A Community on Two Wheels

 Finding Folks 

I’ve been wanting to write about my life on two wheels, but my tendency to want perfection keeps getting in the way.  Which is ridiculous since I don’t believe in perfection.  

So, this isn’t the perfect entrance to this topic.  I don’t care.  We’re just going to dive right in.

There’s a long story about my bike history from earlier this year that I won’t repeat here.  Biking got me through the pandemic.  Biking got me through my wrestling match with depression a year later.  Biking has been a wonderful part of my life over the last couple decades.  It has been especially powerful since our move to Richmond.

But most of it for the last ten years or so has been solo.  Some of that is my level of cycling.  I’m an older guy on an older bike.  We don’t go fast.  In fact, fast is the least enticing part of riding for me.  An overall speed of 1-12 mph, with highs of 15 is a perfect ride for me.  Not everyone in the biking family agrees.  Some will say it’s fine, but only through gritted teeth.  I don’t want to be the reason people don’t enjoy their ride.  The other reason is that my work schedule has been different for decades now. Different from most people’s, I mean.  When I was a youth minister, the idea of a “regular” schedule was something of a joke.  My schedule was an accordion, expanding and contracting as needed.  When I moved into substitute teaching and rideshare driving, riding time all but disappeared.  I rode when I could, if I could.  Since most people prefer a little more regularity in their lives, I rode alone.

And, honestly, I’m fine with that.  I can go where I want.  I can go at the speed I want.  I can change my mind from second to second and decide to scrap “the plan” to do something else.  It was a riding life that fit my life and I enjoyed.  In those moments, my life was all about me.  What do I want to do today?  Let’s do it.

Over the last year, I’ve begun to miss the company of people.  Yes, I’m around people constantly as a sub.  But when I was doing day to day subbing, it was different people at different schools everyday.  I was constantly in the company of strangers.  (That’s a little better now that I’m doing long-term/annual sub work).  So, I started looking for potential groups to ride with.

There is a group in Richmond that is high profile and attracts 80-100 riders on a weekly basis.  I gave them a try, but it didn’t click for me.  Let me put it this way, I was a stranger in the group at the start and still a stranger at the end.  There were some other issues, but that was the biggest.  The group was just too large.  So I kept looking.  This year, I settled on the Bike Monday Bros, a group I’d found on Facebook.  They have a straightforward, community-centric ethos that appealed to me.  The first week I rode there were 18 riders.  By halfway through the ride I’d been given a nickname!  The group is about community, so we look out for each other.  No rider gets “dropped”, a cyclist term for being left behind due to lack of speed or mechanical breakdown.  It’s never about speed, always about fun.  The next week the group was 30+ and the vibe was still the right one for me.  I’m looking forward to a summer of riding with them.

 Check out the video of how this group got its start.  Super people!  If you’re near Richmond, VA come join us on Monday nights.

Bike Monday Bros FB