True or not, Albert Einstein has been quoted as saying “I thought of it while riding my bicycle” when referring to his landmark paper on Special Relativity. It certainly makes sense that he would think of such trivial matters while cycling, especially when the essential postulate of the theory is that the speed of light is the same for all observers regardless of their state of motion (noodling, climbing, sprinting, posing with an espresso). But rather than delve into things that are relatively incomprehensible, it’s best to discuss a different kind of special relativity: perception and its effect on performance.
One of the best examples of this special relativity is the legend of Jacques Anquetil’s climbing habit. Before every climb of significance, Anquetil would remove the water bottle from its holder on his bike and put it in his jersey pocket. The mass of the bidon and its contents remained on the moving object (rider and bike), the overall weight of that which is being propelled had not changed. Tim Krabbe surmises in The Rider: “A rider, said Anquetil, is made up if two parts, a person and a bike. The bike, of course, is the instrument the person uses to go faster, but its weight also slows him down. That really counts when the going gets tough, and in climbing the thing is to make sure the bike is as light as possible. A good way to do that is take the bidon out of its holder.” His perception of the weight of the instrument affects his climbing performance. Does the fact the weight that was once on the instrument and now on the person physically change the actual performance of the person on the instrument? Perception is relative. And reality.
But what about non-competitive group rides? What’s the special relativity relationship there? Naturally, the answer is in the conversations on the ride, both aloud and in the mind. Take for example, a 4 hour ride with 2-5 regular riding partners. About three hours in is a 15 minute climb with no traffic and a grade sufficient to maintain conversation (which, of course, is relative to the pace…) Somehow, one riding partner spits out a brief, sound bite quote from Ghostbusters. It’s Ego’s question to Vinz Clortho “what sign are you looking for?” One could, and probably should, applaud the partner for quoting one of the two finest movies ever produced and laugh about it. But what if another riding partner finished the entire quote?
He’d say, in Egon’s voice: “Vinz, you said before you were waiting for a sign. What sign are you waiting for?” In Vinz’ voice: “Gozer the Traveler. He will come in one of the pre-chosen forms. During the rectification of the Vuldrini, the traveler came as a large and moving Torg! Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the McKetrick supplicants, they chose a new form for him: that of a giant Slor! Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!”
The effect of the lengthy movie quote is at least two fold, usually positive but sometimes counteractive. First, lengthy recitation, akin to reading dialog in a book, shortens the duration of labor. When a reader reads a long segment of dialog the pages fly by relatively quicker than when reading important backstory or description. Likewise, listening to a riding partner recite dialog hastens the relative time of physical exertion. The listener (observer) wonders if the quoter will accurately depict the characters’ voices, recount the correct words in the correct order and, in most cases, wonder how long the quote will go. This version of special relativity applies to frames of reference and the inertia there of. Speed of light aside, the state of motion of the observers to the lengthy recitation may remain constant but relative to the duration of the climb, the state of motion seems accelerated due to the change of state of reference from the duration itself to the recitation. Perfectly clear. Second, longer quotes affect the state of motion based on the diction and intensity of the quote. Similar to riding with music, the flow of the words can positively or adversely affect one’s cadence and tempo. (Someday I’d like to do a test riding a local 16 mile climb first without music going full gas and then with music a bloc.) Negative connotations of lengthy quotes come more frequently from poor quote selection. If a riding partner were to quote, say, The Edge, with Alec Baldwin, it would likely be a poor quote selection. “What one man can do another man can do.” Really? Not just poor quote selection but bad writing. What would Sam Seaborn say?
Surely Einstein isn’t the only famous thinker to thank cycling for being a muse. And perhaps, like Anquetil removing his bottle, once Einstein removed the heavy idea of Special Relativity from his mind (the instrument), he (the person) could perform more efficiently and effectively. He rode his bike to work frequently when he worked at the patent office. And like Dr. Venkman said “Einstein did his best stuff when he was working as a patent clerk.”
