Cycling is meditation for me. Switching off. A digital detox. At last, no word showers, flickering screens, no to-do lists and none of the multitasking crap that frays your everyday life and softens your brain.
Cycling is also an acoustic detox for me, which is why I cycle without music in my ears. I don't want to hear anything - except blackcaps and skylarks, the quiet hissing of my carbon wheels and the sound of the wind in my ears. I would love to close my eyes and breathe in and out deeply.
That's why I love gravel bikes: turning off into the forest and taking the forest track instead of the road bike promenade. Everything is fine, you might think, but at some point every forest track comes to an end and I have to ride where everyone else does.
They're waiting for me there. Because as soon as the handlebars are bent a little outwards and the tyres a little thicker, you're already part of a tight-knit community.
The formula: Handlebar flare + tyre tread = Best Buddy
In other words: you greet each other. The fingers on the brake pedestal fold outwards during the "fly-by". Or at least one finger: Graveller greets Graveller.
And that's where the stress begins, because I need harmony. Not returning a greeting is a blow to the head. That's arse. Arrogant. Doesn't work at all. It kills the vibe. And the karma. Aura 2000 becomes Aura Zero. That applies to both sides. If you greet someone and they don't greet you back, that's a mood dampener. Full stop. But if oncoming traffic greets you and you can't get your fingers out fast enough, you feel just as bad because you don't want to be an arsehole.
Does this greeting have to be? On sandy tracks in Mongolia or gravel roads in the Atacama Desert, I'd put up with it, but in Munich-Fürstenried? Seriously?
For me, greeting cyclists is a nice gesture; a small ray of hope in all the antagonism in our society. It doesn't mean that we are best friends. - Sandra Schuberth, BIKE editor
What should I do? Greet everyone, regardless of whether they like it or not? Or just return greetings? But they often come at the last moment or are barely recognisable. Instead of gliding along free and easy, I scrutinise the oncoming cyclists - even more: I scan them! Because: I have to recognise whether it's a racing bike or a gravel bike, handlebar flare or no flare? The humiliation would be devastating if I accidentally greet a "roadie" who doesn't return the greeting. The narrow-gauge faction looks down on us Gravellers as if we were rollerbladers, recumbent cyclists or mountain bikers in disguise. Or will-less fashion victims who only gravel because it's hip.
Continuous sprinting is not a solution!
No, greeting everyone is not a solution. So I grin as an alternative to the greeting terror. I grin and hope that it passes for a general greeting. But the grin act seems a bit silly.
That's why I walk in a cradle position when someone comes towards me. If you sprint, you can't say hello - everyone understands that. But continuous sprinting is too exhausting. My next strategy: no more greetings. Screw the harmony. What's with the greeting mania? Like in the 1980s, when everyone with a windsurfing board on the roof of their car pressed the headlight flasher when they saw another windsurfer. At some point, there was a windsurfing board in every third German household and the flashing lights on German roads stopped again. Only the motorcyclists still said hello - and even more insistently. Back then, as a motorcyclist, I decided to keep my hands on the handlebars of my Yamaha. The argument: safety first! However, the Graveller hands grip the brake pedal like pliers and the fingers can therefore be opened safely. You don't have to stretch your arm out to the side like you do when greeting a motorbike. No matter. My mind is made up: no more greetings!
Problem solved? No. Recently, a gravel snow white actually rushed towards me, with a beaming smile under chic XXL glasses. The beauty stretched out her slender fingers towards me. And then, whether I wanted to or not, my fingers shot out in a Graveller salute. Oh no, friends, you see: the stress continues!
So please hear my plea: can't we all stop this stupid custom at once?
My appeal: Don't say hello to me, I won't say hello to you!
What else might interest you
+ Gravel-Micro-Adventure with or without greeting
+ Interview with gravel queen Wiebke Luhmann
+ Test of a test winner: a gravel bike buying tip
Dimitri Lehner
Editor
