Abstract

By the 21st century, previously dictated daily movement through rigid city networks or linear commuting between two places have been dramatically changed into spontaneous movement through extensive spaces, typical of contemporary urbanity. At the same time, due to growing access to the internet and new communications possibilities, the World Wide Web has been widely surfed and explored. In examining cycling individuals and groups, this study finds that real and virtual spaces of flows are intertwined. Cycling is currently regarded mostly as a sustainable mode of physical movement (pedaling, spinning). This study shows that it is also a means for getting to know one’s self in the surrounding world and for being realized in the social world. For the rider, cycling may entail pedaling spaces of flow into his/her being, while a group of bicycle riders may all become carriers of loads of meaning and memories, through real and virtual loaded-scapes; their cycling lifeworld diffusing virtual worlds into presence.