Keep Your Front Wheel

There are many maxims in mountain biking:

"Brakes make you faster"

"The faster you are downhill, the faster you'll be uphill"

"Momentum is your friend"

But the two that have taught me the most are: "Don't watch a tree," and "Keep your front wheel."

Both are about direction. Your bike follows your vision. Wherever you look thats where you will steer. If you don't want to run into tree, DON'T LOOK AT THE DANG TREE! A lot of it has to do with fear. Sometimes we look at the things we're afraid of most and wind up steering ourselves right towards destruction. When we take our eyes of the trail how can we expect to stay on it and ride clean and safe.

Keeping your front wheel is important. Your front wheel is what your front brake acts on. It is 70% of your stopping power. Oh, and your front wheel does the steering. Ok, I know I just said your eyes steer the bike, but your eyes tell the front wheel where to go. Now if you try to apply more than 70% brake to the front wheel you risk locking up the front wheel. Remember back in high school physics when we talked about friction, and how ABS is better than standard brakes because rolling tires are better than sliding tires. Alright, now when you lock up the front wheel on a bike, you lose the ability to control how fast you're slowing down, and where you're going.

Tonight, for kicks, I tried to lock up my front wheel. I don't have a rear brake currently because my rear tire is goofed. When your, front wheel locks up, imagine the direction you want to go in, and you will go in any other direction. The front wheel washes, and you go high-side, low-side (if you're lucky), or over the bars. But there is another choice: let go. Let go of the brake. Ignore the instinct to hold onto the lever for dear life. Loosen your grip and let blood flow back into your knuckles. The wheel will roll again and you will have control. You may be going faster than you want, but keep you eyes on the trail. The faster you go downhill, the faster you will go uphill.

namaste

vaya con DIOS

Life is Plagiarism

A few weeks ago (when I meant to post this) I attended a Saturday morning Bible study. Well, Bible study isn't the best term. The idea of the group is to allow the college guys to interact with men from Campus View and learn what it looks like to be men of faith. The advantages of this model are superb. Rather than a book espousing loose ideologies of what it means to be man, there is direct, rubber meets the road interaction of what happens when you are a working father, husband, spiritual leader, friend, brother.

Eric Johnson spoke with us, and didn't do the most of speaking. First, he wanted to know where we were in life, where we came from, where we were going. The second thing I noticed about Eric was his notes. Instead of the standard (for me) lists with subjects and bullet points, Eric had a map, a diagram. I still don't understand how he works from that because I think in orders, alphabetically, numerically. There was the standard guy talk stuff, find a woman you love and loves you, find a job you love and makes you feel like you've done something whether you make money or not, find God and hold to Him dearly. It's not that this time was boring or bad, but it pales in comparison to what happened next. In order to understand what this group was about, Eric asked the origins of the group's name, "Band of Brothers." He then recited from memory the quote from Henry V. Then, he told us each man should have a personal bible. A list of quotes that inspire you, or describe you station in life. That which makes you feel human, divine, sorrowful, joyful, passionate, triumphant.

I thought about this, and realized that all life is plagiarism. My life is based of the lives of those that have gone before me. The writer of Ecclesiastes lamented, and maybe rejoiced, there is nothing new under the sun. Everything I think has been thought, everything I do has been done. There is no originality. The Ph.D's of world add the volume of thought and inventors produce new products, but they stand on the shoulders of giants.

I like how the author of the latest book I'm reading treats this idea. Stephen Chalke writes in his introduction that he has given credit where credit is due for any idea not his own. He then wrote that any story or idea not credited, did not mean it was his, but he is only presenting it.

In my life, I hope people know that my ideas are not my own. I may claim them but any idea I have has been shaped, watered, and grown by those things I read, hear, experience. Even this blog.

namaste

vaya con DIOS