Passion
Mon, March 14, 2016 
Cycling is a passion, or rather, it can become one. Many people ride a bike, not all of them can be described as passionate about it. Passion is one of those words that is not easy to explain, one has to experience passion to know what it truly is.
Cycling becomes a passion when someone rides a bike for no other reason than to experience the joy of riding a bike. If you have a passion for something in life, you are truly living. Without passion, a person is simply existing.
People who say, “Cyclists should not be on the road because it is dangerous,” just don’t get it. It is like telling a surfer it is dangerous to go into the ocean because of shark attacks, the surfer who is passionate about surfing is not going to stop.
It is not that cyclists and surfers are crazy, foolhardy, with little regard for their life. In fact, the opposite is true. If one has a passion for life, the last thing that person wants is to end it. On the other hand, if one cannot engage in their passion, they are no longer living anyway. Life becomes a pointless existence.
Passion can include anger, especially if someone suggests I should not pursue my passion, which happens to be riding my bike on the road. It is a road bike after all, and just as a surfer must surf in the ocean, a road bike must be ridden on the road.
Some will say, “You have a local bike path, why don’t you ride there?” Yes I am fortunate to have a paved Walk and Bike Trail just two miles from my home. It is 7 miles long, so 14 miles out and home. But after riding it several times during the week, the monotony has got me itching to get out on the open road, and actually go somewhere.
On weekends I pick quiet country roads to ride where there is very little motorized traffic, and actually I prefer to deal with a few cars and trucks over the dog walkers and runners on the shared path.
Of course, they have a right to be there too, so I am not complaining. Some of them may be are following their own passion.
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Bike Riding, Comment, Opinion, Road Bike
Reader Comments (10)
Well said, Dave. There are those that either just don't get it, or that only see us as impediments in their rush to get where they're going (on roads THEY PAY FOR with their GAS TAXES! As if we riders didn't also [mostly] have cars!). For us, though, life would be less if we couldn't pedal.
I've had similar thoughts when I get told by some "civilian" that there are bike paths and that I should only use them, or (even worse) that I should ride on the sidewalk (illegal here in The Garden State). I suspect, though, that these folks would get all up in my face if I suggested they should stop whatever is THEIR passion... presuming they actually have one.
Jim,
Everyone is all for FREEDOM. (It's all they talk about, their freedom and their rights.) Unless it is someone else's freedom, then 'Not so much.'
Dave
Dave. I think that for ONCE you have got it all WRONG mate. I do NOT think that passion has anything to with bike riding or bikes! Passion to ME is Erotic, SEX lust, nice tits, arse.climax. None of these bloody things, do I feel around bikes. BUT after riding bikes now for over 70 years, as you almost have. I do feel, a need, an urge to satisfy myself by my riding my bike. Maybe, because the Erotic in me has been affected by age and an enlarged prostate! (maybe caused by the bike urge?) I see PASSION now a lot in advertising for cars bikes you name it. SEX sells right. But to this day after riding over half a million miles on a bloody bike I have yet to get an erection doing it, well maybe, if I need a piss!!!! But good thought mate, got the punters thinking. right! made me, at 83 think about that broad that just passed me ridding her bike, in short shorts. how she would look in high heels? NAKED!!!!
Well, not to argue with Dave or John, but I assure you the wrong saddle can make for very little passion - in more ways than one :-)
I suggest you look up the meaning of the word "Passion."
Sexual desire is only one form. One can have a passion for music for example.
Dave
Sex,music.bikes I know which one I will take, lighten up guys
Dave. Of course you are right about Passion, I have spent most of my life following MY passions, I have been an artist, sculptor, musician, (PASSION, Suffering; strong feeling, wrath,ardent desires, easily moved to anger, moved by strong emotions). All things that I an sure and know you have felt, Its just that riding and collecting bikes or playing football (soccer) I have never thought about it that way. So thanks Dave. Once again you have opened my eyes and ears. Even at 83 you are never to old to learn RIGHT! No where did that broad with the great legs go?
Couldn't have put it better myself, Dave! Next time someone asks me "why?" i'll direct them to this post... Covers it beautifully: "I ride my bike to ride my bike."
What is the difference between Passion and Obsession? I see plenty of Old, skinny, One-Sport-Only-for-Life cyclists that still ride for hours, acting like they’re training for the Tour.
Or young road racers that refuse to ride Mountain bikes, or lift weights, but can’t wait to brag about their Power Output and update Strava. Even Fausto Coppi refused to climb stairs, believing it detrimental to cycling. But he was a Legend.
I think one lives with regret only when one realizes their passion was myopic.
Great post, I feel like the 'why don't you ride on your bike path' comments are pretty shallow and made in a moment of frustration in most cases