Last night was the first Wednesday Night Ride of the year 2012. This is a big deal, it is a rite of Spring, an annual marking of the cycling season. That's right, right here in Tulsa. A mecca of cycling. It is a gathering of who's who in the Tulsa cycling world. The touring riders all the way to Cat I racer types meet up to do what we all dream about when we are not doing what we are dreaming about.
The meeting point at the first of the ride is swimming in the excitement of the ride to come. It is the "business up front" time. People are airing up tires, checking brake rub, changing out of work clothes, getting prepared for The Ride. We all gather here from our different lives, jobs, families, but once we throw a leg over the toptube we are all transformed into the same living breathing human-machine. Here is a Star Trek quote for you... "resistance is futile". Once you start riding bikes you enter this community, a community that is bigger than the sum of its parts. It's like Fight Club, but you can talk about WNR and you are encouraged to do so.
Riding a bike strips everyone down to their most simple form. You are no longer a business owner, a surgeon, a trash collector, a high school student. You are a cyclist riding a social vehicle that knows no boundaries. The bike brings us together and erases the worldly class structure. Now you are judged on style, speed, and etiquette.
At the end of the WNR, the "party in the back" time flows with adult brewed beverages shared between warriors that just battled each other on the tarmac. Fierce competitors on the road now sharing stories and friendship. Boundaries are all washed away with a few sips of beer. I'm beating a dead horse here, but it's easy to go back to the well when it is this deep. I know that if it were not for the bike that I would never have the chance to meet or know the people that I call friends. Oh, the places that a bike will take you. This simple piece of machinery is so many things, and I am grateful that it has given me the freedom to live.
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