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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
I'd certainly be interested.
... you'll be riding around one of the nicest places on earth.. I'd love to hear about it, including some pictures!
We ride up there three or four times a year, mainly around the Presidio, GG bridge and Sausalito area.. when we aren't intimidating the traffic between Palos Verdes and Corona del Mar on PCH..
I vote yes, but I bike all over the place, so I have a clear bias.
Perhaps a summary after the bike ride could be good. No doubt you'll get some inspiration during the ride and perhaps some incite and, if it's good, I'll read it.
However, I doubt I'd enjoy any ramblings during the ride where you're both tired and haven't spent any time researching an idea that popped into your head. In other words -- don't write the un-researched, off the top of your biased head, kind of posts that you disparage in others.
Have fun though.
Absolutely.
Yes.
In a few words. Why wouldn't a description of the world you see as you ride move people to emotion or action? What better way to illustrate what is going on than to verbalize what you see on the ride, what you experience in the communities you ride through, and what you learn from the crazy pack of riders that are out there too?
My cousin rides Mountain Bikes, and his tales of the hills around San Francisco (he lived in Milbrae and Redwood City) always made me wish I could ride with him.
If during this week there would be no HTWW the real choice is do we get no HTWW or some amended focused posts on one topic. For those that don't care, that means they can ignore it for the week and they neither gained nor lost (you've already committed to the ride so the week is already lost). For the record, I will likely fall into this category but I will definitely look at a few posts before making that decision.
Then for those that do care and definitely want the posts, they win as they get something that would not have otherwise received. So this is a net sum zero gain for some, to a win for others. I say if you want, do it.
Definitely.
Best part of blogs? If you don't like a post, just skip it. what's the worst that can happen?
Of course we're interested! As a fellow Contra Costa living, bike riding, open space loving dude, I say that you have a moral and ethical obligation to ride and blog around the Bay. You, my friend, will be doing God's work when you do so. Good luck to you, and I look forward to reading your posts.
Three summers ago I undertook a similarly insane venture: The AIDS LifeCycle (see aidslifecycle.org), a 7-day, 585-mile ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It was a life-altering event, and here are some things I learned that are pertinent to Andrew's questions:
First, California is really big. And most of it isn't Toll Brothers tract housing (at least not the routes we took, which focused on Salinas Valley agriculture, Santa Maria hills and Pismo Beach coastland). It's spectacularly beautiful. Yes, land planners are doing dumb things, but it's eclipsed by our natural environment.
Second, you'll have valuable insights irrespective of whether you can research them on the Web or not. You've been doing HTWW long enough that you'll see unseen connections in areas in which you're already an expert.
Third, don't worry about the physical problems. If you can ride a century already, you're fit enough. Everyone's rear-end hurts like hell by Day Four, even if you're a skinny little dude on a $5000 Seven. I was one of the fattest riders during my ride and I still pedaled every inch.
I vote yes too. The more we promote the wonders of bicycling, the better off we'll be. Will you also be taking part and blogging from the forthcoming World Naked Bike Ride Day (currently "scheduled" for June 9th up here in Vancouver)?
www.worldnakedbikeride.org
Cheers!
Reading your report sure as heck is the closest I'm ever going to get to a 480-mile bike ride. I'm also interested in hearing how you're training for it. Who knows, it might inspire someone else to get off their duffs and ride a bike. Probably not me, though. Not for a week straight, anyway. Good Luck.
I live in the Arkansas Ozarks, so some of the geographic references may not mean much, but I will at least start out interested in what you have to say.
Whether I stay interested is up to you.
Although I'd be much more impressed if you could ride, say, 770 kilometers in 7 days: 110km/day is a big number!
And don't feel the need to blog only bike-ride-related stuff, either. I'm sure yout mind will wander at some point and you'll have all manner of bright ideas you can look back on once you're off the bike and work out whether you really were a very different person when you were on it.
I'd suggest making arrangements with some Greenbelt and other anti-sprawl folks to guest-blog on the topic. After each day's ride, call in and chat with the writer du jour, and let them do the hard work of writing and researching. They can give us updates on your ride and fill in with their special area of expertise.
I've been in the Bay Area for a number of years, so Sprawl is a topic near and dear to my heart. In my town they are working to change the ugly mini-mall-car-dealership sprawl of El Camino Real into something closer to a real city: http://www.mv-voice.com/story.php?story_id=2830.
As you travel around the bay I'm sure there are many such stories: neighborhoods created through infill, open space preserved, green buildings, and other reasons to hope. I look forward to having you share them with us.
In addition to the inspiration aspect already covered by other letters, I think a blog about this could be really informative. People who engage in these kinds of events tend to be full of interesting ideas and involved in great projects. I'd like to hear about them...
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Salon headlines in your mailbox
