Letters

The Uncounted Mile

Defining something, anything, can be like reaching out with your hand to grab the wind. The moment you think you have it, it escapes through your fingers. So much the more is finding definition for this bike shop. We write in our Mission Statement that “we exist to nurture the spirit of cycling”. Even after I write that here, I still say to myself, what exactly does that mean? The answer to this does not lie in the statement, but in the experience.

The spirit of cycling does not exist simply when we see someone on a bike, or riding along a bike path. It doesn’t solely lie in the bicycle magazines we see in the stores. To me, it begins at the moment when the bicycle becomes a tool to help the rider to “let go”. To realize that what we do in life we actually do by choice, and we can see that so much more clearly when we are able to escape the confines and commitments of life, and just ride.

As mile after uncounted mile rolls by, the true thoughts find their way past the fortress of “what we have to do next”, and through those freeing thoughts, we feel that we finally found liberty. Even if it is just for a moment, it has the inspirational effect of an eternity.

After thousands and thousands of uncounted miles behind me, I have found that I can translate that inspiration into everything I do. Rocky Mountain Cyclery is the culmination of just that. Our desire is to equip the rider for whatever journey lies ahead. Weather it is just a ride on the bike path, or a lifestyle commute to work, we all have an inner peace that we are trying to lay hold of.

For me, I found it while pedaling my old touring bike in the middle of nowhere. Where will you find it?

Thank you for allowing us to be a part this journey, and of your cycling experience.

Tom Carroll

President, Rocky Mountain Cyclery, Inc.