By: Michael Lander
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| A bicycle, for most cyclists, is something more than just a thing or just another way to get around. In many ways, it is like it becomes a part of you, and who you are, and with it, you can see and experience life in a much different and better way. |
This is my bike. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My bike is like a good friend and it can take me anywhere I want to go. It is a part of my life and I must master it as I master my own life. My bike without me is useless and lonely. Without my bike, I feel useless and lost.
I must ride my bike and be true and faithful to it. With my bike, I know that what counts is often not how fast I go or the number of miles that I ride, nor how much it makes me sweat, nor how hard it makes my heart pound, nor how heavy it makes me breathe. No, it is the journey that my bike takes me on each time that I ride is what matters most.
My bike is as important to my life, if not more so, than any other material thing that I own. Because of that, I learn what it and its parts can do and what it and I can do and not do. I know its limitations, but on it, I sometimes forget that I have any.
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| Having a bike can open the world to you in ways like little else can. It can take you places and let you see things that you might not otherwise see or appreciate. |
I keep my bike clean and ready to ride, as I always am ready and willing to ride, which we can never do without the other. On a ride, we become a part of one another, and I trust it as if we were one. Together, we are the masters of our destiny and, together, we can always reach our destination.
My life is enriched by my bike and it makes me better, and stronger, and healthier.
My bike and I are masters of our world and our world is better because we have each other.
I love my bike and the world that it opens up to me.
The Bicyclist’s Creed was inspired by “The Rifleman’s Creed,” by Maj. Gen. William H. Rupertus.
