continuation of the BMX riding I did as a kid. I never raced BMX. That wasn’t a thing in Mobile, AL. But we rode all over, in the woods, on the streets, off jumps, etc. on our BMX bikes, and so my feelings about mountain biking are entirely aligned with that part of my childhood, one of the very happiest parts.

Road biking, which I was very into from about 1997 through 2010 or so, feels a lot more adult, by comparison. It’s like my bike riding grew up, in a way, because road riding has this order and discipline and linearity to it that mountain biking doesn’t require. Road biking really asked me the questions, “how far can you go?” and “how fast can you do it?” That’s simplifying things dramatically, because it also gave me a place to meet my friends and gave me a way to explore far flung roads all over the place. My road riding life was rich and varied and fun. I love a long, grinding road climb, and I love the swoopy descent that comes after.

Then gravel bikes came along, and for me, at first, that really just meant 28mm tires on my road bike. But pretty quickly I built my first real gravel bike with, wait for it, 32mm tires on it, and got down to the business of riding dirt roads and trails all the time. It was the same, but different, and I have to admit, lower stress.

Keep in mind, I’d been commuting and riding through the city this whole time. I’d been hit by cars a few times. I’d been in conflicts with drivers semi-regularly. Gravel riding was a real departure from the anxiety of being on the road, but it still required a lot of pure cardiovascular fitness. The transition felt seamless. 

And speaking of seamless, you’re on the dirt all the time, and someone suggests riding mountain bikes, and then you’re back to a sort of beginning. And that’s how I came to, mainly, be a mountain biker these days.

It’s worth mentioning that I have never stopped riding any kind of bike. I don’t own a BMX bike anymore, but I’m still riding road and gravel bikes. It’s just that, once my pure fitness started to slide down the backside of the bell curve, I rediscovered the childlike joy of riding bikes in the woods.

It’s a continuum, and even when I’m in one part of it, I expect to be in other parts of it later. Will I be a roadie again? Probably. But I’d ride a unicycle if someone gave me one.