Jeff Lenosky Going By Bike

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Originally uploaded by brendan61

Another busy week with lots of riding and even more work. This past Saturday was our "Parking Lot A Palooza" event at the Long Valley store featuring a stunt riding demonstration by Pro rider, Jeff Lenosky. The picture here is Jeff's wheel as it was passing a few inches over me as he jumped over ten human beings lying on the ground all in a row. This guy is amazing! I've know Jeff for 15 years and seen various versions of his show and it never fails to amaze me.

In other cycling news the Tour De France is over and Lance Armstrong, another pretty famous "go-er by bike" came in third. Pretty amazing feat. On the other hand, the winner of the tour, Alberto Contador, is just a jerk. Say what you want about Lance Armstrong but at least he knows that team work is what wins the race and even if you don't like one of your teammates you should still present a professional attitude. Lance displayed professionalism and class. Contador? Mmmm...not so much. Next year's TDF is shaping up to be a great show!

And now the bad news. I had to drive my car this morning. A confluence of circumstances including a very impressive display of extremely heavy rain forced me behind the wheel. I felt like a drunk falling off the wagon. But driving, yeah, I can quit anytime I want. However, It is my only time behind the wheel since July 13th.

Including recreational and transportation riding I am getting in about 100 miles a week now and I expect the mileage will increase. Since January I have gone from about 190 lbs to 178 lbs as of this morning without really trying. I did cut out the half a dozen peanut butter cookies after dinner every night though. Speaking of weight loss, I was watching the news the other day and the big story was about how obesity related medical care was accounting for over 9% of our health care expenditures. Really? Is it news that eating mountains of crap and sitting on your ass isn't good for your health? Shocking. You would think that politicians would be trying to get more people to ride bikes instead of wrangling with the healthcare system overhaul.

I'll throw it out there again. For the individual, going by bike will make you healthier, happier (yes, the chemical cocktail made by your body during exercise makes you happier) and you will save money. For the Nation, more people on bikes means lower healthcare costs, lower dependence on foreign energy and increased quality of life. For the planet, more people on bikes means a more sustainable environment. It's pretty simple actually.

Day 11-Culture Shock

I was watching “Morning Joe” on MSNBC this morning like I do almost every day. I don’t care much for Joe Scarborough but as far as conservatives go he’s not so bad. I watch the show because they have good guests and the tone of the show is a good balance to the uber-liberal shows on at night. Naturally, today, they were discussing healthcare and the CIA program for assassinating Al Queada operatives. Meanwhile the crawler at the bottom of the screen throws a bunch of other headlines at you so you can get more information in less time. Hooray for technology! As the show was going to commercial they had a live picture on the screen of the current space shuttle mission while simultaneously running a crawler blurb about Walter Cronkite’s memorial service.

Suddenly, I had one of those moments where you feel like you are instantly spun to the other side of the room. It’s like you are standing there watching a scene in front of you and then Bam! You are now standing on the opposite side of the room and everything looks different even though you are looking at the same thing.

I grew up with Walter Cronkite on the TV. My parents watched Cronkite, without fail, every single night of the week. That was when news was news. The three things that stand out for me from the mid sixties through the seventies were the nightly reports about Viet Nam, the Apollo space program, and Watergate. In a large sense, I think these things, along with my Father’s commentary about them along way, have formed much of my own point of view about the world. Now, if you’re thinking that I am going to break my promise about this blog being non-political, you can rest assured that I am not.

The point is about how far we have come since John Kennedy first challenged America to achieve something great just for the sake of doing it. Here we are on the 40^th anniversary of meeting that first challenge. Walter Cronkite, the newsman through who's eyes we watched those momentous events unfold, is dead, and now we routinely send people into space and send crystal clear images back to our morning news programs as a matter of routine. Most of us barely give it a second thought. So where do we go now? As a society we seem to have forgotten how to dream big. Have we seen the passing of the greatest generation? Have we become so petty and selfish that we can no longer achieve great things for society? Historically it seems like all great societies crumble because people become complacent and lazy, forgetting how it is they got to where they are to begin with. What is the next great challenge that will fire our imaginations and fuel our ingenuity? Is it health care? Is it rebuilding our energy and transportation infrastructures? Who will lead us? For me, my year without cars is really all about rethinking what my actual requirements are for an interesting and satisfying life. What do I value and why? What can I contribute? These are questions that I think many of us struggle with at some point in our lives. But then again, it seems like many people never give it a thought and go through life grabbing at what ever they can without purpose.

So my quest will continue. Day 9 it poured rain all day long but I rode in to work and car pooled home. Day 10 was a nice ride in and then I headed over to the Tourne for our weekly mountain bike ride. Today I rode my mountain bike back to work. So that’s 11 days with one less car on the road. Beyond that I’m not sure what it means yet.

5,6,7,8!

It's Tuesday, day 9 in the year without cars and rain is finally making an appearance this morning. Yesterday I had an early morning chore to run so I car pooled to work and home again but I have yet to get behind the wheel of a car. Here's my Honda Element sitting idle in the driveway and I am starting to really believe that owning this car is totally un-necessary. Over the weekend I did a 35 mile ride with my buddy Steve who was visiting from South Carolina and another 44 miles on Sunday with Cathy. I suppose having Monday as a rest day was not a bad thing but it did get me thinking about Javier, the guy that works at the store who does not own a car and rides his bike 7 days a week and averages about 40 miles per day. Javier looks like one big muscle and has about 6% body fat but I wonder what the physical impact is on his body. He never seems to be tired or unhappy about having to ride. When offered a ride back home if someone is passing by where he lives, unless the weather is particularly crappy, he generally refuses because he does not want miss out on riding! Maybe it's pride but he's pretty adamant about it. Anyway, I am seriously thinking about ditching my car permanently and adjusting my lifestyle accordingly. Anybody want a Honda?

Days 3 & 4

Time flies when you are having fun! Wednesday (day 3) is our regular day for our after work MTB ride. Here comes one of those lifestyle choices I was talking about. I hitched a ride to the park to join the ride because there is no way I could make it to the park in time to meet with everyone else. The park is certainly with riding distance of work but if I want to ride with other people compromise is necessary. I did, however, ride back home from the park so I can safely say that I rode more bicycle miles than I rode in a car. On Thursday (day 4) I did my usual commute in by bike but caught a ride home in Cathy's car because she wanted to go mountain biking again. No problem. We got home and suited up for our ride over to the park. The ride to the park and back plus a bit of trail riding is about ten miles altogether and just what the doctor ordered for stress relief after a what has been a trying week.

There is a strange phenomena that occurs with all this riding and that is the more I ride, the more I want. Also, the flabby ring around my middle, which has been my constant companion when I am not riding, is rapidly disappearing! Just more evidence that what this country needs more than universal health care is a focus on universal health. A little bit of exercise and some sensible eating would sure go a long way towards reducing health care costs in this country. But I guess the simplest solutions are the hardest for many to embrace.

Day 2

It would appear that the weather gods have decided to give us a break from the rain this month and the second day of my year without cars went off without a hitch. I managed to stay out of (and out from under) any motorized vehicle and rode to work and then home again. I gotta' tell ya, getting on to ride home after 11 hours at the store is a tough sell but the cooperative weather makes it easier and it turned out to be a great ride in spite of pushing 55 pounds of bike and gear up and down the hills to get back home. The Garmin says I climbed 1113 ft in the 12.5 mile ride. The photo at right is a shot of route 80 west bound at about 8:15 pm. Traffic is light but I am still glad I was not down there. (Plus, it's my proof that I did the ride!) Maybe the fine weather is just a coincidence or maybe it's providence giving me a chance to get used to riding all the time so that when the inevitable cold and rainy rides come, and they will come, I will be well adapted to the physical requirements of all the riding and the bad weather will not be an obstacle. To be totally honest, the thing I worry the most about is traffic. People in cars are just plain stupid, or crazy, or selfish, or all of the above and I figure the more time I spend on the road, the higher the probability that I will have unpleasant encounters with people putting on makeup, texting, eating, building ships in bottles, beating their children, and whatever else these lunatics are doing while in their cars but obviously not paying much attention to the safe operation of same. I'm not saying that every driver is bad but there are enough of them to really scare the crap out of me. That said, I am very cautious in traffic and ride as though I am invisible to everyone. When asked how it was that they came to run over a pedestrian or cyclist in the road, most people say "I never saw him". Generally they leave out the fact that the reason they "never saw him" was that they were rummaging around in the center console of their Hummer looking for that mix tape with their favorite flock of Seagulls song that they just had to hear right then and there. So my strategy is to assume that every person, in every car, will, in every situation, do the wrong thing and then plan my escapes to avoid getting tangled up in their incompetence. So far so good.

A Year Without Cars

So, I had this idea. I have been wondering if I could really get by without a car. Here in New Jersey it seems almost impossible but, then again, one of the guys I work with rides his bike to and from work and everywhere else. He does not own a car. Of course, without a car, I could not have gone on the vacation I just came back from. I have come to the conclusion that it's all about making choices. So my idea is to try and go for one year without driving my car. I was considering trying to go for a year without getting into any car but unfortunately the fact that our culture is "car-centric" makes this somewhat impractical. I won't say it's impossible because, as I said before, lifestyle choices determine what is possible in regard to transportation. Things I can do on my bike include getting to and from work, shopping for a few days worth of groceries, heading into town for breakfast and coffee, and generally getting to anyplace that is within twenty miles of home. Things I can't do on my bike include getting to the airport, going to home depot and picking up building supplies, driving another person anywhere as a favor, going someplace more than 20 miles from home and other things like that. Weather is not really a factor unless it's extremely bad. But if the weather is that bad, I am probably not going to drive anyway.

My goal is to choose to bike whenever there is a choice. One of the obstacles that will make this hard sometimes is the huge number of hours I spend at work but I will choose to ride as much as I can. Today I rode into work but I hitched a ride home with Cathy. I started at 8:30 am and did not leave the store until about 9:40 pm and the thought of riding 45 minutes in the dark was very intimidating so I took the easy way out but I will do the round trip on Tuesday regardless of what time I am done working. Each day I will update my blog with my progress, or lack there of, presented for entertainment and benefit of anyone who would care to read it. Maybe we'll learn something, maybe we won't. One down, three hundred and sixty four to go!