Riding your bike puts you in touch with all your senses. While we often talk about the beautiful or interesting sights along the ride, inspired by a tweet from Tara Goddard we started asking people their favorite scents along their usual bike routes. From bacon to breweries to blossoms to bakeries we got an interesting, um, bouquet in the responses.
People don’t talk much about the scents of bike riding. A few of my favorites: laundry dryer vents, dinner cooking, breweries, and bakeries.
— Tara Goddard (@GoddardTara) October 7, 2015
We’ll keep updating this round-up of tweets on the topic if you tag us on Twitter @WAbikes.
You can join the smelly talk on Facebook, where we got into a discussion of the “Mystery Molasses” scent near the West Seattle Bridge, among other things.
We just had to close out with an assortment of songs about smells. First up, this Lynyrd Skynyrd song which, appropriately enough, was recorded on their Vicious Cycle tour. Given that they’re singing about the smell of death it’s a bit grim, but what other song has such a perfect refrain for this post?
Some of the lyrics from “Smell the Rain” by Genevieve Chadwick capture the spirit of bicycling perfectly (as does the album title, “Riding the Wind Forgetting Time”:
I ride on the sunshine try and catch me if you can
I feel like I’m a God, tell me can you smell the rain?
and these:
I got what you want
I got what you need
You can’t pin me down cause I’m too free
From that Washington original, Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (which actually doesn’t refer once to any smells):
So tell us, what’s YOUR favorite smell along the ride?
