The Grass Chopper of Mateusz Chmura...

"Imagination is more important than knowledge"

From the moment I first saw Albert Einstein's quote in print, these have been words to live by. Not to discount the importance of knowledge, but you can always look up a fact in a book. Imagination is what turns those facts into creation. It is often said that cycling is composed of a percentage of physical action combined with a percentage of mental conditioning. A portion of that mental percentage must be made up of imagination. Imagination is what takes you places you have never been before, challenges you to greater speeds, or longer distances. Imagination takes us down roads where sights and sounds, smells are foreign to what we are used to in our daily lives, it encourages us to ride outside the bounds of what is normal and everyday.

"Grass Chopper" is quite an example of what the melding of knowledge and imagination can create. It is evocative of its organic namesake; the very same bug that creeped me out as a kid doing yard work during the hot days of summer, or that wiped out the few bits of corn we planted just last year. I almost expect it to hop, or unfurl some hidden wings and fly, rather than roll along the ground. Created by Polish artist and designer Mateusz Chmura. If you click on the link you can see his work - the beetlebike is pretty cool too.