Moneybag Seine

Unworthy of bandwidth and cloudspace (...and what within this blog ever was?), always wanted to delineate personal ritual that precedes every cycling session. Drink a full cup of water with maybe a splash of fruit juice, because hydration is crucial to cycling performance and heart function. Ready, relieve and stretch self. Ever try to find a restroom? Freud was right; Americans cringe before anal retentive anxieties evidenced by lack of public toilets. Inventory bindle (cash, cell, CO2 cartridges, keys, levers, tools) and stow in handlebar bag. Always press sidewall of tires to check pressure, or peremptorily pump up to specified psi. Inspect spokes and spin both wheels to ensure not rubbing and tightly locked on. Check that cleats are tightly fastened to shoes while putting them on; flatten lace flaps across foot so not lumped up; pull socks fully on so not bunched at toes. Likewise, settle pad in shorts across crotch, since anything out of place causes pain. Properly fit helmet because adjustor slips, conditions vary, hair grows, and straps stretch. Don gloves and M-frame glasses and swing attached rear view mirror into position for safety sake. Sunscreen? Depends upon daylight intensity and time of departure, but would rather avoid. Blocks benefits of soaking up Vitamin D and stings eyes when forehead sweats, though sunburns on earlobes, neck and nose are no fun. Reset cyclometer, thereby collect data on route taken and time elapsed for planning and training assessments. Flip crank arms to horizontal to avoid scraping pedals when tilting bike to mount. Downshift to small crank ring if not already there; hard to start pedaling from big ring. Hold both brakes to steady bike and test calipers while clipping in first cleat. Do all this somewhat unconsciously within minutes before shoving off. Regret missing any one step.

Not dissimilar to what they teach in driver’s education: Adjust seat, bag loose stuff, check mirrors, fasten seat belt, release parking brake, and turn off phone before depressing brake and starting vehicle. Yet all but drivers during license tests totally ignore, same as bicyclists the previous paragraph, then suffer consequences and wonder why. And what of clearing snow and scraping windows before engaging gears? Those who don’t can’t see others, particularly bicyclists, and obscure view for others so show no respect for human life. As goes the old saying, preparation prevents poor performance, but surely as well permits attending priorities, such as concentration on sketchy pavement and safe operation in traffic.

How does anything start? You live life on rails from birth to burial. Parents keep you alive until they send you off to school, where educators transform you into cannon fodder or wage slave and schoolmates run good intentions amuck. Bicycling changes all that, encourages independent thinking, and rewards planning. When hills inevitably rise ahead, cranking form, months logged, and know-how combine to flatten. Heels down with knees within elbows and toes in will maximize torque and minimize effort. Building momentum before hitting incline helps carry you up. Never downshift until you feel you must because you’ve lost thrust. Skills and stamina gained from daily commutes enable glorious weekends of hilly routes. Careers seem like club rides where you slowly climb under appreciative managers then zoom to bottom under bad bosses, bankruptcies, department or division consolidation, mergers, and nephews needing your job. Lest they risk layoff list, smart workers fly below radar, maintain connections to network and recruiters, make no waves, shut up, stay ready to move with an updated resume.

Embarked on this extracurricular mission with a dim awareness of how thoroughly political bicycling on shared pavement can be. After a decade of neglect, then tactics and threats, own street was recently resurfaced. With a smidgen of satisfaction watched an enormous vehicle scrape an inch of crumbled asphalt and spew into trailing dump trucks, which presumably haul back to a plant that melts down for other streets. Then another overly wide vehicle laid down hot paste half a road wide in each direction, followed by a steam roller, which flattened and smoothed. Whole process took only 3 days. Undoubtably expensive, isn’t as if they can only afford once a century. Petrochemical skin lasts for about 25 years, then process must be repeated, though never saw before in nearly 40 years, so decades late. At least for a while you can enjoy rolling on a stretch that doesn’t constantly want to bite your wheels and cause a crash. But where are those new bike lanes or wide shoulders guaranteed by law?

Every summer forecast predicts rain, but turns out only overcast again and again. Fed up with being scorched, still echo plurality and escape le pluie by reserving riding to dry days. Yet can’t trust weather modeling, so took a chance one leaden predawn. Rounded a corner into a sudden downpour, road ahead already inches below water. While rushing to an underpass, was thrown from bike so fast wasn't quite sure what happened. Immediately dragging self and stuff to edge of road, narrowly avoided being run over. Probably wouldn't have happened had a storm blinded driver taking up most of lane not forced own unwanted track. Scraped right elbow and knee, but, worse, slammed hip on one of those plastic keepers used to tighten up jacket cord. Left a painful welt and prodigious bruise. A bit of handlebar wrap got clipped off, chain came loose, and sensor for cyclometer had to be repositioned, so no debilitating damage. Took a moment to set things right and wipe chain grease from hands. Soaked with no point waiting out squall, pressed onward. Arrived on time, but had to wring out clothing. Still wasn’t dry after 8 hours despite touted wicking properties of fabrics purchased.

Since road was completely flooded, didn’t immediately determine cause. Next time, traced route to figure it out. There were 2 enormous gaps in pavement, one a jagged 8 feet long x 1 foot wide grin, and other 1-1/2 feet deep and round pot to stick front wheel in. If not for Kevlar belted tires, might have flatted.

State or town theoretically can be sued for not maintaining roads. An individual would have to sustain considerable loss, though a mashed and totaled bicycle might amount to $25,000. People die constantly, yet survivors never blame road keepers. Government would dismiss grievance, ignore claimant, and snub any filing below a class action even if press gets involved. Can barely compose one sentence an hour, but over a quarter of a century sent reams of protests to agencies, cities, states and towns. In reply got several banal acknowledgements but seldom decisive actions. They say it takes overwhelming consensus to push states or towns to obey infrastructure laws existing for decades, though obtained results on own when illegality was undeniable and impact on motorists was also demonstrable, so solely upon content, not necessarily volume.

There’s an analogy in last post that could be further elaborated: Bicycles are Democratic, roll your own way, sort of a donkey prodded onward with reluctance. A unicycle is Republican, only one way (theirs), hardest of all to abide, likely to hurt you, lumberingly elephantine, not at all good for getting anywhere efficiently, stomping unsteadily everything in its way on a trophy hunt that benefits no one. Trikes are Progressive, only go forward, really never backward, even big wheel thingies that skid backwards and sideways, yet always in direction of momentum, require no balance or skill; toddlers can handle them. Motorcycles are for badass, swill chugging, tattooed bikers bound for nowhere but hell or jail. Readers will cheer or jeer this senseless metaphor. They feel buttons being pushed as they read between lines: Agree or denounce, then say what, as you introduce something they haven’t imagined. You actually have choices! Huh?

As with religions, folks generally choose party into which they’re born out of misplaced loyalty and rigorous indoctrination. When neither of predominant two suits you, you seek another or stay home. Half of eligible voters do the latter, not because they are apathetic losers but because no candidate represents them. If you live in a district that’s overwhelmingly polarized, your vote doesn’t really count, superfluous. But who’d want to move into MAGA-Land just to overturn electoral college? Once a year these brainless imbeciles and mental defectives show up drunk at polling places and waste their vote in support of empty slogans. They loathe bikes and love NASCAR. You’d have to tolerate such hatred and ignorance 363 other days. Never saw a MAGA cap? Most likely place will be on noggins of @hat drivers of Chevy pickups or SUVs, same ones who drive so badly they scare bicyclists, even other motorists, off road.

Of Trump’s hand picked administrators, exactly 50% have been asked to resign or fired outright due to corruption, though impeachment of their boss seems about as likely as reelection. Of Trump’s own accomplishments, zero policies have been enacted. Silver lining in all his gross negligence and outright malfeasance is that nation escaped major harm from what could have been ruinous precedents. Plus nazis were exposed. Though debt has doubled, people previously enjoyed a chief executive who helped to reduce, so redemption is still possible. But wasn’t lack of congressional leadership and subpar representation the very reasons Trump got elected? Seems any baboon who insincerely promises to drain Potomac swamp stands a chance to serve country. But not rule as a monarchy! Been two King Georges against whom you could have acted but didn’t, then let a con artist sneak in on a technicality. For shame! To hear anyone with presumed intelligence defend smacks of sellout or stupidity. Shouldn't bear mention. Works on principle that all publicity is good, as long as name gets repeated and stays in conversation.

When sorting through rhetoric, keep in mind that those who argue you drank Kool-aid are the ones who mixed it. Bush withheld funding for bicycling projects while laws and mandates already existed. Obama restored, so a few lines got painted. Trump again broke compliance and retained Republican track record of persecuting bicyclists. Meanwhile, venues to safely bike disappear as 2 lane roads get converted into limited access highways and shoulders get restriped for extra motoring lanes. Previous administration saw both a decrease in gasoline prices and increase in bicycling miles; usually the opposite occurs, but new accommodations can have that affect. Average prices at pump since have gone up 22%, to be expected as global reserves dwindle. How much longer can motoring go on? Gridlock so bad, miles per gallon are next to none. Smarter to burn fossil fuel in stationary plants to produce electricity for vehicles to use, though was startled yesterday when passed by a Tesla, it was so quiet, a new reason to carefully prepare.

Pavement may not, but roadways endure. Politics push bicyclists off the edge. DOTs only act in the interest of motorized moneybags, doing whatever stimulates corporate profits and transfers taxes from you to them including spending a trillion on interstates every decade. Like fishing with a purse seine, big business sets a wide net and surrounds entire school of suckers. Collateral damage to bycatch of marine mammals resembles what happens to bicyclists whose streets are no longer shared but stripped of supportive stripes. Unless cars and trucks consume fuel, thereby requiring crude fractioning with asphalt a byproduct, roads wouldn’t be paved. Only a glutton grabs all of whatever is worth having. Republicans not only enable, but offer tax breaks to Monopoly mascot Uncle Pennybags, other New Jersey casino magnates including game show gambling host Trump himself, and whoever tosses bones into bosses’ war chests. Grossly bizarre, why would Americans vote their purse, not whether they’ll survive to curse? Conditioned to value money over sanctity of life itself? Equate as just tools to exploit? Can only a bicyclist see how imbalanced this would be? Love or leave? Maybe should be bicycling in France instead?

Rednecks Flain

“Riding a bike is Democratic... Now into era of mixed messages, travel by bike and you may be treated like a hero, or, still, treated like vermin... Revolution might be a cycle tour. Time spent thinking about how to do it is never wasted... People fear freedom... Tiresome to be treated as a problem when you are the solution. Don’t let other people’s stupidity upset you... People who ride bikes live longer.” Patrick Field, 2011 address to Royal Geographical Society

This ten year blog slog must end soon. Meant to slow time, it still went by in a cosmological blink. As did Patrick Field, said everything necessary about bicycling already, though parsed deliberately in bicycling cadence through many digressions over a decade. Yet B&C’s social commentary has lost its relevancy. While literature should be fun to read laden with linguistic delights, texts stuffed with opinion alienate everyone. Politics stink. Surveys only seek self vindication, not what you personally think.

So what have blog’s readers learned? A lot of words rhyme with chain? A mineral skeleton integrates effectively with a biological organism? Every manner of human is represented among a billion bicyclists? A quarter of a G8 nation of three hundred million can’t differentiate a dictator from a servant, and three quarters have no idea how to recapture control and retard decline? Not a damn thing?

Most people avoid everything that even hints of emotion, logic, poetry, reason or thinking. Facing facts can indeed be too painful, cause stress, raise blood pressure, shorten lifespan. But if you let others do it for you, you forfeit your chance to do what’s right for you as an individual; you’ll have to wear one-size-fits-all hand-me-down decisions, which may impact your very survival.

Who’s going to rub vindictive Ubu Roi the wrong way thereby risk being rubbed out? Like Jong-un and Putin, he’s a gangster surrounded by henchmen whose salaries you stupidly pay. Unpopularity also proves nothing. USA’s presidency isn’t a monarchy, only to a certain redneck mentality, which has been decisively bagged, precisely flain, and specifically quartered here since onset. Hunting makes for fitting analogies given their gun proclivities and hankering for war. Have made it plain that only none too bright short term gain and right to exploit interim might matter anymore in a world run by bosses, nazis, racists, terrorists and theocrats. A diligent citizen or intelligent resident has no say, then it all crashes with no family spared heartache and losses you might pray would stay away.

Despite their conspicuous contempt, Republicans seem content to run their ridiculous incumbent for another term. A dozen Democrats have to duke it out for dubious privilege of deposing this dunce. Nobody with any sense wants the job. Or listens to same 3 rap beats repeatedly. Or parks in a crowded lot and pumps volume to ear splitting decibels on sunny summer afternoons, as if doing world a favor and making America great again. While sensible people do exist, they don’t make a spectacle of themselves, so you only notice candidates and cretins whose intention is to draw your attention by whatever means, such as parading missiles and tanks to flaunt military might, instead showing muscular incapacity to every enemy.

A least Democratic debates raised issues that voters wanted to discuss: job creation, living allowance, loan relief, minimum wage hike, social justice, and ways to participate in a rigged capitalist regime. Sanders and Warren did respond, but suggested no ways to resolve. Poverty spreads while corporate profits and Wall Street soar. Democrats want to push boundaries on behalf of splinter groups, while Republicans seek to restrict reform of electoral college which delivered elections. For example, by not holding 2020 Census, funding and voting wouldn’t be properly redistributed. This would undermine their plot to have indebted multinational agribusiness control a large number of districts in rural states.

A third option exists, though not so obvious most would notice: To form a centrist political party that could divert enough votes from main two, as if only two ever existed of anything. Might actually be easier than it sounds. Democrats and Republicans in office don’t serve mainstream voters but small factions. They divide votes because no other choice presents itself to dissatisfied majority. Bikes and unicycles both roll, but trikes are more stable.

Forever in demand, progress never occurs without problems. Amish or Neo-Luddite separatists might think they can transcend technology, but they can barely produce enough to be self sufficient without machines and they’ll suffer just as much as rest of society after widespread collapse. Freaks espousing fringe beliefs found no sanctuary among equally superstitious farmers. Everything done to enfranchise ingrates becomes dictates that penalize the god fearing and law abiding.

Revolution would toss out hard earned entitlements along with political corruption when only slight tweaks are required, by which Labann means new faces and policies. Partisanship has become a pandemic affecting all incumbents. With fraud so entrenched, fearless and scrupulous patriots need to reclaim responsibilities, secure spots in Senate, and serve entire nation, not just selves. People seldom get so lucky. Motivated mostly by greed, swilling brews, and watching NASCAR, rednecks neither heed nor read, so are definitely not willing. Perhaps millennials won’t be so self possessed when they inherit this mess once ugly gluttons drop dead or retire, unless offspring inherit seats in Congress. Too often votes are swayed by name recognition. Conservatism derives from aged dementia and mental defect, whereas liberal youth often demonstrate bad judgment and inexperienced mistakes. Provided you can find anyone with some, what needs to prevail is wisdom.

Bike&Chain focused from start upon the universal struggle between doing right and exercising freedom, neither of which are tolerated within a de facto kingdom, not to relieve readers from unreasonable worries. Some stress is good when what results benefits both self and society. But it should be a whole lot easier to work toward global justice when doing the opposite only destabilizes diplomacy for transient comforts.

Bethel Not Certain

“Government is at best but an expedient... Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority... If a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.” ― Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1849

Beyond all that’s sacred, bicycles become vehicles for both revelation and revolution. By separating from automotive majority, even momentarily, one renews own perspective. If you can only see a single path, gatekeepers easily prey upon you. Civil Disobedience and Walden once appealed, required reading to a malcontent teen pedaling a Schwinn to a perfect-for-bicycling cadence from Happy Trails by Quicksilver Messenger Service with destiny concealed. No one knew much, were deliberately kept out of touch, only privy to broadcast news or dusty books, with no internet or such. Had no idea of what one wasn’t aware, or why some were not welcome, which instilled contempt for irrelevant info fare.

Only recall leaving Thursday evening in August, 1969, in back of a Willys Woody wagon, “The People’s Car”, bound for Bethel, New York. Convinced contingent to go based on rumors gleaned from late night radio and small ads in Village Voice tablo. Should’ve headed out earlier, but slept instead after a graveyard shift. By the time Peep Jeep got to Woodstock, roads were clogged, and, for hours having to hike there among many others, festival had become free. Tucked twenty for ticket into shoe. It was a wake up call, because some left behind 10-speeds would have served beautifully right about then. Came for legendary music, but it was more a scene of chaos and confusion, mayhem and mud, rebellion and resurrection, smoky stink and sonic disturbance, which made a lasting impression. Couldn’t actually see acts on stage with any clarity from behind a sea of semi-naked bodies surrounded by angels on sacred ground. Warner Brothers badly captured only its bands as best it could, many of which audience only vaguely experienced amidst crowded distraction and mounds of garbage. Critics may carp from afar, but spirituality can only be felt in participation. Crawled home on Monday in time for a bath, nap, and next night shift as if nothing occurred.

But something had: Counterculture. With such an immense army of adult boomers, fairy hairies of questionable orientation, men and women shoulder to shoulder, Congress was compelled to abandon its aggression in Vietnam, bolster social programs, bring civil rights legislation, and buoy self reliance. If half a million could gather for music, why not for representative justice? It wouldn’t last, quickly defused, sidelined by new sales and old spin. Were attendees all wet? Are human rights a joke? Is freedom just a myth?

Anything you let elected officials decide will favor some other side or themselves, of course. Begs the questions, “Who are your worst enemies?” and, “Why let sociopaths rule?” Are they a necessary evil, babies swaddled in frustration’s diaper, sticky skin on healthy garlic? Didn’t Americans beat Nazis into oblivion? How could these vampires have resurfaced? How many times must you fight same war, restore balance, secure liberty? Apparently, whatever you resist persists. You may even become whoever you push back from. Maybe subsequent generations must relearn same lessons.

Democracy doesn’t work anymore, as proven by winners of popular vote who are nevertheless beaten by unpopular electoral winners, who somehow convince rubes in rural districts through empty promises and moral rhetoric. The party most people belong to, however, doesn’t run viable candidates. Some would call that infantile or ingenuous, since it leaves nation divided and easily suppressed. City dwellers learn democracy having to deal daily with diversity, and their numbers are greater than ever, yet electoral clout remains unchanged. Farmers are increasingly isolated, or driven from ancestral land by multinational giants, who dominate consumption and diets.

For democracy to flourish, voters with principles from blue states would have to migrate by the millions to key districts in red states and register to vote. Only then could a certain coal bitch incumbent racist from Kentucky get ousted. Senators run country in collusion with PACs who fund campaigns. It almost makes no difference who chief executive is anymore, not allowed to take action over Senate anyway.

Mega-farms give us caloric substitutes laden with high fructose corn syrup, insecticides, sugar, and transfats known to cause cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. They alone decide elections, not majority of voters. They make arms makers look like heroes who relieve long term suffering. Bankers and billionaires round out PAC profile. Despite funding cuts and government shutdowns, this small cadre lulls majority of 300 million into accepting their ongoing theft of trillions in federal revenue through tax diversion and evasion. All have to go, but system has been rigged for decades, stacked against voters by district gerrymandering backed by Supreme Court inaction.

But, you say, government agencies protect the public against crime, danger, infection, starvation, and warfare. If anything, CDC, CIA, FBI, FDA and NSA have sketchy track records rife with scandals. They are funded by Congress, after all, so do what they’re told. Republicans repudiate entire scientific community, particularly when they warn of climate change and tip points when no remediation will avert extinction. Law enforcers favor luxury property owners. Despite whatever noble purpose agencies were founded, fulfillment soon settles into begrudging habit and bureaucratic scorn.

Woodstock Nation wanted to get back to the land, where rabid conservatives dominate. So what happened? Planet can be hostile to humans; geologists reveal various pre-industrial climate debacles. Archeologists also show that the enormous Sahara Desert was once equatorial jungle before men deforested for farming and ranching. Meteorologists say heat rising from it causes hurricanes that batter Caribbean a whole ocean away next to another continent. Mankind’s detriment to sustainable habitat has long been obvious. Since future doesn’t seem to matter to humanity, might as well fell Amazon forests, too, which supposedly produces a large percentage of oxygen humans need to breathe. Then fungi and molds can take over, since they thrive on greenhouse gases and rotting corpses.

Humans can’t elect to be vegetative, strung out on drugs staging nonstop festivals of supposed love and peace, and still survive. Someone has to eke out a harvest, embrace heavy labor, endure stewardship expense while fields lay fallow and land replenishes itself. Conscientious objectors have to absorb all abuse and work twice as hard as complacent bourgeoise and conservative stooges to sweep God’s House. Parasites thereby profit, not patriots who’ll be sacrificed. You can bet it will instill a phobia for toil in hell. Thoreau, in peaceful slumber now under a nondescript 9” marker at Sleepy Hollow, was right after all: Don’t contribute to what you can’t condone. Certainty rests its case in a cemetery.

The price of freedom is in assuming responsibilities few want to, unless you were born bound or forever linked to some bucolic Bethel. Kauneonga with its white wings never lifted hippies aloft, rather slapped shackles onto bovine herd curious enough to convene along Hurd Road in White Lake. Been to its nice museum, but nothing’s left at Bethel Woods that’s new to do, no big celebration planned 50 years later, maybe elsewhere, still not sure. Have already moved on, plan to stay home, perhaps study documentaries again, and try to pick out self in wide shots. Unlike motorists, can yet detect diffuse counterculture in small gestures and tie-dyed scraps while biking about.

“Well, you walk into a restaurant, strung out from the road, and you feel the eyes upon you as you're shaking off the cold. You pretend it doesn't bother you, but you just want to explode... All the same old cliches, ‘Is that a woman or a man?’ And you always seem outnumbered, you don't dare make a stand. Here I am on the road again. There I am up on the stage. Here I go playing star again. There I go. Turn the page.” Bob Seger, 1972. Bicyclists and motorcyclists alike respect lyrics of Seger’s road songs.

Father Scatterbrain

Every Spring roadie cyclists who emerge like bears from winter hibernation ask why they're repeatedly embarrassed and passed by single speed teenagers on bikeways. Going farther or faster tends to weigh on their minds, as if they had to match automotive expectations. Magazine articles take shots at explaining, none all that comprehensive or pragmatic, usually skewed toward selling you something. Sure, appropriate apparel, bike fit, and riding style all figure, but none impact nearly as much as equipment you don’t maintain, excessive weight, hilly terrain, and prevailing wind. Each can be dealt with at little to no cost.

Eat smaller portions and fill up with veggies. Less you have to carry, faster you can climb, and more time you save. A wheel improperly mounted with rim rubbing on brake pads or frame stays will slow you to a crawl. Hydration prior to riding lubricates muscles before exertion leads to cramping. Likewise, a well oiled chain cuts friction. Commute route should be a loop with different legs coming or going that take advantage of breeze at your back, descents when you’re tired, or natural shelter of buildings, climbs, and trees into wind. Climbing is cardio, increases your vertical ascent per meter/hour (VAM) score, and speeds you along subsequent flats. Handlebar drops let you assume an aerodynamic position; mountain bikes have straight bars for better off-road control on tracks slower rode. Constantly feeling for the next gear combination that evens crank cadence and foot pressure will yield longer trips up to 2 mph faster.

Such efficiencies only trim minutes over a dozen miles or more, so consider beginning earlier. Best time will always be just before dawn, when traffic is light and sunlight reveals what's afoot. Racers may average 25 mph, but only on closed courses and empty roads. You can get all nerdy and plot distance over time versus economical tweaks, but trying to match peloton speeds alongside busses, cars and trucks is incredibly risky, not worth compromising safety.

Reminded of economist Laffer and his plotted curve that supposedly links maximizing personal earnings by minimizing tax collection, better described as the worst kind of junk science that nevertheless drives public policy. Reaganomics were irrevocably disproven over three decades when class disparities did instead worsen, as, of course, intended. Not only did it create a few billionaires, it devalued savings and undermined all wealth. Laughing up his sleeve on way to a bank, Laffer's scheme earned him a medal from Trump. Now you have to be at least a celebrity or millionaire just to stay alive an extra year and survive health system set up to dump you back into poverty.

Tired of lies and traffic? Adam Conover has a new 80 minute podcast. Turns out, all private motorized transportation, even electric vehicles, allow anonymity, amplify aggression, eliminate middle class, equip criminals, exacerbate impatience, and expand evil. Labann has only been saying this for a quarter of a century; maybe eventually folks will awake and react. A car occupies 9 times the footprint of a person on a bike, bus or subway. Although cars are all about making mobility effortless and faster, airheads who design them fail miserably on both accounts.

Driving a car potentially divides time to arrival by 20, except you’re forced to deal with costs, gridlock, parking, and rudest of cretins who will kill to clip seconds for a thrill or to fulfill a minimum wage role at an impatient mill. Walking is easiest except when crossing roads and increasing distance. Riding a bicycle accelerates walking by 5 times, only 1/4 as fast as driving, but minimizes effort and investment to more than make up difference, so rates as the most efficient mode of transportation yet invented. Allow for freshening up after working up a sweat. While bicycling and walking may not suit your commute to factory set intentionally outside city in some industrial park next to a highway, you may still be surprised at its seasonal practicality.

If noted philosopher Henry David Thoreau, father of American environmentalism, were born in this century, he’d be a proponent of bicycling. Back in 1850’s, he extolled the logic of self propelling to go anywhere versus earning a wage to afford trip by train. At the end of the day, you’ll have already arrived instead of waiting to be paid before you can buy a ticket next day or week. Some might have called him cheap or lazy, but he thoroughly foresaw how enterprise would exploit wage slavery and threaten natural world. Ironically, Walden pond is now accessible by bicycle, which was concurrently emerging from Europe while he withdrew from society and wrote his renowned observations.

Labann’s weekly commutes and fondos ranging up to 120 miles did add up: Six times earth’s circumference of ~25000 miles (40 million meters). Any avid non-racing cyclist rides one of which every decade, though should exclude early years until mid teens and late after seventy when call fades and trips shorten. Sweet spot falls between ages 45 and 55, after you've earned enough to afford and insure, when family no longer so directly relies on your contributions or presence. It’s when you might cover 65% of lifetime total, though ages 15 through 35 see more real racing and randonneuring. A new father seldom goes farther.

Mean age of world peloton? Hard to determine, but very likely late 20's. In Tour de France it’s lately 28.5; peak performance years are considered to be 22 - 35, though age has crept up with medical advancements. Male racers in USA - where every week there are club crits, cyclocross meets, or ironman triathlons - average 39 years old if you include 35+ masters division.

Not because they’re physically unable, to the contrary likely anatomically superior for task, women have a tough time keeping up when intimidated on streets by male mashers. Late actress Lena Nyman depicted such inter-gender discontent during a harassment scene in I Am Curious - Yellow back in ’67, over a half century ago. Coming from a dad, though, complaints command less cred. To convince must defer to Unladylike podcast with distaff hosts Caroline Ervin and Christen Conger, Huffington Post, and news sources. In fact, bicyclists fill a legal vacuum, more akin to forsaken pedestrians than motorists, not driving a crushing vehicle, so unaffected by traffic code. Since bicyclists always have the right of way over motorists, when, if ever, can they be “at fault” in collisions? Would have almost have to crash into a stopped vehicle; even then, amount of damage would be negligible except under extraordinary circumstances.

As if music from a pair of 27" ride cymbals with long sustain, seem to repeat spinning same prayer wheels in an unrelenting beat driven by a scatterbrain. Incantations and supplications supposedly make wishes follow through, though evidence has always been circumstantial and occurrence coincidental. Often you don’t know what to do, yet personal attempts are the most educational.

Sag Caravane

Fourth Estate, the press, with its implicit right to defend citizens and frame political issues, has been under seige for decades by the might mad right. Dubya slammed Mapes and Rather, who dared document his draft dodging secret, among others who’ve been disgraced and driven from journalism. Vulnerable to ratings slippage, leftish CNN currently finds itself in administration’s crosshairs. White House wants to transplant with their counter-information organ, current cable frontrunner Fox. This leaves only friendlier MSNBC and neutral network news, should they survive next round of Republican excoriation, to divvy up voter attention, that is, if you sensibly shun administration’s relentless spam email and Twitter posts.

More get their news from radio or television than publications. Struggling newspapers of record will fail to survive versus the “free” dissemination of fabrication by blogs and other internet pages or podcasts. Cable suppliers reap most of profit through an insanely high monthly access fee for what once was free, while content providers toil in minuscule hope of someday they'll steal a morsel from a book deal or copyright lawsuit if they can get a jury to agree. Without compensation, dreadful effort of forming hypotheses, researching data, running around, and writing articles has become hardly worth it. No wonder pursuit for truth and real reportage have all but disappeared. All you’ll see in broadcasts will be actors reading scripts laid down by executive decree, in other words, what you already get on propaganda TV; might as well be papal bulls or royal writs from the 13th Century.

Are there no reporters articulate enough to encapsulate and expose official offenses? POTUS has time in his busy schedule to belittle and libel environmental activist, quadruple threat (Emmy, Grammy, Golden Globe, and Tony winner) and Screen Actors Guild member Bette Midler as a “washed up psycho”? Wow! Self projection exemplified. It’s been 900 days of divisive partisanship, doubled deficits, golf junkets, impeachable recklessness, international scandals, lunatic plans, political incorrectness, position flip-flops, personal agendas, possible treason, ridiculous warmongering, staff indictments, tax waste, unbridled corruption, and white supremacy. Hardly a day goes by without some new and outlandish debacle. Nation is numb, tongues struck dumb. What do they need Fox for? Once you solidly establish a teflon brand, no need to further justify where you stand. Billions in PAC money need not be spent to bribe and coerce after majority believes and bows to oppressor’s tribe, who instead they should curse. Disgruntled whispers and wicked wicker get overlooked amidst paid spin and shopwindow clutter.

A century ago cyclist playwright Alfred Jarry foresaw how power corrupts and introduced sociopathic ruler Ubu Roi to readers and thinkers, who act as catalysts for change among the complacent, who were horrified having to face own hypocrisy. But authors, programed to coin not consume, prefer own copy over works of others, while all only wish anyone might eventually read what they’ve exhaustively assembled. Some take perverse delight in bending behaviors to their wills. Presidents should be public servants, not selfish megalomaniacs. Talk may be cheap, but taming truths to lay down on fields of white bound for as long as time concedes feels like chainring tattoos from ankles to knees combined with every other torture in degrees.

Whenever miscreants scoff at laws and skip penalties, they become bolder and do worse. Corruption is a cancer that kills communities, nations, and world eventually. Back when they still enforced laws against rackets and violence, they'd say, "Give them enough rope and they'll hang themselves," by which they meant collusion among felons and disregard for others wouldn’t pay, and swift retribution would arrive someday.

Citizens pay courts and police to act as a caravane of caring support with wagons carrying gear to sweep up after crashes and mayhem of this ruthless rat race, but meanwhile embedded press precedes and publishes, not as a trailer, to ensure transgressors are identified timely and get away with nothing. If Congress won’t, people and press must. To dispense with this so crucial social function, to enable what’s criminal, is to invite death, loss, ruin, slavery, and worse. A lively press levels crests and obstacles.

Those with nothing want more. Those with plenty won't share. Thus an eternal battle exists between polarities. Both get more than they deserve versus hard working taxpayers who ask for little and pay for everything. Bicyclists, to whom B&C was dedicated, break, therefore prove, this rule, since they often offer advice and components gratis, glad only to have helped their community.

If it takes being found riding about in freeze and fire and bicycling like Jarry bitten by the green fairy to regain your impartiality and humanity, do it. Despite how much bike sags and you slump, you’ll no doubt find being in balance beats leaning toward either bias. Nothing sadder than being a quitter swept up and tagged DNF, unless DOA, electing to give up bitter to those you only think are fitter. Without levelheaded challenge highest offices have been held by seriously unfit self servers throughout history. All were overthrown. Apologize for one last cycling analogy: Once caravane passes, party is over. Nothing surpasses now, when all things occur.