Carpe Birota Diem

For the Majority of us the idea of starting a blog can be as intimidating as Public Speaking or maybe more relatable, waiting with about 1,000 others for the start of your first Gran Fondo! Besides the fear of who will want to read it and if they do, what will their opinion be, what would even be interesting to write about?

Once I decided to “go for it” the search for a topic began. However, every time I started to try to brainstorm ideas, the ‘Ol Coot from Dirt Rag, IYKYK, or Zap Espinosa would pop into my head. Meaning, It just felt like I was recycling their ideas. I was starting to feel like everything that could be written about cycling and our shared passion for it, had been written. I kept saying over and over to myself, what does cycling mean to me? The whole blog idea was starting to feel like trying to bomb down Cardiac Hill on a fully rigid 26er. Probably can be done, but should it be?

This being an early morning weekday during the school year, I was driving my daughter into Manhattan. As I was crossing over the RFK Bridge, I looked out at a city of over 8 Million strong and it dawned on me, it isn’t about what cycling means to me, this should be about what does it mean to those around me. As soon as I changed gears and started thinking about this idea more in depth, the easier the thoughts started to flow. Had me thinking “maybe this blog thing isn’t so hard after all”. The fact that the ideas started to flow once I thought of my cycling network is not lost on me. It truly underscores the importance the camaraderie of the community provides us.

On the surface cycling provides us all with a tool for fitness and adventure as well as a connection to those days we came home from our best friends house with scraped elbows and knees from trying to land that “jump” even though it was fashioned from cardboard and set at the edge of the curb. But when we delve a bit deeper it provides us with so much more. It can mean a sense of freedom and accomplishment. It can be a deeper connection to the community and create lasting friendships. For some it may not even be about getting on the bike, it may just be an Aesthetic thing, The Beauty of the Machine itself. Many of us think of bikes as works of art to be hung on a wall for all to see and glorify! From the welded lugs of a 70’s De Rosa to the bullish front end of the latest Factor Prototype they sure Masterpieces!

Now as we approach the finish line of Blog #1, feeling more confident than intimidated, lets circle back…Carpe Birota Diem!..and then go write about it!