Category: Thoughts

Essays, philosophizing, reflecting, theorizing, wondering, wandering, ruminating, percolating, etc.

Truing Stand Therapy

JPPartland
Wheel Building as Therapy

The other week I built a wheel for a commuter bike. It’s been over a year since I built one. It was soothing. I like to pretend it was necessary. But not really. I could […]

Share It!

The Super Bowl Century

JPPartland
Super Bowl Century Ride

I got the call during the week. “I am thinking of riding out to Bear for my birthday Sunday.” That was all I needed to know. And it’s been on my calendar ever since. We […]

Share It!

Slot Machines and Bicycles

JPPartland
light up slots

For over a decade, I trekked to Las Vegas for the InterBike trade show. As my reason for being there was to interact with the bike industry, I only needed a room with a bed, […]

Share It!

Goals

JPPartland
Winter Ride With clouds and sun

I have mixed feelings about goals.  They’re necessary, but can’t be fixated upon. Martin Buber would probably have said that a goal is like mistaking the finger pointing to God as God. Goals, while seemingly […]

Share It!

The Gift of Warm Pants

JPPartland
warm insulated pants.

Once I got into bike riding, Christmas became when winter cycling gear was gifted my way. A mixed-blessing of having a passion known by others is people often only think of that passion when it […]

Share It!

Sloppy Season

JPPartland
Street after snowstorm, Harlem, New York City.

Looking out the window and seeing roads covered or edged with snow and ice is an increasingly rare phenomenon. The snow we just had was a bigger dump than anything in nearly two years. As […]

Share It!

Survival of the Collaboratingest

JPPartland

Ticking away the solo miles leaves plenty of time to think and ponder and get awful songs stuck on repeat. When I get to roads that I’ve raced on or tackled in groups, I often […]

Share It!

The Winter Bike is Ready to Roll.

JPPartland

When I first started working at a bike shop, the more serious racers I toiled alongside had winter bikes.  That is, they had a bicycle they just used in winter months.  It wasn’t as nice […]

Share It!

Mask up. Time to refute the Anti-Mask article.

JPPartland
Podium masking in Colombia

I want to do a group ride again. Feel the speed, hear the whirring, enjoy the mental focus, the leg and lung power, the coordination, and the fun of pushing friends and fellow revelers along.  […]

Share It!

Time to mask up. Time to refute the anti-mask rant.

JPPartland
Covid Pandemic Mask

I want to do a group ride again. Feel the speed, hear the whirring, enjoy the mental focus, the leg and lung power, the coordination, and the fun of pushing friends and fellow revelers along.  […]

Share It!