─ The Way We Finish a Ride Is Often as Significant as The Ride Itself

There have been rides ending in cold rivers on hot days. And rides ending in front of fireplaces while snow fell outside and logs popped as they burned, my fingers warming to the cup they were wrapped around, achingly regaining feeling. Rides that have taken me back to my front door after days away, or after a quick hour right as the light changed from afternoon to evening. Rides that have left a dusty track vectoring across the tire track of the car in the empty parking lot.

Rides that have finished in a raucous mess of a derby. Rides that have ended as one friend after another peeled off to navigate their own paths to their own homes. Rides that have ended completely alone, the way they started, in contemplative silence.

Every ride unravels toward its own end. And every end is its own reward. Cherish each and every one of them because there won’t be another one just like it.


─ by Mike Ferrentino, pp. 058, 《bike magazine》, Mar. 2008.

* Photo by C.C. Chang (Jacky), 飛鳳道(苗栗縣), Dec. 22, 2007