Editorial License and Bob Rants...
One Cyclists Transformation
by Bob Bryant
Last year I wrote about my Slumgullian ride (also available at this web site) over the Colorado Rockies. I wrote about my mission in training and how I made it to the best shape of my life for that ride. The planets were aligned. I trained. I lost weight, rode hard, and was a he-man cyclist. I was invincible.
AN OFF YEAR
This year, things havent been so great. I sprained my ankle in an off season cycling accident while riding a bike that had a messed up drive-train (I was too busy to fix it). With the expanded RCN size and my grandiose plans (and 100+ hour work weeks), there wasnt enough time for riding (I am riding just 75-100 miles per week). All of this sitting at the computer has taken its toll on my hiney (previously broken tailbone from a SWB USS crash a few years ago). I really have no desire to ride any more than 30 miles at a time this season. In fact, I am quite enjoying 20 mile ridesmore than ever!
Even so, I am more addicted to cycling than ever. I find my interest changing from a gung-ho racer wannabe to somebody who wants to cycle as a way of life. Lately, I feel guilty about asking people to drive their cars to a bike ride. I have been reading up on the damage that the automobile has done to our country socially and environmentally. Ive been thinking about a way to do away with my car for good.
CARS SUCK
I had always been interested in cars, owned more than my share, and loved driving. I guess the transformation started 18 months ago. I have always driven small cars. While driving my very small car, a Dodge Ram 1-ton 4x4 pickup rammed me from behind. I saw my life flash in front of my eyesand havent felt totally comfortable driving a car since.
Part two of my fall from grace with the automobile came by being run off the road countless times on my Black Diamond test loop last summer. Yuppies in SUVs (Sport Utility Vehicles), monster trucks and old Camaros illegally speeding down the two lane blacktop of suburban King County have gotten the best of me. I now carefully plan my rides NOT to go on heavily travelled roads. Recently on the NW groups midweek Mercer Island training ride, I had a very close call where I was nearly broadsided by another SUV. This person thought a free right turn meant I dont have to stop or look, and get the hell-out-of-my way. I was in a crosswalk at the time and was nearly hit. I am starting to feel invisible to motorists and wondering what to do about it.
I am now reading the Auto Free Times, memorizing passages from Asphalt Nation,1 and making long-term plans for a less auto-dependent RCN and Bob Bryant. I would like to be car free, though as a two-person micropublisher in Kent, Washington, USA, this will require careful planning and relocation. Im hoping to teach my kids about the freedom that can come with a bicycle, without a car payment and that the American dream of suburbia is not all its cracked up to be.
EXPENSIVE LOVE AFFAIR
Today, I am a more conscientious cyclist. Instead of training 200 miles per week, I ride to get the mail, to the library, to the store, and to the park with my kids. I try not to use my car. The total damage to our planet from one car is beyond beliefthey are basically polluting machines.2 The cost of auto ownership is through the stratosphere as well. The American Automobile Association says that it costs $5,762 a year or $505 per month to run a modest sedan. And a shiny new 4x4 SUV has to be upwards of $1000 per month. Automobiles kill more animals than hunting and animal experimention combined. Car crashes are the number one cause of death for children nationwide. Suburbia has become unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists.3
Ive had so many close calls, I wondered how can this be?
See the statistics belowthey are enlightening.
Most people dont want to take responsibility for the destructive automobile. Its not my problem. I dont drive that much. Or No, that cant be. Its true. If you dont believe me, study up on this subject. This problem is being downplayed so much one might get the idea its a corporate conspiracy between insurance companies, oil companies and auto makers. Oh yeah, doesnt our government defend oil fields in far off lands?
SLOW DOWN
Dont get me wrong, Im not going enviro-loco on you. I just have a new mindset on cycling. Im proud to be a cycle-tourist/commuter. I will never be a racer and the thought of racing 200 miles of STP, or 280 miles of Cannonball in one day just stresses me out. Im just obsessive enough to fall into the trap if I let myself. I love bicycling because the world goes by slower. I can look at the sky, smell the flowers, watch the sailboats and listen to the wind blow through the trees. If you get the chance to tour by bicycle your world will change.
This new attitude is good for my mind. In contrast, the race may be fun, though it is just a continuation of the fast forward life we live in todaythe one I try to escape from when I ride my bike. I dont carry a beeper, a cell phone, or a laptop computer while riding. I dont double book my schedule on riding days. Riding is ridingI dont have anywhere else to bebut on my bike.
I have at least one bike set up so that I can ride in street clothes. A few years ago I might have assumed that a cyclist dressed in street clothes was a rookie or not so serious cyclist. In reality, they may be the most serious kind. They are the commuters, cycle tourists and car-free bicycle enthusiasts who have made cycling a useful part of their livesnot just a leisure activity.
I believe the tourist/commuting cyclist represents the highest level of cycling one could hope to achieve. What is gained from racing as fast as you can all of the time? I would much prefer to tell a tale of crossing the Rockies by bike, and I would love to ride my bike across the USA one day. To be car free and solely depend on my bicycle as transportation would be even greater.
Bob writes this column from his home office in Kent, Washington. The computer goes on at 7am, and he likes to hit the road for his daily ride by 3pm. Bob likes to hear your feedback. He likes it even more when recumbent enthusiasts write articles and participate in the process. Feel free to drop Bob a line at or c/o RCN
1 Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back by Jane Hotz Kay. Amazon.com usually stocks this book.
2 From Asphalt Nation: According to researchers at the Environment and Forecasting Institute of Heidelberg Germany, before a motor vehicle leaves the plant it creates 29 tons of waste and 1,207 millions cubic yards of polluted air. On the road, this one auto pumps another 1,330 million cubic yards of polluted air into the atmosphere and scatters 40 pounds of worn out debris on the highway. When the cars useful life is over, 133 million cubic yards plus the PCBs and hydrocarbons that accompany the burial, the car produced another 66 tons of carbon dioxide and 2.7 billion cubic yards of polluted air.
3 From Asphalt Nation: Car manufacturers dabble on the fringes of carnage from roughly 2 million merely disabling motor vehicle injuries to the 43,000 fatalities each year120 auto-related deaths per day. In the Persian Gulf War, American146 men and women died fighting to keep the world safe for petroleum, and 4,900 people died with equal violence on the countrys highways during the same time period.
