The Freedom of Self-Taught Bicycle Riding: An Empowering Journey on Two Wheels

Riding a bike is often one of the first things most people learn just after toddlerhood. First, there’s the tricycle, then the bicycle with training wheels, and, finally, the two-wheel bike, which gives you the freedom of riding wherever adventure takes you.

That last concept doesn’t change the older you get. Even in adulthood, the idea of sitting on a bike and pedaling to freedom, adventure, health, and new friendships isn’t a new one. And Dove Kelley, Chicago resident and avid devourer of life’s challenges, discovered that.

During the pandemic of 2021, Dove, like most people, was either stuck indoors or left to find something other than public gatherings to keep her occupied. Tired of sitting around, unable to work, she decided she’d try something she hadn’t tried before.

Once she was on the seat of her bicycle, her life changed forever. 

Dove is a lover of art and non-fiction, and she thrives in an unconventional industry, but none of that provides her with the feeling of empowerment self-taught bicycle riding can offer. 

Biking for Energy 

If you’ve seen the Tour de France, you know that the pinnacle of bicycling is a race that requires stamina, endurance, strength, and lots of physical and mental conditioning. Bicycling can either be a leisure activity where the rider takes a slow route around the park or a physically demanding form of exercise, where the rider whizzes down city streets or mountain trails, keeping up the heart rate, burning calories, and learning the true meaning of “life from the seat of your pants.”

Moving your body, dragging clean air into your lungs, feeling the burn of your muscles as you put yourself to the test—there’s nothing quite as energizing as bicycling. The release of endorphins, the thrill of conquering that last mile, that last hill, can feel better than anything else in the world. And that is one reason Dove does it. Improving her mind with local music and uplifting or insightful biographies, she’s also dedicated to improving her body through bicycling.

Biking for Empathy

Bicycling can be a solitary or group activity. One of the most surprising things about riding a bike through Chicago is that a community of bicyclists meets to ride together. They connect, encourage one another, and hold one another accountable. Dove has built a family around her that she never would have found without getting on that bike seat. There is a sense of family, camaraderie, and empathy that is sometimes hard to find with work friends, neighbors, or even actual family. The group of people with whom you ride, collide on tricky turns, fall, and get scrapes and bumps alongside on challenging trails—these are the people who help you become the person you most want to be. People Dove Kelley truly treasures.

Biking for Empowerment

Putting your body on the line, struggling up that last hill before the finish line, taking that route through the city that puts an extra five miles on your already ten-mile morning ride, that is just one factor of bicycling that creates empowerment: you pushing yourself to the limit and succeeding. Nothing is quite like finishing your bike ride and knowing you’re tired, but you did it. You came out healthier, energized, and ready to tackle the day. 

And if conquering your own body doesn’t make you feel like you can take on the world, there’s also that community you built around you, those friends who know exactly how you feel. That family of bicyclists who took that trail ride with you, who watched you crash and fall but get right up again. Those people, that tight-knit group, are a form of empowerment you won’t find in the bedroom, boardroom, bus, or busy street.

For Dove Kelley, bicycling may have begun as a way to banish the pandemic blues, but it has grown into a part of her life that has only empowered her to move forward, thrive, and improve herself one ride at a time.