I Love Riding My Bike

Posted by Dottie at 09:15 basics, commute diary Add comments
Sep 172009

The number one reason I ride my bike is because cycling is so much fun. Words cannot describe the feeling that comes over me while riding my bike. Even if I’m running late to a meeting and there is a ruthless headwind, I am happy. If I get soaked by a sneak wave attack, I swear and laugh and keep rolling. If I get to ride with a friend, it’s double the fun (thanks, EA!).

I wish I could make everyone feel this, but the best I can do is blog about it and hope others give bikes a try.

Seagul over Lake Michigan

Seagull!

Sailboat!

Sailboat!

Chicago skyline over Lake Michigan

Couple huddles under Chicago Skyline

Dottie after surprise attack by a wave

Dottie after surprise wave attack - luckily on the way home

I love riding my bike! Don’t you?

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  • http://www.quaintliving.com/ alice @quaintliving

    I agree totally! I never get attacked by waves though – couldn’t live further from the sea in this country sadly.

  • lorenza

    I know completely what you mean :D and only who rides everyday I think can experience that! Everyone should give cycling a go! go Dottie go! :D x

  • dukiebiddle

    I had no idea that Lake Michigan was so rogue wavey. I ride on my city’s promenade nearly every day. Luckily the harbor is very still. I’m a little more concerned about one of the bobbing corpses reaching up and grabbing my leg than I am of rogue waves.

    • http://letsgorideabike.wordpress.com dottie

      That is so disturbingly funny! Where do you live, Jersey? ;)

      Lake Michigan can be brutal sometimes. The worst waves are during the winter, and then they freeze on the path. Yesterday was super windy, though. Usually I can dodge them, but I was looking down and fiddling with my friction shifting front derailleur. There was water dripping from my helmet before I knew what was happening!

      • dukiebiddle

        “Where do you live, Jersey?” Pssst, no. All the Jersey corpses are in cement. I’m in Baltimore. It seems that they pull a body out of the harbor every couple of weeks. Usually drunks stumbling off the promenade. But if you leave them in a couple of extra days you get a really good crab yield.

    • http://letsgorideabike.wordpress.com Mr. Dottie

      I got hit by a Lake Michigan wave last spring. See the post describing my wet and wild adventure.

  • http://www.grinderswheels.blogspot.com Jon

    Damn those sneaky wave bastids!

    I got pooped on by a bird, on the way home from the coffee shop, the other day. Revenge for all of the chicken I eat, perhaps?

  • http://www.slowbikemiami.com Daniel M. Perez (Slow Bike Miami)

    If I get a sneak attack (oo, D&D reference right there!) from a wave, that means that Miami Beach is in dire straits! :-)

  • Yvette (Slow Bike Miami wife contingent)

    Yeah, or the lunar tide is here again… MB is always in dire straits…
    BUT, I love to ride my bike too!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Now… um, I hate to nitpick, but you misspelled seagull.

    • http://letsgorideabike.wordpress.com dottie

      Thank you! I am a notorious bad speller among my friends and family. If there were no spell check, I would be in trouble. Harder to catch in the captions, though :)

  • http://www.bikinginla.com bikinginla

    L.A. isn’t always the easiest place to ride a bike, but I have to admit, I’d rather be riding than just about anything else I could imagine. Like you make clear, even a bad day on the bike is pretty good. And then you get those rare days when the sun is shining, the waves are crashing, the wind is at your back, your path is clear, and all is right with the world. I wonder what none riders do to get that feeling…

  • cyclemaniac

    My moniker says it all (I hope)!:D

    I’m addicted to biking and collecting bikes. O, yes having a friend or two along to bike would add that ooomph to an already nice day! :-) . :-D

    Please allow me to repeat a line in my last post in “Cycling Is More Than A Fashion Statement”:

    ” ….I am sure when we leave for Yonder Ground people who know us may say, “He/She has lived well (by his/her bike? :-D ) …. ”

    YES! YES! I LOVE BIKING!! COME, COME QUICKLY AND SHARE MY JOY!

  • miss sarah

    I’m so jealous. You live by WATER. Here it’s endless canola fields. But, when we’re road tripping the horizon is rad.

    Biking is the best, obviously!

  • http://www.rideofsilence.org/chicago E A

    so that was your ride home yesterday afternoon , huh? Looks like fun! :-)

  • http://none grambev

    Dot, Uncle Garry told me about you and Steph and the “BIG WATER” (the ocean with the big scary waves when you two were very young.) :)

    • http://letsgorideabike.wordpress.com dottie

      Yeah, mom loves to tell the big water story, too :)

  • http://www.rideofsilence.org/chicago E A

    You’re right about bicycles always being fun! (no matter the battle with the elements) Even better when sharing the joy with a friend. ;-)

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/06088639153697449691 Doohickie

    I love riding my bike! Don’t you?

    I don’t know; I’ve never ridden your bike. ;- )

    It’s been very wet here in Texas the last week or too. But after ChipSeal got us all motivated, I decided to embrace riding in the rain. It’s easy right now; the weather is still pretty warm. So even though I’m wet when I get home, I’m enjoying (almost savoring) the ride. So yeah… I love riding my bike.

    • http://letsgorideabike.wordpress.com dottie

      lol. Touche.

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/06088639153697449691 Doohickie

    too?

    two!

  • kim

    totally agree…i can have had the worst day, but when i get on my bike i am happy, and i am grateful, and i feel FREE.

  • http://invisiblevoices.wordpress.com Deb

    It was drizzling today, which actually felt refreshing, but when I was stopped at a light waiting to turn left (2 left turn lanes), the car in the lane next to me backed up. The woman said she knew that cyclists usually were okay with whatever conditions, but that if I wanted a ride she had a bike rack on the back of her car and she’d drive me wherever I was going.

    It was sweet of her, but I couldn’t even imagine. Get off my bike to get in a car? I thanked her for the offer, but declined.

    And wouldn’t you know, I got a flat less than a mile from home?

    Damn, I hate flats. Messy business changing them (especially given my road-filthy bike), and I wrestled with it for way longer than it seemed it should take. (Partially because I had to repatch a tube.)

    I have bulletproof tires (well, almost bulletproof, obviously) and so the last flat I’d gotten was 6,000 miles ago. BUT, honestly, the whole issue of a flat tire and having to change it was one of the big worries I had when I started bike commuting. Even after being shown how 2 or 3 times, and knowing the process, it was something I dreaded.

    I mention that because I don’t know if you’ve talked about it on your blog, but it might be a good topic to address so that other people like me who are afraid of flat tires might come to see that it isn’t that bad. And there are bulletproof tires. 6,000 miles between flats makes it hard to complain, after all.

  • http://midwestmigrant.blogspot.com Edward Lark

    I actually make this point to people who figure I must have some “reason” for riding as much as I do – I ride my bike, because I love riding bikes. It’s pretty much that simple.

    Yes, I like that I am not contributing to “car culture” and that my commute is a bit more environmentally friendly than if I drove to work (or even took public transportation). And I like that commuting by bicycle is a convenient way to kill two birds with one stone – getting to/from work and getting in a non-health club workout. But I do not ride my bike for any of those reasons, I ride because it is fun. Even winter commuting is fun, although for different reasons than a ride on a perfect summer day.

  • Scott

    A cyclist took this great shot of a rogue wave on the south side bike path.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/absenter/123171722/

    • http://www.rideofsilence.org/chicago E A

      That’s a great shot! Thanks for sharing with us. Glad I’ve never been hit by one of those…

  • http://www.wendyandgabe.blogspot.com Wendy

    I don’t even own a bike, but I read your blog faithfully because you make it look so fun! It really does make me wish I had a bike to cruise around my city, (Salt Lake City.) Thanks for all the lovely pictures and stories that keep me coming back.

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  • http://ladysparrow29.wordpress.com sila

    Hi there I just found this blog and I think it’s great!
    I just bought a city bike last week. I was contemplating on which one to buy for weeks before that – since this would be my first one after so many years off cycling (which was in my teenage years).
    Anyway, I personally find cycling very motivating. I rode my bike home from the shop right after I bought it. Later on I found out my house is about 15km from the shop. Haha!
    Unfortunately, though, I don’t get to see beautiful sceneries like you do, as I live in Jakarta, Indonesia. I only get to see cars, cars, buses, motorbikes, office buildings, and more cars :(

    Will definitely check back to this blog regularly!

    Happy riding!

  • Daniellovesjolene

    I love bike riding ever since I was a teen yeah I learn ti ride at 13 years old my father never wamted me to have a bike but I love bikes the freedom the its awsome I used to ride my bike 6-8 miles everyday now since I got married have child work full tome I find it hard to ride just got me a bike to ride on sundays even if it just for half a hour bies are the best invention ever

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