Sep 282011

Inspired by Bicycling Magazine

Cyclists who reading Bicycling know that its content aims primarily at racing cyclists and people who like to think they might be someday. Ads for Hammer and GU gel, car ads that compare the feeling of driving to the feeling of cycling at high speed, training tips for people who plan their lives around “base/build/peak”—this isn’t for a 12mph rider on an old Schwinn, or someone who adds an electric motor to his/her bicycle to make it possible to get up hills without working.

A Cyclist Rites of Passage piece they ran a while back has a lot of high notes for their typical reader, and a few for the rest of us. I thought I’d add a few of my own.

First, you might go read their list and the comments. I particularly like the one who said, “Realizing that you want to ride so bad that the trailer and kid on the back that add 60lbs to the already 7% climb is a small price to pay.”

This person is hard-core, but is a parent who’s ready for Spokane’s hills. (And don’t automatically assume this is a dad, either).

In no particular order, here are some of my own rites of passage—some specific to Spokane, some not. Why not start riding and rack up a few of your own?

  1. Catching and passing a guy (after he first passed you) on a steep hill on the Old Palouse Highway coming back from coffee at On Sacred Grounds in Valleyford with your sweetheart who cheers you on, after which he explains the meaning of the phrase “to get chicked,” as in, “You just chicked that guy!”.
  2. Leaving for your morning commute in the rain, knowing that you’ll be riding home in either rain or snow or brilliant sunshine.
  3. Riding down Washington at 30-35+ mph when all the lights are turning green for you and realizing it would be so much easier to shoot the lights if the cars didn’t get in the way. (Drivers who aren’t hypermilers do a lot of jack-rabbit starts, then have to slow for the next red light just before it turns green, instead of going at a nice steady pace that would let them keep rolling all the way to the Spokane River. They could learn something from the cyclists.)
  4. Recognizing that downtown Spokane has a slight rise heading west to east—something you never really noticed when you drove through.
  5. Learning which hills give you the shallowest climb up the South Hill or north side.
  6. Avoiding the Centennial Trail as a commute route because it slows you down. (Did you know there’s a speed limit? 15 mph.)
  7. Choosing the Centennial Trail as a route because it lets you ride by the Spokane River, and that’s worth slowing down for.
  8. Discovering there are some great biking bloggers in Spokane.
  9. Creating a log-in at a cycling site with your main email address, not the one you use for warranties and junk email, because you actually want to read the newsletter they’ll send you.
  10. Volunteering to do something in your community to make it better for cyclists, whether it’s working on bike infrastructure, helping put on a family ride, or showing up to testify at City Council in support of the master bike plan.
  11. Asking candidates for public office where they stand on using transportation dollars to pay for bike infrastructure—and voting accordingly, since bikes are transportation.
  12. Joining bike organizations that advocate politically and publicly on behalf of cyclists, not just ones that put on club rides.
  13. Realizing you don’t know the price of gas—and you don’t have to, any more than you have to carry change for parking meters.
  14. Learning that within downtown Spokane, it’s usually faster to bike to a meeting than it is to find your car in the parking lot, drive, find another parking spot, realize you don’t have change for the parking meter, run to the meeting to borrow some, run back, plug the meter, and scurry back to your meeting in high heels. That could just be me J but for most trips under two or three miles–and most urban trips ARE under two or three miles–the bike is frequently faster than the car.
  15. Drawing the circle within which you’re going to house hunt based on three factors: high school zone for your kids, legislative district for your politics, and bike distance to work (and associated hills) for your legs and butt.
  16. Walking into a Chamber of Commerce event taking off your helmet and carrying your panniers like they’re your briefcase.
  17. Saying jokingly to a Chamber staffer, “You put in that new bike rack outside the building because of me, right?” and having that person answer in all seriousness, “Yes.”
  18. Having people look twice when you show up at a meeting without your reflective lime green/yellow jacket or helmet.
  19. Realizing that a building or establishment that doesn’t have a bike rack or other secure bike parking facility isn’t your problem—it’s their problem—and asking them where you can put your bike so they have to solve that problem, the way they solved it for their car-driving customers. (The Davenport Hotel checks my bike like a suitcase—awesome service, delivered without batting an eyelash. If enough of us ask, building owners will catch on and put in bike parking. You can get a lot of customers for a really small investment; just ask all those restaurants I patronize because they have bike racks.)
  20. Falling for the first time as an adult—getting up bleeding—and finishing the ride instead of calling for help with your cell phone. (This one is for Betsy J, founder of Belles and Baskets.)
  21. Smiling at a motorist who yells, “Get on the sidewalk where you belong!” because you know the law, and he clearly doesn’t, and because a sense of humor is part of your mental toolkit for riding. (Bikes on sidewalks are illegal in downtown Spokane, by the way.)
  22. Particularly for women: Realizing that you now evaluate potential clothing purchases based on whether you can bike comfortably in them, in addition to how they look on you and whether they’re on sale.
  23. Answering the statement, “You didn’t bike in those shoes” (said with a glance at your high heels) with “Yes” and enjoying the disbelief that ensues.
  24. Answering the statement, “You didn’t bike in that outfit” (said with a glance at your skirt) with “Yes” and enjoying the disbelief that ensues.
  25. Having bikes in your living room because—well—your house is where you live, and bikes are how you live.

I’m sure there are many more. Add yours in the comments!

Posts in our 30 Days of Biking Blogging Inspiration & How-to Series for Sept. 2011 30 Days of Biking

  1. 30 Days of Bike Commuting: You Can Do It!
  2. Why We Ride/Resolve to Ride–A Blogspedition
  3. Preparing to Commute by Bike: Get the Worry out of the Way
  4. Buying a Bike for Commuting: Some Questions and a Blogspedition
  5. How to Bike Commute: Getting the Gear Together
  6. Bike Commuting 101: Carrying Stuff
  7. On a Roll with Wilma Flanagan
  8. 30 Days of Biking: Week One Report
  9. Ride with your Community: SpokeFest Rocks!
  10. There and Back Again: How to Pick your Bike Commute Route
  11. Intro to Bike Commuting: Route Selection Part 2
  12. More Bike Commuting Route Selection Tips: Part 3
  13. Thinking Like a Driver vs. Thinking Like a Bicyclist
  14. Biking as Downtime and other Musings on Overproductivity
  15. 30 Days of Biking: Week Two Report
  16. On a Roll with Katherine Widing
  17. I Shouldn’t Assume
  18. Falling Down on Your Bike. It Happens. To Grown-Ups.
  19. Pretty Handy, Gloves. The Blogspedition Assumes You’ll Get ‘Em.
  20. What to Wear for Your Bike Commute? Clothes.
  21. How to Get a Dropped Bike Chain Back On, Grease-Free
  22. 30 Days of Biking: Week Three!
  23. It’s All in the Attitude
  24. Things I Now Do on My Bike Without Having to Think About It
  25. Mental Essentials for Bike Commuting: Risk and Trust
  26. More Mental Essentials for Bike Commuting: Friendliness and Openness
  27. Even More Mental Essentials for Bike Commuting: Tolerance, Humor, and Persistence
  28. Bicycling Rites of Passage, Spokane Style
  29. Dear Reader, I Chicked Him
  30. 30 Days of Biking: Final Report!

Your Turn

  • Which ones on this list have you done?
  • What are the items on your “biking rites of passage” list?
Sharing is karma--pass it along!

Reader Comments

  1. ps to Jess–I am with you on the downhill braking. I can take anyone on the uphills, but ride my brakes like crazy going down. I am getting better at it, but it is SO not in my nature. I figure I will get there, so I just ride in a way that makes me comfortable. Betz

  2. Love your list. As for number 20, after getting up bleeding and continuing on, there was the walking down the lonnnnggg hallway at my work like something out of Walking Dead with blood streaming down my leg. A rite of passage I am happy to not repeat, but at least lived to tell the tale.

    Here’s another–passing some number on your cyclometer and being amazed that one could possibly bike THAT far in a day, weekend, or season.

  3. Some thoughts on your list first:
    1. I can only dream of the day!!!!
    2. Did this TODAY for the first time. I’m sick of missing a ride for rain (it’s been raining SO much in Philadelphia) so I said screw it, I’m going anyway (and I had your words in my head, “I rode in the rain and I didn’t melt”)
    12. Done! Bike Coalition of Philadelphia is incredibly active as an advocacy group.
    20. I’m scared!
    21. Still scared! (haven’t fallen or been yelled at yet)

    And here are some of my own:
    1. First time getting up “the hill” without gasping for breath or getting off the bike.
    2. Deciding not to buy a bus/subway pass for the week.
    3. First flat tire.
    4. First cycling collision (with a flying duck!)

    And ones I aspire to:
    1. Changing my own flat tire
    2. Riding downhill without braking (I’m still afraid of losing control)
    3. Passing a percentage of other people on the bike path 🙂
    4. First ride over 20 miles long.

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