Be Independent. Beat the COVID Blues. BIKE!

“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, British author

It’s official: it is now harder to buy a bicycle in these United States than to buy a roll of toilet paper. 

(photo by author, September, 2019)

Who knew?

Who could have predicted that by June of 2020, the sport and the hobby, the pastime and the pleasure of bicycling, would experience a boom unlike any ever seen before, maybe even since the invention of this two wheeled mode of transportation in 1817? Right now, if you want to purchase a bike—well, good luck. New bike sales for adults have soared by 200 percent in the U.S. compared to just one year ago. Sales for kid’s bikes are up significantly too.  

Demand for bicycles has exploded for one simple reason.  In the midst of a worldwide pandemic, when folks are no longer able to go to a ball game or play organized group sports or catch a movie at a theater or dine in at a restaurant or see a live play onstage or even go to a physical workplace (other than the dining room table), there is still one activity that’s easy and relatively inexpensive and always good for your health and spirit.

Cycling is as simple to do as strapping on a helmet and mounting a bicycle and then just going.  Go: in lazy loops around a suburban cul-de sac or many miles along quiet country roads watching the green fields fly by or pedaling on an urban bike trail by a city river, riding just about anywhere there’s the space to pedal.

No one needs to sell me on the joys of cycling. I fell in love with bicycling first, as a kid, learned how to ride practicing on a big black top parking lot behind a neighborhood bowling alley.  That first day was not pretty: lots of spills and a few tears and scrapes as I learned how to find my balance on those two wheels but once I learned, I was hooked. As a teenager I used my bike to go just about anywhere around town and mounted my trusty steel steed each morning, as I delivered newspapers in the quiet and beautiful hours before dawn. 

I rediscovered cycling as an out of shape middle aged couch potato and, on a dare from a friend, trained for and then completed my first long distance charity bike ride: from Boston to New York, to raise funds for AIDS care and research. I’d found my sporting niche and since that epic journey I’ve been addicted to going as far as I can on a bike. The focus of my hoped for rides these days, is to get ready for my eleventh Pan Mass Challenge, the largest athletic fundraiser in the world. Last year it raised $63 million for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.  COVID has forced the more than 6,300 PMC’ers to ride solo, out of safety, but we are still cycling and we are still raising funds.

I say “hoped for rides” because as I write this, I’m laid up, recovering from total hip replacement surgery and the one thing that most motivates me to faithfully do my daily exercises and walk myself back to full health, is to get back on my bike and ride. Some folks experience a natural high when they sail a boat on a windswept summer day. Others bask in the high of running, step by step, mile by mile. Me? Give me my bike and a map and a long day ahead and I am in bliss, as I make circles with my pedals and explore this amazing world, and all at about 13 miles per hour.  Nothing like it.  It’s almost like a prayer really, my thanks going up to God with each pedal stroke.

But I write this love letter to cycling with one big caveat. Biking is fun but biking, road biking, biking is a sport to do wisely and well, as you share the road with huge vehicles and speeding cars and folks who might not be paying much attention as they text and drive or do their makeup and drive and even watch a video and drive…SO BE CAREFUL! Be smart when you choose to bike.  In 2018, 817 cyclists died in bike accidents and almost 158,000 folks visited the emergency room for cycling related injuries.

So, here’s my safety lecture, as one who’s cycled thousands of miles on long distance rides for almost twenty five years without one major accident. Pay attention at all times. Wear a helmet. Make your kids wear a helmet too. Follow all the rules and courtesies of the road.  Stop for lights. Ride single file. Keep a straight line and don’t weave or wobble. Ride so that the cars can actually see you—no riding beside any vehicle. Be polite to drivers: the one thing guaranteed to set off an automobile operator is a rude or clueless or careless or arrogant cyclist.  Don’t be that bicycle bozo.  Please.

And then enjoy the ride. 

Just two wheels and you and God’s amazing creation, your legs pumping and your heart beating and your lungs working and the world just asking you to enjoy its beauty and grace, and all at ground level.

Be safe. Have fun. Bike. 

I will see you on the road soon!