I ride bicycles because I like to.. because its fun and because it is both simple and challenging. Riding bicycles has many challenges yet is also carefree. To pedal is to escape, to pedal is to find freedom and to discover.
Pedaling a bike can also be a rebel-cause for protest against fuel companies. In fact, I tell people it’s the only real way to protest fuel prices, “just shut up and pedal!” Complaining about gas prices is just grounds for frustration and no real way to actively “do something” and protesting on the corner or with rhetoric and banners are short lived. Start pumping the pedaling instead of pumping the dead dinosaurs into the fuel tank - this is the only way to really protest. Driving your vehicle to a protest rally - preposterous! To pedal is to re-discover simplicity and gives you new insight and perspectives.
I did not nor do not pedal to protest, it’s just the excuse I thought up while pedaling a 38-mile round trip commute to work while finding great time to THINK and to get into shape! It’s a moment of escape and adventure, however quick, short or long the trip, just mustering up the courage to step out onto the pedals as a means of transportation to work will bring a sense of accomplishment! That is 99% of the issues that prevent most people from commuting by bicycle, courage to step outside the “normal” and doing it. While I know simply some people can not, for many that actually think about commuting by bicycle, getting past “thinking” and “doing” that is the 99% issue part... That would be a great survey: How many people commute by bike / how many people think about commuting by bike / and each year, how many actually make the leap to actually commute to work by bike. Heck, survey just the people who read-subscribe to bicycle magazines! That would be an interesting survey. I’m sure that survey has been done. Research project!
Once you activate the bicycle commute to the office gives you great insight and time to think about the real issues at work. Pedaling back home at the end of the day relieves the stress of the non-real issues at work. Sometimes pedaling this distance just clears the mind as you just find this wonder-rhythm while cranking out pedal strokes. I find that some of my best thinking is done on the bike... to the point I sometimes stop to take notes. Before I was not stopping and forgetting half of the ideas to the extreme of stopping every 15-minutes and taking notes in the Blackberry. I had to slow down / stop all that! At my age, it’s time to invest into ME!
The single largest investment one can make life for themselves is to invest in personal health! I’ve worked all my life. I’ve played some too and while most think that my life is play, I have tried my best to make my work fun. But mental stress is by far the worst enemy to personal physical health. Pedaling directly helps melt stress away! Pedal enough and melt some pounds away as well. Pedal for wealth - pedal for health and these are the true personal accomplishments to be proud of. One of my goals when I turn 65+ years old is to pedal somewhere in the neighborhood of 250+ miles a week! I know plenty of people do! I never thought about what to do after you retire, and now I have a true goal for those years. But you can not wait till then and start pedaling, you could, but I do not want to. I did manage to squeak in some 250-300 miles weeks consecutively for about three months straight, but its a constant juggle to balance life, work, family and TIME! But the pursuit, dream and goal all fire the life-long passion.
I started like everyone, pedaling a 20” bicycle at a very young age. With that type of bike, no kid just pedals it around. You start jumping Tonka trucks and garbage cans and on and on usually with product failure in the process, at least in those days before the modern BMX bikes, failure was a guarantee! Growing up around the farm in Alabama, luckily my uncle was a welder and would keep me rolling. The bike was the transportation to the 12-mile commute to town, only to look for more jumps, so reliably had it’s price. One day while grocery shopping, my younger brother brought home a BMX magazine, like in 1980 and my world was CHANGED! My little world was opened to a whole new world!
Before web sites, email, blogs and forums, the monthly magazine was THE ONLY SOURCE to fuel my new-found passion. By tenth grade I would open my own BMX shop. We built custom bikes for customers that felt our passion for the best products and our desire to help our customers beyond just selling them a bike. We had a team and raced all over the state as well as the East coast. We even raced at the 1982 Worlds Fair. I had met all my BMX hero’s, but here at this race, I would see first hand a new trend within BMX, called Freestyle as an exhibition was performed in front of the Worlds Fair spectators and BMX racers. This was cool and expanded the horizon of my perceptions of what could be done with the bicycle.
While running my shop I had two experiences with road bikes. One experience was a DAILY EXPERIENCE as I road a road bike from my house to the bus stop for my commute to school. And yes it did have Campagnolo components! My other experience was my sales rep had a road bike and wanted to use my work stand to do a little tune up. It was a Colnago. I remember it very clearly! My rep asked if I would like to ride it. I first refused as I respected his bike too much but he insisted I ride it. So I did! I pedaled it so hard and so fast, the bike asked me to! It was awesome, but it just did not stick to me to ride, I was into BMX. But that experience stuck with me. It was candy red and those cool lugs with the clover-like cutouts. I remember it because it made a strong impression. it would just take 35+ years for that impression to materialize.
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