The Santa Clara Valley Transporation Authority (VTA) kicked off the county bike plan update with a workshop last night asking the public for their vision for bicycling in Santa Clara County.

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Lady Fleur and I had a brief discussion yesterday about the politics and history of cycling advocacy.

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Here’s the setup: Brenda in San Diego publishes the typical rant from a legitimately employed and productive member of the motoring public about the unemployed person on a multi-thousand dollar bike and wearing hundreds of dollars of kit invading her private road space. I won’t link to it because you’ve seen it all before.

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Earlier this week, I hinted at a post with this title for Thursday, which never happened. This is as far as I got:

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I am a risk averse ninny, and I ride a bike.

When I began Cyclelicious ten years ago, many bike advocacy groups told us that every trip on two wheels requires advanced mapping, pre-rides, suiting up, carbo-loading, hydration, armor plating, a doctor’s note, next-of-kin notification, and a healthy dose of fear. Partly in response to this, and partly because I’m resentful of the “strong and fearless” label people apply to me, I crafted my mission statement to counter this paranoid school of thought: “Cyclelicious encourages cyclists to promote bicycling as a fun, safe, responsible, reasonable, and healthy means of transportation.”

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I’ve wondered about the economics of online cheap bike sales. At bicycle trade shows I often run into very enthusiastic young people who borrowed $20,000 from the parents to become an Internet sales entrepreneur. They go to Alibaba.com and buy a container load of these bikes for about $50 each from a company like Hangzhou Furui Bicycle Co., Ltd.

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