Bicycle Samurai?

Posted on April 15, 2008
Filed Under benefits of bike exercise | Leave a Comment

Almost everyone knows the benefits of bike riding. But I’ve been thinking about the similarities between biking and various martial arts.

Both are essentially practical survival skills that benefit your health and physical fitness as a “side effect,” (Although for many people this side effect is the main reason to take up the art.)

If you get into it at all, it can become a lifestyle with social, mental, philosophical and spiritual dimensions. The experts incorporate daily rituals that include stretching and breathing, possibly visualization, and eventually dedication to the care and maintenance of your equipment. (For the bike Samurai, your bike is your sword).

Could this evolve into the richness of a martial art? Are there certain qualifications to be considered a master? What do you have to do to become a bike blackbelt? Who are the different, rival schools? (Think Karate vs. Kung Fu, Mountain Bikers vs. Roadies or Commuters vs. Messengers.)

At what point does a “sport” become an art, or a way of life? Are we there yet?

Biking in Italy–the sad truth and the happy implications

Posted on March 30, 2008
Filed Under touring Italy by bicycle, Tour de California | 4 Comments

OK, this has bummed me out as much as it has a lot of you. After looking at the euro vs. dollar exchange rates, seeing how much touring Italy by bicycle is going to cost right now, and considering some interesting and exciting business prospects I have right now despite the general economic doom and gloom, I’ve decided to postpone this trip for at least a year.

If you still want to go, drop me a line and I can give you a lot of advice from personal experience touring southern Italy and Rome, especially. And there’s more.

If you’re not from the United States, this is a great time to visit our country. Everything will be unusually cheap, and the people will be really nice to you. I’ll be blatant. We need your tourist euros and other currency.

I shouldn’t have to say this, but if you’re in the USA and facing financial hardships, your bike can be a fun and healthy way to stay out of the mess. It’s much cheaper to buy, power, and maintain a bike than a car, and it’s a great way to cut corners, especially if it doubles as your workout.

Speaking of workouts, I’m going to be posting a lot more in the future about the benefits of bike exercise, and also a total body workout to keep your arms, shoulders, and core up to par with your legs and cardio, which are probably already rock solid if you’re biking even moderately.

I also have a surprise this coming summer that should be a huge benefit to travelers anywhere in the world, whether or not you travel by bicycle. So keep in touch.

As I post this, oil is $100 a barrel. Gasoline is still half what it costs in Italy, probably because of some irrational taxation/subsidy patterns on both sides of the globe. We’re living in interesting times, and that can seem like a curse but often be a blessing.

I’m just months away from my 40th birthday, and I had planned to bicycle around the Mediterranean sea as a present to myself. Now it looks like I’ll have to put it off for a few years but it’s not over yet. If I keep in shape I could probably still do it when I’m 50, and I don’t give up.

Don’t you give up either. Your bicycle can be cure for so many problems that plague the world today–global warming, pollution, peak oil, economic excess, poverty, even a lot of health problems and crisis.

I long for easier, happier days, such as, for example, the way things were ten years ago. But we cannot choose the times we live in. As Gandalf said, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

Enjoy these big hills that can only lead to easier times in the future. Ride swift and free, and remember it’s all about the journey. In fact, you don’t even know the final destination.

More bike accidents or just more bikers?

Posted on March 6, 2008
Filed Under bicycle commuting | Leave a Comment

There was an article in the L.A. Times a few months ago where they stated that the number of cyclists killed by motorists had doubled from 2005-2006.

Bad news, but the reason might not be as grim as you think. Apparently the number of bicycles sold also doubled during the same period of time. If there are twice as many of us out there, and everything else stays the same, then the death rate would also double.

There are more and more people riding bikes. Me and my girlfriend even went to a club on our bikes last night.

Drivers, please be careful.

A quick bike tip

Posted on February 25, 2008
Filed Under beginner training for bicycle riders | Leave a Comment

You have to eat. When you’re at the end of a hard bike ride (or sometime in the middle of a long one), you’ll recover faster if you give your muscles some protein and glycogen to work with. A boost of antioxidants can’t hurt, either.

A lot of nutrition companies have gotten rich selling sweet and milky “recovery drinks” that are designed to give you exactly these things. The trouble is they all taste like malted baby formula. Luckily, you’ve got alternatives.

The real quick fix is a bowl of cereal with skim milk. This gives you the right balance of amino acids and carbs, and the cereal is probably vitamin fortified.

Better still (and my personal favorite when I’m really at the end), eat a big fat burrito with a pint of beer. Just as long as it’s good beer. None of that watery Coors shit.

Buon appetito!

Bicycling around Rome with a new tech toy

Posted on February 7, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Rome has a new experimental system that combines GPS and the internet to bring walkers a whole mess of useful data in your cell phone: models of traffic, crowds, and even hot spots where a lot of people are gathering.

You can find out where the crowds are, and decide if you want to be where the action is, or whether you want to get as far away as possible. Not only will you be able to find the bus stop, you’ll know when the next bus is coming and whether it’s likely to be crowded or not.

This device is meant for drivers and walkers, but why not bikers too? Decide for yourself:

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/11/27/mobile_mapping/

Some interesting bicycle facts

Posted on January 15, 2008
Filed Under beginner training for bicycle riders, benefits of bike exercise, bicycle commuting | Leave a Comment

The energy in a slice of pizza is enough to move an automobile 100 feet. That same pizza slice will take you 3 1/2 miles if you’re walking, or 10 miles if you’re riding a bike. Special thanks to Transportation Alternatives (link)

Also, according to the late Ken Kifer of www.KenKifer.com, the total cost to you and to society of traveling one mile by car or by bike comes out to 93.8 cents for a driver, but only 12.8 cents for biking.

How do you ride your bike in the rain?

Posted on December 18, 2007
Filed Under bicycle commuting | Leave a Comment

The LA Bike Coalition jokes that the moisture is good for your skin. Maybe. The spray of road muck is bad for your clothes. But either way, if you get around on your bike as serious transportation, you’ll feel like a hero when you ride in the rain.

All of the obvious tips are valid. Be careful, be visible, get a lid for your coffee. But everyone has a few specific things they do to get where they’re going safe and mostly dry. What about you?

I pretend I’m in a Disney parade, and wear lots of bright shiny stuff with reflectors and blinking lights. Going along with the parade theme, I usually stop traffic, or at least slow it down. If they’re honking and yelling at me, I know they can see me.

I got my trusty Cat’s Eye OptiCube and whatever the blinking red equivalent is, and a change of dry clothes rolled up in a plastic bag inside my waterproof panniers. I got to this morning’s appointment looking like a disgruntled CalTrans worker, but after a quick change in the restroom I morphed into a confident professional.

The entire effort added about 8 minutes to my travel time.

What do you do to make the most of a rainy bike ride?

You’ll ride your bike more often if you just do this one thing.

Posted on December 11, 2007
Filed Under beginner training for bicycle riders, benefits of bike exercise | Leave a Comment

It’s easy to go for a bike ride when you’re bright-eyed and frisky, the weather’s perfect and it’s the beginning of a long weekend with no urgent chores or immediate plans.

For the rest of the time, try this.

Just ride for ten minutes. Anywhere. This will get you warmed up, and it makes it easy to get in the habit of riding your bicycle a few times a week. No matter how tired you are, or how cold it is, even if it’s raining, you can handle ten minutes.

And the benefits of bike exercise, even for just ten minutes, are incredible. Research shows that a 10-minute bike ride can lift your mood. It’s long enough to flood your system with endorphins that relieve pain and can give you a natural high that has been documented.

If you happen to be really busy, you can still take a 10-minute bike break. Come on. I guarantee the rest of your day or evening will be a lot happier and more productive.

Over time this ten-minute ride can really tone you up. If you’re biking to lose weight or lower your blood pressure, these baby steps will help you right away, and they’ll psyche you up for longer rides. Pretty soon you’ll be ready to ride you bike to work, do a long distance bike tour, or even tour southern Italy on a bike.

If you have time to read this, you’ve got time to go on a 10-minute bike ride. Seriously. Go for it.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, and any health claims about the benefits of biking, bicycle fitness, or the amount of calories burned while biking have not been evaluated by a competent medical authority. You should consult with a physician before going on bike rides. Also be sure to obey all local traffic laws, unless you’re really feeling ballsy, you’re riding a fixed gear, or you work as a bike messenger. Don’t drink and bike. Always wear a SNELL-approved helmet. You’re probably going to die anyway, so don’t sue me. I warned you.

Touring Italy by bicycle in the age of the Euro

Posted on November 26, 2007
Filed Under touring Italy by bicycle | Leave a Comment

If you’re Canadian, British, Australian or from any English-speaking county other than the United States you can probably ignore this post.

But if you’re from the USA, and you want to tour Italy by bicycle, you may be worried about how much (or how little) your dollars will buy when you exchange them for euros.

Good news. When it comes to bike touring, you’re in a separate category of travel. Here’s why.

Bike touring is inherently cheaper than most other kinds of travel. You spend more time in small towns where things are less expensive, and you have more options because of your mobility (think of the typical backpacker who has to rely on bus and train schedules).

I would add that bike tours tend to involve more camping, but the truth is you really might want to stay in hotels and eat in restaurants. Good news here, too.

You see, in the late 1990s a lot of new tour operations opened up in Italy with the intention of serving middle class Americans made rich by the dotcom bubble. The dollar was strong, flights were cheap and convenient in the pre-9/11 era, and middle class tourists swarmed to Italy. (I was a tour manager in Rome, and it was possibly the best time ever to be an American living abroad.)

Now those hotels, restaurants, pensioni and other services are struggling for new and different clientele. When you show up there, you are a rare and welcome guest. You can’t expect the prices to be lower, but you’ll get a lot of bang for your buck.

Italians don’t treat you like a customer, but a guest. On recent bike tours in Italy I’ve been invited to dinner, taken on tours of small Italian villages, and offered lots of amenities for what was only a slightly pricey hotel room.

And this is part of the joy of bike riding on tour. You get all kinds of unexpected gifts and surprises from the locals.

Food also gives you a new level of class when you tour Italy by bicycle. You may not be able to eat in a Euro-grade restaurant on a dollar budget, but you can get fine bread and cheese from a deli, and then take it somewhere exotic with your bike.

Sit up on a wall or in the courtyard of a castle while you feast on wine, cold cuts, cheese and grilled eggplant doused in olive oil. Have a picnic in a green field dotted with wild flowers, as you lean against a crumbling aqueduct. I’ve done this, and I’ll do it again soon. No matter what the exchange rate happens to be.

If anything, this might be the best time for touring Italy by bicycle if you’re creative and adventurous. And you are, or you wouldn’t be thinking about this trip, would you?

The bicycle touring class

Posted on September 19, 2007
Filed Under touring Italy by bicycle | 1 Comment

I just got back a few days ago from a class put out by the Adventure Cycling Association–on how to “lead” a bike tour.

The takeaways are pretty well in line with what I’m planning for the bike tour in Italy this coming spring:

You don’t really lead as much as you provide support and guidance so everyone can find their way home at night and have a good meal waiting for them. I promise I’ll do at least this for you if you want to tour Italy by bicycle.

The Adventure Cycling Association’s philosophy really fits in well with my own concept of what a bike tour should be. You have a lot of fun and see some cool places, but that’s almost window dressing compared to the experience and personal growth that happens on a good bicycle tour.

I got an incredibly positive evaluation from the course instructor, who said he’s going to recommend me as a tour leader for Adventure Cycling. So if you want to bike through southern Italy with me, you know you’re in good hands–verified by an independent third party.

We’re going to push the limits when we bike the via Appia. You’re going to learn and grow in all kinds of incredible ways. You’ll learn a lot about Italy, but you’ll learn even more about yourself. And did I mention–we’re going to really have fun!

If you want to find out more about touring Italy by bicycle, click here or leave a comment.

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