Maybe you'll be inspired by the awesomeness of your ride to try the best organized bicycle tour of them all, Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI, www.ragbrai.org) which takes place the last week of July every year. There's something so spectacular about riding with 10,000 people in a mass (beer-fueled in many cases) exodus across the state. When RAGBRAI comes to towns in Iowa, it's a BIG deal, and everyone comes out to show their support.

Just think about all the agricultural topics you could explore there as you ride by CAFOs, through corn and soybean fields, and possibly by a shiny new biofuel plant. :)

As:

1) As a Bay Area resident.

2) A person who bicycled and rode BART to work most of the last 5 work days.

3) As a long time bicyclist who once rode across the U.S.

I'm interested.

It is great to see so many letters in response here- a great showing by the 'silent majority'. I know that this blog does not get many letters on a regular basis, partly because the topics are complex and cutting-edge, and partly because the analysis leaves little to be said. It is great to see this many thoughtful responses here though- it really goes to show how many people love this blog (myself included, obviously), even if they don't often post here. Cheers Andrew, and good luck!

-Kw

P.S. Bring bananas/chart route stops to get them- they do wonders for muscle cramps.

480 miles, 6 or 7 days. It's not that hard.

When I rode Cycle Oregon I was in my first year of bike riding. When I started bicycling the previous year I was an "overweight (265 pounds), asthmatic, gout afflicted middle aged (late 40s) guy with an uncorrected cholesterol level as high as my weight."

By the time Cycle Oregon rolled around I'd lost 20 or 25 pounds but the rest of the ills remained - the product of 30 years of sedentary living.

If I could do it you can too.

While I thoroughly enjoy Salon's other fine columns, excellent feature articles, and comics, How the World Works postings are what I most look forward to. I never miss one and, though I'd not begrudge my favorite columnist his well deserved breaks, I rather hate it when the posts stop coming. So, go if you must, Andrew; but do try writing to us if you're not too exhausted.

Yes, with an important condition attached:

Before you even begin to describe the ride, or any insights you may gain from this, you should be able to connect this event politically or otherwise to your broader work. Sure, sure, "We're doing it to save the earth?" But you can do better than that. Honestly, what are the concrete (so to speak) pathways by which this Bike-a-thon could conceivably change public policy with respect to urban planning or greenbelts? If this isn't the purpose of the Bike-a-thon, then what /is/ the purpose? Without appropriately explaining at least one of the answers to these questions, I'd rather not hear about the huffing and puffing.

Go Andrew!

Contra Costra country is beautiful. So you're wiped out. Whatever.

Go baby go. Bike, blog & brag!

Please, I would be very interested in seeing the ride through your eyes.

First of all, kudos on acting. Secondly, I think you will find it's not as hard as it looks and it's far, far more satisfying than you presently imagine. Riding 480 miles, that is. As for blogging - certainly a few reports, maybe every other day or so, would be of interest. Best of luck - Heck, maybe I should jump on this ride too!

I have enjoyed reading your observations about all kinds of things! I join nearly everyone here in urging you to write whatever pops into your head on your daily rides.

For one thing, I'm from the Bay Area. For another, I'm an occasional (but only occasional) bike rider, attempting to get around metro Boston without getting killed. For a third, I'm a MassBike member of a number of years. I think bicycles can be an excellent option - but infrastructure has to be modified to accommodate them.

I have a very special love for the country roads right nearby our metros. I grew up in the rural agricultural central valley, which is still full of the longest, emptiest, and most peaceful roads anywhere around, and I have a few favorite roads of my own (Peach Tree Lane by SLO/Monterey/SanBenito counties is my current fav, anybody know it?).

I felt great reading your first post on the ride, I'm curious where the full greenbelt ride goes. I'll check it out...

I find most of Andrew Leonard's musing informative and so would like to have the chance to vicariously tag along on this ride and learn what he thinks about as he bikes through the Bay area.

nt

I live in San Deigo but travel to San Francisco occasionally. I see the same thing in both place. These were such beautiful, pristine places full of open space and natural wonder.

Today, they're rapidly become a more tropical/green version of Midwest strip-malls with the same mindless, endless franchises.

Go bike around the bay. While you may find pockets of goodness, it will mostly be franchised, multinational capitalism at its worst.

As earlh said, the worst that can happen is I'll simply decide to skip some posts. And sometimes you get some great insight when you're dog tired, climbing up a steep hill, etc.

Well, I've gotta say, the reaction -- even from the people who say "No" -- has energized me. In the shower this morning, I was already thinking of ways to organize things ahead of time that would allow me to create some real value in this exercise. And I'm looking forward to the ride more than ever.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled globalization explorations.

I seriously doubt that you will have many insights during this trek. The insights, if they come, will occur after you have rested at the end. Write an article summing up the ride during the second week of June.

Now, if you want to use your bully pulpit to promote the ride, then this seems to me what the organization wants. They will use your influence and column for their agenda. If Salon wants this, then as a reader, I have little to no say in the matter.

But, you should know where I stand on other issues. I try to ride my bike to work, but I have been lazy for several months. I think organic farming is great if you are rich, but it doesn't solve the issues of world hunger. I think that solar energy should be exploited before the hydrogen economy gets going. I drive a Prius, and I ride a recumbent (when I make the effort). And, I tend to see San Francisco people as elitists. They match the Republicans like Bush who I, also, see as elitists.