The Flow (Or Lack Thereof)

Forgive me for a moment as I traverse into the realm of quasi-mystical-bullshit, but I would like to talk about The Flow.  The Flow for the uninitiated, is the feelings/actions of moving through, over, and around all obstacles in your path in a perfect flowing motion.

People who practice parkour talk a lot about this, as do surfers, and surprisingly people who like curling.  The idea is you move around things without disturbing them.   This doesn’t mean you blaze through traffic messing everyone else up.  It means you ride your bike with things like light timing, pedestrians, other traffic, and even things like the sun and what angle it is at, in mind.  The ideal Flow situation is one in which you break no laws, encounter no stops, and flow effortlessly though and around traffic in such a way that you achieve the maximum speed with minimal disturbance of everyone around you.

When you have The Flow, you will know it.  You feel amazing, everything is working out just right, and you will melt right through even the gnarliest traffic.  You will hear no honking, no one will swear at you, and you will just move.  This level of Flow requires extreme attention to detail, excellent knowledge of your environment, knowledge of your bike and bike handling skills, and above all focus on what you are doing and where you are going, where you have been, and where everything else on the road is going to be in the near future.  You literally have to attempt to see everything, figure out where it will be in 10 seconds, and then position yourself accordingly so that in 10 seconds when you get to that light you will be right where no one else is going to be.

Obviously this almost never happens.  You have to stop, lights turn red, people walk into the street, cars pull out of driveways.  You will almost never achieve ideal Flow.  That doesn’t mean that practicing this hyper focused style of riding has no benefit.  When you are paying extreme attention to what is going on around you, you are safer, you will notice the person crossing between cars, that truck backing out of a driveway, the cabby about to change lanes without signaling, these skills can and will make you a safer cyclist.   It will also most of the time slow you down slightly.  Going too fast means you have no reaction time, no reaction time means you can’t adapt to changing situations, and not being able to change and adapt means you are going to crash into something.

Today I had zero Flow.  I have no idea why, but everything was wrong, cars were too far over, or not far enough, pedestrians were aggressively stupid (walking out in front of moving cars), the bus drivers were not paying attention… in short it was a shit show.  Anyone else notice traffic being especially problematic this morning?  Anyone else experience The Flow?

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The Joys Of Cycling: The Flow

Have you ever been to the museum of science and seen that giant kinetic sculpture they have with all the little balls on rails? They all move so smoothly and flow so nicely. Or maybe you have seen the way water looks when it is running over smooth granite or the way plinko chips bounce around but always find a way to get to the bottom of the board on the price is right? What I am getting at here is that all of these examples are examples of flow, when something is just moving in such a lovely way. That is how I feel on my bicycle some times.

Traffic, pedestrians, pot holes, obstacles of all kinds become immaterial when you are in the flow. Its like you are a tiny drop of water effortlessly finding its way though an ants nest. Its a state of being more than a physical thing.

You will know when you are in the flow because a smile will form on your face and you will always find that green light, that tiny spot to fit into, that little bit of nice pavement between the potholes. Your commute will melt away before you and the sea of traffic will open up for you, and you will just move. Its a glorious thing.

It is often hard for new riders to get into this mode of cycling, as it takes a fair amount of concentration in what is going on around you. You have to judge what traffic is going to do well before they do it, you have to be scanning the road surface (potholes), the sides of the road (pedestrians, opening doors, people pulling out of drive ways), behind you (overtaking traffic, space for changing lanes), and in front of you (lights, traffic, random stuff) all at the same time. You also need to keep track of light timings, traffic patterns, and pedestrian hot spots. But once you get the knack of it the results are simply sublime.

When you are in the flow, the sea of chaos that is Boston’s streets suddenly organizes itself into orderly ranks. What looked like an impenetrable wall of cars is now suddenly overflowing with bike sized holes for you to utilize. Before you know it you are pulling up at your destination with a big ole grin on your face, and a pleasant hum in your legs.

Does anyone else feel like this sometimes?

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