Biking

I've been in the market for a new bike. No, not a motorcycle, but an old fashioned powered-by-caffeine bicycle that requires the circular motion of your legs to keep the spinning bits going round and round.

I've had a good street racing type bike for years, but now I wanted something a bit more... manly! Something I could be attached to as I hurl myself off jumps, down slopes steeper than a slide at a kids park, and trails that a only a psycho maniac would create. Maybe it's a fatalism in the philosophical part of my mind convincing me that any actions I take are only following a predetermined, inevitable outcome that I was destined to experience? Ah hell, it's mid-life and I know it!

One thing I learned from my time in various parts of Europe is that biking is far more acceptable there than it is in the United States. Amsterdam is a bike friendly place. Los Angeles is not! I've found most drivers in US cities consider bikes to be an inconvenience. They are considered obstacles to speed around, or targets even. It's funny to consider but the bicycle is really only about 20 years older than the airplane, yet it's considered by many to be a dinosaur form of transportation.

Portland, Oregon has a map showing biking routes in the city!

The only two US cities than I've enjoyed biking around are San Francisco and Portland. Some cities, like Vancouver and Montreal (Canada) even have designated bike lanes. That is sure to piss off a few drivers as they chat on their mobile phones and sip their starbucks in a traffic jam as bikes pass them.

Now I'm off to discover the extremes of biking. No more paved roads or soft gravel trails for me. The true outdoors of off-road biking is what I'm after. Here is a funny blog article about an extreme biking experience!