Idiot Wind

Every now and then news stories come up that are so stupid you feel that they need a big "NOT THE ONION" disclaimer attached to them so they aren't mistaken for satire. Yesterday, my twitter feed erupted with the story of Washington State Representative Ed Orcutt's letter to a state resident regarding the proposed Washington state bicycle tax. The Seattle Bike Blog wrote a good article on Orcutt's letter here and the Cascade Bicycle Club has good coverage here, so I'm not going to repeat their stuff. I will, however, repost Orcutt's email and the note from Dale Carlson to which Representative Orcutt is responding.


—————————- Original Message —————————-
Subject: RE: No new bicycle tax
From:    “Orcutt, Rep. Ed”
Date:    Mon, February 25, 2013 9:59 pm
To:      Dale Carlson
————————————————————————–

Dale,

I am not a fan of much in the House Transportation tax proposal nor of many tax proposals, but I have to admit I think there are valid reasons to tax bicycles. Think about this for a moment: Currently motorists are paying to use their cars on the roads while they are actually driving their cars. At the same time, they are paying for bike lanes because there is no gas tax — or any transportation tax — generated by the act of riding a bike on the roadways. So, if cars pay for the roads they are using, it only makes sense that bicyclists would also be required to pay for the ‘roads’ they use when they are actually biking on them.

Also, you claim that it is environmentally friendly to ride a bike. But if I am not mistaken, a cyclists has an increased heart rate and respiration. That means that the act of riding a bike results in greater emissions of carbon dioxide from the rider.  Since CO2 is deemed to be a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, bicyclists are actually polluting when they ride.

I know, you own a car and drive so are paying gas tax — but not while you are riding your bike. When you are driving your car and generating gas tax you are also driving on the roads so are only really paying for the roads when driving — not while biking.

Sorry, but I do think that bicyclists need to start paying for the roads they ride on rather than make motorists pay.

Ed

Representative Ed Orcutt
20th Legislative District

Olympia Office:
408 John L. O’Brien Building
PO Box 40600
Olympia, WA 98504
O ed.orcutt@leg.wa.gov
e 360.786.7990

—–Original Message—–
From: Dale Carlson
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2013 9:40 PM
To: Orcutt, Rep. Ed
Subject: NC: No new bicycle tax

HOUSE INTERNET E-MAIL DELIVERY SERVICE

TO:  Representative Ed Orcutt

FROM: Dale Carlson(Non-Constituent)

SUBJECT:  No new bicycle tax

MESSAGE:

People who choose to ride a bicycle instead of driving a car actively
reduce congestion, save wear and tear on our roads and bridges, and reduce the state labor needed to patrol our highways. Additionally, bicyclists produce fewer emissions and reduce healthcare costs through increased physical fitness. Therefore, it is unfair for bicyclists to subsidize the construction and maintenance of highways that they impact far less than the motorists. If anything, new bike purchases should earn a $25.00 tax credit because of the savings they provide to the state.

Not only do I believe that a bike tax is unfair in principle but the proposed amount is disproportionately large compared to vehicle excise taxes in the state. A tax of $25 on a $500 bicycle purchase is 5% of that sale. The vehicle excise tax in the proposed package for the state is 0.7%. The federal government even offers tax credits on electric vehicles, up to $7,500 depending on the value of the vehicle. It’s absurd that Washington state plans on taxing bicyclists while such a credit system exists to promote energy efficiency. Bicycles are far more efficient even than electric cars. Bicyclists already pay substantial sales, property, and federal taxes which fund two-thirds of transportation spending in Washington. Bicyclists who own cars pay the same license tab and other car-related taxes even if they drive less.

This new tax would also hurt the bicycle industry in the state of Washington, an industry that already competes with internet vendors and bordering states with lower sales tax. Bicycle stores near the edges of our state have been impacted for years by the reduced sales tax in Oregon and Idaho. Residents would have 25 more reasons to purchase bikes outside of Washington should this proposal pass. In-state bicycle sales would also be lost to internet vendors based elsewhere which neither pay taxes in Washington nor employee residents of Washington. Surely the loss of tax revenue on in-state bicycle sales would offset the forecasted gains from the proposed tax.

Dale Carlson, Owner
Bike Tech
Olympia, Lakewood, Tacoma

-----------------------

I'll also link to Elly Blue's fine analysis of who really pays for roads.

And then you might be thinking I'm going to rant. Well, maybe a little. But I'm kind of speechless, right now. Fortunately, a fellow ex-Minnesotan penned some words a few years back that I'm gonna borrow. Yeah, my buddy Bob, he's got a way with words.

All the lines in italics below are Bob Dylan's from his great song "Idiot Wind" off the classic "Blood on the Tracks."

This was my reaction when I first heard about the proposed bike tax:


Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press
Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out quick but when they will I can only guess.

This was my reaction on first reading Rep. Orcutt's letter:


People see me all the time and they just can't remember how to act
Their minds are filled with big ideas, images and distorted facts.



And then Bob really sums up what I'm thinking about Rep. Orcutt when he sings:


Idiot wind blowing every time your move your mouth
Blowing down the backroads heading south
Idiot wind blowing every time you move your teeth
You're an idiot babe
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.


I also think Bob nails the broken politics of our country here:


Now everything's a little upside down, as a matter of fact the wheels have stopped
What's good is bad what's bad is good you'll find out when you reach the top
You're on the bottom. I noticed at the ceremony, your corrupt ways had finally made you blind
I can't remember your face anymore, your mouth has changed your eyes don't look 
Into mine
The priest wore black on the seventh day and sat stone faced while the 
Building burned
I waited for you on the running boards, near the cypress trees while the 
Springtime turned
Slowly into autumn.

It's far too easy to just see the idiocy in Rep. Orcutt's letter. But Bob will never let us get off that easily and we, the people of Washington State, have to remember that we elected this guy.


Idiot wind blowing through the buttons of our coats
Blowing through the letters that we wrote
Idiot wind blowing through the dust upon our shelves
We're idiots babe
It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves.

Vote. It matters.

Write letters. It matters.

Speak truth to power. It matters.

Rage against the machine now and then. It matters.

Listen to our poets. Buy their stuff and keep 'em alive. Because sometime, when you're speechless, they'll have the words you need.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah, WA USA

Busch & Muller 4D Toplight

The Busch & Muller 4D Toplight is a good, bright, reliable tail light that mounts to a rear rack. They make a fancier one with a sensor so the light turns on when it's dark and off when it's light, but I've got the basic one with a good, simple switch. The light doesn't blink and the switch is a simple on/off toggle.

The light it bright with 2 very bright LEDs in the center and a couple of smaller ones on the outer edges. It bolts solidly onto the holes in the rack of my Allant or other European-styled racks like the Tubus. If your rack doesn't have such holes, you'll need an adapter.

The light is powered by 2 AA cells, which power it for a hell of a long time. I haven't kept precise track but I run rechargeable NiMH batteries in mine and it can easily handle all night brevets or weeks of dark commuting. You will need a Philips screwdriver to change the batteries, which some folks find to be a hassle but I find to be much better than some of the cheap lights which just snap together & then snap apart when you hit a big bump. 

As you can see from the above flash picture, the bulk of the body of the light is a big, effective reflector.

Peter White stocks the B&M lights and you can order direct or your local bike shop can get them from him. And like damn near everything these days, you can get it from Amazon. But speaking of Peter White, he's probably the best source of lights & light info in the bike world these days. Check out this page, for example.

BTW, I get no kickback or deal from Peter White. I've had the B&M light for a couple of years now (I had it on my Dahon for a while) and to tell you the truth I can't recall if I bought it from Peter or got it at a swap meet or what. But it's a good light.

One other thing, various lights with electronic switches that toggle thru blinkie modes have an annoying tendency to freak out if they get water inside. Maybe the light turns on by itself or switches modes or won't turn off. I've never had that problem with my B&M Toplight. It's got a simple switch that is either on or off. It just works. And keeps working. I like that.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA

Boy's Life by Robert McCammon

(Note: this is cross-posted from Kent's Book Blog because a bike has a major role in this book.)

The only thing I want to do in this review is convince you to read Boy's Life by Robert McCammon. I want to do this because I love this book, I treasure it the way a twelve year old boy treasures his bicycle. Let's start there.

I will not spoil the plot by telling you too much of the tale, the tale is Cory Mackenson's to tell. Cory is 12 year old in 1964 and lives in the small town of Zephyr, Alabama. Cory loves monster movies and mysteries, having adventures with his friends and telling stories. He tells amazing stories. Wonderful stories. But let's talk about that bike.

Early in the book Cory's bike "dies" and if you don't understand how a bike can die then by gosh you need to read this book. And if you do understand that bikes live and die, then you might not need to read this book but you certainly should because this book is filled with wonders. Wonderful is a great word for this great book, because it is packed full of wonders.

Cory earns his new bike in perhaps the finest way any 12 year old boy has ever done and his heroism is rewarded:

“Young man?” The Lady’s gaze moved to me again. “What would you like?” 

I thought about it. “Anything?” I asked. 

“Within reason,” Mom prodded. 

“Anythin’,” the Lady said. 

I thought some more, but the decision wasn’t very difficult. “A bike. A new bike that’s never belonged to anybody before.” 

“A new bicycle.” She nodded. “One with a lamp on it?” 

“Yes’m.” 

“Want a horn?” 

“That’d be fine,” I said. 

“Want it to be a fast one? Faster’n a cat up a tree?” 

“Yes’m.”

Cory gets his bike:

In later years I would think that no woman’s lips had ever been as red as that bike. No low-slung foreign sports car with wire wheels and purring engine would ever look as powerful or as capable as that bike. No chrome would ever gleam with such purity, like the silver moon on a summer’s night. It had a big round headlight and a horn with a rubber bulb, and its frame looked as strong and solid as the biceps of Hercules. But it looked fast, too; its handlebars sloped forward like an invitation to taste the wind, its black rubber pedals unscuffed by any foot before mine.

...

Like a rocket, the bike sped me through the tree-shaded streets of my hometown, and as we carved the wind together I decided that would be its name. “Rocket,” I said, the word whirling away behind me in the slipstream. “That sound all right to you?” It didn’t throw me off. It didn’t veer for the nearest tree. I took that as a yes.

Rocket, like the rest of Cory's life, contains more than a hint of magic. Cory and the Lady know this:

“Seems to me,” the Lady said, “a boy’s bicycle needs to see where it’s goin’. Needs to see whether there’s a clear road or trouble ahead. Seems to me a boy’s bicycle needs some horse in it, and some deer, and maybe even a touch of rep-tile. For cleverness, don’t you know?” 

“Yes ma’am,” I agreed. She knew Rocket, all right.

There's much more in Zephyr than a boy and bicycle. There are ghosts and monsters, school and summer, friendships and adventures in the woods. There's light and darkness, great joy and sadness.

Boy's Life is a novel I slowed down to savor, one of those rare books I know I'll re-read. At one point in the novel, Cory has this conversation:

“Would you like some advice from an older soul, Cory?” 

I didn’t really want it, but I said, “Yes sir” to be polite. He wore a bemused expression, as if he knew my thoughts. 

“I’ll give it to you anyway. Don’t be in a hurry to grow up. Hold on to being a boy as long as you can, because once you lose that magic, you’re always begging to find it again.”

A man named Ray Bradbury held such magic all of his life and wrote wonderful stories. In the pages of this novel, Cory's father gives him a collection of Bradbury's stories and it is, like the bicycle, a perfect gift. Robert McCammon has given us a similarly perfect gift, full of ghosts and monsters, mystery and love and the wonder of being twelve years old. It is called Boy's Life. It is one of the finest novels I have ever read.

Fix It Sticks

There are a lot of Kickstarter bike projects in the world these days, some good, some stupid, some somewhere in between. Fix It Sticks are one of the good ones. Brian Davis, the guy behind Fix It Sticks, sent me some early prototypes of his product. They work and they are clever. They can get into tight places, provide great leverage and are light and compact to carry. His current incarnations of the sticks are even better than the prototypes. He's already met and surpassed his initial Kickstarter goal and he's moving on to a full production run.

Brian does a better job than I would in explaining Fix It Sticks, so click on this link and read about them and watch the video (the video is funny as well). There are still ten days to go in the Kickstarter and Brian has some more cool ideas that can make Fix It Sticks even better. Brian recently quit his day job to focus full time on Fix It Sticks. I like seeing someone with enough faith in their idea to make a big bet on it. Fix It Sticks are a bet worth making.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah, WA USA

Branching out

My basic rule here on Kent's Bike Blog is that I post bike stuff here when I have something to say. So, If Christine and I go off on tour or I have an interesting bike repair or some other bike topic comes to mind that I want to write about, I'll post it here. And, if I don't have anything new to report, I'll keep mum.

But I do other stuff than bike and one of the things I do quite often is read books. Lots of books, all kinds of books, many of which have nothing to do with bicycles. My thoughts on some of those books, reviews, author profiles and stuff like that will get posted to my book blog which is unimaginatively called Kent's Book Blog. If that sounds like your kind of thing, bookmark it and I'll see you there. Books about bike stuff will get posted both here and on the book blog.

I'll still keep posting bike posts here when I have something to say and damn near every day I'll have something to say on Twitter because that's where I just ramble on in 140 character bursts and do a whole lot of "hey look at that!' tweets.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA

PS, if you want to see more posts here feel free to send Bike Talk questions to kentsbike (at) gmail (dot) com

Wow, that's really something!

Back around Christmas time Christine and I were walking through our local Target store when we saw a very colorful bike on display. At the time I made a comment along the lines of "Wow, that's really something!" and Christine said, "Don't get me that for Christmas. Really." There wasn't any danger of that happening, Christine and I favor bikes that are less, uh, eye-catching. At the time I did think that it was a shame that Target was such a cluttered visual environment because while I was in no way tempted to purchase the bike with the floral paint-job, I did think it was worth a picture or two.

One of the many things I like about my job is that I never know what is going to come in the door. Yesterday, one of the Target bikes came in the door. It was still in the packing box and the customer wanted to know if we'd put it together. While some places have policies of not working on certain brands (my favorite is Seattle's Wright Brothers who are happy to tell you that they "are not an authorized Huffy or Murray service center") our policy is to tell the customer what some particular service will cost and offer up our honest assessment as to whether a bike is worth sinking money into. The customer then decides whether or not we do the work. This customer decided it was well worth our service charge for us to assemble this bike.

The bike came in a very big box and it was very well packed, with all the colorful bits wrapped in paper and plastic to keep them from getting scratched up in shipping. All the little bolts and screws are painted to go with the color scheme of the bike. The bike features a basket, a 3-speed Shimano hub controlled by a twist shifter, V-style brakes, a wide seat, and a double-legged kick stand. The wheels needed truing and tensioning and the brakes and shifting needed adjusting, things that I doubt would have been done at the local Target store. While I'm a bike shop guy and can go on at length about why bike shop bikes are better than bikes from places like Target, I will say that if you do want to get the most from your inexpensive Target bike it is worthwhile to have it assembled and adjusted as best as possible from the outset.

Despite the fenders, this is not a bike that will be very good for wet weather. Painted rims don't have much grip in the wet and with use the brake pads are going to wear through the paint. Once the paint wears off the rims, the wet weather stopping may be better but those rims aren't going to look be so red.

The purple on the chain and the white on the chainwheel are going to wear off as the bike gets used as well.

The bike is quite comfortable for cruising around and the basket is handy and solid. The big green ribbon is going to be hard to keep clean. Also those white tires are going to show off every bit of dirt after just a few miles.

The bike is pretty much all heavy, low-grade steel and it's a very heavy bike. While the Shimano 3-speed gearing worked fine once properly adjusted, this is not a bike I'd want to be on when the terrain starts going up. It's also not a bike I'd like to carry up stairs or lift on to a bike rack.

This very flowery bike is really not my kind of thing but it was interesting to get to spend some time with the bike. The one thing I can honestly say about it is "Wow, that's really something!"

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA

Review -- The Obree Way

In his book, The Obree Way, Graeme Obree has created a text that not only details the techniques he used to become a record-breaking cyclist, he's given us a glimpse into the focused mind of a champion. Even those having no interest in racing or cycling at speed will find that The Obree Way provides fascinating and valuable insights into how analyze a problem, gather data, focus the mind, train the body and achieve real results.

Though my current favorite form of riding (visiting scenic sites at a take lots of pictures and visit lots of coffee shops pace) is far removed from Mr. Obree's specialty of covering more ground in an hour on a bicycle than any other human on the planet, I found myself fascinated, charmed and informed by this compact book.

It becomes clear in a very few pages that Mr. Obree pays attention to the small details. His style of writing is like his riding, simple, direct and to the point. Whether he is writing of trainers, time management, pedal technique, breathing, stretching or nutrition, all his chapters follow a basic "here is the problem, here is what I've observed, this is what I do and this is why" format. He has clear opinions, based on years of experience, and he states them clearly.

Obree cuts through a lot of the marketing hype, pseudo-science and flat-out mythology that might be great for selling the latest cycle magazine or frame design by looking at his own data and drawing his own conclusions. It is refreshing to find a data-driven fellow like Obree to be somewhat skeptical of gadgets. He writes of power meters that they are:

"another distraction from the path of true self-improvement. I have the same opinion of computers for road use and heart-rate monitors, but for one exception. The heart-rate monitor can be useful when going out on a proper recovery ride to not let team-mates force you to ruin your recovery by going too fast. The reason is simply that these appliances complicate the job of training on the road and they are hard to use as instant feed-back training aids in that training environment."

One of the great services Obree does in his book is to point out important but often neglected truths of riding. While much has been written about training, breathing and eating, Obree looks at the full cycle, so to speak. Resting is recognized and explained at least as fully as his training excercises. He has an entire chapter detailing his three-phase "Obree Method" of breathing. When he talks of nutrition you can tell he's not saying things based on whatever company is sponsoring his race. For example, he writes:


"My preferred food is sardines on toast with side servings of broccoli and carrots. I prepare this before leaving since the effort of mashing up the sardines can seem like a mammoth task if I do the ride as I described. It may not seem appetising on departure but on return it appears to be a culinary delight! The secret is to put a bit of tomato sauce in the mix. This gives the perfect balance of carbohydrate, protein, vitamins and essential oils such as omega3."

and

"There are loads of post-ride commercial mixtures available, but none that I have seen can match the nutritional content of this meal. Remember the human body is designed to chew and digest REAL food and chewing and forming small balls of food is a very important part of the digestive process that commercial drinks disregard. Be cynical; think it through for yourself, there is no profit in telling you that sardines, toast and veggies is one of the best meals you can eat."

My sense from reading this book is very much that Obree is his own man although the following passage made me think for a fraction of a second that maybe he's been bought off by the global marzipan cartel:

"After a quest taking years I discovered that the best long distance food is marzipan. This has the advantage not only in that it doesn’t produce crumbs but also it has perfect consistency to be pushed to the outside of the mouth on either side almost like a hamster. This means it can be chewed on while breathing heavily even on high output stretches such as climbs. The other benefit is that energy content is incredibly high. Commercial energy bars also have a high energy content but these must be tested on training ride to monitor your personal affinity with them."

(Just kidding there!)


Obree does not own a car, a fact he briefly notes in the book's introduction, and while he does describe various aspects of his time-trial bikes, I found his comments on his training bike to be interesting and wise:


"Depending on where you live in the world it would be highly recommended that you have full length mud-guards. The most important thing is that when you want and need to train you are not constrained by weather or darkness. Lights will be a must of course and the choice of wheel and tyre is important as well. Your training bike should have reliable cheaper wheels with full spoking normally 32 spokes. The choice of tyre is important since the last thing you want in the middle of a good effort is a puncture. Not only does it destroy a good effort but there is the problem of getting cold in the middle of nowhere sorting a puncture that could be avoided. I choose the widest possible tyre that will fit into my bike."

and

"With good care your training bike will be a vehicle of effort you can rely on. I personally, living on the west coast of Scotland, would not feel safe unless I had at least 2 spare tubes and a patch repair kit. I also carry an emergency kit of tools but if you are not mechanically minded then the fully charged mobile phone has to be your fallback position." 


and

"One very important issue in any frame or bike that you buy is tyre clearance. A lot of frames leave little clearance for wider tyres and carbon frames are bad for this in general. It would be easy to believe that a narrower tyre will be faster than a wider one but this is most certainly not the case. The narrower a tyre is then the longer the footprint on the road and this causes more resistance than a shorter, wider footprint from a wider tyre. Not only this but a wider tyre will puncture less easily and give a smooth ride."

Obree's chapters describing how to select, set up and use a bike trainer are hype-free and results oriented. Looking at Mr. Obree's results and after having read his whole book, I would certainly follow his guidance if I was looking to train for competition. His voice of experience rises clear and true above the marketing noise.

The chapter on stretching is compact an clear. Obree writes:

"In my whole career I did a routine of just 4 stretches and trust me, if I had not, I would never have been the rider I was. You would never accept having a stiff bottom bracket so don’t accept having a stiff body! The benefits are remarkable when you consider also that it has been shown that a suppleness programme reduces sports injuries considerably."

Obree does not advocate stretching before an event, but rather that it be a simple evening exercise taking 10 or 15 minutes. Suppleness is the goal and stretching is a means to that end. Again, Obree writes:

"The last word on all of this is that gaining this suppleness is a lot more work than maintaining it. Persevere with it and the accumulation of tiny gains makes a real difference. To be honest, maintaining the suppleness I had in my racing career would take as little as five minutes – but only if I stuck to the schedule every night!"

Obree concludes his book with his thanks and this note to the reader:

"Please trust me that this body of honest work is given in the best of spirit, I have been the guinea–pig in the quest to refine my training on every level and I can commend it really does work. Knowledge and understanding is a constant quest. This book is not definitive and keeping an open mind on new findings and developments is not only a good thing but essential if you are serious in your search for new and better ways to improve your cycling and athletic performance."

Like the rest of The Obree Way, those words are true.

Chain and Cog Wear

Bicycles are wonderful, efficient machines but like any mechanical device with moving parts, those parts are subject to wear. In some cases, like when you pull on the brake levers and notice that it is taking longer to stop than it used to, you get a clear signal that something needs attention. Even the least mechanically empathetic rider tends to notice when they can't stop, so worn brake pads are things that call attention to themselves as they wear. The brake pads aren't the only part of the braking system that wears and elsewhere I've called attention to the problem of brake rim wear.

The bicycle chain is often ignored unless it's squeaking or refusing to shift into the proper gear but in the case of your bike chain, ignorance is not bliss. A worn chain may shift fine and not squeak but as the individual links wear, the chain becomes slightly longer. While this is commonly called "chain stretch" the additional length is not the result of any metal stretching, it's the consequence of accumulated wear of the bushings in each chain link.

Chain wear isn't measured in miles or months. Three thousand miles ridden over the course of sunny summer by a rider who spins in low gears and who cleans her drivetrain weekly is a very different situation than a thousand miles ground out by a commuter on the gritty, rain-soaked Seattle hills. The tool for measuring chain wear isn't an odometer or a calendar, it's the common ruler.

On a brand new chain there is 1/2 inch between each pin so twenty half-links should measure 10 inches (254 mm). If those 20 half-links sum up to 10 1/16 inches or more, it's time to replace your chain. While you can measure this with a ruler, a tool like the Park CC-2 Chain Checker makes checking even easier.

Modern derailleur drive trains have narrower chains and cogs (something I ranted about a few years ago), and the newer stuff really does wear faster than and cost more than the old stuff. So checking your chain is important.

If you let your chain go too long, what happens is that the old chain wears your rear cogs and maybe your front sprockets to match up with with its worn profile. Dirt on the chain works to wear the metal cogs. The pressure is most concentrated on the small cogs, so the smaller cogs and the ones you most use see the most wear. The insidious thing is that you don't notice it until your chain has worn to the point where finally your shifting gets sloppy or the chain breaks. And if you wait until then to replace your chain, you'll find the new chain won't mate with the old cogs (or at least all of your old cogs). The symptom you'll feel is a skipping or popping under load as the new chain tries to settle into peaks and valleys of the worn cogs.

Chains are cheaper than cassettes or chain rings and if you do your own maintenance, a chain checker is a good investment. And the mechanic down at your local bike shop who tells you that you should replace your chain even though your bike seems to be behaving fine probably isn't trying to rip you off. He's probably trying to save you money in the long run.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA

Big Red Bicycle Christmas

Nora and One Left have a really fun album filled with very catchy songs that would make a great stocking stuffer for the cyclist in your life. Nora's dad Larry might be her biggest fan. He made sure I knew about her album just in time for Christmas. I've embedded the video above for your enjoyment. Christine literally squealed with delight on seeing the video.

For those of you who are not quite done with your Christmas shopping (or anyone who loves songs about bicycles) you can go to:

http://noraandoneleft.bandcamp.com/album/bicycle

listen to other tracks and buy the whole digital album for nine bucks. A nice deal on a very nice album.

Have a very Merry Christmas. I hope you all get what you want for Christmas and have a very Happy New Year.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah, WA USA

Ride 2 Blog Tour -- 3 Questions

Keith Snyder, the man behind the story collections RIDE: Short fiction about bicycles and RIDE 2: More short fiction about bicycles is a fellow who likes getting folks to tell stories about bikes. His latest plan, which may incidentally help sell a few more copies RIDE and RIDE 2, is to have the various authors in RIDE 2 ask each other questions. If the author has a blog, the questions and answers will be posted to their blog and all the questions and answers will be posted to Keith's blog at:

http://ridebikefiction.wordpress.com/

This is going to be spread out over the course of a few weeks and the order of the blog tour works like this:


Start: Rozan asks Peterson 3 questions.
12/23/12:  Peterson posts answers, asks Neuenfeldt
12/30/12: Neuenfeldt posts answers, asks Goffman
1/6/13: Goffman posts answers, asks Snyder
1/13/12: Snyder posts answers, asks Billman
1/20/13: Billman posts answers, asks Maher
1/27/13: Maher posts answers, asks Hope
2/3/13: Hope posts answers, asks Greene
2/10/13: Greene posts answers, asks Lempert
2/17/13: Lempert posts answers, asks Rozan
2/24/13: Rozan posts answers.

The writers get to pick the questions and the story order in RIDE 2 determined above schedule. S. J. Rozan wrote the first story in RIDE 2, so here are Rozan's questions and my answers:


--------------------------

1. When did you get your first bike and how did you feel about it?

Not counting my trike, which I got when I was three and used to try and escape and follow my older sister to school, my first bike was blue hand-me-down that used to be my sister's. I got it when she got a new bike. It was a kind of bike you don't see anymore, with a top tube that could bolt in lower position to make it a step-thru or a higher position to make it a "boy's" bike. I still thought it was girly and avoided it until I was about six years old. My dad won me over to the bike by adding these super cool Tiger hand grips to it. Esso was using those to promote their "Tiger in your Tank" slogan. I thought they were "Gr-r-reat!" 'cause they looked just like Tony the Tiger.

2. What's the weirdest thing that ever happened to you on a ride?

This is a toss-up, so I'm going to list two things. The first was in 1982 when I was biking from Minnesota to California. I had a series of flats, which turned out to be caused by slightly long spokes and a flimsy rim strip. On my final flat (it had to be my final flat, I was out of patches), in the middle of nowhere Wyoming, I figured out the problem. And as I looked down at the side of the road, there was a nearly used up roll of duct tape. There were no towns for miles, no reason for that duct tape to be there, but there it was. There was just enough tape for me to make a thick rim strip and ride the many miles to the next town where I bought a new patch kit.

The second weird thing happened in 2003 when I was racing from San Francisco to Portland in the Raid Californie-Oregon. I was riding at dusk, in northern California among the redwoods. It was just getting dark and the bugs were coming out and bats were swooping after them. It was astoundingly beautiful and just as I was thinking how amazing it is that the bats don't smash into anything, a bat, intent on dive bombing a bug, slams into my left hand and brake lever. I felt the bat convulse and die right on my hand.

3. What's your indoor sport?

When Christine, my wife, read this question she said "You don't have an indoor sport." "Yeah," I replied, "the only answer I can come up with for this one is Twitter." So that's what I'm going with.

--------------------------

My three questions for Eric Neuenfeldt are as follows:


1) You've got a day to show someone around your part of the world by bicycle. Where do you go riding and what do you show them?

2) You can add one more bike to whatever fleet of bikes you have now. What do you get?

3) Pick a movie or a book and explain how it would be so much better when you rework the plot to include bicycles.

You can follow the blog tour at Keith's site at:

http://ridebikefiction.wordpress.com/

Finally, thanks to those of you have bought RIDE and/or RIDE 2. Links from my site take you to Amazon where you can buy the Kindle versions of these books, but Keith's site at:

http://ridebikefiction.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/ride-2-is-going-live/

has currently has links to Nook, iBooks and Kobo versions. Sometime in January, the print version will be available.

Finally, if you have read RIDE or RIDE 2, please leave a review on Amazon, iBooks or whatever. Reviews, good or bad, help others in choosing books and reviews also help sell books.

I've got some more blog posts and stories in the works. Thanks for staying tuned to the blog and if you've bought any of my books, thanks for that as well.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson

Issaquah, WA USA

Dear Santa

This note has been making the rounds on Twitter. I hope you get that good cool bike you want for Christmas.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA

Safety Solution or Noise Pollution?

While I think we all can agree that there are no guarantees in life other than the basic certainty that something, at some point, will kill you and I think most of us also agree that taking reasonable precautions and trying to behave in safe manner is a good and prudent thing. But one person's reasonable precaution is another person's over-reaction. We, as individuals, can only see the world through our own eyes and, as Steely Dan noted, "the things you think are precious I can't understand." There is also the problem that we are much better at detecting and reacting to threats of the moment than we are at seeing long term consequences that result in increased threats to our safety. This, in large part, is why many people think sitting on their couch is safe while riding a bicycle is dangerous, when in fact our comforts are more likely to kill us.

Our individual actions take place within society and in sum alter society and those alterations are not always the desired outcomes. Take, for example, the car alarm. The original idea is that of a device that goes off when someone messes with your car, scaring them off and alerting you and your neighbors to a theft in progress. Now, it seems like darn near every car has a car alarm. I've heard dozens, heck hundreds of them go off. Because of people fumbling with their keys, or a big truck rolling by, or because of a bunch of things other than a crime in progress. I don't think "Oh my, a crime is in progress, I will leap into action to thwart the criminal!" No, I think, and you may as well, "Jeez, some idiot's alarm is going off. Again!"

It is thoughts like these that came to mind when I saw the Kickstarter for Loud Bicycle: Car horn for your bike. I understand the sentiment behind the device and I think the man behind the project, Jonathan Lansey is an earnest, well-meaning guy. I know some cyclists who are enthusiastically backing the project and, of course, BikeSnobNYC gave the project great press by mocking it mercilessly. My own thoughts are more mixed. I think it's too big and too loud and I'm not that confident of it succeeding. But a part of me fears that it will succeed and thus add to the cacophony of our city soundscape. Giving a bicycle the arrogant voice of the automobile isn't the answer I choose.

Christine and I use bells, specifically the classic Crane Bell. It's small, brass, loud and attention grabbing without being obnoxious and it never needs batteries. It's like a little gong.

There are times, however, when I can see the need or desire for something with a more piercing tone and another Kickstarter seems more in tune with my thoughts on warning devices. This device, called an Orp, is a small dual decibel bike horn & warning light. It looks like this:

I like the two levels of noise the Orp has and the attention grabbing light is nice addition as well. I'm not sure I'll be getting one, but I'm thinking about it.

I don't know what the marketplace and the street will decide is the right kind of warning device for a bicycle. What's your solution? Do you ding, beep, whistle or yell? Feel free to sound off in the comments.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA

Velo Orange Sabot Pedals

For the past month Christine has been riding the Velo Orange Gran Cru Sabot Pedals. The folks at Velo Orange were kind enough to send me a set of these pedals to evaluate and as soon as I saw them I knew they should go on Christine's Allant. These pedals are nice. Classy. Like my wife. Like her bike.

Now Christine had never complained about the stock nylon pedals on her bike and in truth those pedals have held up fine on her commutes and adventures. But the Sabots gleam like jewels. After her first few rides with the Sabots Christine noted how smooth the bearings are in the new pedals (Actually she proclaimed them very "spinny"). Each pedal actually has two sets of inboard sealed bearings and an outboard sealed bearing making them very solid, smooth turning and low-maintenance. If the pedals ever do need to be serviced, the sealed bearings can be replaced.

The pedals have a big, flat (actually slightly concave surface) with replaceable grippy pins. They work great with the footwear Christine and I favor, Keen Sandals, but the Sabots would work well with pretty much any shoe. As you can see in the photo below, the Sabots are big pedals, with a bigger platform than the stock pedals they replaced. The additional surface area together with the pins makes for a real solid shoe pedal connection even in wet weather. (Unfortunately, bike commuting in Issaquah in November has given Christine lots of opportunities to verify the truth of this.)

The Sabots are a very nice, high quality flat pedals. Christine likes them a lot and so do I. Russ Roca also has been putting some miles on a set of Sabots and you can read his review here. BTW, Russ takes  much better pictures than I do!

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson

Issaquah WA USA

RIDE 2: More short fiction about bicycles

Just about a year ago, a story I wrote was published in a book called RIDE: Short fiction about bicycles. If you're a regular reader of this blog you probably know this because I wrote about the book when it came out and I've shamelessly had a link to the book on the right side of this blog ever since. While the book hasn't sold in numbers to keep Stephen King awake at night (which hardly seems fair since Stephen King books have managed to keep me up late on several occasions), the sales of the book have bought me a few cups of coffee which in turn have kept me awake. Since I'm up, I might as well write something.

This is how blog posts happen. This is also how stories happen and another one of my stories made it into another book. This book is called RIDE 2: More short fiction about bicycles and like Ride, it is edited by Keith Snyder. Keith is a damn good editor but he's not exactly original when it comes to picking titles. So it goes. BTW, a friend of mine on Twitter noted that when men get gushy and rave about something the word "damn" shows up a lot. Damn right. My own story, Made with Extra Love, which you may have read in an earlier version on this blog last spring, wound up being a lot stronger and tighter thanks to Keith's editing. I'm sure if I'd given Keith a crack at this paragraph, there would be fewer "damns" in it and it'd be a damn sight better. He's that damn good.

Any collection of stories by different authors is going to have various voices, tones and tales. Not every character is admirable, not every story is a beacon of hope. But the tales run true, which is the ultimate test of fiction. You can tell in the reading that Eric Neuenfeldt knows urban bike shops and bike polo, Jan Maher and Barb Goffman understand the dynamics of families and S.J. Rozan knows love and loss. And Keith Snyder's entry, which I was wary of since it is both poetry and "Part 1", shows that yes, the man knows how to make words behave on a page. Don't let the poetry and Part 1 scare you. And by the way, Jon Billman knows a hell of a lot about the dirt roads of Oklahoma, the line between this world and the next and the importance of a good breakfast.

The common thread in these tales, besides humanity, is bicycles. The machine is more than tubes and tires and chain. In each of these tales, it is the bicycle that takes the character and the reader on a worthwhile journey.

Yes, I'm totally biased but I'm also extremely proud to be sharing the pages of Ride 2 with the other authors whose tales fill this book. I hope Keith keeps this series running for a good long time.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA

Favorite Bicycle-related Magazines

On Twitter I asked folks this question:

"What is your favorite bicycle-related magazine and why?"

Now this is in no way a scientific survey, vast swaths of people aren't on Twitter and only a tiny fraction of the millions of Twitter users bother themselves with following the 140 character texts from some bike mechanic in Issaquah. By the same token, most of the users of the internet never cross paths with this blog. Given those limitations, however, I found the results to be an interesting look at the kind of folks who actually do read my stuff.

The most-mentioned magazine was Jan Heine's excellent Bicycle Quarterly.  Bicycle Quarterly got raves for its technical articles, real world tests, historical perspective and as one person noted "Jan Heine knows more about bicycles and cycling than I ever will. The ads are cool, too."

The next most oft-mentioned magazines were Momentum and Bicycle Times. As my friend Barb listed these two magazines as a tie for her pick of a favorite citing "reviews of bikes/gear I might actually buy and non-racers profiled." Scott enjoys Bicycle Times' back page "How We Roll" feature and his wife calls it her "get-your-stoke-on" magazine. Momentum got various positive comments for featuring good articles with basic info, lots of images and content for and about women.

Another magazine getting multiple mentions was Dirt Rag. Cited for its nice graphics and punkish attitude, it was also noted that the magazine is "fun to read." I'd add that Dirt Rag also has better depth to its reviews than many of the glossier mags and I love its annual literature contest.

Before I mention my personal favorite magazine, I'd like to call attention to some other excellent, but perhaps less well-known magazines that were mentioned by Twitter folks. Although they are zines and not really magazines (no ads, no gloss, no BS) several people made sure to mention the works of Elly Blue. Elly's zines are little books on a given theme are always nicely done with that indy, DIY, you can do it vibe to them. Go to http://takingthelane.com/ and check out her stuff.

Grant Petersen's Rivendell Reader can be had in electronic form and some back print issues can be found at:  http://www.rivbike.com/product-p/rr.htm Again, interesting stuff for folks interested in the non-racing aspects of bicycles.

By the way, there is certainly nothing wrong with racing bikes but my own interests and those of most folks answering my question tended more towards other aspects of cycling. Of the zippier magazines, Peloton, Switchback, and Pavedmag were cited as having a "not just racing" approach. Rouleur was also called "glorious" and since it features the writing of Paul Fournel, I would have to agree. The racing classic Velonews is still loved as the go to source for racing coverage.

My friend Davey recommends two magazines called Boneshaker, one from the US and one from the UK citing their "beauty in bicycling" and "thrill of words." I tend to trust Davey's judgement in these matters. For those of you looking for a more urban bike vibe, check out Urban Velo, the product of a couple of good ex-DirtRag dudes. Based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, COG is another nice city-focused magazine.

But my personal favorite magazine, the one that Christine and I both devour as soon as it comes in the door, is one you won't find at your local newstand. It's Adventure Cyclist and you get it as one of the many benefits of membership in the Adventure Cycling Association. This magazine is not about bicycles, it's about traveling by bicycle and nobody combines great writing, wonderful pictures, solid information quite as well as these folks. This is the magazine that will inspire you to see the world from the seat of a bicycle. If you are not a member of Adventure Cycling, you're missing out on some of the best travel tales available.

OK, I'm sure there are other great magazines out there. If you know of something great that shouldn't be missed, please add a comment.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah, WA USA

Review -- Free Country: A Penniless Adventure the Length of Britain

George Mahood is the sort of chap you'd like to have a beer with. Actually, I think he's the kind of fellow you'd find yourself buying a beer for after just the briefest of conversations. I say this having never met the man but I feel like I've just had the adventure of a lifetime with my new pal after having read his very funny and surprisingly inspirational book Free Country.

Free Country tells the true story of two young men, George and his friend Ben, who decide to cycle the length of Britain from Land's End to John O Groats. While this ambitious journey has been undertaken by many others, none have done it in quite the same way as George and Ben. Because, you see, they begin with nothing. Well, not quite nothing, they each have a pair of Union Jack boxer shorts (and George later confesses, a camera, a notebook, a pencil and stack of cards containing the words "I am OFFICIALLY a very nice person.")

Over three weeks in September, with a vow to spend no money, they wander their way north like the maddest of monks on the most quixotic of quests. What they find along the way is a country filled with very interesting people, a great number of whom are very nice. Ben and George manage, through charm, wit, fast talking and willingness to do tasks ranging from cleaning, to loading onions, to singing for their suppers, to acquire clothes, food, bicycles and someplace to sleep every night. It is a wonderful adventure and very, very funny. George is a great observer of life and a very witty writer and he and Ben bicker throughout the journey in the way that only true friends can. A few quotes will give you the flavor of this delightful book:

‘Yeah. There’s a place called Neilston in another ten miles.’ ‘Ten miles? Are you kidding me?’ asked Ben. ‘Err, no. It doesn’t look like there’s anything else before there anyway. We’ve done really well today. I reckon we’ll have done over 90 miles.’ ‘WHAT? My god, you are such a slave driver. If I’d known we had done anything near that much, I would have stopped for the day ages ago.’ ‘I know. That’s why I didn’t tell you.’

-----

Before eating the sandwiches we tried a rendition of Silent Night in German that I could still remember from primary school. A guy on a bmx, in his mid thirties, approached with a small paper bag from Greggs. ‘Hi guys. You can have these two donuts if you promise to stop singing.’ ‘You’ve got yourself a deal. Thanks, mate,’ I said.

-----

The descent from Kirkstone Pass was undoubtedly the fastest I have ever been on a bike. It was possibly the fastest that man has ever travelled, in any form of transport. If The Falcon had had wings, I swear she would have taken off. It was one of the scariest, but most exhilarating things I have ever done. Braking wasn’t really an option for me, as The Falcon’s brakes only had any slight effect when travelling at a ridiculously slow speed, or uphill. I just gave in and let The Falcon do what she was best at doing - not stopping.

-----

We explained our challenge and asked if there was anything we could do in exchange for some free food. ‘Oooooh, what do you reckon, Jan? Should we give these two strapping young lads any food?’ she said to her colleague. ‘Yeah, why not. If that one with the skimpy shorts shows us a bit more leg,’ she laughed. ‘That’ll be you then, George,’ said Ben. This was a new low. I was being made to flaunt my body in exchange for food. I felt used. I felt cheap. I liked it. I lifted up the side of my skimpy blue shorts, and exposed my flabby white thighs. ‘Phwoooooaarr,’ said both ladies...

-----

If a nutritionist had analysed what we ate during the bike ride, I think they probably would have concluded that we should not be alive, let alone fit enough to cycle. I read somewhere that beige food is bad for you. Almost everything we ate was a shade of beige; bread, pasta bakes, chips, pasties and bananas. Anyway, all I’m saying is that peas and carrots taste unbelievable if you only eat beige food for 17 days beforehand. Give it a try.

-----

Free Country is one of the funniest books I've ever read and it is a book that celebrates the tremendous kindness that exists in the world. George and Ben completed their journey thanks to the kindness of strangers, but after reading the tale of their journey, I feel that I owe them much more than the meager cost of this book for the laughter and wisdom I've found in its pages. George and Ben, if you ever make it to Issaquah, look me up. I'll make sure you've got a good meal and a place to stay.

Chile to Kili (with a stop in Issaquah, Washington)

On Monday I met Elvis Munis, a young Tanzanain ecology student who currently cycling around the world, unsupported, to raise funds for education for his fellow Tanzanian students. Elvis is currently in paused in Issaquah, and next week Vino Bella, a lovely little wine and espresso bar just two doors south of the Bicycle Center where I work, is hosting an event where Elvis will show slides and videos and talk about his journey and his cause. The event is a fund raiser and as I talked with Elvis and his friend Garth, I became more and more impressed with this quiet young man and his work. I told Elvis I'd do what I could to get the word out.

That is why I'm posting this here. The best tool I have at my disposal is this blog and if you are anywhere near Issaquah next Wednesday, I strongly urge you to come to meet Elvis and hear his story. Below are the details from the announcement on Facebook.

Chile to Kili, Issaquah WA

Meet Elvis Munis, the amazing Tanzanian ecology student who is cycling around the world, unsupported, to raise funds for his education and fellow Tanzanian students.

Chile to Kili was conceived by 26 year old Tanzanian student and naturalist Elvis Munis, a member of the Conservation Resource Center and ardent conservationist and cyclist. As many of you know, Tanzania is a beautiful country filled with unique and wonderful natural ecosystems, but many of these ecosystems are being threatened. Protection and proper management of these systems is critical to not only the plants and animals but to the Tanzanian people who depend on these ecosystems for their livelihoods, from food, wood, and medicine to supporting the tourist industry that provides so many jobs. Elvis identified one of the major problems in conservation in Tanzania: the lack of opportunity for Tanzanians to obtain education necessary to manage wildlife and natural resources.

Elvis started his amazing endeavor in South America in January and since then has cycled 11,000 miles, making his way to the Pacific Northwest. We are glad to host Elvis here in Issaquah and welcome you to hear about his journey.

The event is hosted by Vino Bella Wine and Espresso Bar and will include:
- Slide show and videos from Elvis' travels
- Music by Michel Gotz
- Silent auction and raffle

We wish to help Elvis' goal of raising fund for conservation education scholarships. We believe that we can raise $5,000, which will allow Elvis to get his first degree in Conservation Biology as he continues to cycle and raise funds for other students. By supporting education for Elvis and his peers, we will be helping to fulfill their dreams and support critical ecosystems of Tanzania.

Date/Time: Wednesday November 14, from 6:30 to 8:30pm
Venue: Vino Bella. 99 Front Street, Issaquah WA 98027.

I'm helping Elvis out by donating this lovely old Nishiki to his cause:

I wrote about this bike a few months ago, noting that "now I just need to find somebody who needs a good old bike." What we are going to do on Wednesday is raffle the bike off. It'll work like this. We'll have a jar and slips of paper. For $5, you get to print your name and contact info on a piece of paper that goes in the jar. If you pledge $10, two pieces of paper with your name go into the jar. You can pledge as much as you want and every $5 earns you another slip in the jar. At the end of the night, Elvis will pull a piece of paper out of the jar and if your name is on that paper, you win the bike. All the money in the jar goes to Elvis and his fellow students at the Conservation Resource Centre in Tanzania.

Christine and I will be at Vino Bella Wednesday night November 14th to hear Elvis talk about his trip and his work. I hope you can join us and help Elvis keep rolling.

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA

Of Bridges and Herons

I don't know what on earth I was thinking when I agreed to this. I might have been imagining how beautiful it is out on the Olympic Peninsula, how wonderful it would be to spend ten days with Kent, riding our bikes on roads less travelled in early fall when the weather is cool and the leaves beginning to turn, camping by the water in our excellent little tent and watching beautiful sunsets every night. But when Kent suggested we ride to Seattle from our home in Issaquah instead of taking advantage of the bike racks on Sound Transit, and I agreed to try it, I don't know what I was thinking.

Yes, I knew it would involve a long and arduous climb. I knew I'd be riding in a lot more traffic than I am used to. And I knew that there would be bridges to cross, most notably the long I-90 floating bridge that links Mercer Island with Seattle. But I was feeling brave and adventuresome, and I agreed to try it. Now that I have survived the long ascent out of Issaquah and the harrowing descent of Honda Hill and we're making our way along the trail through the Bellevue Slough, I am well aware that I am already very tired and there is some very hilly terrain ahead, and I have used up whatever bravery I started out with going down that hill with trucks roaring by, and the dreaded I-90 bridge is still to come. Of course there is a smaller bridge to cross before this, and as we start to roll across it, I am tense and seriously worried that I have bit off more than I can chew. And what I am thinking is, can we maybe catch the bus with bike racks at the Mercer Island Park & Ride?

Suddenly Kent calls out from behind me. “Look, a heron!” I stop on the bridge, and sure enough, there it is, a blue heron standing still at the edge of the water on its long legs, searching for signs of living things moving in the depths.

I have a sort of history with herons, odd as that sounds. Years ago, living in White Plains, New York and raising two small children, during rare hours of time to myself I'd wander over to a small pond not too far from where we lived. There was a heron who fished there, standing very still in the water, waiting, its beak occasionally darting at amazing speed beneath the surface. I'd sit on the grassy bank and watch the water, watch the heron, watch the clouds, reveling in the peace and quiet, coming back to myself within my days spent as wife and mother. When we moved to Issaquah, I knew I would miss that place, and I would miss the heron. But a salmon stream flows through the center of Issaquah, and one morning as I was walking to work in the early darkness, I saw a tall, slender distinct bird-shape, motionless in the moving water. I stood on the bridge over the creek, quiet and delighted. The heron looked up at me, and returned to its fishing. I came to look forward to seeing the new heron on my early morning walks, and I often did. I would stand for awhile on the bridge, cherishing those moments of pre-dawn companionship, listening to the sound of the creek and looking up at the stars while the heron fished for its breakfast.

What grace a heron has, to venture on slender legs into deep waters, to wait, still and patient, as water swirls around, scanning the depths, perpetually seeking. And yet in flight, they are magnificent, their extended slender bodies, long beaks, and wide blue wingspan evocative of prehistoric ancestors as they soar. Our four-year-old son, in a stage of fascination with dinosaurs, once saw a heron in flight and pointed excitedly. “Pteranodon!” His dad said gently. “No, Peter, that's a heron.” But Peter remained convinced that he had seen a pteranodon, and I'm still not sure he was entirely wrong.

A few years ago, I had ventured out into deep waters of my own, exploring a sense of call to ordination in my church. It is a lengthy and arduous process, which involves evaluation by committees and commissions and boards and so forth at a number of distinct stages. Many questions are asked, and one that was asked of me was: “Are you willing to drive?” What might have been a no-brainer for most people was deeply challenging for me. Having lived car-free with my husband for over two decades, I had to ask myself if that was something I was willing to change, and it was not a small question.

I am convinced that the ways we choose to get around in the world are deeply formative for us. They shape how we experience the world, and how we experience ourselves in the world. They dictate the pace at which we live our lives, they expand or limit our range, our options, and our vision. At least as significantly, the choices we make impact and shape the world around us, for good or ill. Even if we fancy ourselves drivers, we ultimately are all passengers on this fragile blue-green world that sustains our lives as we travel around our star.

I mulled the practical questions. How would I visit hospitals, respond to midnight emergencies, visit people in their homes? In theory, a church that pays significant lip-service, at least, to the responsibilities of environmental stewardship should not be adverse to hiring a walking, biking, public-transportation-using priest. But those ways of getting around, at least on the average, take significantly more time than simply hopping in the car. If I am accustomed to a slower pace of life, the average parishioner today is not, and I suspect that most would not be willing to adjust their expectations for response time to their pastoral needs, especially if they are paying for that time. Of course, Jesus did not drive, and except for a few journeys in boats and a notable ride on a donkey, spent his entire public ministry walking from place to place. It strikes me as odd that people talk a lot about emulating what he did, but not the pace at which he did it, or the mode of travel that enabled those life-changing personal encounters with a woman who reached out to touch the fringe of his garment, a blind man that cried out to him in passing, or a short tax-collector who had climbed a tree to get a better look at him. Paul did not drive either, and managed to spread the gospel throughout the then-known world, covering over 10,000 miles between his own life-changing encounter with God on the road to Damascus and his martyrdom at Rome. In fact, for the vast majority of the church's history, people have celebrated, preached and attended worship services, and have been baptized, counselled, married, and buried without the involvement of the automobile. But a sense of history is a rare thing these days, and as I say, expectations have changed. The work I hope to do is work to which I believe I am well-suited and called, and driving is something that most people would not think twice about. Maybe I need to be more adaptable in order to get where I hope to go. Yet I have never believed that the end justifies the means; I find it much more likely that the means determine the end, and I'm not convinced that our collective reliance on automobile transport is achieving more good ends than otherwise.

I think about the life Kent and I have shared, the many ways we have chosen to live simply and travel slowly and the relationship forged over decades by those choices. I know many couples live happily even as one person drives while the other does not. But I also know that there are threads you pull that can unravel fabric faster and more irrevocably than one intends, bridges we cross that lead to places we only belatedly realize we did not want to go. I do not doubt that we would continue to love one another. But if I were to decide to drive, our relationship and our lives would be changed more fundamentally than by any choice we have made yet, except for the decision to have children. To at least some degree, we would travel at different speeds, in different orbits far less synchronous than the ones shaped by our very real but complementary differing interests and occupations. One can love a comet that passes every few years into one's view in the night sky, but that kind of love does not sustain a life together on the earth. How can I place at risk the most precious thing in my life?

I have been pondering the “Are you willing to drive?” question, and all that hinges on however it will eventually be answered, for weeks. I am turning it all over again in my mind as I wander home from work on a partly wooded trail, when a sudden stunning cry fills the air and a streak of blue wings fills my vision. The heron soars past me, so close I could reach out and touch. Awestruck, I follow his flight with my eyes, my own heart soaring as he turns and ascends on the wind, disappearing over the tops of cedars, flying back towards the creek. I would have missed this, is the thought that comes to me unbidden, and there is no longer a question. I know that I will not drive.

It was probably a thread I pulled that began the unraveling of my ordination process; I will never know for sure. Eventually, I turned aside from a path that promised to become increasingly adversarial, fraught with misunderstandings and dictated by an agenda that had nothing to do with who I was or what I had to offer. I got a green bike and headed out on another road.

All this I am thinking, all of it brushing my mind as swiftly as wings, as I stand on the bridge over the Bellevue Slough, watching the heron scanning the depths of the water. I know that eventually, he will find what he is seeking, or something better. And what I am also thinking now is that yes, I really can do this. With a last glance at the heron, I smile and get back on my green bike, heading across the bridge with Kent for the great I-90 floating bridge, Seattle, and points beyond.