When To Dahon? When To Trek?

Somebody recently asked me how I choose which bike to ride: do I take the Dahon or the Trek?  It wasn’t really an easy question to answer but I said something along the lines that the Dahon slowed me down and made me enjoy things more, made me look around and see what the world was up to.  The Trek, on the other hand, makes me travel fast, head down, legs pumping.

This weekend I’ve been reading the latest CTC magazine, ‘Cycle‘ (June-July 2009) and one of the stories nailed it.

The Dahon, to me, represents “Travel and transport, not sport“.  On page 50, in an article on ‘slow cycling’ it states the following:  “Walking is obviously transport, whereas running is a sport.”  And that’s how I see the difference between my two bikes: the Dahon is transport and the Trek is sport.  I expect to break sweat on the Trek, I expect to ache after it.  Whilst on the Dahon, my world (and my mind) slow down and I learn again to look, listen and enjoy what’s going on around me.

The article in Cycle goes on to say:

You don’t have to practice slow cycling all of the time, but every keen cyclist ought to have one bike they can jump onto and pop down the shops, wearing whatever they have on at the time…

Slow cycling is practical cycling.  Do you need a shower after walking to work?…  Slow cycling is also safer and less stressful.
[CTC magazine, Cycle, June-July 2009]

So, that’s how I see my two bikes!