Bygone Bicyclist

I often get “why do you ride?” type questions. Obviously when riding an ordinary, the reasons may be a little bit different. On top of the reasons I cycle in general, I ride an ordinary for the direct, first hand, positive energy and attitude it *forces* people to have. Life is so negative, and any way to reach a large number of people in a positive way is a rarity. On top of making people smile, hopefully have a better day and being enjoyable myself, I have a deep love for bikes in general, and it goes all the way back to early cycling – why leave that out?

I was recently reading Dave Moulton’s blog and came across his article “Please don’t make the bicycle a political issue“. I feel anyone and everyone can take away something positive about cycle riding from this simple, 500 word blog post.

I hate that the bicycle is made out to be something political. I have stated here before, if automobiles ran on pixie dust and had zero carbon emissions, I would still ride a bicycle. I am a cyclist, and riding a bicycle is a love and a passion.

Forget the burning of fossil fuel for a moment, even if we overcome that issue; the bicycle is still a more civilized form of transport. It eases congestion; one person on a bike is taking far less space on the road than one person in a car who is taking up the space of four to six people.

It is less dangerous to other road users, and more bicycles on the road, with the resulting less cars would make it safer for everyone. It is a wonderful form of exercise, and it is fun. When is driving a car fun?

These are the real benefits of cycling. Riding a bicycle to ease the dependency on foreign oil is not what the majority of Americans want to hear. If we think, everyone in the US is going to dump their cars overnight and start riding a bike, either to save the planet or save America, think again. It is not going to happen.

Sell the idea that cycling is fun, and it is good for you, not keep cramming the green, environmentally friendly idea down people’s throats. All that does is it makes people feel guilty, and that makes them angry and sends them off on an anti-cycling rant like Representative Patrick McHenry.

http://davesbikeblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/please-dont-make-bicycle-political.html

If you like bikes, and I certainly do, you will probably enjoy these two videos taken by my good friend Alexander Hongo. I had intended to leave Eugene yesterday, so I packed my panniers and got them on the bike. Turns out, I was sick when I woke up, so I stayed another day. Here is some footage of me riding through Eugene on my Kennedy, fully loaded. One features coasting on an ordinary cycle, the other has me pedaling at 20 miles per hour with ~30 pounds of gear (fully loaded). Enjoy!

So the vibe in town the last week has been crazy positive. Eugene is already incredibly friendly to cyclist, but this week is different. Yesterday (Saturday, May 8 ) dated the Bicycle Music Festival here in Eugene, where all the music was powered by bicycle power. The entire week has been a mad house of strange bicycles, working on and improvising said bicycles (including mine) and in general an enjoyable aura. Riding an ordinary already makes for happy onlookers, but when people actually have an interest in said oddities, it makes it even more grand. My spokes should get here early in the week, and then northbound I am. We’ll see how the cycle is standing up by the time I hit the border and go from there. I may need to make some provisions to the trip if I am still having spoke issues, but we are hoping to solve those problems this week before I leave. Below are some photos, as normal. Also per norm, if you wish to see more, or purchase prints, click “Photo Gallery“! Thank you.

Nothing special, but here are some random clips of my trip. The Ave of the Giants one is specifically long and boring, so sorry for that. I also apologize for the blandness of the videos, but I have little time on a proper computer for editing and other fun things, so they are straight from the camera (as are the pictures I post).

Actually, at this point it’s mostly less than two months.

My original plan was to leave the Continental US around the first week of May. However, I might have to leave a week or two sooner – time will tell. The most important thing part of when I leave is allowing myself enough time to reach as far north as I wish for by June. If I don’t allow for enough time, I’ll risk potential snowy/cold times as I venture back south.

Hectic is the best word to explain my status. Not a moment of my current life isn’t busy with something. Being the person that I am, and valuing quality over speed, cost and quantity, I’ve spent incredible amounts of time researching gear for this trip. I wanted to purchase one, and have it last, and I think I’ve done a superb job thus far. Because of this, I’m going to start a sort of ‘gear review’ section of this site. When I say I’ve spent ample amounts of time doing this research, I mean countless hours across multiple weeks have gone into deciding each and every item. Of what has arrived, I’m overly pleased with, and I have no doubts about their further pleasure and strength. There’s something to be said for quality. [Thomas] Stevens rode ~13,000 miles on the same ordinary cycle he left home on, and only had mechanical issues *ONCE* on his whole trip around the world (that took nearly three years). The one time he did have that mechanical problem is most likely due to the abuse / lack of care by some foreign officials. With the technology we have today, don’t you think we deserve things that could last us a lifetime. I know I’m sick and tired of material objects with a half life (which happens to be often months, rather than years or decades).

The bulk of my purchasing is done, although I do need to find a few more things to finish up my fashions. Just this week I came to the idea of how to modernize my saddle, allowing a modern saddle be easily installed or removed if necessary. I’ve had to go against my initial plan for baggage and resort to a more modern approach; panniers are on their way (and will be attached at the spine). I still would love to have a ‘large’ MIP bag (Multum in Parvo – much in little), but with time constraints and lack of venues for getting one, I’ll have to wait on that. After the baggage and saddle work, I have to reinvent the wheel with the help of some local Wheelmen, and then I believe I am mechanically sound for the trip. One of my final tasks is to finalize a mapped plan, including rations for the “end-goal” (including the purchase of said rations). The one part of the trip that worries me is that ‘last’ (I quote it because it’s more like the middle, as I have to head back afterward). Food and travel will be tight, but I have no doubts about being able to pull it off.

Today with the help of the brilliant father of mine, I fashioned a new seat post, of sorts, for the ordinary. This allows me to mount a modern day saddle to the wheel (something I slightly worried over considering the possible extent of such a trip). One forgets what happens to leather over 40 years, but is quickly reminded when using a brand new leather saddle – one’s posterior reminds you have such things though. After finishing the mount and getting it dialed in (and riding it a nice 5 mile jaunt), I disassembled the machine. I’ve been worried for some time about the missing paint and wears, and I’m taking it to our plater tomorrow to see if it can get a new jacket of nickel within a 2-3 week window. After that, the pannier brackets and rebuilding the wheels are all that remain.