Finding our Bike Style
A New Bike Persona?
Since we haven’t been able to have too many trips recently I thought I would instead include a post about our most recent developments with respect to our touring. As we have started planning for more fun and exciting trips in the future we have had a little bit of an identity crisis with respect to our riding style. (Our next “planned” ride will be around Des Moines, assuming the Coronavirus pandemic doesn’t postpone it. And as some of you know, we also have aspirations of riding the Pacific Coast Trail, from Vancouver to Mexico, within the next couple years – so that is usually on our mind as we are trying to hone in on our preferences). We are finding a hard balance between what we want, what we think we want, and what we actually need.
The Need for Speed?
Both Andrew and I have always been of the ‘ride fast or why bother riding’ line of thinking. I mean I did learn how to ride a bike while training for a triathlon after all. It’s also really the only type of cyclists you seem to run into in the Kansas City area. KC’s commuting population is still very small, and we definitely get a lot of hate from drivers who think that the roads only belong to them, although there is a push to get a KC bike corridor around the city (similar to the Atlanta Beltline) which would just be amazing – so remember, if you drivers want us off “your” roads, just give us a safe place to ride and we’ll gladly get out of your way (because sidewalks are made for pedestrians, not cyclists). But I digress….
Recently we have been wondering if that ride fast mentality is really what we want to have. And that maybe that has been what has instigated a lot of the overuse injuries we seem to be developing. We’ve been watching lots of other tourers on YouTube for inspiration and tips for our upcoming rides, and in doing so, absorbing their styles and riding mantras. ‘Path Less Pedaled’ for example really harps on the living the “supple life”. We recently purchased some #partypace stickers from their website to slap on all of our bikes and remind us to slow it down. While yes, purposely riding slower has been a little frustrating at times, we’re hoping as we continue to commute and ride at this slower pace it will become much more natural – and we are definitely enjoying the not showing up to places sweaty (although we’ll see how long that lasts as we get into the humid Kansas City summers – assuming we have a commute again by then).
What to Wear?
In line with our new slower speeds, we’ve also been trying to figure out our clothing style for on the bike. Experienced tourers always harp on how important comfort is, but call me vain if you will, how I look does affect how I feel. Up to this point we had mostly ridden in everyone’s favorite lycra (granted I had branched out with my tops a little already). What we’ve found is that the bike jerseys don’t seem to last very long in terms of smell – so really not ideal for long rides. We’ve managed to find a couple “casual riding” bike tops that we seem to like (some hiking shirts/merino wool shirts for me, and Andrew has found some shirts specifically designed for casual riding from Showers Pass a Portland based active apparel company). They definitely help us feel more normal while not on the bike – which is perfect for touring. I’m still on the hunt for those illusive perfect bike shorts – because god forbid they include padding sizes with the shorts themselves (seriously what a concept that would be).
One big change to our look came in the form of hiking boots. On a day ride we met another tourer local of KC who rides in them. At first we thought it was a little weird, but then we hosted a Warm Showers Rider who also rode in hiking boots, and so we thought we would give it a shot. Both of us expected to go for a trial ride and have nothing come from it, but it was a game changer – we both really enjoyed riding in our hiking boots – way more than we expected. We’ll see if we still like them as the weather warms up, but it’s definitely put us more in the stereotypical ‘bike tourer’ style.
As we continue to try new brands, styles and looks, we are also trying to be conscious of our spending. We don’t want to buy things just to have them, or because we were swayed by clever marketing. In general, we’re still honing in on our style, but it has definitely been an interesting transition and something I hadn’t anticipated taking up so much thought when we got into this sport!
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