By BRYAN J. BALL
Managing Editor

For most of my cycling life, I lived in the countryside of upstate New York. During those years, I got pretty spoiled by the well kept roads with their sparse traffic and mostly courteous drivers. For a brief time I lived in Destin, Florida. This wasn't exactly an urban environment but it did force me to get used to traffic in a hurry. I was still able to get out on desolate country lanes but I needed to slog through a few miles of the world's worst and most inconsiderate drivers to get there. After that, I moved to Germany and a virtual cycling utopia. I could ride anywhere without worry. If there wasn't a path, there was usually a B-Road with only a few very well mannered motorists on it.

Now I reside in Rochester, New York. It's a city of nearly a million people and I live smack in the middle of it. Luckily, I also live two blocks away from the Genesee Riverway multi-use path which connects directly to the Erie Canalway. I can literally leave my house, ride through two stop lights and then go all the way to Niagara Falls (90 or so miles) or Albany (a few hundred miles) without ever really going on the road. It's pretty great. However, I've recently realized that it's had of very detrimental side effect.

This winter has been a weird one for Rochester. It's been shockingly mild in comparison to the 128 inches of snow we had last year. (It doesn't sound as bad if you just think of it as a bit more than ten and a half feet.) Temperatures have rarely been below the mid 30's Fahrenheit. The roads have been more than passable for cycling most of the year. Unfortunately, the paths haven't been as good. A couple of inches of snow quickly turns into a half inch of solid ice on an unplowed bike path. That ice takes a bit longer to melt since no one salts the bike path.

And for some reason, this has kept me from riding. If the path's not passable, I often don't go out. That's just ridiculous. I'm not afraid of traffic. I ride in city traffic to run errands or meet my friends all the time. I've ridden through downtown New York City, Los Angeles and Frankfurt also. It's not even that hard to get out of the city and into the countryside from my house. But for reasons I don't understand, I can't get motivated to get out there unless I know my beloved trail network is clear. Has riding so much on the bike path made me soft?

I know in my head that some of my best rides I've had in Rochester were when I left the bike path and went out into the hilly back roads that surround the area. In fact, the bike path usually frustrates the holy hell out of me on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and has ruined several otherwise very pleasant sojourns. Maybe I have some sort of "Bike Path Stockholm Syndrome."

Don't get me wrong. I have a job to do, so I do get out and ride when I have to. We've had a lot of test bikes this winter so my mileage totals actually aren't that bad. However, I've rarely ridden for pleasure the last few months. I know that if I wasn't obligated to get out there, I wouldn't.

Last week it hit me very hard. It was 45 degrees and sunny outside but the path was covered in ice. It was also very windy. I sat around until about noon making excuses then saw a post about someone on our message board riding 60 miles that same morning in temps that never broke 15 degrees. So I went out and jumped in the RotoVelo and did a quick ten miles. Still pathetically short but a very good time nonetheless. Now I'm just wondering why I haven't done it again since.

I've been an avid cyclist long enough to know that I'll work myself out of this rut. Spring will be here soon and I'll be back out of the road. I hope… The reason I wrote this article is because that for the first time, I fully sympathize with some of you who will only ride on a bike path. I used to find it pretty silly. I still feel that anyone can ride most models of bike and trike on most roads without issue if they take the proper precautions, but now I understand how easy it is to get lulled into a subconscious fear of the open road. So don't be like me. Get off the bike path every now and then and enjoy other places to ride before you forget how to.