I’m going to be honest here, my foray into the world of biking was 100% prompted by trying to be a good girlfriend. And believe me, I know I’m not the only one out there! But most of my fellow bike beginners probably rode bikes as kids. Me? As I said in an earlier post, I grew up riding horses, not bikes. So when I say I was a total novice, I’m not kidding. And I felt real fear every time I agreed to go ride with Mike. He totally and completely didn’t understand, he’d been riding a bike since he could walk.

Our first rides were in a park near our apartment (don’t laugh, we loaded the bikes on the car rack, drove the 10 blocks to the park and then rode…Mike was ready to kill me). For those of you familiar with the crazy North Jersey drivers, you can understand my terror of wobbling down those roads on my bike. And do you do at lights? Stop signs? All that stopping and starting, ahh. The park wasn’t really all that much better. Huge family BBQs spilled out over the sidewalks, little kids whizzed by on their mini BMX, packs of teenagers stared at the girl who couldn’t ride a bike…it’s amazing I made it out alive.

So in the hopes of finding a “calmer” place to learn, I agreed to go mountain biking with Mike. He swore they were beginning trails, easy, easy, easy. For those of you who know Mike or have ridden with the NJ Biking, Eating & Drinking group, he can be awfully convincing. Let’s just say, it didn’t go well. They were NOT beginner trails. Or at least, not my kind of beginner. Feeling like a total loser, I pedaled back the way we came, with shaky legs and the desire to walk the rest of the way to the car. And that’s when it happened.

Two expert bikers came out of the forest, geared up in style, with sexy bikes. It was obvious this was a regular outing for them and they laughed with easy camaraderie as they rode back to the parking lot. As they passed me, they smiled and gave me a friendly head nod. Me. The girl who could barely stay on top of her bike, much less ride it was acknowledged by these kick ass cyclists. It was my first biker head nod and I loved it. I felt like I’d just gotten let in on a big secret or better yet, received an invitation to the best club in town.

I went home and looked on Meetup.com to find a biking group that would fit both my riding style (or lack thereof) and Mike’s. It didn’t exist so I started our own group, one for all levels of riders, the NJ Biking, Eating & Drinking group. The rest is history.

To this day, I love, love, love when I pass another cyclist on the road or trail and we exchange friendly head nods. It’s more than just a sense of community. It’s an acknowledgment that they too know the secret. The secret that non-bikers have no idea exists. Biking is more than just exercise for most of us. You might start biking for a multitude of reasons. Perhaps your significant other convinces you, or you want to drop a size and hear it’s the best/fastest way, or maybe you just want to reduce your carbon footprint. Every rider has their story but that’s usually not why we KEEP riding. It’s for the adventure, the thrill and the kid like fun that cycling provides. And of course, those amazing head nods.

Stay safe out there and keep smiling!