Maybe what we should all do one of these days is put a boom box in the basket of a beach cruiser and head out on a nice flat bike path and pedal so effortlessly that we don’t break the faintest hint of a sweat. And when people wave to us and tell us we’re groovy, we can say, “Yeah, we most certainly are.”
TOGETHER
In one little town, where all the people involved in cycling bring their business to two bike shops, or maybe only one bike shop…
where the sum of people who would gladly identify themselves as cyclists may not exceed 200, there will never come a time when everybody comes together on their bicycles and points somewhere east or west or north or south and rides together in harmony till they get there. This is sad, I guess, but inevitable. The bikes are different—built for different situations and different terrain—and the riders are different in their motivations and their dreams and the reasons they want to balance their bodies on a machine with two wheels and propel it forward with two legs. Maybe it’s too easy to say we’re all alike because of two wheels and because of pedals and tires and chains and how there’s something about that miracle of staying upright on a bicycle that transcends the activity that cycling is and allows it to become the way of life that most of us would like it to be. Maybe it’s too easy to lump us all together.
The Olympics come to mind. There, athletes compete in who knows how many sports, but the chances of these athletes having connections with each other during their training lives—bobsledders with figure skaters, boxers with archers, ski jumpers with hockey players—are about the same as permanent world peace breaking out tomorrow morning. Yet at the opening ceremony of the Olympics, they come together in one place, with one purpose, which is to engage in a fair athletic endeavor wherein the strongest and fastest and most nimble person will be declared the winner. They are athletes. This makes them similar human beings. This means they should be capable of understanding all the fellowship and kindness and love that comes with being similar human beings.
Maybe someday, when the world is finally a perfect place, when people don’t find ways to become irritated over their differences, cyclists will come together in total harmony and decide that maybe the best thing for us to do is acknowledge that we’re just doing the same thing. We’re really just pedaling.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First and foremost, thanks so much to Shannon Welch, Kara Plikaitis, and Marie Croussilat at Rodale. I appreciate the positive vibe and good humor throughout this very cool project.
Special thanks, of course, to the amazing Danica Novgorodoff, artist of the highest order. When our book team goes for a ride, you will for sure drop us like a bad memory! Or will that be Kara dropping everybody? The whole team agrees, in any event, that I will be off the back and that Shannon will be calling the shots.
I would also like to thank my friends at Bicycling magazine, particularly Bill Strickland, Dave Howard, and Peter Flax. I owe you guys big-time for putting up with me all these years, even when my rubber hasn’t been able to meet the road in the time allotted. One thing’s for sure: We have always done so much more than write pieces about bikes.
Thanks to Scott Bicycles and Trek Bicycles and Rocky Mountain Bicycles, whose bikes I have had the privilege of riding hither and yon over the last couple of years.
Thanks, too, to my longtime literary agent, Lisa Bankoff, who has made a continuing life in words possible for me.
Additional thanks to the Pacific University MFA Program in Creative Writing, for giving me the opportunity to teach in such a wonderful writing environment; thanks to my sister Sandy, who is my loyal friend no matter what; and thanks to Sue Curtis Wellnitz, who never tires of talking and laughing about nothing in particular and who is 100 percent awesome 100 percent of the time.
Last, and most assuredly not least, I would like to thank the following cyclists who filled out extensive survey material that served as the foundation for the stories in this book: Mike Ahrens, Stephanie Hill Alexander, John Alltop, Dale Aschemann, David Barnas, Roberto Barrios, Scott Baste, Gerald Beam, David Beriss, Darla Biel, Alan Brown, Nancy Brown, Mike Busch, Pete Butler, Wesley Cheney, Mike Clark, Fred Crawford, Brendan Collier, Jessica Conner, Ken Coonley, Robert Costin, Rebecca Davis, Bruce Dickman, Thomas Durkin, Justin Evans, Maggie Eytalis, Chandra Gallipeau, David Gill, Lara Goodman, Jonathan Gray, Carina Hahn, Jason Harrod, Jenny Oh Hatfield, Kyle Hollasch, Andrew Homan, Ed Huntley, Samuel Janes, Avalon Jenkins, Scott Johnson, Eddie Jones, Amy King, Katie Kingsbury, Ken Kubiak, Amanda LaClaire, Beth Leasure, Joe Linton, Don Lowe, Robin Lowe, Lorri Lee Lown, Jon Mason, Monique Pua Mata, Louis Messina, Ellen Michaelson, Benjamin Miller, Paul Mollway, Alison Moore, David Neis, Kevin O’Dowd, David Peterson, Lou Plummer, John Pyeatt, John Reimbold, Kevin Remington, Andrea Richardson, Anne Rock, Mark Rhode, Dulcy Rojas, Flavia Sancier, Heather Sappenfield, Darren Sherkat, Marla Shock-Stephens, Kim Solano, Chris Strout, Mark Swartzendruber, Chris Thomas, Heidi Van Beek, Kelley Walker, Jeff Williams, Paul Wood, and Michele Zebrowitz.
Mention of specific companies, organizations, or authorities in this book does not imply endorsement by the author or publisher, nor does mention of specific companies, organizations, or authorities imply that they endorse this book, its author, or the publisher.
Internet addresses and telephone numbers given in this book were accurate at the time it went to press.
© 2012 by Rodale Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.
Rodale books may be purchased for business or promotional use or for special sales. For information, please write to: Special Markets Department, Rodale Inc., 733 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017.
Book design by Kara Plikaitis
Illustrations by Danica Novgorodoff
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Magnuson, Mike, 1963-
Bike tribes : a field guide to North American cyclists / Mike Magnuson ; illustrations by Danica Novgorodoff.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-60961-743-1 hardcover
ISBN 978-1-60961-744-8 ebook
1. Cyclists—North America. 2. Cycling—North America. 3. Athletic clubs—North America. I. Title.
GV1046.N8M34 2012
796.6097—dc23
2011049891
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