Saturday, October 2, 2010

Adventure Old School

I consider myself something of a cyclist, so when a fellow staying with me in the hostel told me that he had biked from Poland I naturally wanted to see his bike.

He's a big guy, tall with wide shoulders and not small in any way.  He laughed at me when I told him I was trying to make it as a kayaker, and then apologized the next day explaining that the reason he laughed at me is because Poland has a very good Olympic kayaking team.

I have a bike that I use for longer trips, while not super expensive, it has road tires, is made of aluminum and has disk brakes.  I really like my bike.

The big Polish guy showed me his bike and I was expecting something light and fast, the sort of thing that could really take on a lot of miles over the course of a day without too much effort.  But the bike was like its owner, who was not light and fast but big and strong.  The steel frame mounted wide tires and could support a mountain of things on the solid rack.  I imagine that if this same person were a boater, he would not have a vessel like mine, but rather an old fashion metal rowing boat that he could just pile up all his stuff in.  He would row the same sorts of distances I'd like to, maybe even farther, getting by with a stubborn strength that would take him through even the fiercest weather.
ed.s note ~ When I was in high school I had a bike Made in Poland.  It weighed a ton.  Maybe they're all that way?

No comments:

Post a Comment