I Rode My Bike Today - #2

I rode my bike today...to work...it's was cold...it was dark...it was raining...it was cold...17 miles.

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I Rode My Bike Today - #1

I rode my bike today...to the store...in the rain...2 miles.

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New Year Resolutions - 2013

Happy New Year Everyone. I trust that you've had a blessed Christmas with your family and loved ones. I was fortunate enough to be able to drive back to Louisiana and spend time with my parents and brothers. As an added bonus, I brought my gear and camped along the way. It was kinda like bike touring, but in my truck:-)

I'm back in Virginia now and looking forward to the New Year. So what are my bike related resolutions? Well here they are:

1. Ride my bike everyday - the last year and a half, the bike has kinda played second fiddle to other things in my life. This year I want to change that and make it a year when I get back to the bike. To aid in the reunion, I am going to attempt to ride my bike every day that I'm home. I do some amount of traveling during the year (thankfully not much) and it would be unrealistic to think that I could ride when I'm out of town. So to keep from beating myself up and making this difficult goal somewhat manageable, my resolution is to ride every day that I'm home. Now, it may be as short as a ride around the neighborhood, but I am going to attempt to put my butt in the saddle every day.

2. Increase my bicycle commuting distance - I will continue to commute by bike to work on a regular basis. However, in order to get in better shape and lose a little weight, I'm going to alter my route. My normal route is 5 miles each way. I want increase that to about 10 miles each way. Now I'll tell you upfront that things will come up that will make it necessary for me to take the more direct route and when that happens I will do so without remorse. However, I will work to make those instances an exception and not the rule.

3. Blog more - as I have admitted in a recent post and as you have undoubtedly observed, my blogging was sparse in 2012. I aim to change that this year. In fact I'll go out on a limb here and tell you that not only do I plan to ride each day as discussed in resolution #1, I'm gonna try to blog about it each day as well. I won't go so far as to make that a resolution, but I do hope that you will see a marked increase in my posts.

Well - there you have it - my Bike Related New Year Resolutions. Stay tuned to see how I do.

 

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Christmas Bike 2012

Much as I have been with this blog this year, so have I been negligent in celebrating my annual Christmas tradition - The Christmas Bike. In the past, soon after Thanksgiving, I'm cracking open a craft beer and decorating my bike for the season.

This year, I stood in my garage the evening before my last ride to work before the Christmas holidays and my bike stood there all plain and forlorn. Well - better late than never. I climbed into the attic and found the decorations, took a cold beer out of the frig and went to work. I decided to downscale this year and limit the decorations to a wreath on the handlebars and lights around the frame.

On my first and only Christmas Bike ride of the year, I realized the full measure of my negligence. It was early morning and quite dark. The Christmas Bike blinked brightly and cheerfully. I rode up to a stop sign and cars were coming from both directions on the crossing road, so I came to a complete stop. As I stopped, so did the car heading East and then the car heading West. So there were the three of us at a stand still, no one moving. The thing was, I was the only vehicle that had a stop sign. The two cars had the full right away. On any other day, they would have run me over had I even thought about crossing their path, but this morning, they stopped and waited patiently. I pushed off while the cars waited patiently and waved as I passed in front of their headlights. I couldn't see the drivers faces, but I'm certain they both smiled.

When I decorate my bike and don my Santa hat, I'm under no disillusionment, I raise my dorkiness level to new heights. So why bring that kind of attention myself? That's simple - it causes people to stop and smile - a pleasant interruption in our otherwise hectic lives and in a world of tragedy.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

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Russian Roulette on a Bike

We all see them, especially those of us who ride. You know them, the folks we notice riding bikes that go to great lengths to, unbeknownst to themselves, to get in harms way.

Today, I witnessed perhaps the most egregious example that I've ever had the unfortunate privilege of witnessing.

- a teenage male

- riding down a busy, one way, 3 lane road road - On the LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD

- rush hour traffic

- no helmet

- riding a clunker

- ear buds in his ears

- one hand on the handlebars

- the other hand on a smart phone - non stop texting

- head down and focused on smart phone

- weaving precariously between shoulder of road and closely zooming traffic

He might as well have put a single round in a revolver - spun the cylinder - put the barrel to his head and pulled the trigger.

 

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