Why do I ride?

Why do most people ride a bike?  Exercise?  Fun?  To get somewhere?  For most people it is exercise or fun or both.  There is a growing trend of bike commuters (which I find to be most excellent) but our world/lives are not really built for commuting.  I would love to bike commute but it is just impractical.  That topic will be a whole different post sometime later.

Why do I ride?  Good question.  The first thought that pops into my head is, "Because I love it".  Why do I love it?  Once again, good question.  I'll list them out one by one.

• Freedom - There is this tremendous sense of freedom when riding a bike.  You can go anywhere you want if you are willing to pedal long enough.  Running always seemed limited to me.  I ran one 1/2 marathon and was so beat up it would be hard to imagine going farther.  When cycling, it feels like I could just keep on going if I just had the time.  Which leads to...
• Exploration - There is something cool about winding down a country road you have never been on before, despite living in a particular area for a long time.  You see things that you never noticed previously.  Small intricacies of the landscape that flash by when you're in a car.  You appreciate that sturdy, old barn because you have time to inspect it as you roll past.  Sometimes I'll go down a road simply because I have never been down it ("I wonder where this goes?").
• Exercise (a.k.a. stress relief) - I'm weird.  I don't feel truly fulfilled as a person unless I physically push myself on a regular basis.  I actually enjoy suffering, to a degree.  It seems like I have extra energy I need to release and pounding up a series of hills does that for me.  There is also the fact that I have an extremely healthy appetite and I need something to burn off extra calories (I would be 300+ lbs in a heartbeat if I didn't exercise and gave in to every gustatory urge I have).
• Alone time - I'm also weird in that I need some alone time.  Call me anti-social but I just don't need to be around other people all the time.  In fact, I prefer to be alone on a regular basis.  Cycling fills this need pretty well.  Not that I wouldn't mind a riding buddy every now and then.
• Gear geek - Every male has some "gear geek" in him.  We all express this in different ways (cars, hunting, electronics, sound systems, etc).  I have a brother-in-law who loves fish and aquariums.  He seems to enjoy the "gear" side of the aquariums as much as the fish.  Cycling provides an amazing amount of gear and gadgets you can get.  It all starts with the bike itself.  Different bikes are made for different uses.  Each component on the bike can be broken down to reveal its strengths and weaknesses.  I'll admit, I am the type of dork who wants everything on his bike to work perfectly and to do exactly what I want it to do.  Here is a good example: gearing - with different combinations of the front chainrings and the cogs on the rear cassette, you can have a bike that works great for racing, casual riding, long-distance riding, or touring.  You wouldn't want the touring gearing on your race bike and vice versa.  You can even break it down to how many teeth are on each cog of the cassette (this effects the smoothness of the shifting on the cassette).  I could go into tremendous detail but I should stay on topic.

When you add all of this up, cycling is the perfect hobby for me.  It fulfills all of my many "needs".  I can't imagine giving it up.  You could probably call it an addiction.  There are way worse addictions.

As a side note, one thing I do miss about running is the cost.  Running is way cheaper than cycling.  If you decked yourself out in all the best running gear you could find, you still wouldn't have spent as much as an average road bike costs.  No clolthing, no helmet, no water bottles, no shoes, no nutritional products, just the bike.  Sigh.