Two years blogging

As of this month I have consistently been writing this blog for two years now, with posts initially spanning book reviews and mechanic tidbits to more of a short essay style series of posts that gravitate heavily on ideals that often dictate the marketing, attitudes, goals, appearance and overall philosophy of cyclists and the companies that manufacture cycling related goods.  Contemplating bike related design, ideology, politics and philosophy has become one of my favorite things to write about on the blog and has enabled me to develop new ideas, abandon old ones, forge new attitudes and grow overall as a cyclist, writer, mechanic and teacher.  Though not many know about or read this blog, it has served more as a personal journal that documents ideas and questions that float around as I become inspired and curious by everything spanning bike related conversation, reading online forums and blogs, observing cyclists, my own personal trial and error, mistakes and Epiphanies in the workshop, observing cycling marketing/design and mostly just going out and riding my bike.  Though a lot has come to me during my rides, it is usually slightly afterward that many of my questions and curiosity unfurl and derive themselves from personal experience and my own conjecture. 

New experiences

Over the last two years I have had a lot of new and inspiring experiences in many different contexts.  From rides with new friends to different environments in bike shops, I have met many new faces and had a lot of time to contemplate differing points of views regarding bike stuffs. From full-tilt nu-gear motivated technocrats to die-hard Vintage iconoclasts, I have been offered many different cups of kool-aid of which to taste, guzzle, and more often than not spit back out entirely.  Black and white forms of compartmentalizing seem to split the bike community fairly well into little chunks of the bigger pie and I want nothing to do with it.  As the last two years has come and gone, one of my biggest developing goals has been to disassociate myself from any "type" of cyclist (see my "Not a roadie, not a mountain biker, just a cyclist").  Regardless of what I ride, whenever I choose to ride it, wearing whatever clothes I choose to wear in the process of doing so; I hope to be seen as someone who loves riding bikes, studying its vast culture and history, advocating for its use for various purposes and being involved in the cycling community abroad.

Its time for us all to grow up and bury the hatchet once and for all...

Still learning, still blogging

I have seen, heard, and though about a lot of stuff; but it in no way rivals the amount of things I have yet to experience and hopefully learn.  Growing my skills as a cyclist, writer, mechanic and teacher I hope to move forward in a positive and progressive fashion, continuing to exercise discerning levels of skepticism, willingness to embrace new things and opening up to new dialogue.  I hope to become versed in all of the aforementioned realms and wish to do so by listening carefully, learning well from my mistakes and those of others as well.  Receiving both positive and negative feedback from my peers in a way that opens up healthy dialogue along the way are things that I will look fore more and more.  Having actual conversations as opposed to the heated, emotionally driven arguments that tend to fall flat on their faces from their own dizzying cyclical nature are what I hope to experience the most as I will do my best to foster a good sense of acceptance in being forthcoming.

 I want to thank everyone who has ever read this blog and been supportive in the process of me continuing to write.  Those of you who have taken the time to flesh out ideas, engage in intelligent discussion and make friendly, non vehement suggestions: thank you.  Those of you who don't even read my blog or care much to ponder the topics of the blog but have been friendly, supporting and loving along the way: thank you for these things.  I look forward to more of this and am excited about this crazy future of all of ours.  Cheers everyone!