Bicycling

Ever since starting to ride, I've thought of traveling by bicycle. We had a person from my high school go across the country in 1976 with Bikecentennial (now Adventure Cycling). I thought that was cool. So I started planning for it. I decided I would go when I graduated college. And so I did. Whitehall, Pennsylvania to Los Angeles, California in 52 days.

Seven years later I got the itch to travel again, so I quit my job and did a tour down the entire Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Just because climbing all those mountains was so much fun, I continued through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. After that tour I moved to Virginia.

Another seven years, and in 1996 I was lucky enough to get registered for the 21^st Assault on Mt. Mitchell. Mt. Mitchell is the highest point east of the Mississippi River. The ride starts in South Carolina, routes onto the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, is 102 miles long, and has over 11,000 feet of climbing, with 7,000 feet of that occurring in the last 28 miles of the ride. My topographic mapping program, which counts every little bit of elevation gain, tells me the true total climbing was 14,739 feet over 57 uphill miles.

Here's a picture of how I started, riding in our back alley. Riding in the back alley

In 1996 I also won the Virginia Commonwealth Games Road Race. I competed in the unlicensed category. Our race started with the entire field of men and women, aged 30-59. I won that field overall and took the gold medal for the 30-39 male category. In 1997 I duplicated that feat, except for some stupidity all around that made me and two other riders get disqualified. So I stayed for Saturday's Mill Mountain Hill Climb time trial and captured the gold in my age category. I was also the fastest unlicensed rider for the day.

In July 1999 I flew out west to do some riding through Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons National Parks. I rode 347 miles. 173 miles were uphill and I had a total of 22,527 feet of climbing. Read the write-up. Click here if you'd like to see some pictures from that trip.

In June 2000 I did a day ride of 213 miles you might like to read about.

2001 found me riding the mountains of Colorado and Utah on the Pedal the Peaks tour with my brother. This tour was 521 miles with 254 of those miles uphill and a total of 52,847 feet of climbing. Read the write-up. Here are the pictures of that tour. Click on the Vacations album.

In June 2002 I did another day ride. This one was 215 miles.

Then in September 2002 I took on the 14th riding of the Bridge to Bridge Century. This one is in North Carolina and follows the Blue Ridge Parkway for some of the route and ends atop Grandfather Mountain. This ride had 56 miles and 14,175 feet of climbing.

I just rode the 2003 edition of the Mountains of Misery Century out of Christiansburg, VA. It finished with a climb to Mountain Lake, the same finish the old Tour duPont route took. This century had 54 miles and 13,881 feet of climbing. And that last climb was brutal! This was part of my preparation for my upcoming riding in France.

Not two weeks later I did another somewhat day's ride. This one was planned in terms of destination and ended up being 180 miles.

Then in July 2003 I did one of my dream vacations - riding some of the roads and mountains of the Tour de France. I rode two weeks in the French Alps. I did 900 miles of over fourteen days of riding, climbing over 90,000' over some of the famous and not so famous mountains of the Tour.

In August 2005 my wife Robin and I did a two-week bicycle camping tour through parts of New England - New York, Massachusettes, New Hampshire, and Vermont. To read about this excursion, click here. If you'd like to see the pictures, click here.

In 2006 I set a goal of riding 20 centuries. Here is my recap of these rides.

Other centuries I've ridden:
The Pocono Century Tour, out of Scranton, Pennsylvania, was my first century ever and I was woefully unprepared for it. It took me 10 hours 10 minutes to complete the ride, which has 8,621 feet of climbing over 52 uphill miles. I went back for the 20th anniversary of my first century (and their 25th edition of the ride) much better prepared and finished in 6 hours 30 minutes, riding all but the first 10 miles solo.

The Mountain Mama Century started in August 2000 and includes climbs up nine mountains. It has 13,405 feet of climbing and 49 uphill miles. This one starts and ends in Monterey, Virginia.

The local club helps run the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Festival the last weekend of July. A century is one of the rides offered. Our own Shenandoah Valley Century is run every second Sunday in September.

I've also ridden the Lake Anna Century in Richmond, VA, the Seagull Century in Salisbury, MD, the Reston Century in Reston, VA, the Tour de Valley Century in Waynesboro, VA, the Berryville Century in Berryville, VA, and the Gap Gallop Century (6,570 feet of climbing and 52 uphill miles) in Bethlehem, PA. Here's the profile of the Gap Gallop.

We have a local route called "No Quiche". It climbs in to the Shenandoah National Park and follows the Skyline Drive for about 35 miles. You have some great views up there. It also goes over New Market mountain. This one has 11,123 feet of climbing and 50 uphill miles when ridden counterclockwise.

Lastly, I've created my own centuries in my area. I do a variation of the No Quiche that goes to the south end of the Skyline Drive to Waynesboro. Another goes west over Shenandoah Mountain into West Virginia (10,178 feet of climbing and 52 uphill miles if you include the climb up Little North Mountain, only 9,768 feet and 47 uphill miles if you don't - and only 94 miles total).

On July 4, 2006 I completed my 100th century. Here's a recap of those rides.

I'm active in the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition based in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The club's activities include Tuesday night time trials, Wednesday night casual rides, Thursday night fast-paced rides, and various weekend rides. We help host the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Festival the last weekend in July at the campus of Bridgewater College and the Shenandoah Valley Century, which occurs on the 2^nd Sunday of September each year.

Two good organizations to become acquainted with are the League of American Bicyclists LAB logo and Adventure Cycling, both of which our local club is a member. I am a life member of both organizations. The League is involved with helping to secure the rights of bicyclists on the roads and Adventure Cycling is an excellent resource for those who like to bicycle tour.

I grew up in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania and was lucky enough to have a velodrome in the area. The Lehigh County Velodrome has recently been remodeled and has hosted a number of world class events. For many years Air Products and Chemicals has sponsored a developmental training program for all willing riders. My brother and I participated in this program, though we did not have the success as some of their more famous racers, notably Marty Nothstein.

Another place you might want to visit is the Virginia Biking Web Site.

Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring. -- Desmond Tutu

Few articles ever used by man have created so great a revolution in social conditions as the bicycle. -- from the 1900 U.S. Census Report

Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride. -- John F. Kennedy

There is more to life than increasing its speed. -- Gandhi

To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first. -- William Shakespeare

To travel hopefully is better than to arrive. -- Sir James Jeans

It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop. -- Confucius

The best rides are the ones where you bite off much more than you can chew, and live through it. -- Doug Bradbury

One way to solve the traffic problem would be to keep all the cars that are not paid for off the streets. -- Will Rogers

The more I think about our US domestic transportation problems...the more I see an increased role for the bicycle in American life. I am convinced after riding bikes here in China, that it is a sensible, economical and clean form of transportation that makes enormous good sense. -- George Bush, as US Ambassador to China

The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart. -- Iris Murdoch

I can teach a man to bicycle, but I can never teach him why. -- paraphrased from Timothy E. Thatcher in The American Scholar

...the bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created: Converting calories into gas, a bicyclist gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon. A person pedaling a bike uses energy more efficiently than a gazelle or an eagle. And a triangle-frame bicycle can easily carry ten times its own weight-a capacity no automobile, airplane or bridge can match. -- Bill Strickland in The Quotable Cyclist

From the time I was nine until I was seventeen I spent most of holidays bicycling on the Continent. This was the best education I ever had, far better than schools. The more one circulates in his travels the better citizen he becomes, not only of his own country but of the world. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia. -- H. G. Wells

Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling. -- James E. Starrs

The very existence of the bicycle is an offense to reason and wisdom. -- P. J. O'Rourke

The bicycle is the noblest invention of mankind. -- William Saroyan

Since the bicycle makes little demand on material or energy resources, contributes little to pollution, makes a positive contribution to health and causes little death or injury, it can be regarded as the most benevolent of machines. -- Stuart S. Wilson

Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race. -- H. G. Wells

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man's convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man's brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle. -- Elizabeth West, Hovel in the Hills

When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking. -- Arthur Conan Doyle, in an 1896 article for Scientific American

Cycling is like church - many attend, but few understand. -- Jim Burlant

Just as the ideal of classic Greek culture was the most perfect harmony of mind and body, so a human and a bicycle are the perfect synthesis of body and machine. -- Richard Ballantine, Richards' Ultimate Bicycle Book

The surfer is primitive man reacting gracefully to his environment; the bicyclist is the fusion of modern man and the machine-the ultimate of man's expression with a machine he propels himself. Once one reaches motorized sport, the human becomes invisible, the cars impersonal juggernauts. -- George Sheehan

It is no longer a beast of steel . . . no . . . it is a friend. Destiny has accorded man this new friend . . . It is a faithful and powerful ally against one's worst enemies. It is stronger than anxiety, stronger than sadness. It has all the power of hope. -- Maurice Leblanc, Wings to Fly

Whoever invented the bicycle deserves the thanks of humanity. -- Lord Charles Beresford

Life is too short for traffic. -- Dan Bellack

A little bit of bicycle trivia

The smallest bicycle that an adult can ride has wheels made from silver dollars.

The longest cycle was built in Denmark in 1976. It seats 35 people and is 72 feet long. Various parts of 78 old bicycles, 142 yards of steam pipes, 70 sprockets, 3 car wheels, and 55 yards of chain were used in its construction.

At St. Helen's School in Newbury, Ohio, unicycling is a mandatory subject. The students are allowed to ride their unicycles in the halls between classes. Collisions are surprisingly few.

Half of all the parts of a typical bicycle are in the chain.

The most efficient animal on earth in terms of weight transported over distance for energy expended is a human on a bicycle. The most efficient machine on earth in terms of weight transported over distance for energy expended is a human on a bicycle.

The first bicycle traffic court was established in Racine, Wisconsin on June 18, 1936.

If every one of us used just one gallon of gasoline less in a week, we'd reduce the amount of fuel we burn by 5%. That would save 130 million gallons, or more crude oil than we import from Kuwait in an entire month. - April 2004

462 Millions of gallons of gasoline could be saved in one year if cycling in the U.S. increased from 1% to 1.5% of all trips. - May 2005

11 Pounds of fat can be burned in a year by regularly bike commuting 15 minutes to work.

A biker can ride 3-1/2 miles on the calories found in an ear of corn.

Bicycles consume less energy per passenger mile (35) than any other form of transport, including walking (100). An automobile with a single occupant consumes 1860. - April 1987

Industrial-world cities typically relinquish at least 1/3 of their land to roads and parking lots.

For a bridge to accommodate 40,000 people in one hour, it would require twelve lanes for cars, four lanes for buses, two for trains, and one for bicycles. - George Work and Lawrence Malone

With the materials it takes to build a medium-sized car, 100 bicycles can be manufactured.

A cyclist can travel three miles on 100 calories. A car can only travel 280 feet on 100 calories.

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