Love lost and found

     They say that if you love you something you should let it go and if it returns it's yours forever.  I think that's about people but I'm going to use it out of that context.  My relationship with my bike, the sport of cycling was challenged by a summer of setbacks.  I've ridden for a long time, a very long time.  This blog was started as a way to share my enthusiasm for both birds and bikes.  The ratio to bird posts to bike posts is strongly skewed in the birds favor, not that that is a bad thing, nor is it liable to change.  Birds make for a much more attractive topic and they certainly need more help than cycling does.  But the background should be cycling.  I nearly gave up on riding this summer.  I had one bike become inoperable after the frame was snapped for me by some poor wrenching.  That frame was replaced by the manufacturer with an upgrade.  That was my carbon cross bike, a Fuji Altamira CX 1.3, now 1.1, the stuff dreams are made of. However, the drive train was never installed properly at a second shop, the bottom bracket creaked, the deraillers didn't shift.  So I sold the drive train at a rock bottom price.  My touring bike is the black Fuji Sportif.  Another problem bike.  The bottom bracket creaks on that one and after the shift cable housing replacement it hasn't shifted correctly with two different shops taking cracks at it.  Add into that a few replacement parts and the upgrades needed to keep it comfortable and the bike had become very expensive.  Especially considering that it still doesn't function as it should.  I gave up, I quit on the bike and the sport.  To hell with it.  I had had a road bike for four years that had never complained, creaked or needed any replacement pieces.  Naturally I had already given that bike to a good friend, Connor Curtis.  My two fancy new machines had failed me, riding was a drudgery.  I carried on for a while, struggling to relight the flame.  To keep the dreams of riding in faraway places alive.  Then the tempo of my life intensified.  I could no longer write, work, hike, ride, photograph, read, search for jobs, get a decent amount of sleep, maintain friendships, and so on.  So I let riding go.  For two months I only rode my bike when a friend invited me to go out.  I packed all the clothes and magazines and books and parts and water bottles away and forgot about it for a while.  I shelved the dreams of Scotland and Sweden.  My life slowed down a little, I've learned how to conduct a more efficient job search, I've started saying, "No," to more hours and responsibilities at my current job.  And then today I felt a desire that I haven't felt in months.  I had to ride.  And I had to plan rides for the rest of the week.  And so I hopped on my bike in the first cycling kit I could find and headed north and east in the direction of my mother's house in Elbert.  I remembered my camera on the little shelf.  I enjoyed that ride, more so than I've enjoyed a ride in several years.  The snow and ice on the road were familiar and I rode through it extremely confidently, like I had when I first started riding.  The miles blended into a symphony of a pounding heart, burning muscles, speed, and joy.  It had returned. The fire was reignited and my soul soared on aluminum wings.  The creaking and poor shifting didn't matter, just the ride.

     I am sore, but I'm ready to ride tomorrow, albeit a shorter route.

Hey! Here's something new!

I'm bringing Connor Curtis in as a weekly contributing writer! He's a mountain biker who is going to do something of a trail review each week, but it will be in his own unique style.  Also! If you aren't already, please follow me on Instagram! my username is Umbra105, I try to post three pictures a day, they are not specific, like the ones in the blog (when I shoot what I'm writing about).  you will have to deal with the occasional duplicate picture.