Not Athletic
Because people notice I bike somehow I keep finding myself in this conversation:
It’s funny people think I’m athletic. Obviously they didn’t know me way back when.
I only survived gym class because I pretended to be really angry when the game didn’t go my way. Taking a game too seriously seemed to be the way to be taken seriously when playing sports.
And I haven’t gotten any more athletic after that. I’ve just found a lifestyle that works for me.
Commuting by bike doesn’t have to be an athletic undertaking. It just takes time to get used to it.
And now that it’s second nature for me I find myself having awkward moments like this:
I like to tell people “I’m not trying to save the planet one pedal stroke at a time, I just love to ride. It makes me happy.”
Oh yeah, and desert…
you should read bike snob’s “the enlightened cyclist: commuter angst, dangerous drivers, and other obstacles on the path to two-wheeled transcendence.”
he talks about how some drivers hate cyclists because they simply view them as not a commuter or someone who’s trying to get healthy, rather a self-righteous, tree-hugging, bike-riding hippie trying to lord over them with the fact that cyclists are better because we care and are doing something good for the environment.
not saying that caring about the environment is a bad thing at all, of course, but it is something to think about.
Yeah, I sometimes think I’m riding a cloud, too, until I hit another section of pavement that looks like the surface of the moon.
No, Opus – that’s just turbulence!
so true!
want to really feel as if your on a cloud? riding a tall unicycle (like one with a chain, aka a giraffe unicycle) actually has that feeling. youre high up, you can’t see the apparatus your on. very floaty.
I too have had the why bike I wouldnt that’s too dangerous it does make you wonder when you look at some drivers so angry why pay all that money if it does that to you.
I also put bicycling in the faster & more dependable plus more flexible and cheaper than public transportation (and usually driving) when I lived in Boston.
..you look at some drivers so angry why pay all that money if it does that to you
I always wondered this too. For the few that could appreciate the conversation, I used the frugal Yankee explanation – driving saved no time over bicycling bu would cost $100 month to park plus gas and maintenance, while bicycling I could see the trees and the birds. The question for driving was: Should I pay more to get fat, pollute the environment, or fund Middle Eastern terrorists?
I found the “you don’t have a car get out of the road” comments almost always happened at rush hour when the cars in front of me were blocking the road, or when I stopped at a red light (even with cars in front of me). This didn’t convince me to drive.
I’m impressed by your posts, both ideas (Inflatable hobo Pirate with a Religious Streak?!) with simple drawings
AD
That’s awesome. I live in a small city in California and I walk to work, which is very unusual. It’s only 1.25 miles but people act like I do a marathon every morning.
My boss once told me that I could obviously do the crazy hard bike ride that we were talking about because I walk to work every morning!
In the winter I occasionally cross country ski to work and, I’ll admit, I feel a little bad ass then.
Thanks for the comics!