I still remember the first Columbia 27″ “Racing Bike” that I saved up for in 8th grade. I went to “Discount Harry’s” in New Jersey with my parents to plunk down $80.00 of hard earned cash and gift money. I spent all night wrapping the handlebars with tape, assembling the parts and adjusting the cables. That first morning in the daylight when I went pedaling as hard as I could into tenth gear with my eyes watering from the wind shear, it was just a marvelous sensation.

Every morning that I commute later, almost forty years after that event, I feel my eyes tear. It is a joyous feeling.

Did I tell you that I just like to ride a bicycle?

I couldn’t agree more with folks that doing the daily grind in a car is a soul-sucking experience that has led to my seething resentment for my car. In fact, the only reason I am able to continue our relationship is that I commute by bicycle.

And I do enjoy a good road trip – with the “right” people! I have a tendency to fall asleep in cars, so that is usually a challenge for me. It’s yet to happen on a bicycle.

Great quote by Bertrand Russell, and I think it’s very true. Something to ponder on the next road trip!

Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they regard such departure as a criticism of themselves.

One of these days I’m going to write a post on Commute by Bike on that theme.

And, listenermark? I think you hit the nail on the proverbial head.

In particular, I like driving North through Monument Valley, spending the night in Moab, then driving Utah State Route 128 through Cisco before connecting to I-70 and heading East towards Denver.

Ahhh….

If there are no posts to Commute by Bike this weekend, you’ll know why.

Especially if it has headers and the rest of an exhaust system which makes it sound like a purring dragon at idle. And if it has enough horsepower to burn away over four hundred dollars worth of tires in the first five seconds after launching it in first gear. And if the whole presentation of the thing makes cops turn around and follow you for a mile or so to see what you’re going to do.

I LIKE driving those cars.

It’s COMMUTING in a car that I find stupefyingly BORING.

As you point out, not many grown ups on bikes these days. I think that partially explains the “us vs them” defense posture you address. Anything or anyone who acts outside the norm makes the neuro-typicals nervous.

And it strikes me that many motorists see bicyclists in general as “anti-car” and have a sort of us-vs.-them attitude. I don’t know where that comes from.