It’s funny how our lives go through stages. Should you have told me just 18 months ago that I’d soon be riding over one of my much loved and twisting motorcycling roads on a pushbike, well I would have laughed in your face and thought you to be deluded. I was more than happy to retire from childhood practices such as peddling a bicycle near on 27 years ago, that was about when I started smoking too.
Isn’t it just crazy that so many young people, right when they could be at their prime of their life in fitness and health, take up the booze and the durries and then go ahead about accelerating the aging process?
Yes, I did and lived it. I partied hard and I travelled everywhere aboard fast motorcycles. I was free, free as a bird. For a long time there I was king of the road. It’s difficult to explain, but sometimes I would live more excitement in one day aboard my motorbike than many people would experience in their entire lifetime. I was living the free life and loving every moment of it.
Those good old days of motorcycling no longer exist, but that’s for another story. This story focuses on how I was recently forced to find an alternative mode of transport to work. In late 2012 my second license suspension begun, I had acquired a 10 speed alloy road bike, surfed the net forcycle route information, conducted a few warm up runs as well as advising the boss of my plans should I actually arrive late for work. Twenty five kilometres or an entire one hour each way proved to be a great start to the day and riding home does so much for distressing and clearing the head following a stressful day at the grind. I really begun to enjoy my new found freedom, a freedom that I hadn’t realised was missing and had quite unnoticeably been diminishing over the years from my motorcycling life for more than a decade. It was like I was again in charge of my own destiny. I was raw, dependant upon nothing and no one. I could ride my bicycle as far and as long as I wanted, and I was really enjoying it. I was free again, free as a bird.
It was a disappointment to be transferred for work the following year and no longer in a position to commute to work by bicycle as a part of my daily routine. But still I continued to cycle as much as I could in the afternoons and on the weekends.
This year I’m back in Sydney and it’s near about the same distance again. It’s a bit more difficult due to traffic conditions in town which has extended the travelling time to over the hour each way, but I am enjoying it so much and it doesn’t feel like I’m missing out on anything as I am having a fun time riding home. I put back on the originally lost 8kg of weight last year and already after just two weeks of commuting that has begun dropping off and I am feeling stronger and healthier.
Really what better way is there to start the day than a ride across the Harbour Bridge at sunrise?
My daily bicycle commute story doesn’t end just there though. My two teenage sons’ took an interest in what dad was doing, even if only for the first time in their lives. I also managed to convince my lovely wife that this could actually become a family hobby. It’s quite a long shot expecting two teenage boys to hang with mum and dad. We now have something like twelve to thirteen bicycles in the garage. I actually had to hang them on the wall as they were over flowing into the lounge room.
I still have my original commuters which I occasionally loan out to friends to help promote cycling as transport, this frees some space up in the garage as well. Then there is my first carbon sports bike, the boy’s bikes are there as well as the wife’s new little green rocket. There are the two vintage Tollis bikes that I pulled down from their purgatory in the rafters of my wife’s Uncle’s garage, two old mountain bikes and then there is also the recent purchase of a track bike for my youngest son’s recent racing ventures, both track and criterium.
As a family we often go on weekend rides together, whether they are 40-50km local runs from home via Sydney Olympic Park and Parramatta, a fast paced return run down the M7 cycleway, or slogging away at the climbs of Bobbin Head or the entire Three Gorges Ride.
My all time personal favourite weekend ride was with a mate last October. We rode 97km, 3:55hr to The Entrance for breakfast, prior to spinning it over to Tuggerah for a train trip back to Sydney. I simply cannot wait for the opportunity to do this ride with the entire family. It was just epic!
I had only quit smoking two years prior to cycling. The unexpected recovery from the damage that I had caused from over 20 years of inhaling tar was well, ongoing. Cycling has accelerated my lung recovery tenfold, improved my fitness, aided in maintaining a healthy waistline and provided myself with new challenges to meet and skills to develop. It has also allowed me to become totally consumed into a new obsession which does not attract the attention of Barry O’Farrell’s mobile revenue collectors.
Cycling. It’s just grand!
Sonny Diamond
