Ode to Chris Balish

I ran across a Planet Green video of Chris Balish showing car-centric LA city dwellers how convenient and doable life without a car can be. Chris Balish's book How Live Well Without Owning a Car was one of the books that started me thinking about relying less on my car and possibly even going car free in the future. I have nothing against cars for certain kinds of use but they can be a real financial drain over time. Before tallying up all the costs related to my car, I had never realized how much my used Honda Civic had really cost me. I was astounded to find out that most people will pay about $150,000 in car related costs over the course of their life time. That is a HOUSE. *gulp*

Since moving to Columbia I rely less and less on my car. I bike many places that I never thought I'd be able to and spend far less on gas and car maintenance than ever before. I am far more aware of how many times a day I am tempted to buy something or go somewhere simply due to the "convenience" of jumping in my car on a whim. While the varying weather here has not made it easy all the time (I still don't care for riding in the rain but do it anyway), I love having more freedom and physical ability due to my bike. I also love saving money and realizing I have driven exactly half the miles than from the previous year. This has resulted in less wear and tear on the car, only one oil change, and only one afternoon wasted as I got the car tires rotated and balanced.

Ride on people! :-D

Grown-Up Cyclists Need Helmets, Too

Read another interesting article in the Times online today about helmet usage among adult cyclists. I am among those that think they are a good idea if you are cycling along with cars. While they are not on par with a motorcycle helmet in case of a high speed/high impact crash, for the stuff I face day-to-day, I wouldn't be without one. I am always amazed at what seemingly minor head injuries can really do to a person so I try to protect my melon. I also am glad to see so many interesting and sassy helmet options out there---maybe I'll become the Imelda Marcos of helmets? :-D

Floyd Landis Admits Doping

I was really sad to see an article in the NYTs today where Floyd Landis admits to doping during his cycling career. He has also claimed that Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie, among other of his cycling teammates (such as Tyler Hamilton who tested positive for blood doping in 2004), also doped, etc.

I find the allegation against Armstrong a bit hard to believe since he is considered one of the most drug tested athletes on the planet. I openly admit to crying when he won his 7th Tour.

On the flip side, other than cycling and swimming, I stopped caring about professional sports a while ago. Too many overpaid, crybaby, rapists for my taste. Now so much of it is simply about greed.

This is why I like community cycling including the bicycle as alternative transportation. This is about the personal, humble-yet-effective, methods for countering the greed, speed, waste, and often pointlessness of modern life (where people drive to the gym!). This form of cycling does not require that I wear someone else's name on my jersey and pay $80 for the privilege of doing so.

I am sorry to hear all this from Landis (if it is true) but it only reconfirms my commitment to local, grassroots efforts to increase the real freedom of people and move away the false idols of this world.

Cycle Recyle

The weather today was too good to pass up. Matter of fact, the last two days have been exceptional. I biked to work yesterday and then downtown tonight for Cycle Recycle and the high-spirited antics of that motley crew of bike mechanics at GetAbout. I fixed one and half bikes tonight. It only took two hours but hey! it's free labor people! I was harassed a bit by some dude who thinks he knows everything about bikes, but I'm not that easily fooled T.K.

Riding home tonight was phenomenal. The wind and weather were perfect---I am always so amazed at all the sensations we experience on a bike that we have no access to in a car. So many details that we whiz right past. The breeze and wonderful smells of fresh grass, flowers, and trees. The sounds of nature at night. Awesome.

Ride on bike lovers!

Miles: 6

American Idle

When Mary Collins had a bike accident that laid her up, she got interested in the sedentary nature of U.S. culture and started researching and writing about it. This book is the fruit of her labor. She argues that in 99 percent of human history, humans have lived as "a species on the move", but with modern inventions and life has we have literally be "stopped us in our tracks".

I have become convinced that humans need quite a bit of physical exercise in a day and the amount of time we spend sitting in front of screens each day is vastly contributing to our mounting health crisis---which has led Dr. John McDougall to state that we are at a point in our history in the U.S. that we are so obese and out of shape that we could not defend ourselves from an invading nation!

Another reason to GET IN THE SADDLE! :-D