I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it before, but just in case I haven’t: I do not commute by bike during the hot summer months in Phoenix, Arizona. The reason is simple: I don’t need to complicate life for either the Phoenix Fire Department EMTs or myself. With nightly temperatures sometimes still above 100°F at 10:00…
Follow your passions, the self-help gurus said. So I followed my passion for cycling to Alaska. I may not be the fastest or the skinniest guy on a bike, and I’m certainly not the richest. But where other people pay to ride, spending their hard-earned dollars on entry fees and bib shorts and bike vacations,…
In an ideal world, every school commute could be done on a bike path and every grocery store would be on a road with a protected bike lane. In reality, most of us who bike with our children have to share roads with cars. Despite our best efforts to choose the safest routes, eventually, we…
I’m a bona fide nerd. I even have the credentials to prove it: a first edition Netware CNE (Certified Novell Engineer) certificate and a Windows NT MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) certificate. In case you don’t know, this means I am not only a Nerd, but am truly an Old Blood Geek. The further proof…
Bicycling is the opposite of quitting. Biking requires tenacity. Biking rewards tenacity. But there are times when too much tenacity can lead us astray. Bicycling necessitates putting one foot in front of the other ceaselessly. Bicycling teaches that suffering is rewarded. Every descent is earned with a climb. I’ve never quit a ride. Every century and…
School is out, the weather is warming up, and it is time to start racking up some miles. While you might be training for your next century ride or singletrack epic, make sure you’re including the kids on some of your rides too. Unlike adults, most kids aren’t interested in racking up the miles for…
In my last post, I groused about bike lanes that I thought were done poorly; that were actually, in some situations, dangerous to the folks who are supposed to use them. I thought it was only fair to bring attention to some bike lanes in Phoenix which I think are done well. My home town…
What happens when you finally arrive? For decades I’ve been trying to get more people onto bikes in my adopted hometown of Norfolk, Virginia. I’ve tried appealing to their motivation; reminding them that they say that want to ride more. I’ve tried to create more opportunities for folks to bike by working with my local…
The first time I biked across the Golden Gate Bridge, I was still in my mom’s belly. Six months pregnant, my mom made the trek from San Francisco to Tiburon by way of that iconic orange spanway. At least that’s what she told me when I balked at biking the 22-mile route with my son…
FACT: Maricopa County, Arizona, where I call home, is the fastest growing county in the United States. That is not me talking, that is the U.S. Census Bureau. The data says we add an average of 222 people every day. FACT: Arizona has the highest rate of pedestrian deaths in the nation. Again, that ain’t…
Like the wheels on a bike, the wheels of justice go round and round. Life, like biking, is about do-overs. It’s about learning from your mistakes. Last month a young man made the mistake of stealing my Sport Utility Bike in plain sight of a police officer, who promptly arrested him. When the arresting officer…
Figuring out how to bike with young kids off-road is tricky. Even if they are old enough to ride their own bike, it takes a long time before they have the endurance or skill to ride long distances or up larger hills. Most trailers and bike seats are designed for riding on paved bike paths…
I remember the first “portable computer” I had. It was called, appropriately enough, the Compaq Portable. In the vernacular of us computer geeks of the time it was referred to as a “luggable.” It was the size of a portable sewing machine. You laid the thing on its side, unsnapped the keyboard from the bottom…
My bike was just there. And now it’s gone. I’d been leaning “The Beast” up against the window at Jimmy John’s for a year. For the first few months that I worked there, I was really paranoid about locking it up every time I got back from a delivery. But I noticed that the other…
For many of us, childhood camping trips are some of our fondest memories. Remember the s’mores and campfires, the old tent that leaked, and lazy afternoons reading in a hammock? Kids tend to gravitate toward camping in a way that adults can’t recreate. They understand the power of dirt, and rocks, and sticks–things that can…
I’ve been seeing a few Limebike and Ofo bicycles parked around my neighborhood lately. For those who are not familiar with these brightly colored rides, Limebike and Ofo are the two most prevalent dockless bicycle-sharing systems. The two systems work similarly: you download an app to your smartphone, insert the information for a credit or…
We ride at night. We ride with our lights and helmets on. We ride tight together. One wheel paces the next. We call the bumps, the potholes, the traffic lights. We ride together, trusting each other half an arm’s length away. We move as a single, sinuous snake, gliding around turns and over bridges. We…
If your idea of a good family vacation includes more mountaintops than Disney rides, you might want to consider a cycling vacation. Just because you have kids doesn’t mean you have to plan vacations around playgrounds (although those are nice to have also). In fact, picking a great place to bike can make for a…
In my previous post, I explained why I think the best place to get a ride is a local bike shop (LBS) where you have a one-on-one relationship with a knowledgeable, accommodating vendor. I also said I didn’t think an LBS was the only place to get everything bike related, and we’ll talk about that…
I want a bike that will do it all. I want a Sport Utility Bike. I want a bike that’s comfortable enough to ride all day, sturdy enough to haul an overnight sack, big enough to fit a guy over six foot tall, and reliable enough to go months between tune-ups. I’ve ridden full-suspension mountain…
The most striking difference between any U.S. city and those in nations with a thriving bike culture are the number of families on bikes. Visit Seattle or Salt Lake or St. Louis and you’re likely to see a bike share program, a dude track-standing in the intersection, a rack full of fixies. What you’re less…
As the weather turns cold and winter arrives, many cycling tourists will pack away their panniers and hang up the bike, pining for warmer weather and scheming up their next big bicycle getaway. The snow has come early this year for a large swath of the US, including a rare storm that brought a bit…
Whenever you start to talk about the “best bike” for anything, you’re venturing into monumentally subjective territory. For commuting in Phoenix, Arizona, the best bike for me is my long wheelbase recumbent. The combination of the flat terrain, warm weather throughout most of the year, and the laidback, comfortable riding position in the chaise lounge…
This Thanksgiving, I gave thanks for the bicycle. And this gratitude was all the more prominent in my mind since I don’t own a car anymore. It’s not an easy path to pedal. I sold my car before relocating to the other coast for a seasonal job as a bicycle tour guide. Sure, it was…
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