Tuesday, January 17, 2006

"FLOW" says it all

The Surly boy's know what its about, do you?


"You hear a lot about flow if you spend much time in the cycling world, particularly offroad cycling. Flow is about looking ahead, preparing for obstacles (physical or mental), using your momentum to best advantage (the more you brake the more effort you must spend getting up to speed again), staying calm and loose, and most of all learning how to ride better with less effort. Flow speaks to a higher awareness of your connection to the machine and the trail, and the more you know about flow, the better your riding will be, regardless of what or where you ride. Flow isn't about the frame or components. Flow is knowing how to read what the ground and your bike are writing. A person with good flow riding a crappy bike can generally kick the ass of a person on a techy new bike who has not yet unlocked the secrets of Flow. Flow makes one Li Mu Bai, master of the Wudan, where before they were Chuck Norris, Texas Ranger. Or maybe flow makes one Betty Crocker where before they were merely Lil Debbie.
I have a theory that all of life's answers can be found in rock lyrics, so I submit for your consideration this sage advice from 70s rock philosophers .38 Special:
Hold on loosely, but don't let go. If you cling too tightly you're gonna lose control.
Probably best if I leave it at that."


Peace
Squirrel

3 comments:

Pete Basso said...

Dude, your words are so eloquent in this blog that I'm almost crying. This has got to be one of the best paragraphs I've read all year...seriously. I totally agree with what you said here.

JG said...

Nice work, Brian. I'm with Pete - you put together some terrific thoughts here. Even though I'm no .38 Special fan, they said it all. Were they part of the Repack crew with Gary Fisher in the 70's????

Tater said...

38 special? I have a 357