Gran Fondo

An email arrived in my inbox the other day. It had a rather large attachment. My cursor shot for the delete button, slightly irritated. The same sharp annoyance I felt last time at the gym. Somewhat frazzled already, I snapped at my Personal Trainer when she asked me when I'll start racing again. Later I blamed the "hyper-moon" for my irritability. Heck, the whole world seemed short-fused and edgy this past week.

The reason for my reaction to the email? It was the Battle on The Border race announcement. How fast one year has gone. Last year I was certain I would race this year. I didn't delete the email but open the Race Announcement Flyer. The "Tweed Daily News Social Events" caught my eyes: Piccolo Fondo - 57km, Fondo - 136km and Gran Fondo - 177km. Gran Fondo! I love the old-world charm of the word. It evokes vivid images of Italian country roads, a flurry of colours and wheels and cheerful non-competitive competitiveness in the saddle.

Gran Fondo! First of May - 32 days to the event. Right now I ride 80 km comfortably, 100km is a stretch, especially if climbs are part of the course. Gran Fondo! - the inner voice keeps whispering. Too grand for me right now with the amount of preparation time but Fondo might be just the right distance for some spark?

Why ride a Fixie?

Fixie skidding zone?!

Coffee machine conversation in the office on a Monday morning: "What did you get up to this weekend?" "I rode my Fixie!"

Interest, not faked, but comprehension difficulties and after some explanation the lightbulb moment: yes, yes, when I was a child my very first bike was like that. And then more probing with a disapproving frawn. "Why would you ride a ... Fixie?" One of those guys who rode a bike just long enough to get a license, you know. So I was patient.

How to explain? He did understand the "coolness factor" thing but do I really ride a Fixie just to be cool? There is more to it! I thought about it more carefully and I realised that, at first and for a long time, I felt intimidated by the thought of riding a bike with no freehub, the same way I felt intimidated by rollers at first. I don't like to be intimidated so I had to try it. Simple!

But that's still not the whole story. It will improve my pedalling style. It will force me to pedal through corners, something I can hardly bring myself to do. It will stop me from pushing off the road and damaging my shoes and I will have to spin my legs when I usually coast.

And above all it's incredible fun!

So the real question should be: Why not ride a Fixie?

Our perspective

The unbearable lightness of cycling

Australia Post's tag line is "We deliver". They just don't say when and my 22T cog took four weeks to arrive from Germany. Not that I needed the extra cog to ride fixed, I just wanted it that way. I figured it would be easier to have both sides set up to flip between freewheel and fixed hub whenever I feel. Plus, I wasn't sure how quickly I would catch on to the whole Fixie fixation, and keeping the back (read: singlespeed) door open seemed a good option.

Curious and independ, I mounted the cog and aligned the belt to make sure everything was working fine when I would arrive at Nundah for my first fixed gear attempt. Alberto sounded disappointed when he came home from his ride (I had slept in ... the usual): "You don't need a man for those things." I do need a man for the praise through. But truth to be told, praise was not deserved because it was too easy to screw the cog to the wheel. The alignment was a little more tricky but I had done it before. The plan was to meet my friend John, who had prepared his bike in a similar fashion, for our usual Sandgate loop on Singlespeed, stop at Nundah and flip the wheel over and have our first go at fixed gear riding on the track.

Again it took me a few minutes to align the belt but nothing too tedious. John had a much harder time loosening up his rear wheel and eventually gave up. Maybe he was just not ready for cool ...?

How did it go? Glad to be able to concentrate just on the pedalling and not having to worry about cars, taking off for the first time straight away jerked up my foot, sending my unsuspecting femur through my butt ... an interesting feeling, which I was able to enjoy several more time. Ever touched the electric fence of cow paddock when you were kids? It's the same sort of feeling. Even though you know that your leg would fly in the air from the low voltage electric shock, it surprises.

Finding the pedal and clipping in while the pedals are turning, unclipping and coming to a stand still while pedalling, transitioning from standing to sitting ... easy manouvers that made me realise how often I actually stop pedalling. Seriously, I'm the coasting queen but after several laps around the track I felt comfortable enough to actually ride the six kilometers home, slowly. While I haven't attempted an emergency stop, nor have I ridden in heavy traffic, yet, I found this easier than mastering rollers. Needless to say that the Peacemaker won't flip-flop back to freewheel in a hurry! It's a proper Fixie now, people! New things to try, challenges to face, things to learn, satisfy my competitive mind and keep a smile on my face. For now!

Cycling and Chiropractic

This post has been sitting in the draft folder for several weeks now, unfinished. I've been meaning to write it since I started seeing a Chiropractor again in December. And I'll be upfront with this one: I'm a true believer in chiropractic.

Is any of this bothering you:

• Saddle sores, always on the same spot or same side?
• The feeling of sitting lobsided on your saddle, especially when riding hands-free?
• Niggling pains in body while riding, e.g. sore hips, neck, shoulders, tingling hands?

But not only that. How about:

• Slow recovery or healing?
• Lack of power?
• Muscle tension?
• Clicky jaw?

That an aligned pelvis and equally long legs are conducive to strong pedalling action is pretty obvious but how about a crooked neck? Don't need 'ya neck for riding, do ya?

These are the latest X-rays of my neck, taken just over a year ago after my car accident, and if you know a thing or two about spinal health, you will spot curves were there shouldn't be any and straight lines where there should be curves. But that's pretty standard for someone my age. Years of bad posture, unhealthy habits, thoughtless slumps, a few bike crashes and said car accident - viola!

So what does a misaligned pelvis and a famously stuffed up neck do to the rest of the body?

According to my chiropractor I'm a Cat 2, going on Cat 1 - with his assistance over the past three months. This would be a good thing in cycling terms. And to no surprise for some: I'll probably never be "Normal" again.

It means that some muscles in my body pull hard on the bone to keep things in check, which causes their counterpart muscles on the other side to pull even harder to compensate. Pull, pull, pull ... all the way up into the cul-de-sac, the head(ache). It also means that pressure is put on the nerves that run along the spine, blocking information from the spine to organs. With signals not getting through, the body can't work at it's best. And with all this going on before even clipping in, why expect to ride or race well?

The more I realise the impact of all this not only on my cycling, but on everything I want be good at in life, I can't stress enough the importance of a healthy spine. But don't think I'm just an advocate for chiropractic. Yoga, in my opinion, achieves the same thing, it just requires more discipline, time and patience.

Roads so steep ...

Strange thoughts go through my mind in the eerie darkness of an economy class cabin, five hours into a thirteen hour flight. Things like the wonders of time difference! Here I was, flying through tomorrow's night to arrive and relive the morning of the very same day on arrival, only in another place on another continent. And then I realised that the night isn't tomorrow's night, nor last night nor tonight - it's always the same night, following the same day circling the same earth. Funny, I never saw it that way.

Too deep?

Ok, I flew BNE to LAX and spent a few days in San Francisco, a night in Las Vegas and another in Los Angeles. Mostly work, a little play, too. I hope this explains the long absence.

I had the great opportunity to go on a day trip with bikesgonewild and I cannot praise enough the generosity with which he shared his time, fuel, knowledge and passion for bikes in a city full of bicycles, riders, bike shops and good coffee. Shame it had to be fossil and not muscle energy we burnt and I suffered bouts of jealousy watching all the thousands of people out on bikes, followed by bouts of ecstasy visiting bike shops in Sausalito. Well, all I can say is "Thank you" and "I will be back - with bike".

And while I'm sitting here now, back home in Oz, enjoying a nice glass of Chardonnay from the Napa Valley and photoshopping all the memories, I realise how long it has been since riding my bike (not counting stationary monsters in hotel gyms).

There is only one thing that leaves me puzzled about San Francisco: Why on earth would anyone want to ride a Fixie where the roads are so steep that taxi drivers entertain their young passengers by telling them to lean forward so the car won't flip over backwards?