We have a German student staying with us and today he and his group plan to bike our famous Green Circle. It is 26 miles in length, often through woods and fields and completely surrounds the town. The event has made me think about bicycling in my own life.
I must have had tricycles and I know I enjoyed using a scooter. I guess many people were as charmed and excited as I was by the scene in the movie "Back to the Future" when Michael Fox quickly makes a scooter into a skateboard and uses it to escape hooligans.
My first two-wheeler, a real BIcycle, was a somewhat garish contraption of several strong colors. It had a fake motor attached to the frame in front of the seat. I thought that feature was silly but I didn't care. I could ride a 2-wheel bike and I loved doing it.
I earned cycling merit badge in Scouts. I once biked quite a distance in an impromptu trip to give myself distance from a person I love but had a strong disagreement with. But my biggest biking adventure was a trip through parts of Luxembourg, Germany and Belgium. I was in my late 40's while most of the group were in their 20's. I would happily bike for 30 miles in a steady way while some of the more energetic riders would travel 100 miles ( roughly 160 kilometers). They were famished at the end of a day and vacuumed up food but still had energy for a vigorous swim.
Most bikes today have rim brakes that squeeze the edges of the tires to stop the bike but I grew up with coaster brakes. They were applied by pedaling backwards. Coasting gently through neighborhoods while smoothly controlling the energy of the bike was a solid pleasure and still is. I sometimes have trouble motivating myself to go on a bike ride since I read that I can burn about three times as many calories per minute walking briskly. But for quickly covering 1 to 8 or so miles, given good weather and not too much wind, it is hard to beat a bike. I have had a couple of bad spills and I have a respect for the distance from my head while on a bike to the pavement below. I decided I can bike if it is 55° or warmer so that means much of the year is no good for biking.
