Has mechanical failure –punctures the chain coming off miles
from home deterred you from cycling on the road. Perhaps you spin, like me
because someone asked you to try it. You
were attracted like a magpie to shining metal, to the exertion, the loud disco
music and flashing lights, a way to celebrate youth or to recapture lost youth?
The atmosphere of a Spinning studio is miles from a country
lane in autumn mist with rain spitting from all directions or on a baking
summer day pregnant with exhaust fumes and in the heat of the noon day sun. People spin for a plethora of reasons –is
this why you like it? The eclectic mix
of the sporty Lycra clad enthusiast with the once a month “I’ll try it out
brigade”.
I became a spinner, rather an indoor cycler with a history
of riding a bike only because it was the simplest way to undertake short
journeys. It gets me seen in the spring
and summer and stops a longer stay in the cold if I walked in the winter. I am enthralled by the music, the order or lack
of it than can be applied in spinning.
It is rather like being in a car in neutral –everything is decoupled,
reality becomes far away even though I never leave the relative confines of the
indoor bike.
It is a pastime for the gregarious but also for the loner,
for the lover of the loud and of the silent, for the studious and those
escaping from pressures of revision or office politics. For all who spin it is a haven, a safe yet
exciting world apart from normal life –if there is such a thing.
I am not going to try to put together routines of music or
patterns for climbs, runs and sprints in this Blog nor am I going to compare
and contrast the merits and deficiencies of one machine over another. I aim to explore why indoor cycling has
become so popular and what makes it special for
those who do it is it simply a form of burning off energy or does it
have a capacity to release people from the rigours of twenty first century life?
Tell me why do you Spin?
