I said right, or at least I thought I did. We never go left anyway.
And the right is always a more than 120 degree turn so you have to turn
hard. Austin thought we were going left and I went right. We collided.
Hard. As in it was painful. But knowing each other well enough, we
bumped into each other and sort of just bounced off each other. Both
staying upright without much concern. I may have cursed, probably
didn't. He complained that his shoulder hurt. We rode our normal route,
at least what I thought was normal.
At this point I
thought I was going off the road. LG was just "showing" me how to lean
into someone without crashing. I didn't think he knew I didn't know how
to lean back effectively. And LG is a guy who knows how to handle a
bike. Finally he reprieved just as the shoulder of the road dropped off
and I would have not been riding in gravel--I would have endo'ed into a
bush. He explained some more. Pushing with some person and eventually I
would lean back and not go down. LG would explain how to find that point
before you "over" push and make yourself fall down.
LG always
makes everyone around him a better rider. Between shenanigans of holding
seat post rails, leaning into you just for kicks, or riding
uncomfortably, comfortably close, you learn to be better and more
comfortable. You learn to not freeze up and be scared. You learn to be
comfortable with discomfort.
I asked Brevans to do a
few laps around the fitness park. I still wanted to learn leaning from
another person. Another perspective. An out and out trackie in many
ways, he showed some of the more "subtle" ways of moving someone. When
he first headbutted me with our handlebars almost touching I jumped a
little inside as I heard the smack of our helmets. I thought I might be
dead very soon. Or lying on the ground. I headbutted him, moving my
handlebars almost into his and slightly swerving. He calmly moved a
little to the side and gave me room and explained that there isn't a
whole lot of bike/body movement as much as head/neck movement. He leaned
into me, showed me how to "pedal poorly" to gain some room and how to
protect a spot.
The story goes, before I joined
Cycledrome, that they met on mountain bikes in the field at rodale to do
some practice pushing, shoving on bikes. Steve showed up late and as a
greeting LG just ran him over. Not pushed or pulled, just rode full
steam into Steve, and Steve cursed up and down and then pushed and
pulled later. The story is better told by Steve. Ask him some day.
Maybe
because I am soft spoken, I couldn't tell. It felt like LR and 8+2 were
"leaning in" the entire ride. I finally realized that it was mid
January and I had just got done riding with guys/bikes for a few weeks I
hadn't known. Guys from Lamprey I would get to know and will get to
know, but bikes that were still unfamiliar at the time
As a close
friend is close, you almost ride that way on the bike with familiar
bikes/friends. Able to ride handlebar to handlebar or wheel overlapping
wheel or huge gap to huge gap without concern. Without pause or burden
to think about where to ride. It was almost awkwardly close. In a good
way. Because it's been a while since I road with people who I have ridden
with for a while. And the close never actually feels close and the
awkward simply is the norm. Just natural. Like a conversation where you
no longer worry about the silence or lack of topics. So it all made
sense, later that day, the way 8+2 and LR rode, similar to how we always
ride.
Next--as in this--year I am joining Lamprey
Systems. Turns out a lot of them are neighbors and are beginning to be
friends. Another great group of riders. Certainly riders who I will get
to know well. Riders who will become familiar. More people to share the
road and shenanigans with.
No comments:
Post a Comment