My Kind of Meditation

i don't know how to write this in Bahasa without being cheesy. but honestly, i'm not that good in English. so, just bear with me and read slowly. word by word until the end. i want you to feel the sensation of my fixed gear ride.

here we go

-----------------------------------

after i'm done with stretching and a quick mini laps or jogging. i'm ready for this ride. not an epic ride. it's just a night ride with friends. a fun thing to do at night. a new way for us to communicate without words and gestures.

we're going for a night ride on our fixed gear bikes.

maybe for the haters out there, we're just some trendy hipster that will find another trendy hipster hobby in the near future. but i know for sure, that we don't care about what they think. what we have is now. and we're sure to have so much fun.

final discussion about the route, ends with laughter. the terrain we're about to face is just too heavy. too many climbs and downhills. it's just way too hard for us. but we knew, it's now or never. we need to break that boundaries. a wall that kept on saying that we are not built for that kind of terrain. 

FUCK THAT! LET'S DO THIS SHIT!

after a quick pray, we get on our bikes. the pace maker remind us to check on the steering, the chain tension, the crank bolts and the hubs. now, we're all set.

Bismillah...

and we're off...

a nice smooth asphalt for 2km are stretching ahead of us. we can see the end of it. the snake turns that lead us to the main road. a steady light medium pace is set. not too fast because we need to preserve our energy for the climbs and downhills. we're brake less for God sake!

bajaj, mikrolet and motor cycles seems to be waiting for us beyond the snake turns. we can feel their wrath. the anger for the hipsters. yeah right. like we care :)

100m from the snake turns, the pace maker shouts, 'main road! be prepare!'

i know all of us  took a deep breath at the same time. a preparation for the untamed main road. it's like a cyclist hell. my heart beat gets faster as we approached the snake turns. and we hear the pace maker shouts again, 'GO! GO! GO!'

we increased our cadence. we break into the formation the we agreed earlier. a safe formation, but no place for the weak ones. i can see the pace maker in the front. he clears the path and set the group speed. i'm in the rightmost of the formation. i handle incoming vehicle that usually sweeps to the left without noticing us, the cyclist.

as we see the bridge, we wait for the order, the bridge formation is prepared in our mind. and then the pace maker shouts again, 'BRIDGE! NOW!' as i heard him, i skid my bike, so i can clear the way for the others to swoop inside and i will be at the back. we rode in the 1-2 zig zag formation. at least that's what we called it. the pace maker sets a slow speed. we still have 5 climbs to go. as i checked my heart rate monitor, it was at 140. no big deal. i can handle 170.

as we reached the peak of the fly over, the pace maker shouts, 'ROLL AWAY!' and everybody screams, 'WOOHOOOOO!!!' as debriefed earlier, the first downhill is a roll away. that means the pace maker will go fast and by God we have to keep up with him. if the formation breaks, the brutal vehicles will crushed us. at the bottom, we didn't slow down. because we have another downhill and a vicious climb ahead of us.

as agreed earlier, when we hit the flat road, we're back with the safe formation. and then i saw a group of trees on my right. this will be the start of the steep downhill and followed by a high and steep climb. if we don't build speed from now, we will loose the momentum and forced to push our bike walking LOL. we won't let that stupid thing happen! the pace maker shouts, '45!' that means we're at 45 kilometers per hour (kph). we need 5kph more to clear the climb! FUCK!

the pace maker grabbed the drop on his handle bar. and so do we. we don't want the wind to slows us down. by now, i'm not paying attention to what's in front of me. the traffic was clear and i hope it stays that way. and then i heard, '50!' we reached the lips of the downhill at 50kph. damn it was fast! and the speed will be added as we roll down. my heart was beating so fast, i don't care about anything except keeping my cadence steady. my lips are wide open to suck as many oxygen as i could. and we hit the big climb.

our gear settings vary from 50-17 to 52-16. i used 50-17. at this speed, our high end bikes show their true abilities. what you pay is what you get. and we sure pay a lot of money for this bike. and now we can feel our money's worth. we used various brands for our bottom brackets. mine with 2 others are Sugino 75 Superlap NJS. 3 more are using Campagnolo Record. and the rest are using ceramic hollow tech. that ceramic bearing users are in for a treat. they're not trying too hard to climb this steep hill. at least that's what i had in mind.

as the tip of the hill was passed, i swear i can hear a sigh of relief from the others. it was hard. but we past it. so, from now on, it will be much easier.

the rest of the ride is just like the first climb. the movement of my pedal become a silent chant. it sends prayers to God. it fills the air with secret mantras which causes us to feel the adrenaline rush.

in motion, we meditate. 

rejoicing the life with its ups and downs. the climbs are like a test. the downhills are like a gift for our efforts.

but after the last downhill, the "real fun" begins.

there's a stretch of 1,5km to go. a flat smooth tarmac. as we hit the final flat, the road was empty. we ride side by side grabbing the drop of our handle bar. we looked at each other with devilish grin. it's like teasing. just to see whose got the guts to sprint first.

so i went for it

followed by the others

my heart rate monitor was beeping. it was a sign that i've reached my limit. but i don't give a fuck! it's too much fun to waste! as my ear become deaf, what i hear was my raging heart beat. my vision was blurred by sweat. but i can see the finish line.

we didn't go pass each other. we want to finished together. this is what it's all about. not to see who wins and whose the loser.

we achieved something that night. maybe for most of you, it's just another night ride. but for us, that day, we reached nirvana. together. in motion. in movement.

that's my kind of meditation. you want to share yours? :)

cheers

ps: credits to @TREMORZ_ for the "Moving Meditation"