Cycling Articles write an article

A couple of years ago, my husband and I led a tandem bicycle tour in and around Hillsboro and North Plains, Oregon.  The ride took place on March 17th, St. Patty's Day, so we encouraged...

Orginally  submitted to National Geographic Magazine, January 2009
 
A Bicycle Bump You let the reader to assume that being rear ended on a bicycle is common and worthy enough to stop cycling.  It is a myth that the most common bike-car crash is being hit from the rear. This is known as "fear from the rear".  Several studies show that over ninety-five out of 100 crashes are caused by things coming towards you in front  or sides.  The well trained bicyclist using "Effective Cycling" techniques knows this and focuses on what coming up in front, with awareness of what's behind.  Those cyclists have an accident rate of about 80% less than others.  You didn't mention cycling education.  In its most basic form is the learning of new behaviors and with adults the unlearning of outdated and harmful habits.  Unfortunately, eliminating bad habits is the most difficult to do and comes mostly with education followed by repetition and coaching over many weeks.  The alternative is to learn through trial and error which takes years to achieve and guarantees painful lessons through crashing and falling.  There is only one cyclist...

 
Well, the grass is greener and the weather is certainly warming up. I, for one, am grateful for Spring finally getting here! I've been antsy to get outdoors and mountain bike, hike, and do all the things that I love outdoors.
 
I did go for a mountain bike ride last night with Team BOB (Babes on Bikes). What a fun ride and a great group of ladies! Our particular group rode the Blue Sky trail to...

Originally published in ffbc.org newsletter June 2009
 
Earlier this year there was a string of cycling accidents reported in the Fremont Argus newspaper.  It certainly caught my eye because of the number of accidents.  On January 29, a senior citizen was cycling in a crosswalk in Walnut Creek and involved in a hit and run accident.  With the help of a good Samaritan the police was able to catch a 67 year old woman driving away and evading capture.March 6, a women cyclist in Fremont rear-ended a parked truck that just happened to be covered by a swarm of honeybees.  Nobody was stung, and she was taken by ambulance to Eden Medical Center.Also on March 6, on Alvarado Niles on the 880 overpass was hit by a car at the highway on-ramp.  This cyclist received major injuries.On March 12, at 37 year old cyclist was hit westbound on Winton Avenue on the 880 overpass.  This person was on life support.  The police sergeant was quoted saying the bicyclist was riding on the shoulder, "which he is entitled to do".  I never found out if this cyclist lived or died.I tried to understand what was really happened in these accidents, and with the news you can't make heads or tails out of it.  So let me make a few guesses on my own and leave it to you to see...

Originally published December 12, 2008 in the Fremont Argus Newspaper
 
I read with interest your article, Memorial Ride, Argus December 12, 2008 and offer my comments.  There is no shortage of faulty bicycle facilities due mostly to lack of bicycle transportation engineering knowledge and direct cycling experience by the designers of these facilities.  You and I pay for these inadequately designed systems in the form of deaths, injuries, delays getting to your destination, higher emergency service expense, higher medical insurance premiums, and lost wages.  The big problem is that the best solutions are counterintuitive and contrary to what many of us are taught.Cycling education in its most basic form is the learning of new behaviors and with adults the unlearning of outdated and harmful habits.  Unfortunately, eliminating bad habits is the most difficult to do and comes mostly with education followed by repetition and coaching over many weeks.  The alternative is to learn through trial and error which takes years to achieve and guarantees painful lessons...

I've had a passion for bicycles ever since I was a little kid learned how to work on bikes by ripping a bike apart and then putting them back together but I want to learn a lot more in how to fine tune a bike since the newer age of bikes have been released there's a lot more to learn and figure out....

Originally published in Castro Valley Forum, January 30, 2010
You've probably noticed a greater number cyclists on the roadways these days.  There is a reason for that.  It's enjoyable, and the right thing to do for your health and a warming planet.  Somewhere, sometime between being a kid and growing up and working, a lot of people have forgotten how much fun cycling is.  It's more satisfying when you are able to use the bike to accomplish a task such as going shopping.  The next step is to keep doing it.Another sight you might have noticed are cyclists in outfits riding in a group.  Group riding is a lot of fun and a way to make new friends.  At one time all of these gals and guys were beginners.  It turns out these cyclists are what's left of all the other people who tried and couldn't stay with the pack.  I say this literally and figuratively.  These individuals are the ones who had the athletic ability, right equipment, got the right coaching and encouragement, and received enough enjoyment to come back to do another ride.  In a way, many of them were in the...

Athletics is entirely mental. Every season of cycling has further reinforced this notion for me. I have also, throughout the years, found out the golden race ratio: for every one time you succeed in racing, there are fifty times you either mess up or get screwed over. To be able to survive the mental damage these odds inflict you must intentionally strengthen your perceptive and meticulously analyze your expectations.********************Let me speak in concrete terms: two weekend ago in Portland I raced the Alpenrose Challenge, which is a premier National 3-day Track Race poised on the steep and bumpy concrete walls of the aging Alpenrose velodrome. Throughout the course of the three day event the temperatures persistently rose to the high nineties. The relentless heat reflected off the white track heightened the intensity of the event, creating an atmosphere of survival and restlessness. Friday morning I was running late. The pursuit, which is an individual time trail event for 4 kilometers, began at 10pm. I arrived at 1030pm, a half an hour fashionably late, due to a lapse in foresight about the pace my forty-year-old pick-up could maintain on the highway. Luckily, the race directors knew me well and allowed me to register late and slotted me in last to go. This meant I had to get ready and warmed up in about 40 minutes, about 2 hours less than I would comfortably have liked. Over the past six months my training has been sporadic. College loans and the necessity of having a consistent income has put a damper on the nomadic freedom of an elite bike racer. The inconsistency in income most domestic "pro racers" have--which consist mostly of prize money, even for riders on established pro teams--was not going to cut it when it came to paying off my fru-fru humanitarian degrees. Because of this inconsistency in training, and lack of time and money to race, I have had to shift my perspective on training. If I were to try and train as much as I did when I was racing full time, then I would end up a complete stressed out mess. So, to avoid this, I decided that my training would be purely for fun, and I would do it only when I felt like it. This alleviation of pressure allowed me to actually train more, since it was more of a hobby as opposed to 'homework.' But, the lack of training regiment does have its downfalls: security. I had no idea what type of shape I was in. Over the years I have dominated the...