Silence

Generally, I like Mondays to be days off the bike. That is what I tell myself on Monday. Then, I typically find excuses to spend another two or three days off the bike during the week. However, the weather forecast for late in the work week is looking rather grim. That has been the norm for the last month. Temperatures are seemingly always below normal and those days that are average warmth are almost always wet. Yesterday’s temperature was still a little below normal but the skies were sunny. I figured it was best to get some miles in the legs outside while the opportunity presented itself. Going on that ride presented me with one of my simple joys of riding. There are lots of little sounds associated with riding a bike. There is the snap of a cleat engaging a pedal. The spurt of air as the pump hose is removed from a valve stem. The clicking as a chain finds the cogs during a gear change. But, for me, the sweetest sound is almost no sound at all. I was riding a loop through the neighborhood and, at two or three points, there was near silence. No annoying wind noise. The gears were perfectly quiet, which is unusual for me. The only sound was the faint, hollow sound of the tire on the road echoing through the inner tube. Those moments when the legs are comfortably spinning, the bike moving effortlessly at 20+ miles per hour and near silence are bliss to me. They do not happen enough. But, perhaps that is why they are special.