philosophical (bike) wax

biking is cool because it could change the world.

do you remember when you were a kid, you used to play soccer and ride bike around the neighborhood? it was a lot of fun, wasn't it? now we drive cars, which is what we must do because of our need for efficient and comfortable transportation. we got to go to work, take kids to school, hauling shit around... i mean how are my parents gonna haul a 20 lbs sack of onions + 5 gallons of spaghetti sauce + 4 gallons of milk + 50 rolls of toilet paper + free food samples from costco...on a bike...in the rain? so yes, motorized, covered instrument of transportation is good, folks. it's technology, it's progress. not like tivo, it's technology but a regress.

what i'm saying here is that we depend so much on motorized vehicles to move around, we forget how good it feels to use our feet, how it makes us feel good mentally and physically. even worse, we start thinking that we CAN'T do it. we start thinking we can't run around green lake. we start thinking riding bike around is too dangerous, too strenuous and too...impossible. the car culture makes us think so. it certainly made me thought so...for good reasons. i meant once a while you read on the newspapers a bicyclist got hit or got spit on. interestingly that very few bicyclists ever ride drunk nor have road rage...why? maybe bicyclist are often scared shitless of being hit, often very carefully when riding...or we are just all-around nice people. that's another topic for my wax later. coming back to the reasons a non-bicyclist would think it's impossible to ride bike. well, it has a lot to do with the way we design road nowadays, the way the federal and state's transportation priorities are so out of whack nowadays that we keep building more roads, make them narrower, make space for car parking but no space for bicycles. consequently, there is no safe real estate to ride bike to work or to go shopping. it's not that people haven't thought about how nice it would be to be able to do it. they just think it's not safe to do it. umm...if it's not safe then what should we do? we just do it. ride it! ride that bike! show our city government, state officials that bicycling is a legit mode of transportation that makes sense. it's healthy and cheap. it would save the public money in gas, in maintenance, doctor's visits... the more we ride our bikes around, the more exposure biking gets, the more reasons for the gov't to throw our way some bike lanes or at least shared lanes. funny that i say these things. i'm a city gov't official and a bicyclist. so trust me, folks. it would work :).

anyway, why would bicycling change the world? it's healthy exercise that doesn't hurt the knees or ankles so anyone can do it regardless of age or physical conditions. a while ago, a frenchman invented the derailleur - this groundbreaking invention changed bicycling as we know it. it allows anyone to ride up that steep hills in their neighborhood. very cool. i think the most important reason is that it allows people to realize they can do anything they can conceive in their mind. biking has that kind of meditative, trans-formative power. whoa, whoa...easy there big guy! isn't that a big fking exaggeration? not a bit. it's hard to explain. you have to experience it yourself. after going on a few long rides and start liking them, you would feel like you are a changed person. it happened to me. i think clearer. i become more motivated. i become more kind. i became a changed me. how's about a changed you? and everyone would be better because of a "changed we". the world would! ....whoa, that's deep, dude!

give it a try.