Bike Bum

I've been in my cabin now going on 8 months. While its still my fav place to live, being quiet and deep in the woods, sometimes it get a little too quiet based on my mood.

Meeting me you would never think that I'm not a very social person. Really, the only time I socialize with other people is on a bike, mostly during some group ride. Yeah..... I need to get a life.

But really, I don't want one. Unless its the life of a bike bum. We all know one of them. People who have no life beyond bikes. I know several. Some people are self proclaimed bike bums but they are just posers. Here are some of the fine points of bike bumming...

1) You must work no more than 4 hours a day, or 24 hours a week.

2) You may have a "educated job". But your position pays 30% less than the norm cuz you work in the bike world.

3) Your 32 years old and still finishing up that associates degree.

4) You have a very, very, very, very, very understanding spouse.

5) You have the best bikes to ride, but not a lot of them cuz your bike turnover is monthly due to your sweet hookups.

6) Over half of your yearly income comes from selling your rotating stock (bikes, parts. clothes, ete) on eBay.

7) You dream of living in either CA or AZ.

8) If your a pro racer, you train alone. If not, you try to train with the pro racer who trains alone.

9) Your total equipment (bike stuff) worth is well over 15k (see rule 6), but everything else you own, or have owned is not half that. Including your car.

10) Everything you own (less bikes) can fit in a pickup truck. In case you move to CA or AZ.

11) You do not owe anything to anybody.

12) You can survive on a 20 dollar per week food budget. Bike bums are very good with what little money they have.

13) When not working (25 hours per week) or riding (also 25 hours per week) they are either sleeping or laying on the couch watching TV(see rule 4 ).

We all see these guys and gals on some group rides but very seldom. They get bothered too much with questions about training and other stuff. We drool over the bike they are riding that week (even tho its on eBay at the time) and we think they are so lucking to be riding such equipment, with another new ride arriving next week.

What we don't see is their minimalist lifestyle. They own only one of everything (except bike stuff). Their lives are very simple. They will never get to Disneyworld but easily get a plane tic for the Tour of Cali. There's not much else going on in their lives and that's the way they like it. When not doing a bike related activity, bike bums are very boring. Not a whole lot of fun. Bring them to a mall or something and they are totally lost.

I wanna be like that.

DLD