Totally ‘spoked’ by
By Atomman Kimm
experience of being back
in the saddleIknow this sounds crazy coming from a guy who has worked in a bike shop for more than 11 of his 42 years but, for the longest time, I didn't ride.
I know I'm not supposed to say that, but I've got great excuses -- like the knee injury, or how I enjoy master's swimming more, or how I just don't have the time to train.
I could go on, the list growing by the minute.
So what happened? A couple of years ago, my wife and I were driving support for the Century Ride when she said, "Hey, let's get bikes, looks like a lot of fun."
I replied, "You serious?" Next thing you know, we're proud owners of new mountain bikes and started riding a little here and there.
I knew I was getting hooked again when, after working till late at night, I found myself taking a five-mile detour on the way home when I live a half a mile from the office.
There was just something magical about riding again. I could feel the bike surge when I put pressure on the pedals. The tires hummed nicely against the pavement and, late at night, everything was so quiet. The city was at rest while I rolled around with a silly grin on my face like a 12-year-old kid.
Early last year, my buddy Dean Sensui said, "Let's do the Oahu Perimeter Ride together." I laughed and asked him how far it was, and laughed even more when he told me it was 135 miles.
I told him that I couldn't even ride that much in a week, much less in a day!
It felt like a scene out of a movie. I found myself lining up with a hundred others at dawn on Aug. 17 for the Perimeter Ride.
What am I doing here, I thought? Maybe I'm just standing on the wrong side of the yellow tape. I must be here to cheer Dean on, not to ride.
But the miles slipped by almost effortlessly. We seldom stopped and then only for a few minutes at a time. The rhythm of our pedaling made it seem like one moment we were in Kahala and the next in Kaaawa.
About nine hours later, we found ourselves finishing up at Kapolei, a little sore and sunburned, but still laughing and joking around.
After taking 23 years off, not riding, I was pumped that I could still do it. The months of training paid off and achieving my goal of completing the Perimeter felt awesome.
BIKING is not only fun, it is addictive. How else can you explain crawling out of bed at 5 a.m. to ride for a couple hours before work, spending way too much money and time on the bike, sweating and grunting up hills and then laughing on the way down? I wonder what is the magic that has drawn me back into cycling after all these years?
It's the sound my tires make when I'm riding fast, watching the sun rise across a glassy Molokai Channel, feeling my body getting stronger and leaner, the great conversations I have with my riding buddies and how I am so aware of all of the sights, sounds, smells and people that I wouldn't notice while driving. Riding makes me feel so vibrant.
Dawn is just breaking and I'm riding through Portlock, ready to make my 15-mile turnaround. The kindly looking older gentleman walking his dog is right on schedule.
As we pass, I say good morning. He smiles and waves in return. He must think that we're neighbors and, I guess, in a way we are.
Atomman Kimm is an avid outdoorsman and
a member of the Tradewind Cycling Team. This column is reprinted
courtesy of The Bike Messenger, the quarterly
publication of The Bike Shop.