Bicycle Blog Cyclelicious

$1400 per year in medical expenses for the obese Stigmatized smokers consider their outsider status a point of pride.

$1400 a year? What do we cyclists spend on tires, chamois cream and sports drinks?

I know, I know. We're supposed to use statistics to our own advantage. I've just been out there for three decades getting crap thrown at me and suffering various forms of discrimination including in employment because of my decision in college to take up and insist on a healthy lifestyle. Obesity is such an easy thing to remedy. Education on living a healthy lifestyle will help many people but is not implemented. Whats the old idiom Kill two birds with one stone" I guess in the case of the bicycle it is "Kill Many birds with one stone" cycling can take care of obesity, gas prices, pollution, etc. etc. Transportation cycling can be the foundation of a healthy lifestyle, but then you have places like Colorado trying to ban road cycling. You have all the other issues that discourage people from using bicycles as part of daily practical living.

Having friends and family members who battle weight I can tell you that it is not easy to overcome for some.

Humans are not only capable of phenomenal levels of activity, our built-in fuel gauge is designed to support them. From a meat-powered standpoint, pedal drive represents a major gain in cruising range compared to walking. This can be applied to 2-, 3-, and 4-wheeled vehicles.

Muscular output is only maintained through periods of activity and rest. External power sources can go longer without downtime, hence their obvious appeal to tired toilers.

Our technology allows us to find a balance between our exertion and the apparently tireless efforts of our machinery. We haven't come close to the right mix yet. @cafiend: There's a bit of that 'outsider' rebel with cyclists too, especially the 'urban' fixie riders these days.

@BMI: it's easy to say that obesity is easily remedied, but the reality is 37% obesity in the United States right now and probably thousands of weight loss plans that don't work. It's kind of the whole point of Cohen & Farley's book, that our culture leads naturally to obesity, while a healthy lifestyle if discouraged.

@Russ: Right on. ...it's really about using information to completely change a cultures mindset & lifestyle for a better future..."status quo" can kinda suck...

...& i agree w/ you russ but the 'problems' are so integrated in every aspect of our day to day life that it goes way beyond "obesity"...we've been primed for years to over-indulge, be wasteful, unconcerned about our personal & our world's future...

...the various factors that work to divide us from an integrated symbiotic lifestyle need be addressed...

...& while things seem to be slowly changing simply because we're finally becoming aware of the expenditure of our natural resources, the evolution needs to get exponential before we're left w/ nothing decent to work w/...

...as regards the topic, i'm sure only a tiny percentage of presently obese folks will ever make significant changes in their lifestyle & yes, it does relate back to using what you have wisely...

...but factor in the psychological aspect of self esteem or lack thereof, familial acceptance amongst kin & peers & weigh it (whoops) against the medical initiative to change in favor of a healthy lifestyle & you've got a tough row to hoe...

...well, anyway, i'm not tryin' to write an analytical theorem here but it seems to me that all the factors need to be working together for it not to eventually all end in chaos, so i'm just sayin'... How to avoid swine flu Since my bicycle has not been to Mexico, I should be able to grasp its handlebars with impunity. In other words: It's the flu! Avoid it like you would any other flu.

/so sick of the hysteria. "swine flu" because that's what people are searching for!

I'm seeing reports that employers are telling their workers to avoid using mass transit to get to work -- ridiculous! See this. Team Type 1 I has staying at the same hotel as Team Type 1 before the start of the 2006 RAAM. I talked to Phil a few times and some of the other guys on the RAAM team. They all seemed like really nice guys. Thanks for posting this. I just read this to my kid who is type 1. He is a wrestler and soccer player and was pleased to know that type 1 folks continue to compete well beyond childhood. Cycling in wildfire smoke Fritz, You did a great job on the show. It is nice to be able to put a voice with the blog. I sound perky?

I spent last week riding pretty hard actually, but riding along the coast and the San Diego Bay, I managed to ride in mostly-clean air. I have asthma so I probably need to pay attention. When we had those fires a few years ago I did have some trouble breathing.

Saturday I did a 70 mile ride in western Colorado. There was a noticeable haze from the CA fires but my breathing seemed fine. Monday I rode at lunch here in Colorado Springs and I had trouble breathing. Maybe it was something else but we had a pretty good haze. Fritz, I second James' comment. You sounded knowledgeable and confident on the show. Note to Dave ("The Fred"): Knowing that Fritz was on got me to subscribe to the podcast. Liked it a lot and look forward to the next one. You guys are way too kind. I sound asleep and dull. Time for my nap, now! Stiffer bikes for stronger bones and weight loss So that's why I've gotten so fat. I got a Roubaix for RAAM last year. I'd been riding a steel road bike. I still ride a hardtail mountain bike though. I think the real problem is I haven't been riding any of my bikes enough. Kinda need to read to the end of the article. Vibrations cause stem cells to become bone cells instead of fat cells; however, once u r fat --- "One important thing to note is that the vibrations do not remove fat cells. Rubin said that once fat cells form, they tend to stick around. And vibrating won't get rid of them.

"If you have a fat mouse, in order to get rid of the fat, you need to metabolize it, just as we've all learned," Rubin said. "You need to get those mice out running marathons or pumping iron, or whatever it is that mice do to reduce their fat mass."

Scientists are pretty clear that the techniques for reducing fat mass will work in humans, too."

Or riding bike at 80-90% heart rate. So that's what my problem is! I gimped my wrist a few weeks ago and started riding my steel hybrid again, and this weekend I found that I'd slipped back into the Clydesdale Club (the name lovingly given to those of us who are above 200 pounds) after several months of losing weight while riding my aluminum Trek 1200.

Or, maybe I just need to ride more and eat less. Anon, it makes it so much harder to blame something else if I'm actually better informed!

Noah, don't believe that ridiculous propoganda that you should ride more and eat less. You need to BUY NEW GEAR to lose weight! You too, Rob. I need to ride my wife's mid-90's Specialized Sirrus then. That's as stiff and unyielding as any High School Nun I've ever had... Not so fast. The study was done at 90Hz and 0.2g. The frequency is just about right for riding over 4" cobbles at 20mph, but you'll probably need a pretty squishy bike to keep the acceleration that low. Vibrate too hard and you're killing cartilage faster than you're building bone. Art saves the day! We all need new squishy bikes that will maximize the benefit of bumpy riding while minimizing the damage. Gasoline makes you fat .... so what's making me fat, then? I've been hearing a lot about this study lately, and honestly I have a hard time believing that it would really make that big of a difference. Lazy people will still find ways to be lazy. We're lazy by nature. Laziness is inherent in us, and in fact laziness is a valuable survival trait for any animal. Super easy availability of cheap energy makes it *too* easy, unfortunately. Fear keeping kids indoors, fat, and unhealthy Fritz,
We have the same "parental attitude" problem in our family's neighborhood. Parents now drive their children to school that live only two blocks away! The reason: Too Many Predators!

Even the children have falsely used this "story" to get attention. My boys continue to walk or ride the 1.1 mile to school but we need others to do the same. Only from more pedestrian use will neighborhoods be considered safe again and these childish fears extinguished.

Jack Jack, this cycle of less use is indeed the paradox. If more kids (and parents!) were outdoors and on the streets insted of sequested in their isolation boxes, the neighborhoods would indeed be more safe. This is true not only from the standpoint of weirdos and whatnot, but for traffic also. People are stupifyingly paranoid. The media has done an amazing job of making everyone afraid of doing anything. Ugghh... This is a frightening attitude that is indeed all too prevalent. Kids need to learn proper safety rules and etiquette. They also need to be able to go exploring outdoors, but parents are too afraid to let them out of their sight. Sad, Sad, Sad.

http://shencycling.blogspot.com/2007/03/let-kids-play.html I let my 9 year old daughter ride around the block, down to the park down the street, to her cousins house about a mile away. She's gone for hours at a time but I think she's fine. I think the most likely thing that could go wrong is she'll fall and skin a knee or break a bone. But that's part of growing up.

I want her to ride her bike to school but the principal won't allow it. She says it's "unsafe to have kids walking and riding bikes around the buses". Hopefully we can get them to change that by the next Ride Your Bike To School day. It's looking like I'm going to end up in Australia before my little (really little, unborn little) one has to go to school. I really hope that "the fear" isn't as prevelant there as it is here in North America.

We have a minimum security prison two blocks from our current home. Our member of parliment organized a press conference there and the local residents rallied to protest the place. I was the only one to say that if you want to live by laws you have to accept that there needs to be a place where people get locked up. Not in my backyard is not an arguement I accept. Their most common complaint was that it was placing their children in danger.

This disconnect between perception and reality is truly frightening. Far more frightening than the likelihood of some guy who was busted for selling pot escaping and then molesting a child rathe than running for the hills. That disconnect is how totalitarian regimes get and keep power, it's how atrocities are justified. Bradley, great that your daughter is biking to school. My sons have been doing so since first grade. However, many children are poorly trained and last year one 9 year old ran into a public bus.

The problem? He was riding his new bike and didn't know how to use his hand brakes! He was in the hospital for awhile but is fine now.

Administrators are more concerned with liability than our childrens' development. The Ride Your Bike to School idea is completely OFF the charts.

By the way, in the St Louis area, two abducted children were found because one other student noticed the color and type of vehicle of the abductor. We need more kids on our streets and sidewalks!

Jack I just don't know what to say about stories like this. My kids walk about 3 blocks to school. Their elementary school borders our neighborhood, so quite a few kids walk. Still, I am amazed that so many parents who live only blocks away drop their kids off. It takes longer to wait in the car line than to walk, but I guess driving is perceived as safer. For the record, I worry a lot more about all those cars than crazy people lurking in the bushes. A bicycle saved my life! I got diagnosed with a heart problem 2 months ago. Mitral valve prolapse with left ventricle hypertrophy to be exact. The way I understand it: the left valve doesn't close properly so the ventrical has to work harder causing its wall to thicken.

I can't say for certain that my bike saved my life but my father had a fatal heart attack when he was only a few years older than my current 40 and mitral valve prolapse is thought to be hereditary. He drank, smoked, ate very poorly and never exercised. As my mother said "He worked pretty hard at having that heart attack."

I suspect I'd be much worse off without the bike. as it is I'm pretty asymptomatic, just some minor pains and the occasional arythmia despite a diet that wasn't exactly heart healthy.

So now I'm also watching my cholesterol and sodium and trying very hard not to feel too sorry over the sudden blandness of my diet. :)

Mind you, I wonder about the bike riding and if it's actually helping. If my left ventrical is working too hard shouldn't I work it less? This is on a long list of questions I have for the cardiologist whom I won't see until May. (Gotta love Canadian health care, sure it's free but the wait times are long.) For the time being I'm trying to keep my heart rate at 80% of max or below just in case. Scary stuff, Ceolah. I'm not a physician and have no idea what I'm talking about and I'm sure you've probably read every Internet resource on mitral valve prolapse, but this page says, "Mitral valve prolapse is not at all the sort of "heart condition" that should make anyone apprehensive about engaging in exercise. In fact, exercise is one of the best therapies we have for deconditioning learned sensitivities and relieving neurological symptoms. Studies have shown that people who engage in regular aerobic exercise report a decline in symptoms of chest pain, fatigue, dizziness and mood swings, and panic attacks." Thanks for that Fritz.

Actually I avoided the internet on this one. My first diagnosis was only for the Hypertrophy. Being the curious sort that I am, I dove into the internet and gave myself a real scare. Plenty of warnings like, "Increased risk of sudden fatal heart attack." I decided to wait until I had all my test results and had discussed them with someone who understood them before doing any further research. Credible medical establishments that put stuff on the web seem to emphasis the worst case, probably so they don't get sued. Or maybe so they can scare people into buying their services.

My GP did point out that the prolapse is common and not a huge cause for concern, but something has her worried enough to insist I start taking cholesterol lowering meds. She also threaten to put me on high blood pressure meds if I didn't clean up my act. Bicycling cured my migraines I've commented before about how riding his bike to school this year has allowed my ADD son to do better without his meds than previous years with meds and no riding to school.

I'd like to see a Freakonomics study on the relationship to the rise of ADD and ADHD compared to the decrease in children walking and bicycling to school...