the perfect metaphor is sometimes hard to find . . .

. . if you are not bob dylan. the picture above comes quite close to describing my current cycling form, tho. and this classic lyric from the great ray davies hits my recent state of mind ( not literally, but figuratively ):

Cheap is small and not too steep
But best of all cheap is cheap
Circumstance has forced my hand
To be a cut price person in a low budget land
Times are hard but we'll all survive
I just got to learn to economize

I'm on a low budget
I'm on a low budget
I'm not cheap, you understand
I'm just a cut price person in a low budget land

as ray notes, circumstance can force a fellow's hand sometimes. in my case it has not been $$, but rather time, energy, resources/energy. they forced that hand into doing something and becoming something i have not been for many a year . . . . . . . . a guy-who-used-to-ride-bikes.

being a guy-who-used-to-ride-bikes is a suck-ass thing to be. something i never wish to be again. after umpteen years of riding and ( mostly badly ) racing bikes, i have known and do know plenty of this breed. i never wanted to count myself in their number, but it is easier than i thought to do so. the worst part of being a guy-who-used-to-ride-bikes is that you are no longer kin with the coolest people around anyplace - that being guys-who-do-ride-fooking-bikes. fortunately, in my case it was a planned short-term kinda thing, and it's over now !!

so, redemption on the wheel is reborn. it is sorely needed, too - the redemption part. my bikes never looked so good - every one of things reflects me in some way, and i cannot wait to rediscover them.