New Record!

I had the honor of upping the age record for adventurous seniors trying my Double Vision, recumbent tandem.  When I arrived at the Center for the Blind and Impaired vision to give rides the other day, I was told that I had a lady wanting to celebrate her 91st birthday with a bike ride with me!  I couldn’t wait to meet the adventurous birthday girl.  Helen was her name and she was a treat to give a ride to.  She informed me that she was feeling good even though her vision was fading due to macular degeneration.  She had the attitude that I hope to maintain as the aches and pains start to add up.  She has more get up and go then some teenagers I know, or at least more then they will exhibit.  I am getting close to over 3700 riders who I have given their first recumbent ride to on our Double Vision.  That is a record I break every day with at least one new rider everyday that I have the tandem out riding.  It is great fun to share something so simple yet so much fun.  People almost always are astounded by the comfort and ease of operation.  I wish I had a camera trained on their faces to record the change from concern to joy in seconds.  Of course it takes a special person to go as the majority of our population are just to “busy” to go for a 60 second ride.  Yesterday my grandson, Kenny, and I cruised the Saturday markets here in Anchorage where I gave a few adventurous people a ride.  Giving rides is also a spectator sport when I have a crowd.  The people in the stalls all have a look of amusement as I get people to go for a ride.  I can see that many of them want to try as well but just aren’t sure if it is the politically correct thing to do, you know, having some fun!  One technique I use is to ask their kids if they want to go for a ride.  I have yet for a parent to say no when their kids want to try.  Often after their children finish their rides with huge grins then the parents will finally go.  The other day, Edith and I were riding the DV with our boys on their regular bikes when we stopped at a playground along the way.  A family soon arrived with one of the children riding a bike.  I complimented her on her nice bike and had soon struck up a conversation with her parents who were from Fairbanks.  They were in Anchorage for medical appointments and had brought their bicycles to do some riding…my kind of folks.  Anyway they were interested in the Double Vision and I soon had the parents trying a ride.  The mom held the younger children in her lap for a ride as well.  After giving the whole family a ride except for their oldest daughter who was about 7 I was surprised that the young lady on the bike didn’t want to try.  After we were chatting with her parents for a while longer she whispered something to her mother.  Her mom told me that her daughter would like to just sit on the rear seat of the tandem.  Of course I said sure.  After sitting for awhile she decided that she would try a ride but wouldn’t pedal.  Well with independent pedaling that is not a problem so we did that and sure enough she was soon pedaling away with the huge smile that is my reward!  My mission is to show people that bike riding is not only fun but can be comfortable as well.

Urban planning

Watched a documentary on the development of our communities in the early part of the twentieth century and how many of the cities when expanding out to the suburbs used public transportation often funded by the developers to get people to these areas.  Then along came GM and Firestone rubber and they bought up these public transportation systems and destroyed them in order to make people more prone to buy autos and tires.  This is common knowledge but it made me wonder what other nefarious techniques were used to get people addicted to oil and cars.  Was there a campaign against bicycles as well…funded by these same corporations?  There was certainly political pressure applied if nothing else then to cut road construction costs by doing away with sidewalks and bike lanes.  Makes one wonder.

Alternative energy

I’ve needed alternative energy to motivate me to come in from the Alaskan sunshine and blog.  With all the uproar over the Gulf oil spill I am not seeing that many more bicycle riders out there than are normal for this lovely time of year.  A lot of people are wringing their hands over this catastrophe, unfortunately that is about all they are doing.  We have supposedly reached peak oil, where the demand has surpassed the supply.  This will drive the price up and possibly slow consumption but eventually the supply will no longer meet the demand.  It has been compared to a bell curve and we have reached the apex and will now begin the gradual decline of available oil until it’s availability plunges.  In the meantime the battle over whether to drill, baby, drill continues to rage here in Alaska.  One wonders what “baby” Sarah was referring to.  Maybe she realized that the oil industry was really only infantile in their belief that they could drill safely at great depths in the oceans.  President Obama thinks this disaster in the gulf will be the tipping point, forcing people to embrace alternative energy.  Personally I think it will have to be a more dramatic shortage.  I think I was fortunate to feel the 1973 oil embargo first hand and realize that the eventual unavailability  of oil will be catastrophic if we continue to ignore that oil is a finite resource.  Alaska has many of the resources for alternative energy including wind, geothermal, hydro/tidal, and even solar.  It is an exciting time and will probably be painful in some ways but in the long run we will all benefit from these alternative energies.