Challenges

Being off the bike for a while, I had forgotten how it is out there riding, wearing team colors and fancy bike and every Fred wants to challenge me for a race.  I don't get it.  I'm happily riding along at 17 mph most days and it never fails, I get a fixie rat trying to start a race with me.  Most times, I'm really not interested.  Once, going up Duncan Canyon in Fontana, this fixie rat was on my wheel, without me knowing.  Of course, he passed me at the top catching me by surprise.  Then as we descended, I thought about abusing him but held back.  Then something wonderful happened.  The rat dropped his phone and its batteries came out and all.  He had to go back and pick it up and I just smiled as I rode by.  I'm a big cycling advocate and will embrace and encourage just about anyone to get on a bike and enjoy themselves.  Commute, run errands, play, get in shape -- in a bike.  But something about this fixie culture is just not cool.  Its almost as if they just got bored doing tricks on their skateboard and now they want to get radical on a bike too.  I'm pretty friendly too when riding.  I'll ride at anyone's pace just to talk to them while riding but fixie rats aren't too friendly.  I suppose if they see some bike racer wearing team colors, they feel they're not the baddest guy on the road.  But in my mind, there's plenty of room for all.  I share the road.  Including cars.  A month ago, same thing happened.  I was catching up to a couple fixie rats down Etiwanda Ave and then all of a sudden they both decided to accelerate from 10 mph to around 20 mph.  I was just going my steady 17 mph and one of them kept on looking back as they pull away.  I could still hammer at 28 mph if I wanted but as before, decided against it.  Then something similar happened.  Fixie rats, if anything, don't wear helmets.  They're too cool for wear them and instead wear baseball caps or beanies.  The guy who kept looking back at me dropped his hat and by the time he noticed it, they were about 200 meters down the hill.  As before, I just smiled as I passed both as they pedaled back to pick up a baseball cap.  I've been riding long enough to know that there is a time for going fast (Saturday morning between Day Creek Blvd and Mills Ave), there is a time for going hard (hillclimbs) and there is a time for enjoying life (any other time).