National Ride Your Bike to Work Week: May 13th-May 17th

*Several attempts to post this were made over the last two days, but they just didn't pan out. Technology and time are some of our biggest friends, but they can really be our biggest enemy too. The editors here at HTH greatly apologize and hope you will overlook our many weaknesses once again. 

   

    Today begins the, National Ride Your Bike to Work Week, that is put on by the League of American Cyclists. Many places began last Thursday, but most places celebrate the week during this current week, May 13th-17th. I was surfing the web at the end of last week and ran across a very funny picture of a nun riding a bike in celebration of the week and it along with a few other items inspired me to attempt to participate this year since I have been riding my bike to work this year a little more than in years past. Some very bold words were even said about my attempt to Sweet Melissa to which she replied, "...we aren't destitute and we have two cars for you to drive. You don't have to take it that seriously..." May 17th is the official ride your bike to work day for this year, but many clubs and riders are attempting to make it a week long celebration. We here at HTH are joining in the week long idea unless the rains come and there isn't enough space on this server for me to rage about how I feel when I have to do things in the rain.  

   The League of American Cyclists was begun in 1880 by a group of men who were known as the "wheelmen". The bicycle had really just been invented and they were already facing many challenges in their efforts to ride their new contraptions and so they founded an advocacy group to help push for equality on the roadways. Some of the League's most famous members were the Wright Brothers and J.D. Rockefeller. Although times have changed and cyclists are not fighting muddy and severely rutted roads and folks in wagons and on rowdy horses, the League of American Cyclist are still there fighting for equal rights on the roads for cyclists. They sponsor local, state, and even nation-wide events, educational sessions, and they sponsor and lobby for better cycling conditions in every state in the US. And their website is a great place for many fine resources in terms of cycling.

The nice nun who inspired some laughs and my participation in this blessed week

     Commuting by bike is a tricky affair and those in places where commuting is smiled upon don't truly understand how hard and dangerous it is for the rest of us to make it to work in one piece and they look smugly at the rest of us for not adopting their way of life, but it just isn't that easy. Riding to work by bike is just plain hard work no matter where you live, what type of bike you are riding, or how safe your commute is. You are actually powering yourself and all your gear over hills, through traffic, and right next to semi-trucks to your place of work. This is no easy feat. I feel I need to say this because bicycle commuting is always presented in this very idealistic and idyllic way. The pictures you see are of people in coat and tie or hip skirt and blouse pedaling under huge trees with the wind blowing in their hair as they smile aboard their $4000 custom built commuter bike in a special bike lane. And although I am sure that is true in some places, it is a rare scene for most every other place. They do not show the heavy pre-planning involved. They don't show the sweaty shirts and pants. They don't show a pic of the sweaty guy struggling up a huge hill with his backpack on chugging along on his $90 Huffy with a semi in front of him blowing him off the road, a SVU behind him driven by a private school mom who is texting her tennis instructor while she drives, and the guy in the monster truck at the next intersection blowing his Dixie horn at you and screaming, "Go Lance!". No, this is not the whole picture, but it is more true than the previously mentioned scene of Ryan Gosling riding and smiling and saying something like, "Hey Girl, wanna cuddle a little while after we go pick wildflowers?".

   Take me for instance. Georgia is ranked 23rd out of the 50 states for bicycle safety and accommodation. I would have truly ranked it much lower and I would hate to ride a mile in those other states. And Macon, the city I live in and do most of riding in, is ranked 375th out of 400 American cities with populations larger than 65,000 people for bike safety and accommodation. I get this ranking and also know why my former town of Dothan, Alabama didn't make the list. And on another list of the top 500 cities in America for bike commuting, only two cities in Georgia make the list as opposed to the 20+ cities in California that made the list.   

     And although, bike commuting does take a lot of physical and mental work and requires planning. It is more than worth it for reasons other than fitness and money, but for some that may be enough. And I know, that it is not for everyone and I don't expect that. My vocation allows for it and so I can do it. My commute is only about 4 miles as opposed to those who live 90 miles from work. I enjoy riding my bike for a multitude of reasons. When I ride to school 8-10 days out of the month, I usually save somewhere between $20-$40 and the wear and tear on my car with around town driving. I also get time to think about the day on the way and then rehash the day on my ride home. The blood flowing helps me wake up in the mornings and when I walk in, I am fully ready to dive into work as opposed to wishing I could just snag a few more minutes of sleep. I also enjoy the sights and sounds I get to see along the way and the people who talk to me as I ride or am stopped at a light. I feel I get to "hear, breathe, see, listen, and talk to the living city" as O'Henry once wrote about walking in NYC. However, all those previous items are great, but the best thing I enjoy about commuting is that there is this great and simple pleasure of sitting at work knowing I powered myself there and my body was the motor. And there is this happiness that comes with being apart of a machine that is almost irreducibly complex and hasn't ever really been improved upon over the last 100 years or so. It is as if you are riding in the way that those "wheelmen" once rode. I am somehow connected to them through a hundred years of time and space by peddling from place to place. A car ride never did that for me. 

     So you want to try commutting to work by bike, but just aren't sure how to get started. Well, here is a pretty good list for those of you who want to commute, but want to do it well because you rightly know that it involves more than just waking up one day, hoping on your trusty metal steed, and then making it to work. Here are the basics:

 1. Find and ride a very simple bike. This means a bike that you could work on if push came to shove and the shove found you on the side of the road and you just wanted to make it home. You do not have to buy the $15,000 Cervelo carbon racer in order to make it work. There are literally hundreds of great bikes sitting unused in the garages of family members that they'd happily trade for a Chili's gift card and you could easily put $30-$100 into them and have something that will do you perfectly. Racks, baskets, and fenders may seem foolish, but not when you are actually using them. And if someone laughs, especially if they are a guy, ask them how manly is it to sit in the A/C and on top of leather seats while your ride to work as opposed to powering yourself and your gear to work by your own two legs! 

2. Once you begin riding your bike to work, check it on a regular basis to make sure all the components are working so they'll be ready to work when they are needed. 

3. Plan your route wisely. What I mean by this is take several different ways to your job before you try it once on your bike and do this while you drive your car, but think while you are driving as if you were already riding your bike. How is the traffic? How well is the road paved? Is there room on the road's shoulder? When is traffic the busiest? Is there a road that runs parallel to the one you usually drive, but it is much less busy? How many inclines does your route have? Etc. 

4. Always pack the night before or at least plan in your head what you will need. This helps limit the easily found excuses when you are rushed in the morning as you are almost guaranteed to be. 

5. Only pack the necessities. This sounds like common sense, but do you really need all the clothes, toiletries, books and papers from the office to work on at night, are you going to use that whole bottle of shampoo when you shower, etc? Pack light. Pack smart. You are carrying or hauling all that you pack and that 10 lb. Earth Science book that you aren't going to have the time to look through just made that worst incline that is separating you and that hot woman and a sweet baby you are heading towards that much harder.  

6. Lock your bike or store it inside. I know some of you reading this will ask yourself if you are reading a post written by me, but I have changed. People will steal. They have from me. They don't care. Even "good" people will steal. Don't trust anyone 'cept your mama may be the phrase to go with on this one and some of your moms may steal too. 

7. Check the weather. Check the weather. Check the weather. And then do it again. You don't want to be riding your bike when it is 110 degrees in the shade. Trust me. Asphalt doesn't reflect the heat back. It soaks it up and sends it into the very depths of your being. You don't want to be caught in a torrential down pour and then have to wait it out or look like the biggest cheapskate alive when you ask someone for a ride by telling them you are saving money on gas by riding your bike this week, so could you just use their gas and money to get home. That doesn't fly. 

8. Put lights on the front and back of your bike. People will look at you coming and still pull out in front of you or cut you off in the broad open daylight and this danger increases exponentially when it gets a few shades darker outside. Ride as if everyone was Mr. Magoo. And get lights you know how to work and put them on full beam, not the blinking beam. People don't pay attention to blinking things. I know you think they do, but they don't. Just the other night, I was coming up to an intersection that a car was at and then flashed my light at them, they waved, and they still pulled out in front of me and I had to swerve to keep from getting hit. 

9. Wear regular clothes. Even though pretending to be a pro cyclist is far past fun, the truth is that we are not them. Trust me once again, I have pretended to be Lance and George H. more times than most of you would be comfortable with, but your or my morning commute is not the Tour. You can know that because I am riding and I wouldn't even last three miles on the Tour. Wear clothes you own and leave the LYCRA at home. Nobody needs to see that and if your body is like mine, you may not even want to see that. 

10. Obey the traffic laws. If you want to be respected and you want others to give you your share of the precious road, drive your mode of transportation like you are deserving of it. The person who just screamed at you while driving that huge Chevy Z71 doesn't share the road and has never read the biking laws and only knows the rules about whoever has the most toys still dies and YOLO. Only take up your section of the lane. Use hand signals. Stop at stop signs. Don't run yellow lights. Stop at stop lights. Basically just follow the rules. You want them to. Don't expect things from people you aren't willing to do. 

11. Wear a helmet. Yes, the messenger guys in Portland and NYC don't and neither do the crazy people in Florida during Bike Week, but you are not there. They also have skinny jeans, 27 piercings, and 100 tats. You don't. your other car is a Subaru and you are looking forward to going to Lowe's on Saturday. You work for an insurance company, a church, or even a little private school. You need your brain for everything. You can't over-protect it. You can't be too cautious with it. They don't do brain transplants at your local hospital. and if they did, you couldn't afford it and who knows who's brain you'd end up with. Maybe it would be that really smart guy who invented the scientific calculator, but ride like the only brain you'd get is that poor little beauty queen from South Carolina that was so big on YouTube for a while. Scary, right? Wear a helmet. 

The perfect passenger on a great bike. 

Enjoy your ride. Remember to laugh out loud and even feel a little sorry for those people stuck in their cars. Yes, you are sweaty and your thighs are burning, but you aren't stuck at that traffic light ahead because you can take a side street or cut across somewhere they can't take their Denali or BMW. And your ride home didn't cost you more than you'd spend at the local Sonic on a Route 44 and you didn't have to hit the gym because you got the cheese sticks too.  

Happy riding and happier reading, 

  David