golfkat Travel Blog

Most of you know I ride a road bike for exercise.  But many famous people are cyclists, people like Bill Walton, Lebron James, Matt Damon, Jennifer Aniston, George Clooney, Senator John Kerry, Pink, Patrick Dempsey, Reggie Miller, J Lo, and Heidi Klum.  Bike share programs are growing around the US and world.  As a bicycle guy, I really endorse that!

Here is what Lebron said:

“A bicycle, for me, was the only way to get around the city. If I wanted to meet some of my friends, travel across the city, go to school, play basketball-anything-the bicycle was the way I got around.”

But that was just part of it. A bicycle also represented freedom, James said.

“Me and my friends, when we got on our bikes, we would just ride,” he recalled. “Sometimes we would even get lost, because we’d be gone for so long. But there was a sense of joy and comfort. There was nothing that really could stop us. We felt like we were on top of the world.”

James had already gone above and beyond for his community in building the school and ensuring kids had a place to learn, but by giving them each a bicycle as well, it’s clear he wants his impact to go further than simply the class curriculum.

Now, rarely do I agree with him.  But I do admire the fact that he has underwritten (to the tune of $8 million) a public school for his hometown of Akron.  And that each child will receive a new bicycle.  The freedom he is referring to also affected us as children.  We could ride our bicycles up to the corner country grocery store for candy and ice cream.  We could ride to meet our friends after school.  And later, we could ride our bicycles about 3 miles into town.

I still remember my first bicycle, a red Schwinn bicycle (third photo) that I received for my birthday.  My second bicycle was a JC Higgins model from Sears.  My third was a yellow Schwinn “racing” bicycle, that I ended up commuting to grad school with.  And my fourth is a Specialized mountain bike that I still own and use once in a while.

For a few years, during my first job in Alameda, I rode a bicycle from a little flat in the city to my workplace.  Later, at grad school at UC Berkeley, I rode a bicycle to school every day that it did not rain.  Then, about the time I retired about 10 years ago, I started with a clunky mountain bike.  After a few years, I graduated to my current carbon fiber model from Specialized (4th photo).

While my cycling now is less about freedom, and more about exercise, I continue to believe in the bicycle as transportation.  I donate to several causes, including the Napa Vine Trail, and Mike’s Bikes in the Bay area (they have donated over 28,000 bicycles to needy families in Africa).

But whether exercise or freedom, the cause is a good one. I encourage each of you to consider donating, or using this form of exercise.  You (and your yearly lab results) will thank me and yourself many times over.