Why I am Feeling Burnt Out of Bikes.

Today is Monday, July 21. I’m writing this whilst I’m tired; right now, I’m simply feeling burnt out on bikes.

Don’t get me wrong, I love bikes, and I even enjoy working on them. The tactile sensations of bikes can be enthralling. The feeling of the clicks, the sight of the simultaneous motion, and the mechanical sounds are all so hypnotizing.

Bikes come in all types of forms, but I have found one thing that is consistent across all bikes: they use their mesmerizing power to always tempt riders into wanting more.

I’ve loved every bike I’ve owned, but I've never once thought that they were the absolute best bike for me. Most of them I wished were a little different; they were not fast enough, the fit wasn't quite right, the tire clearance wasn’t enough, it was just too heavy, or it didn't have enough gears. Even when a bike was close to being perfect, the components were never quite right; tires were too slow, or they were too fast, and the brakes were not powerful enough.

This hidden fact about bikes can be the muse of many daydreams. As a result of bikes constantly showing riders ways they can be better, cyclists always dream about the next purchase.

The optionality of bikes can make them fun to customize and set up to fit your needs as closely as possible. If done right, your bike setup can reflect your values and say a lot about you personally. However, this hypnotic trait of bikes is what is making me feel burnt out right now.

Yesterday, our town hosted an Ironman triathlon, and the week leading up to the race, I worked on a lot of bikes. In the five days prior to the race, I worked on bikes which were flown into Lake Placid from five different continents, and these bikes were all optimized to be ridden in the fastest, most efficient way possible. Many have 3D-printed aero fairings and custom-molded aerobars, all in the name of speed.

Ironman athletes are attracted to these races because they are hard, and these hardships provide intense experiences and feelings that are not commonly found in everyday life. However, what if the hardest thing to accomplish on a bike is not completing the distance, but rather being completely present in the moment and mentally available to absorb the experience of riding the bike?

This is the sole thing that all bikes should really be optimized for. It doesn't matter how far or fast you rode, and it doesn't matter if you rode on pavement, gravel, or black diamond trails, the only thing that matters was that you were present and experienced real feelings and sensations. These experiential optimizations can often be mistaken for performance upgrades because it is easier to experience these raw and intense feelings when you are riding hard, fast, or far. Yet, they are in fact, in my opinion, completely different. Lots of upgrades can make your bike faster, but few can have a major impact on the quality of experience of riding a bike. Proof of this is that the bikes I have had the most fun riding are in fact my least expensive bikes.

Right now, I am feeling burnt out from talking about bikes because I am over discussing what bikes will perform the best for any given situation. Right now, I am burnt out from working on bikes because I am over tuning bikes for riders to escape what they are experiencing in their everyday lives. There is nothing that I want more than to work on a bike that will be used not to get away from experiences and feelings, but rather to be used to ride towards them.

The next time you hop on the saddle, I challenge you to think about this… Strive to do the hard thing and be present in the moment and enjoy the grounding feelings of the wind in your face.