My first real long ride on a loaner road bike felt like the first time I drove a car alone as a 16 or 17 year old. It’s a wild freedom. How am I allowed this? It was joy and discovery incarnate. Do you know the Disclosure song Help Me Lose My Mind? The way that song sounds is the way that cycling made me feel. But then that feeling doubled and doubled and doubled again when all the people I met in connection with this sport wanted to help me love it more. Lose my mind in it more.
I met people so much younger than me who were so much stronger and wiser and smarter. So then of course I started falling in love with them, platonically and not platonically, ha, and it was from there that cycling swallowed my soul and became my soul.
I try to explain to normies that going for a ride isn’t a burden for me because it is me. Each ride is me spending time with that and looking for the wild freedom from the first time. That’s where I find my zen.
In the first of our Find your ZEN Features (where we feature extraordinary people who have found their ZEN) we shine the spotlight on Sydney based cyclist and construction industry project manager Jennifer Kay.
Her most recent project is this beautiful, top of the line custom built Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8 which features truly unique modifications including Hope 4 piston brake calipers and a Cybrei carbon fibre crankset complete with carbon chainrings.
We spent a few hours with Jen and her SL8 at Uno Studios in Alexandria. Jen rocks, her new bike rocks, we hope you enjoy the photos!
Credits and links (please follow!):
Jennifer Kay @jenniferlouisek
Photographer @therealnickturner
Photo Retoucher @justinfox.com.au
Uno Studios @uno.studios_