Why Ride?

Q: Why do I still ride a bike?

A: Because I want to.

One of the reasons I wanted to move downtown was to be able to ride my bike all over the place. Now its important to note that I have both a mountain bike and a city bike. My mountain bike has shock absorbers, was expensive and has more gears than I can count on my fingers. My city bike is a different story. My city bike is an all black 10-speed from the early eighties that I bought at Goodwill last fall for 12 bucks. I took the gears and shifters off first thing and then spent 30 or 40 dollars "fixing it up". It's perfect for the city: it's cheap, light and in some areas of town faster than traffic.

I took the picture on the top of the page on a midnight bike ride last summer from the top of an unnamed parking structure. It somehow captures the feeling of experiencing the city on a bike.

Different modes of transportation make the city feel completely different: On my bike I feel connected to the city, like I'm a part of it. In my car I'm usually just looking for parking. Last week when I was given the keys to an oversized SUV to get it washed I couldn't believe how disconnected I felt from everything. I felt like those guys you see traveling to the bottom of the ocean in those little glass bubbles, observing but not being a part of it. I could see the resentment on the faces of strangers on the sidewalks. The grid of streets stopped being a thing in and of itself and became nothing more than a way to connect to a destination. I wasn't in the city anymore, I was in a self-contained environment on wheels, I could have been anywhere.

I just don't see any reason to bring 3 tons of metal with me everywhere I go. I still drive because of necessity, but biking is where I want to be - its how I want to experience the world around me. There's other reasons for riding a bike, too:
-I don't have to spend all my money on gas
-No more parking tickets, in fact the money I've saved by not getting parking tickets has more than payed for my bike
-I get daily exercise which makes me a healthier and happier person
-I'm living a more efficient lifestyle, I'm not creating as much waste and I'm not polluting the air that I breathe

In the spirit of keeping the blog all multimedia and what not, here's some footage of a New York bike messenger race.