My friend Skee

This is my friend Skee on the South County Bike Path somewhere near the White Horn Swamp in Kingston. Note the cool bag on the rear of the bike. Skee uses his bike both as a form of recreation and as a form of transportation to work. The bag is the perfect size for Skee to slip his briefcase in when he is on his way to work. If everyone rode their bike to work, imagine the benefits to the collective health of the nation, in increased cardiovascular health of the population and in reduced energy consumption and traffic congestion.

My Mom

This is my Mom, Robin. She was too scared too ride down this switchback on the South County Bike Path. It's actually a good idea to walk your bike at this point on the path due to the limited amount of room to maneuver and the steep incline, particularly if you're not that experienced a cyclist. Another basic rule in cycling is to never wear a hood - it cuts peripheral vision to zero and virtually deafens the rider (so that you can't hear cars or other cyclists). But my Mom never listens to me...

The Hangar

There are alot of bikes in the garage at my house. Space was getting to be a bit of a problem, there were bikes everywhere. It seemed like every time you needed to get something into or out of the garage, you had to move three or four bikes out of the way. So I got a bunch of bike hooks at the Ocean State Job Lot and hung all the bikes from some boards I put up in the overhead of the garage. I had to stop calling the garage the "stable" and change its nickname to the "hangar".

Logo

This is a cool tray that Eliza got me at the Johnnycake Center (a local thrift shop) for $2.00. The image is from a poster by Georges Massias from an 1895 French bicycle advertisement. I have decided to use this image as a logo for this blog because one of my nicknames is Gladiator. I believe this image ties together nicely the romanticism of cycling with my nickname.

Eliza

This is my friend Eliza re-fastening her bag to the rack on her Bianchi. We are on the Cape Cod Rail Trail somewhere between Orleans and Brewster. The Cape Cod Rail Trail is one of the best things about Cape Cod. One day last year I rode all the way from Brewster to Provincetown into a vicious headwind. It was one of the best rides of my life, and I plan to do it again this summer. Eliza works at Great Cape Herbs as an herbalist. This was her first time on the bike in awhile, and she remembered how great cycling is, and has been riding almost everyday since.

My Bikes - Rocinante

This bike was built from the frame up by John, mostly with parts he had been hoarding for a dream-project mountain bike. It is the most comfortable bike I have ever ridden, and it goes like the wind. I call it Rocinante after Don Quixote's horse, and it is a trusty steed indeed. I cannot wait to ride this bike on a major tour, possibly across the country if I can ever afford to do it. I have a Bob's trailer that I bought from Tim to go with this bike that I can carry all kinds of gear with. If I ever won powerball I'd leave tomorrow to ride it around the world.

My Bikes - the Green Machine

This I believe to be one of the best looking bikes I've ever seen. It is a custom built Gunnar frame that I bought from Mike Oster and tricked out with disk brakes. I use the bike in the woods, usually at Burlingame State Park and around the Great Swamp Management Area, and I hope to expand my off-road riding this summer. The bike feels great, is very responsive and handles extremely well. It is a single speed, which my friend Tim convinced me was the way to go. After riding geared mountain bikes for many years, I agree. There really is no need for the ridiculous amount of gears that bikes come with these days. It brings back alot of the joyous simplicity that riding bikes had as a little kid. Riding the Trackster convinced me that gears weren't needed on the street, and this bike proved that you don't need them in the woods either.