Mind Is The Ride

Mind Is The Ride is the inspirational memoir of Bristolian Jet McDonald and his girlfriend Jen's epic cycle journey to India and back. Alongside a selection of travel anecdotes, mostly self deprecating, Jet uses this memoir to impart philosophical ideas about how we identify our places in the world and our sense of ourselves. The narrative is cleverly linked by way of each chapter explaining a particular bicycle part - the Saddle, the Head Tube, the Star Fangled Washer, ... - and how their connections can be seen to reflect society. I loved the gradual build-up of a bicycle diagram which ended each chapter. As each part is discussed, it is added to the diagram so, by the end of Mind Is The Ride, we have a completed journey and a complete bicycle.

I did struggle to understand some of the philosophical sections because I felt the book jumped around too much. It's perhaps ironic that a book which talks extensively about meditation and allowing our minds to focus more deeply, actually didn't do that itself. Trying to keep up the three narratives of the journey, the bicycle and the philosophy meant that one often seemed to me to be overly rushed. I do now have an extensive bibliography of other books to track down though. I did think some of the cycling metaphors were too forced, but several did get me giggling. I like McDonald's sense of humour.

However, I did appreciate the breadth of ideas that McDonald touched upon. Mind Is The Ride fits nicely in between other books I have recently read such as The Art Of Travel, Where The Wild Winds Are and In Love With The World. Most of all, I felt energised by reading Mind Is The Ride. McDonald's enthusiasm for cycling in all its forms from an alternative to the daily car commute, to a leisure activity, to a long-distance travel solution, is absolutely infectious. Personally my confidence levels put me far more at Danube cycle path level than Mumbai traffic warrior, but I'm now wanting to unfold my little bike and just get out riding somewhere!