Is There a Cycling "Body Type"?

Is body image used for body shaming?

This Article talks discusses why anyone can be a good cyclist, regardless of their height and body proportions.

I remember the day clearly when I was told that I was not cut out for climbing because I "did not look like a climber". I was doing hill repeats with a then friend of mine and I kept passing him up the hill when he told me to put the bike on an easier gear and just pace myself up the climb. I told him I loved to climb, it was and still is one of my favorite things to do when I ride. That's when he told me that I basically wouldn't cut it as a climber because I wasn't short and under 110 pounds. According to a lot of cyclists, climbers are short and skinny and if a cyclist doesn't have the right body type, they basically can't climb, at least competitively. 

On local criteriums and on group rides, I have been referred to as the "big boy", especially when I'm the first to reach the top of the climb or when I can hang with the fast guys in the bunch. At 190 pounds, my size tends to catch people off guard when I ride, probably because they are not expecting what I have under the hood. I have been cycling consistently for the past 8 years without any long pauses, I'm not some couch potato with a fleeting interest in the sport that just decided to buy a bike one day and go for a ride. I have done the miles, the elevations and the speeds to cement my position as a cyclist, regardless of what I may physically look like.  I get it, the amount of exercise that I do does not reflect my physical gains. If I ride 50 to 90 miles a week, swim and do push ups, one would think that would be enough to put me at my body mass index or lower. But is that all that is important? How important are aesthetics, really? Is there a climbing body "type" or a cycling "type"? This article sheds light on labeling people by their body types instead of their athletic ability. It's a common practice in the fitness industry that needs to be exposed, because everybody making money off the industry is doing it. Let's review the origins of body shaming and how this can even be a practice among cyclists.

What are Somatotypes?

In the 1940's there was this psychologist named William H. Sheldon that basically came to the conclusion that there are three general body types; Ectomorphs, Mesomorphs and Endomorphs. Ectomorphs are tall, narrow waisted, long limbed people with high running metabolisms. Mesomorphs are more rectangular, muscular bodied individuals of average height with proportionate torso and leg lengths. Endomorphs are usually shorter individuals with strong leg muscles, wide chests and hips and slower metabolisms. Aside from this scientific observation, Sheldon's logic basically ends there. His psycho-analysis of personality traits associated with different body types was dismissed by the scientific community as quackery that bordered on Eugenics. Despite this, somatotypes are still widely accepted in the health and bodybuilding communities, one only has to do a google search in order to confirm this. Somatotypes have even inadvertently made their way into popular culture, and have been used as a way of body shaming for people who do not meet the Ectomorphic or Mesomorphic ideal.

The three somatotypes (body types) as described by Sheldon. Not
everyone (myself included) falls into these 3 categories.

Am I denying that there are three general body types? I am not denying that those body types exist, however I believe that most people will not fall into one specific category. For instance, I have always had long, strong legs, wide hips and broad shoulders. I can't really say that I would fit any specific body category. I can gain weight easily, but I can also gain muscle as well. According to Sheldon I would be  somewhere between a mesomorph and an endomorph. However, that doesn't limit what I can do well on a bike. Consider the following examples of successful cyclists who did not meet the body "ideal" for cycling.

Miguel Indurain: AKA "Big Mig"

Miguel Indurain, nicknamed Big Mig in his heyday, was a "big boy" for a cyclist, especially for a five time Tour De France winner. He was written off by many cyclists in the early 90's as being too big to climb, by their anorexic standards. At his competitive weight, Indurain was 176 pounds which is not bad for a guy that is 6' 2". He was known as a time trial specialist, but he was also a very good climber. I mean, nobody can win any grand tour unless they are a good climber. Especially five times in a row including a Giro-Tour double in one consecutive year.

Marcel Kittel Vs. Mark Cavendish: Ivan Drago vs. Rocky Balboa

Marcel Kittel and Mark Cavendish are both world-class sprinters in their own right. Mark Canvendish, known as the Manx-missle is probably the most decorated sprinter of all time. What's the difference between these two, one might ask? Marcel Kittel is a hefty boy coming in at 190 pounds, what I currently weigh, versus Canvendish who weighs 159 pounds. That's a 30 pound difference between the two sprinters. Kittel is 6'2" feet tall and Cavendish comes in at a stalky 5'9". This disproves any theory that there is a specific body type for sprinting.

On an interesting side note, Marcel Kittel and Chris Froome are both the same height. However Chris Froome is currently one of the world's best climbers and the overall winner of the Tour De France in 2013. Chris Froome is a true Ectomorph by Sheldon's standards, coming in at a super light 157 pounds for his height. We can then compare that to the world's best climber, Nairo Quintana, who comes in at 5'6" (actually rumored to be 5' 3") tall and weighs 128 pounds, a "true" endomorph. The resulting conclusion is that there is no right or wrong body structure for any specific aspect of cycling. The broader conclusion is that there is really no one body category that we can assign ourselves or others to and that this type of labeling is divisive and wrong. 

As prevalently seen in our society, too many people try to fit themselves into a mold of what they consider to be an ideal body type. Sadly we see this way too often in the case of women. Most models are true ectomorphs, but most people are endomorphs, mesomorphs, somewhere in between or none of the above. Many fit women with shapely bodies and curved hips starve themselves to look like the stick figure women they see modeling clothing in their favorite magazines. Chances are the models themselves are either sticking their fingers down their throats or may just have a naturally occurring higher metabolism. Either way trying to fit a physical mold to gain social acceptance is a marketing ploy used by every company, fitness guru and fad diet across the spectrum to get people to buy into their products, usually by making people feel inadequate about themselves and guilty.  Women are all too often the ones who fall victims to this kind of manipulation as they struggle with their body images. However, as has occurred with me personally in the case of my cycling, women are not the only ones who struggle with this. Men just a little heavier than me are sometimes assigned to their own racing category, known as "Clydesdales". That's right, the big horses that pull the Budweiser wagon, that's what guys over 200 pounds are referred to in the cycling world. Chances are if a cyclist is 5'10" and is not at or below their BMI, they will be considered a "Clydesdale" and will be told that they need to ride on 40 spoke count wheels and a Hi-Tensile reinforced steel frame.

The take away from this article is that we shouldn't judge the athletic ability of others by their physical appearance or aesthetics. Fabio Aru may look like Borat, Jan Ullrich may look like Patrick Renna, Chris Froome may look like one of those aliens off the planet Kamino, Nairo Quintana might be the Keebler elf, that's beside the point. Some of the best athletes in the world look too weird, too tall, too short, too nerdy, too thin or too "not" thin to be doing what they're doing. A cyclist might be rail thin with chiseled features and a strong jaw line, that doesn't mean they have the mental or physical aptitude to beat another cyclist who might be on the portly side but has hardened up through many years of riding a bike. That doesn't mean that they are "full natural" athletes either. "Fat" cyclists can also climb up hills and it would be much to our detriment and shame to assume otherwise. Does the sport favor the skinny? Absolutely it does. Yet as we cited in the previous examples, there are many athletes who are at a healthy weight that are also the best at what they do. Instead of focusing on aesthetics and body type, cyclists should focus on honing their abilities and skill sets, knowing how to climb, when to attack and how to outwit fitter cyclists in a competitive scenario. More importantly we as cyclists should be out there just having fun without the need to stroke our own egos, thinking we are better than others who share our mutual passion. Not every ride has to be a race and not every rider we meet has to be a rival.  Just know that it's better to make friends on the roads than to be dropped by cyclists who appear to be older, fatter or less experienced than we are.

This blog post is directed specifically at all of the self-proclaimed fitness gurus that go around damaging other people's self-esteem on the internet to get them to submit to their quack fad diets or to get hits on their YouTube videos. They're the ones that will typically talk to others without their shirts on, flexing their pectorals on camera for five full minutes while they discredit the other YouTube competition and create social media drama. They recommend training methods and diets that are not sustainable for the long haul and foods many people can't even buy locally. I can only hope that some of these self made nutritional PHDs  read this blog post and start putting some useful information out there. I'm looking at you Durianrider, less talk with your pecs, grab your bike and let's go ride some hills together full natty brah style.




"BMI is just a guideline and the rest is common sense. There is no  magic number on the scale to tell us what we should weigh. There is only the weight that we can look good in, be healthy with, fit in our clothes well with, be confident with and feel proud of ourselves with. The best weight is the one we can sustain and maintain for the rest of our lives. I say this to both the men and the ladies"

  

April Update: New Videos and Cycling Tips

Nutrition tips, cycling tips and how to set goals for cycling.

With my busy schedule, I have not had the opportunity to sit down and compose a thought on this blog page until today, so I apologize to my readers for leaving you hanging. With the Collin Classic coming up in June as well as Hotter N' Hell in August, I have been using the little time I have to exercise and do some actual riding. However, I have posted some new videos on my YouTube channel for my subscribers to enjoy. The following videos go into some depth regarding nutritional advice, tips for more efficient climbing and my views on Crits and Bicycle Rallies. Check out my channel and subscribe for more videos to come.

This year so far has gotten off to a great start. I know what I have to do to get in shape for the events that I am going to be riding this year. Some of the gains from last year's 18 pound weight loss have carried over to this year and I am starting the season about 7 to 8 pounds lighter than I did last year. It won't take long to achieve and exceed the form I had last year if all goes according to plan. I have a new goal for 2015; setting a sub 6 hour time for a hundred mile cycling event. More specifically, finishing the Hotter N' Hell in less than 6 hours and maybe even going for a 5 hour time limit. This will require training hard and some new equipment with the latest technology to get me there. "La Poderosa", or my beloved Woodrup steel bike featured in the video above, has officially retired from racing and will be relegated to the Sunday morning group bike ride. It served me well in last year's event, but the marginal losses in shifting with downtube shifters and lack of proper cadence because of cranking big gears took their toll and contributed to the time deficit I had. I was also wearing about 15 pounds of gear on my Camelback and stopped at one too many rest stops while I waited for others who were riding with me. All that resulted in a finishing time of 7:45, still not a bad time, all things considered. This year I'll be signing up not as a first-time newbie tourist, but rather as a seasoned veteran rider that will be "in it to win it" figuratively speaking. My goal is to ride well at these events but also get the attention of some of the local teams in the area. I want to be able to keep up with the best riders around the area where I live and maybe that will open up an opportunity to do something else with this passion that I enjoy. 

Right now I have Motobecane Super Strada on order from Bikes Direct that I will be doing a future review on. It departs from the vintage steel bikes that I love to ride but comes fully loaded with the latest tech such as an external bottom bracket and a Shimano Ultegra 22 speed groupset. The Frame is still made out of an alloy, however it's an aluminum frame with a carbon fiber fork. At 19.5 pounds, it will be about 4 to 5 pounds lighter than the Woodrup when it's all said and done. Spec for spec it can be compared to a Cannondale Caad 8 in performance, but with a nicer groupset. This year my goal is light, fast and efficient, and this bike seems to have all three. It's not a flashy bike but it will soon be the workhorse of my stable.

Another goal that I have is to keep up with one of my childhood friends who will soon be visiting me. He was a beast on the bike when I was 15 and today he is a semi-pro level mountain biker. I'm trying to fit at least one mountain bike ride a week to be prepared to ride with him by the time he visits me. Last year I was all about road cycling for most of the year, this year I will be mixing it up on both the trail and on the road. 

Setting goals every year is important for anyone wishing to maintain a physically active lifestyle. As an adult with a family in tow, I know firsthand how easy it can be to be lured into the complacent mindset of "I'm too old" or "too busy" to be doing this. We may have friends who were once physically active and have allowed themselves to drift into that way of thinking. Setting goals allows us to keep our head above the water in this sense. It allows us to get rid of distractions or excess baggage in our lives or at least know how to deal with the baggage better. It promotes a positive mindset because we always have something to look forward to as we strive to stay busy. It keeps kids (and adults) out of trouble and keeps their minds out of the gutter. It keeps us disciplined from eating in a way that will mess up our progress. Some people keep a journal of their goals. I used to be one of those people and that is a great practice to have. Setting goals down on paper (or in this case, my blog) commits the mind into action and is a great way to see how far we've come along after a certain period of time.

To those who have a hard time committing to their health goals, all I have to say is "don't be that guy (or gal)". At the end of the day, no one likes a victim and no one wants to hear sob stories about someone who would of but could not get in shape. Some people have all the emotional support, coaching and equipment or accessibility to it to get themselves in shape, however they lack the desire. Desire is not something you can buy on a carbon fiber bling bike. It is not something that someone else can have for you. Desire comes from within. It is a powerful force that drives people to change and to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. It's willing to put in the hard work and the self discipline knowing that their is no easy path to success. It's watching the pounds slowly inch away on the scale instead of becoming bulimic and expecting an overnight miracle. 

Just remember, if we push hard enough, something is likely to stick. We may lose progress in our fitness from year to year, but eventually good habits will catch up to us as long as we stay consistent. Some people have to go at it alone, because neither their peers nor family members care much for what they are doing. That's okay, the key is to be a positive influence on others, even if that means being left out or skipping the dinner plans for that evening. That might seem inhospitable or unsocial at first glance, but they will eventually get the point as to why you are doing it. Once others see our gains they will want to follow. We must also realize that all people are skeptical by nature and reluctant to embrace new ideas. When people see our results, they will want in on our little secret and they too will follow us eventually. Sometimes WE have to create a following, lead by example and grow the interest in both cycling and healthy living in our area or surroundings. I definitely speak from experience on this matter, so feel free to quote me as the source. 

That's all the updates I have for now, stay tuned and subscribe to my blog and YouTube channel for more informative posts from A Bicycle's Point Of View.

Riding Skills 101: Ebb and Flow

Ebb and flow, and why its important stay calm and just ride

Cycling, just like any other sport, should be an exercise in calming our  nerves and stress levels with the added benefit of movement and sightseeing. The benefit of reducing stress in our lives is that it balances us emotionally and physically, and our bodies react positively by metabolizing better and feeling less fatigued. In no way should an activity like cycling become a cause for stress, so knowing what outlook to have when riding is important so that we get the most out of the exercise we put in. I'm going to be discussing what I refer to as the "ebb and flow", in cycling, particularly when it comes to mountain biking. However, anyone who rides a bicycle can benefit from the points that I will  bring out to help develop riding skills in both the road and the mountain.

What do I mean when I say, ebb and flow? Like an ocean tide or a calm stream, riding a bike should be a natural movement, complementing the environment around it and adapting to the contours of the land. This can be evident in one's ability to maneuver the bicycle, as well as one's pedaling efficiency and ability to spot obstacles on the trail. Although I can focus on just these aspects of riding there is a lot more to it than just good technique and balance. There is also an emotional element to riding that can accelerate or impede one's progress as a cyclist. Let me give a few examples of what I mean.

Some people drink Red Bull, listen to loud music and rev up their Jeep Wrangler's for everyone to see as they make their way to the mountain bike trail. Once there, they pull off their uber-expensive, full suspension mountain bikes off of their racks and attack the trail at high speed, ignoring the dryness of the soil or the abrupt turns, roots or drop-offs that they might encounter. The end result? Many people brake their frames, bottom out their shocks or hit a tree that they were not looking out for. It happens all the time, just look up the YouTube videos. In addition to injury, many riders exert enormous amounts of effort only to not make a personal best or the fastest time on the trail. 

Ebb and flow starts before the rubber hits the road. We need to check our state of mind before we set foot out the door for a ride. Are we calm? Are we focused? Are we aware? It is actually more beneficial to listen to relaxing music before a ride than to listen to something that will pump up our adrenaline (and stress levels) as a result.  If we are already aggressive before a ride, we are already depleting our energy levels even before the first pedal stroke. We are also not focused, instead we are looking over our shoulder to see who we dropped or who is gaining on us. By not being focused we are thus not aware of the obstacles that lay ahead. A good mountain biker will train his peripheral vision to see six to ten feet ahead of them at all times. This can make the difference between gearing down for a hill, crossing a rock garden or doing an endo over a ledge. We have to know when to adjust our body mechanics when something changes in the terrain. If we already expect the change, we have given our bodies time to react to it. A novice mountain biker only needs to learn a few basic skills and the rest is mostly awareness and focus. As long as a rider can lean their weight back when going downhill and can lift up their front wheel, that is almost all someone would need to know to ride basic singletrack.

On the road or on the mountain, hammerfests* should be avoided. Once somebody is riding at speed, their is no need to be continually sprinting, attacking and dropping other cyclists  in a non-race situation. Not only is it a big waste of energy, the person who does this sticks out like a sore thumb from the rest of the environment. They become a stressful pain in the rear in a otherwise idyllic setting. A calm cyclist holds a steady tempo and rides in a predictable nature. Someone who is naturally fast  usually glides past others rather than goes full sprint just to pass. Their movement, even when passing, seems natural and to be expected. A cheery hello or hand wave also removes any competitive feelings from the person getting passed.

A calm state of mind when riding, as well as mental focus will allow us to get the most out of our experience. We will make progress in our speed, our fitness and our bike handling skills logging the same amount of miles or less than a stressed out cyclist would. So pratice that ebb and flow!

Stay tuned for more informative posts.

*For those of you who don't know the meaning of this word, it refers to non-verbal challenges that cyclists usually make to one another, whether by rudely passing someone abruptly and intentionally not acknowledging them or by catching up to another cyclist for the sole purpose of sprinting past them. We have all done it at one time or another, however it is not acceptable behavior and should be avoided.

  

Condition is Everything

When it comes to old bicycles, condition is everything

Why am I posting this? Because over the years, I have bought many old bicycles. I overpaid for some bicycles based on their brand name and country of origin. In addition to the price I paid for some of my bicycles, I spent to have them restored, in some instances twice as much as I paid originally. While some restorations have been worth it, others left me with a mediocre and somewhat decent bike at best. That is why when deciding on buying a bicycle, it's a good idea to look at the overall condition of the bike before making a decision.

Case and point, I recently got a late 70's to early 80's(ish) Concord Selecta Freedom Deluxe 12 speed road bike on trade. At the time of production, this was a mid-range bicycle made with Kuwahara tubing instead of the plain gauge, hi tensile steel so commonly found in bikes of that same era. This bike features a really cool, super smooth crankset that is a combination of the press fit and Octalink drive technologies seen today on modern bicycles. This crank also features self-extracting crank bolts which unscrew with a 6mm allen key, no special crank puller tool required. The Shimano Selecta crankset appeared around the same time as positron shifting, which was the first attempt at indexed shifting.

My Concord Selecta "Freedom Deluxe" 12 speed road bike.

The decals on this bike are painted, and the lugs have been ornately pinstriped.

The decals on this bike are in great shape. 

At first glance, there seems to be nothing special about this bicycle. It has a bolted on rear wheel, bolted on saddle, stem shifters, no rear derailleur hanger and no water bottle braze ons. The bike snob "connoisseur" types would quickly pass on this bike, assuming it is a cheap, low end model. What this bike doesn't show on the outside it reveals as soon as I mount on the saddle. 

This is the smoothest, most compliant bike of all my ten speed bike-boom era bicycles. The foam grips and the alloy wheels give it a comfortable and plush ride, and the steel frame does it's job of absorbing the road vibrations. The stem shifters shift effortlessly and I have just the right amount of climbing and sprinting gear ratios. What a climber this bike is! Seriously, I did not have to get off the saddle at all, not even on the steepest climbs of my routes the last time I rode it. The stamped, Selecta crankset spun smoothly up hills and I found myself spinning where I would normally be mashing. The saddle was firm enough but not super stiff in the crotch area, and the steel frame absorbed a lot of the impact to the groin region. Japanese road bikes of the 70's and 80's have a reputation for being well made and having better quality than the Peugeots and Merciers that were being made during the same period. However, the thing that sets this bike apart from my other bikes was the condition that I received it in.

This bike was received in time capsule, almost air-sealed, new-old-stock condition compared to other vintage bicycles that I have restored over the years. This bicycle needs no restoration, therefore there is nothing I have to put into it after making the initial investment. When I say nothing, not even the tires need replacing. The rubber on the tires is still new with the little stubbies sticking out the sides. Sometimes its better to get a lightly used, mass produced Japanese bicycle that is in good condition rather than buying a high end bicycle parts project. A middle of the road, not so prestigious bicycle in good condition will be ridden more, enjoyed more and it will be easier to keep up with in the future. A high end bicycle will be stored and collected after restoration, hardly getting any ride time over fears that if it breaks down it will be expensive to fix. These days, the better the condition and the better the fit, the more valuable a bicycle is to me. The Concord Selecta wins on both counts. I get freedom from riding it, just as the name on the frame suggests. It's a bicycle I can use to go exploring downtown or the trails around my area. I feel comfortable riding it helmet-less and in my regular clothing. A 20 mile ride on this bike wouldn't be out of the question, because I know that I received it in good cosmetic and mechanical condition. So I can't stress this enough. I have paid way too much in the past for bicycles that I never got running off the ground. So condition is everything...CONDITION-CONDITION-CONDITION!!!

Stay tuned and subscribe for more informative posts.

***Here's a checklist to go over when looking over a bicycle for purchase***

1. Does the frame have cracks, dents, rust or feel off balance when ridden?
2. Does the fork on the frame look bent?
3. Does the chain have rust?
4. Are the tires dry-rotted?
5. Are there any missing bolts on the bicycle?
6. Are the cables worn or rusted?
7. Are the brake pads worn?
8. Is there any rust pitting on the chrome components?
9. Are the wheels severely bent or missing spokes?
10. Does the freewheel or the rear cassette engage when pedaled?

Vintage Bikes of the future, 26 inch wheel mountain bikes?

Why you should start collecting 80's and 90's mountain bikes

They say 30 years makes a classic. So pretty much, judging by my time here on this earth, I'm pretty much a classic myself. Classics enjoy the respect of enthusiasts and turn heads when being showed off in a modern environment. The mountain bike as it originally was has also become a classic. 

Crested Butte, 1980. There was a repack mountain bike race that day-viewed the first generation of mountain bikes, a far cry from what we would consider to be a mountain bike today. Cantilever or drum brakes, bull moose bmx-style handlebars, and heavy frames with long rear triangles were on the forefront of technology back then. Many of these bikes have sadly not made it into collector's hands after decades of rigorous thrashings on the mountain bike trail. The ones that have made it will soon be as valuable as the most expensive vintage Italian road bikes.

With the recent popularity of vintage road bikes and fixies, old ten speeds have enjoyed a vast number of avenues for replacement parts and upgrades. Most tire manufacturers still make 27" tires, for example. 27" and 700c wheel replacements are still to be found for many of these bikes, even replacements for rear wheels that require a freewheel instead of a cassette. In fact, ever since 700c became the popular wheel size on road bikes, they have been able to co-exist with 27" bikes until this day. I'm guessing back then bicycle companies respected the consumer's wallet, that or 27" wheel touring bikes were seen as benign and not a threat to 700c wheel racing bikes. 

Never in all of bicycle history has there been an attempt so blatant to eradicate a wheel size option than what the bicycle industry is doing with regards to the 26 inch mountain bike. A year ago, I wrote an article saying this would happen, based on market trends and feedback from working at a bike shop. It seems that overnight, all of the good, mid-school wheels and components have either been bought up or priced up at a 300% inflation rate. This is an unexpected outcome to the 650b and 29er wheel craze of the last few years. I can't seem to find anyone who sells good 26" freewheel threaded wheels anymore, unless they are heavy bolt ons for cruisers. The only wheelsets I find available are cassette compatible and top end brands like Mavic. What ever happened to the Zac 19's?

I can only compare what is happening to the 26", unsuspended, steel mountain bike to what happened to film photography. All the powers that be in the photography industry got together , and in less than a decade, film photography was gone. I saw my first digital camera around 2001, a box-like object that used a floppy disc and could only take five pictures at a time. By 2004, 3 mega pixel cameras where starting to become common among most people. In 2009 when I took my film camera to Germany, I received a few impressed looks and one person even told me that they had forgotten what a film rewind sounded like. I had to take my film to a specialty camera store to get it developed, and that was 5 years ago. I still have my film cameras (good ones, at that) but seldom use them because I don't know where I'll develop the little film that I have left in my refrigerator. Were film cameras that much more inferior than digital cameras? No, in fact a 35mm camera with a really sharp lens could get the equivalent of 64 mega pixels in image resolution. My medium format camera could get an even much higher resolution still. So why did the industry have to force film into obsolescence?

For the same reason why the bike industry is forcing out the 26" wheeled mountain bike: to make money. By forcing everyone to upgrade across the board, the bicycle industry is forcing consumers to buy their product, because all other options have been eliminated. As much as I loved my film camera, once all of the one hour photo labs started closing down, I really could not use it anymore. So let's say I were to break a wheel or a 7 speed shifter on my mountain bike. There may soon come a time where that will mean the end of that bike's lifespan as a mountain bike. It will from that point forward have to become a beach cruiser, because those will be the only wheel and tire options that will come in 26 inches. As a desperate measure, I may just have to buy a Wally World bike or a Magna bike from Target with 26 inch wheels, just to swap parts onto my old mountain bike. 

As consumers, we can choose with our wallets whether or not we like what the bicycle industry is doing. When I say bicycle industry, I am not including bicycles found at department stores, many of which still come in 26 inches. I'm including The two big American owned companies in the industry and the one big but still emerging Taiwanese "giant" who are driving the change. "The Big Three" currently own most of the patents in the industry and are known to buy out other companies just for the sake of eliminating the competition. If we don't like what they're doing, then we don't need to buy their mountain bikes, it's that simple. When we start seeing more aftermarket parts available for our old-school rigs, then we can entertain the idea of buying their products again. 

In conclusion, forced obsolescence is never a good thing. Look what that did to letter writing, no one writes hand written letters anymore. Fewer people read the printed page, now you see people reading on their tablets and "eBooks". People don't invite other people over to look at their photo albums anymore, everything is shared online and invitations are kept to a minimum. When something becomes obsolete, our values and manners suffer. Some people will say that it's just a wheel size, that it's just a hobby and that truth be told all bikes were meant to be disposable anyway. But it's much more personal than that. Pricing out the consumer or forcing an expensive change on them is taking advantage of their long time integrity and the fact that they're cyclists. It's telling them that there's a cost of entry and a economical barrier to doing what they love to do. It's telling the consumer either pay up or quit riding a bike. It's an underhanded and indirect way of pre-qualifying people to do something that everyone should have the right to do; ride a bike. Straight up class warfare, if you ask me. 

Here's my answer to what the bicycle industry is doing. I'm going to start collecting vintage mountain bikes and components. I hope to accumulate enough parts to do my own maintenance without ever having to step foot in a boutique, hipster-owned bike shop. Once I can no longer do maintenance on my bikes, all future mountain bikes will come from Target. That's how I'm going to choose with my wallet and I'm sure others will follow suit. The modern bike boom is over, it's been over for about 3 years now. With this forced change the specialty bicycle market will not keep enjoying it's temporary run of sales for very long. Once the bicycle demands of the upper echelon of society are met, they will not derive any more profit from the rest of us. Until another Lance Armstrong comes along and gets people into Tour De France fever, most people will no longer see the need to buy an expensive bicycle again. 

End of rant.

What If Lance Rode an old 10 speed bike?

Would Lance Armstrong still be fast on a 10 speed?

When people talk about Lance Armstrong, is isn't without reservations, resentments, or any love lost for the recently dethroned athlete. Lance Armstrong, however, has done nothing to rectify his public image, besides showing us how to change a bicycle tire on an old Peugeot (We're glad you finally learned how to do that, Lance).

It's been almost two years since the USADA cleaned his figurative clock of all of his fraudulent Tour De France victories, Olympic medals and world records. Someone who has been raked through the coals the way Lance has should by now have attained a certain amount of humility. There are many things that Lance can do that will put him in a positive light again, maybe even reinstate his status as an athlete. Who better than Lance to set up cycling programs for the underprivileged youth of America, for example? There are good cyclists everywhere from all walks of life, but the sport doesn't follow them, it follows the money. Apparently so does Lance. Someone like Lance could turn the status-quo, like Jonathan Boyer did for team Rwanda or John Candy did in Cool Runnings. If Lance weren't so self centered, he would make a great coach.

The other thing Lance Armstrong created was the stereotype of the American cyclist. The Strava obsessed, weight weenie, goo slurping, middle aged jerk in a mid life crisis who makes it rain money every time he walks into a bike shop. Readers of my last article will see the illustration of how cyclists used to dress. Blue jeans, casual clothes, tee shirts and sneakers was the dress attire until the late 1990's. Now everyone who rides their bicycles on the roads or even on the trails is wearing full team kit, perhaps subconsciously thinking that is what they have to wear to be like Lance. The uniform serves it's purpose in the hot summer months, however its not a year round requirement to ride a bike. What Lance needs to do for his public image is to change the way that he is seen riding a bike. Trek no longer sponsors Lance, he needs to trade in his carbon fiber Madone for an old ten speed. He needs to  wear regular clothes on his training rides. He needs to show the world that it really isn't about the bike, because his whole career and the aftermath of it he has shown the opposite.

If Lance were to say, race me in an unsanctioned event like an alleycat, riding on a Schwinn Varsity or a Huffy Aerowind and still beat me, an avid recreational cyclist, then my level of respect would be much higher for him. That would turn the bike industry on it's head, since they could no longer sell people on the performance gains of high end bikes. If the average person knew that they could enjoy cycling on what they already own, instead of looking at cycling like a specialized equipment sport that requires endless upgrades, there would be more cyclists around the world and money would be trading hands hand over fist. After all, I'm just quoting Lance here. He was the one who wrote the book "It's not about the bike". Only somebody of his celebrity or infamy could pull it off, too.

Would you like to see Lance on one of these for a change?

Talking about Lance Armstrong is beating a dead horse to many people. I wanted to write this article because even though Lance isn't around racing his bicycle anymore, the damage he did to the sport still remains. On the local and national level, many riders are still juicing up to win races. Strava obsessed cyclists clip pedestrians on multi-use paths. I'm sure even though it hasn't been discovered yet, new methods of doping have already made their way into the professional ranks. I don't believe for a minute that a certain recent grand tour in Spain was raced cleanly, without drugs or sabotage. Lance can show redemption by condemning his own past actions as well as not letting anyone else get away with what he did, whether it be on a local, national or international field. Who better than Lance to point out the cheaters?

The truth is we don't owe Lance anything and neither does he. He will go down as the biggest loser of the 21st century. His public life has gone to tatters, and there is little he is willing to do about it. His example serves as a warning of the consequences of big headedness, arrogance and dishonesty.

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The 2014 Collin Classic Bike Rally

69 miles on the Woodrup, beautiful country ride.

Picture of the author. Photograph by Sugar & Spice Photography

On Saturday I finally got to participate in an event I had been spending a good part of the week preparing and training for. I put a hundred miles on my Woodrup bicycle on the days leading up to the Collin Classic Bike Rally, an event in Mckinney, Texas that benefits a children's charity called City House. I signed up for what had originally been a 64 mile bike route, but due to construction on some rural roads, detours had to be made and the route ended up being almost 70 miles. My goal was to make it through the ride in one piece and survive all 69 miles. Not only did I complete the ride, but I averaged 17.1 miles an hour, my fastest average speed yet for a distance that long. I took advantage of four out of eight rest stops they had on the ride to refuel on water, bananas, oranges and electrolytes. 

I have to say this is the most organized bicycle event that I have been to. The route was well marked and wound through some scenic country roads which made the ride that much more enjoyable. There was police presence directing traffic at all times through the route intervals and turns. The weather was beautiful considering this is Texas and temperatures can get to oven hot levels. The day was overcast enough to bear the high 80 degrees in Fahrenheit. 

Along the ride I met a 62 year old Chilean cyclist that was as enthusiastic about his vintage Peugeot as I was about my Woodrup. We rode the last nine miles of the ride together, and at 62 years young, I had to ask him to slow down and wait up for me a little bit as I was starting to cramp up on my back and unbeknown to me, had a rear wheel that had come off true and was rubbing on the brake pad.  He is in truly remarkable fitness for his age. I only hope I can do the things this guy does when I get to be his as old as him. 

This is the first time that I do a ride like this. I'm already pumped up about doing this ride next year, weather and all unforeseen occurrences permitting. I wish there were more spring and early summer rides like this were I live. While most of the country enjoys the July to September months, it gets dangerously hot here during that time. I can't ride during the middle of the day in the summertime, only in the early mornings or the evenings. Otherwise I put myself at risk for heat strokes and UV ray exposure. Therefore this will probably be the last event I see myself doing for the rest of the year. I really enjoyed it and it was a true test of my fitness level. However it did not leave me feeling defeated like some competitive events I had done in the past. 

Stay tuned for more updates from A Bicycle's Point Of View.

The Humble Schwinn Le Tour

The Schwinn Le Tour: The Original Touring Bike

Touring bicycles have been around long before the Schwinn Le Tour. The name "Le Tour" is a dead giveaway that this bike was inspired by it's predecessors from across the pond.  This bike however, was the first mass produced touring bicycle to enter the U.S market by a U.S owned company.

According to history, the mid 1970's oil crisis and a national interest in all things European at the time brought about the bike boom and most notably, the "touring" bicycle or ten speed as it was once called. Before then bicycles in the United States mainly consisted of cruiser-style single speed bikes with balloon tires, also known as paper boy bikes. These more common bicycles featured tanks, horns, fenders and many of them weighed in excess of fifty pounds. The concept of lightweight racing bicycles was a foreign one to most people at the time. This perception changed during the 70's, when a fuel shortage, a new environmentally conscious generation and an unpopular war paved the way for a bicycle revolution. Belgium and the Netherlands rolled with the movement and are now the most bicycle friendly countries in the world. The momentum in the U.S ended abruptly around the late 80's when the economy improved and technology rapidly advanced. From the 80's onward, bicycles have turned from a practical means of transportation to a form of exercise and recreation. Out of that bike boom era there arose a people's champion, a working man's fare, the Model T of touring bikes and a well made product forged in a Chicago factory. The humble but reliable Schwinn Le Tour.

Over the years I have owned several Schwinn Le Tours. The yellow Schwinn featured in the title heading of this bike blog was my first restoration. It has now left my possession as I have given it to my mom, who rides it regularly. Unlike their French counterparts at the time, these bicycles were all steel with metal shifters and derailleurs, making them reliable and durable. The strong metal used for the frames could take a sustained load without making the bicycle ride slower. The early Le Tours had almost all factory made components with all parts stamped "Schwinn Approved". Finding the date on an early Schwinn is as easy as looking at the head badge and hubs of the wheels.


The following two bikes are examples of an early Schwinn Le Tour model and one of the last Schwinn Le Tours that came out of the Chicago factory. Both have features of what was popular for bicycles at the time of their production. With a stronger focus on touring, comfort and practicality, the 1980 Schwinn Le Tour on the right was equipped with stem mounted shifters, steel rims, ergonomic handlebars with shallow drops and center pull brakes. The late 80's Schwinn on the left was made much more sportier, reflecting the shift from practical use to recreative use. The 1988 Schwinn features downtube shifters, side pull caliper brakes and alloy rims. Like the earlier model it came with a strong steel frame and eyelets for mounting racks on, heralding back to it's original purpose of touring. Both bikes can be equipped as touring bikes and in this regard no one bike is superior than the other. 

A 1980's Schwinn Logo

A 1980 Schwinn Le Tour with a logo design reminiscent of earlier models.

By the late 80's lighter steel such as true temper was being used for the Schwinn Le Tour

1020 Tubing is not light by modern day standards, however the bicycle rides like a lightweight bike due to it's road dampening qualities.

Early Schwinns featured stem mounted shifters, steel rims, "suicide" brake levers and lots of chrome

Although the later Schwinn model was designed to be faster than the earlier version, the early Schwinn can be a serious contender with alloy rims and some minor upgrades. As shown in this video, this bike is no wimp when it comes to speed. The video shows me whipping past carbon fiber roadies in their $3000 Wiliers and triathlon machines on my 79' yellow Schwinn.

These bikes can be found all day long on the online classifieds, at a good price too if someone is a shrewd buyer. The 1980 Schwinn cost me $40 and zero dollars in investment to get it in it's current condition. I bought the 88' Schwinn to help out a friend and it cost me twice as much.  These bikes can and do usually bring anywhere from $150 to $300 at resale. I personally have a hard time letting go of Schwinn Le Tours. They are such well built bikes and such a bargain for the money that I will usually hold onto them while usually getting rid of my more expensive bicycles. Having restored one from the ground up, I know firsthand the quality of their build and what this bicycle is capable of. For some reason unknown to me, these bicycles are usually passed up by collectors while inferior models like the Varsity and Stingray get all the attention. The Stingrays, Lemon Peelers and Fastbacks which sell in the thousands of dollars can barely be ridden by grown men while a good Schwinn Le Tour that is capable of beating the socks off of a modern day road bike doesn't even get an offer over $100 most of the time. 

One day when the Puerto Rican Schwinn club switches from vintage cruisers to vintage road bikes (I'm Puerto Rican, I can say that...) or when hipsters start to covet Schwinn bikes for their fixed gear fallacies, the collector's value on a Schwinn Le Tour will probably rise. When it does, just remember that I was riding Schwinn Le Tours before it was cool, before hipsters discovered it and before having knowledge of a Puerto Rican Schwinn club, of which I am probably now regarded as an honorary member. Even though my stable of bikes boasts the best of French, Italian and British imported vintage steel, I will always remember my roots and the bike that got me into restoring bikes in the first place. I can always make room for a humble Schwinn Le Tour.

I Keep On Rolling

Why my tires keep rolling after seven years of active cycling

Sometimes I quit on things. Somethings I give up on. Some people eventually quit and give up on me. Sometimes no matter how much I try to please others, I may at times end up alone. The people who quit on their dreams make me feel like there is something wrong with me for not quitting as well and for not accepting mediocrity in my life. But I can't stop and I won't stop riding my bike.

Even if I wanted to stop, I'm already being carried along by the momentum of my wheels, and I enjoy the feeling of movement too much to slam on my brakes. Even if I sold every bike in my possession, I will still end up buying a bicycle at some point or another and start riding again. This can't be said about other things that I have started, achieved a measure of short lived success on, and then eventually moved on to something else once I started to get bored. In addition to being a cyclist I enjoy painting, skateboarding, drawing, playing guitar and photography. Some of these things I am talented in and have even made a little money off of. But none of these things are things that I am consistently pursuing on a daily basis, that form a part of my routine. I ride my bike almost every day now that the weather is improving.  I have no self-rightous motives for this other that it makes me feel good and I am addicted to the Vitamin D of the sun's rays and the endorphin rush to my brain. 

I can't even say that I ride to stay fit anymore. I haven't lost any weight since picking up my cycling and I am not pretending that I will, although after a few months I always drop a couple of pounds. Within  my reasoning doing a short bike ride is better, in fact anything would be better than spending the evening planted on the couch, watching what is probably bad television and whatever pap the media wants to serve to the masses. This is the routine that many people are addicted to. They watch other people play sports on TV and they like to talk about sports, however they won't even go outside to toss the football around. They like to see other people become famous because of how well they can sing karaoke, but they themselves never bother to learn an instrument. People live their lives vicariously through the celebrities and Youtube sensations that are on display in their electronic devices. As I think about this I have to ask myself, "is that even a life at all?". 

Cycling is freedom, enlightenment and exercise all rolled into one beautiful package. Freedom from other's expectations that you too should be sitting down at work and sitting down at home. That eating out is supposed to be a form of socializing and entertainment rather than providing the body with basic sustenance. Enlightenment that there is a whole world out there beyond the realms of television that is unexplored. Why should we be labeled as weird, strange and crazy for trying to explore it? I think it is more crazy for people to be led to and fro from one cage at work to another at home, like dumb cattle from the corral to the slaughterhouse. The craziest part of it all is that no one complains or puts up a fight, in fact they are as happy as can be until they see someone who is different and does not share their insular view. Then like the stampeding cattle that they are they try to trample the more morally elevated health conscious individual down, whether by words or even by using their SUV on the road.

No one was born this way. No one starts off life saying "I'm cool just sitting on my butt all the time". Most people come out of the womb active, kicking and screaming. In the beginning we were all young and free children riding our bikes down our neighborhood blocks. Then we grow up. Some people along the way achieve titles and credentials and start to think of themselves as "important". Important people can't be seen idling in non-important activities, such as bike riding. That time has to be better spent working overtime to afford that new car payment. The car becomes everything at that point, a status symbol as well as the transporting cage from the cage at work to the cage at home. Some people don't shut up about their cars either. You'll see old men in shiny Corvettes or small men in giant Hummers. Sometimes people are classified by the cars they drive, regardless of who they really are. There is no such classification system that can be made for a bicyclist. At speed, all bicycles look the same, regardless of whether the bike cost $100 or $1000. This turns off "important" types from riding a bicycle having any respect or admiration for anyone who rides them. Little do they know that they are the ones with the mismatched priorities and that they are missing out on all the fun.

I have always been part of the not so silent minority. Rejection, alienation and social isolation are not things that are new to me. At different points of my life I have had to swim against the current and go against the grain of what the majority of the people were doing and thinking at that moment in time. Almost always I have been thankful that I did. Riding a bike is no different. It is not an activity that sits well with a lot of people or one that will grant me instant success, fame, money or popularity among my peers. But it is an investment I have made for my long term health and well being, one that I hope I can cash in on, even when most of the people that I know will be diabetic, dead, frumpy or morbidly obese.  

As I turn 30, I am already looking forward to seeing the first phase of my investment pay off. My Dad had really high cholesterol at my age, something I have been able to regulate with exercise thus far. Hopefully I can fend that off for a few more years as well as high blood pressure and diabetes. Hopefully I can also avoid the obesity my mom had from not taking care of herself during my childhood. If I can do even a little better than my parents did in this respect I will feel like I made a difference in my health. 

I am a cyclist. I may not look the part or be competitively fast, but I feel this is sticking with me wherever I go from now on. I might go back to drawing and painting (which I should) or photography later on in life, but I plan to always be riding my bike.  Like the song that was made in the 70's (who sung it, REO Speedwagon?) I keep on rolling, rollin' on despite the changes.

Riding the Backcountry: The Journey To Becoming a Complete Cyclist

How exploring by bike has made me into a complete cyclist

I recently moved to an area where getting to the countryside by bicycle takes longer than where I lived before. The back roads of the country aren't usually named; they are usually just given an FM (farm to market) designation followed by a number. As I ride away from the smooth, well kept concrete roads of the suburbs, a raw, untamed and uncivilized world seems to open up to me. It's a place where you can sometimes hear the sound of someone's hunting rifle go off,  encounter stray goats, chickens and even packs of dogs on the road, and sometimes there can be an uneasy co-existence on the roads with rural dwellers in their large pickup trucks and cyclists. 

Smooth roads turn into bumpy, potholed roads. These give way to loose gravel roads, and before I know it, I'm riding my road bike on hard packed dirt paths, winding up and down fields or densely tree-lined areas. Before, when I used to think that I was riding in the country, the roads had names, were paved over with black tar, and most dogs stayed behind a fence or on a leash. Not here. Out here there is real adventure riding, where anyone who rides out here has to be ready to encounter a wide variety of scenarios. So far, on good days I have averaged about 15 miles an hour on my bike, according to my online tracking app on my phone. That's not bad when I consider I have had rides with almost 800 feet of total elevation gain and 19 mile and hour headwinds to contend with. It's a different kind of riding then what I am used to. One has to learn to adapt to the lay of the land and sometimes ignore the data that the cycling computer or the tracking app is saying. Its more important to stay mentally alert, being constantly on the look out for potholes or dogs, conserving energy to ride against strong headwinds and making sure that both bike and rider make it back in one piece. 

Around four years ago, I left kicking and screaming from a centrally located suburban area to a part of the a city on the borders of the Dallas county line. It seemed like the very edge of civilization of for me back then. The countryside was my only option for local bike riding unless I wanted to load up my bike in my car and go ride somewhere else. At first I did do that, a lot. Then I realized that the twenty to forty minutes I spent in my car getting to and from a riding destination was time I could have spent doing a ride around where I lived. I also realized that I just didn't have the same amount of time that I used to have to go to these far away places to go ride for an hour and then take another forty minutes getting home. I started to get on Google Maps and plot my own routes around the countryside where I could take low traffic and scenic roads for a good twenty to thirty miles. If I wanted a shorter ride I could just shorten the loop so that I would be riding sixteen miles or less on days when my time was really constrained. After three years of riding in the countryside, I have found that I enjoy it more than riding in the suburbs, and I don't freak out if my bike rolls off smooth pavement or hits a small pot hole. 

Rather than staying in the suburbs, doing small cafe racer loops and constantly having to stop and go at traffic lights, my bicycle and I tend to naturally gravitate toward the countryside, no matter where I start riding from. I used to love riding in the suburbs and avoid rural areas like the plague, now I am finding it hard to stay away from the countryside. I don't enjoy riding in the suburbs like I used to and let's face it, farmers in beat up pickup trucks make better company on the roads than distracted soccer moms in their large Land Rovers do. I also find that riding out in the countryside is like a form of fast mountain biking, and my general fitness tends to improve as a result of having to employ both speed and bike handling skills into my workout. 

The carbon fiber wonder-bike, spandex-clad in team kit wannabe racer concept is ingrained and hard boiled into almost every cyclist I see riding out on the roads where I now live. Occasionally I will run into an older gentleman riding helmet-less on a Wal-Mart special with a bag of groceries tied to the front of his handlebars. He's the only guy that I have seen that is that comfortable on a bike and I know he rides a lot, because I have seen him more than once. Everyone else seems to be speeding away, trying to get their ride over with as fast as they can so that they can brag about it to their friends immediately afterwords. These guys have the same three loops that they'll do religiously, without any deviation whatsoever. I have been guilty to doing the same thing myself, but at least I don't do it all the time. I have learned to let go of that pre-ride anxiety I used to get thinking about how I needed to record my miles, carry a spare tube, and wear my ceremonial garb of spandex and special shoes. I don't get angry if another cyclist passes me and I fail to catch up while they run through a red light. Now I have different bikes and different approaches depending on the levity or severity of how serious I want my ride to be. My rides are no longer all serious, half century ride expeditions anymore. Sometimes I'll do a fifteen miler or even eight miles just to warm up the legs and say that I worked out that day. I have even done four mile rides to the grocery store and back. It doesn't take a lot to be consistent. Consistency is more important than bragging points on a Strava app and it's what makes a person a fitter and more livelier rider in all sorts of conditions. 

Complete cyclists are ones who are always exploring, always adapting and know how to dress for the occasion. They are ones who do it all; long rides, short rides, on and off road rides and value all rides equally. They are people who know the risks and prepare for the risks, rather than allowing those risks to scare them from doing what they love. They are the kinds of riders who do not get worked up over-thinking a bike ride, instead they can just get on a bike and go. A truly complete rider does not have routes, they have destinations, even if unknown to them. To a complete rider, the journey is more important than the end result on a tracking module. Strava can't tell a story of the billy goat you saw in the middle of the road, or that cool looking dilapidated  red barn, or that ghost town that you passed through that made you think of a wild west movie. If there is something interesting on the road that makes you want to get off of your bike to check it out, you should check it out. A complete rider does that, without fear of having to pause their workout on their phone for them to do so, or that their average speed will drop as a result of stopping for a moment. A complete rider also knows their limits. You will not see them riding in cold, rainy, pneumonia inducing weather, just because the group ride didn't cancel that Saturday. However, on nice days during the week a complete rider will take to the streets when most wanna be riders have to work to make that payment on their carbon fiber wonder-bike, as well as their Land Rover, which they use more than their bike. 

By employing this methodology into one's riding, fitness will improve, cycling skills will improve and overall quality of life will improve as a result. One will learn the essential things that they need to ride a bike and the things that are baggage in their lives and that they can do without. Remember, the more things you have to pay for, the more a slave you become to those things. Some people are even a slave to their bicycles, if their bikes are ridiculously expensive. So by simplifying our lives as well as our approach to cycling, we can make cycling a more wholesome activity. Never stop exploring, or taking the road less traveled.  Stay tuned for more perspective from A Bicycle's Point of View. 

How To Make It In Fort Worth

Ft.Worth, the "other" city across Dallas-and what you need to do to live there.

Fort Worth really is a beautiful city. It's not a fake kind of beauty that you can guise behind a fancy bridge with white arches or a pretty city skyline. It has never been a problem for me to walk the streets of Fort Worth at night. I know that I am safe and I feel safe as well. Fort Worth has an impressive arts district, parks, museums and miles of bike trails. In short, Fort Worth gets me, and then again it doesn't. Once a resident among it's city limits, I had to abandon this city 7 years ago to get a job, find a wife, and ultimately move forward in life which I wasn't able to do in Fort Worth, as hard as I tried.

I must have handed out about 100 or more resumes in my early 20's. I was an educated, energetic and hard working young man ready to do whatever anyone asked of me (I still am, by the way ;) ). I don't know why so many companies in Fort Worth turned me down. I still believe that there is an unspoken social (maybe even ethnic) bias in Fort Worth that makes it's way into the workforce. There was no reason for employers not to give me a chance. Retrospectively, I knew others who were able to find success and were able to stay within the confines of Fort Worth's city limits. Here's how they did it, and how you too might make it in Fort Worth.

Go To School

This isn't a guarantee for employment, but having a college degree will improve your chances at finding a job that can pay the bills there. Look for opportunities in heath care, paralegal assistance, information technology, graphic design and computer aided drafting. Baylor is a major employer of many health care professionals in Fort Worth, and health care jobs are always in demand. To live comfortably, try to acquire at least an associates level degree if considering making the move to Fort. Worth.

Be Your Own Boss

Tradesmen seem to have it pretty good in Fort Worth from what I have personally witnessed. Some successful friends of mine were able to make ends meet by becoming landscapers, carpenters, carpet cleaners and installers, door installers, and home re modelers. There is no shame in hard work, if you want to live in Fort Worth, that is.

Work at the Airport

If you don't have an two year college education, and no trade skills to speak of, the next step to making it in Fort Worth is to work at the airports nearby. Alliance airport is home to two major courier companies and DFW airport has several air freight and logistics warehouses. Keep in mind that working at an airport is hard work, requires working crazy shifts and it does not pay a lot of money. Jobs at the airport start around nine dollars an hour, and can pay up to fifteen in some companies. Paired with a second job or someone else splitting the bills, it might be possible to get by on an airport salary. I wouldn't do it long term, especially with a family in tow.

Work Outside of Fort Worth

Dallas has more work opportunities and more industries to choose from. Even the retail jobs pay better in Dallas. A fry cook at In And Out Burger starts making $10.50 an hour, which is unheard of in Fort Worth last I checked. I work at a bike shop and it's enough to supplement our family income for the time being. Companies are fair about the hiring process, and will at least call you in for an interview, even if your skill sets aren't top notch. My first legitimate job in Dallas was in Technical Support, where I learned on the job many of the computer and software skills I have today. I was also  given the opportunity to work in the health care field for two years as a monitor technician. 

Living in Fort Worth with a job in Dallas will be a challenge. The commute from city to city is about an hour each way. Traffic construction between cities is the worst I have seen in over 20 years of living in this area. Because of the nightmare traffic, many people who live in Fort Worth will eventually move to Dallas to save on gas and to reduce their stress levels. With a comparable cost of living between the two cities, it's no surprise that Dallas continues to keep getting transplants from Fort. Worth, myself included.

In conclusion, I miss the idea of Fort Worth. I miss being close to a city where I didn't have to leave town to get to where I wanted to go. I miss having everything I enjoy in one zip code. I miss a being in a city that is walkable at any hour of the day. Unfortunately, through no fault of my own, Fort Worth lost this citizen who did everything possible to make an honest living within it's boarders. No matter what I did to stay, it just wasn't good enough. I wasn't part of the social clique that makes up the Fort Worth elite. In Dallas, however, I found the value I knew I always had, as an individual and as a contributor to the community. That doesn't mean that it is impossible to live in Fort Worth, and it doesn't mean that I might not one day try to live there again, however things have to change. Fort Worth needs to find a way to hold on to the companies headquartered there. They also need to welcome more entrepreneurs and small businesses into their downtown area. Allowing artisans and musicians to perform in the streets on saturday nights was generating a lot of business, they need to start doing that again. With more economic diversity and transparent hiring practices, Fort Worth can be everything that Dallas is not. However, there needs to be a way to put food on the table that is accessible to everyone. Without that, Fort Worth will never outgrow or outclass Dallas, and will continue struggling economically and keep losing more residents each year. Betsy Price, if you're reading this, I hope you're taking notes.

Where did all the time go?

Finding time for bike riding is not as easy as it used to be.

It's 1:40am and I just finished replacing a brake cable on my rigid 26er mountain bike. It seems that my days are always ending real late and the only time that I can find to ride or work on my bicycles is at really odd hours, either at the crack of dawn or late into the night. Only a few years ago I was riding 3 times a week, 30 miles at a time on a regular basis. Now it's a  struggle to fit 18 mile rides twice a week into my schedule. 

Where does all the time go? Between my part time job, raising a kid and my other obligations, bike riding is seeing a real slim piece of the pie nowadays. With fall approaching, daylight hours are also being reduced, so I will have to ride at night if I want to ride during the week. Not a problem, other that this will mean driving 25 minutes to my in law's house so they can babysit my kid. My 3 year old is still too little to go with me on really long rides, and my car will not hold all my riding gear as well as his. 

I'm also getting to a point where I just want to ride for fitness, and realize that I am light years away from being in any competitive form. With the little time that I can dedicate to cycling, it will probably stay that way until my son starts school. In the meantime, I have to be there for my kid and not be an absentee cycling father who's always on his bike. A part of me wants to be self-centered, then I realize how narcissistic and big headed that is.

I love cycling, I wish I could do it all the time and be in great shape. I probably would be in great shape if I rode my bike everyday. However I also believe in priorities, and until that day comes when I can get an eight hour a day break to be a competitive cyclist I am just going to have to keep fitting cycling into the open gaps in my schedule.

Cycling Versus Insanity, Zumba and other Fad Excercises

Discussing some of today's most popular body sculpting exercises, and

whether these will stand the test of time, compared to cycling.

So, which one are you doing? Riding a bike, or Zumba? Commuting to work, or Crossfit? I have friends and acquaintances that believe riding a bike to be an activity they once did down their neighborhood block as little kids, never to be repeated again as a car-owning adult. When it comes to getting in shape, they will resort to some of the more recently popular methods. "Why ride a bike and expose myself to the elements, when I can just do Insanity from the comfort of my home or take a Zumba class at the gym?", some might ask.  Because cycling is  an activity that will stand the test of time, one that will help maintain a healthy (but not an elite) weight, improve blood circulation, improve quality of life and in turn add longevity to the person who does it on a routine basis. It's also an activity many will enjoy doing, so having a routine of cycling won't be as hard to maintain as a group workout program. 

I will admit, programs such as Insanity, P90X, Crossfit and Zumba give results. From dramatic weight loss to sculpted abs, people can achieve these results from continually doing these programs. They also serve as a great way to get ready for beach season and lose that extra 10 pounds of persistent flab hanging around the mid-section. If physical image is the participant's end goal, these programs can achieve great results. However, without continuity these results are not long lasting. These exercise programs rely heavily on high intensity workouts that shock the body's metabolism into reacting more quickly than normal, losing weight faster over a shorter period of time. Sometimes, the weight can be loss at an unhealthy rate, leading to rapid weight gain over any short period of inactivity. I have known friends who have gained the weight back with interest after falling back to their old habits.

Many of these programs also do not respect the lower lumbar. Some programs like P90X will put a warning on their videos for people to have had previous back injuries. However, back injuries can occur during these exercises if a person has weak or undeveloped back muscles. I personally know of someone who developed a severe back injury after a session of Insanity who did not have any preexisting back problems.  Cycling, however, strengthens back muscles and along with core exercises, can dramatically improve lower back function. 

These programs also rely on the use of good marketing and over the top claims of fitness and athletic ability. Crossfit is an example of this. Crossfit claims that it can make anyone excel at any sport they choose because they will have the fitness advantage every time. I would like to see one of those top heavy Crossfit dudes challenge me in a bike race. Being a good cyclist only comes through lots and lots of cycling. Through many times of tearing and strengthening leg muscles, the body learns to send less lactic acid to the legs the longer someone rides. Leg endurance is something that takes years to obtain, and I highly doubt someone who has been doing Crossfit, even for a few years, can simply hop on a road bike and win a criterium. Having a twin brother who is Navy Seal qualified but cannot even hold the draft of my rear wheel, I know this first hand. While upper body strength is desirable for most men to have, too much muscle mass on top will feel like an anchor weight when climbing hills on a bike, a skill essential in cycling. Lean muscles are more desirable than large muscles for cyclists.

Crossfit takes their big-headedness a step further, opening up Crossfit gyms everywhere, temples where they can teach their doctrine to their loyal followers. Reebok now has an annual Crossfit challenge that looks like an Ironman and a World's Strongest Man competition put together. There they determine, in their own words, who the fittest person on earth is. What they don't realize is that fitness is relative. Not all athletes or truly fit people sport six packs and massive pectorals. Not all athletes do football scrimmages, climb up ropes and do Olympic lifts. And while it takes a great level of fitness to do all those things, that does not make people who do Crossfit the ultimate all rounders. 

Zumba is the Jazzercise of the new generation. Having a mom who was into Jazzercise, I would know. Another dance aerobic workout, this time Latin inspired. I can remember how my Mom's hobby turned into an obsession, sometimes dragging me with her to do her Jazzercise classes. Imagine a 14 year old surrounded by a bunch of fifty year old women in tight, brightly colored spandex. So yeah...forgive me if I don't have the fondest memories of Jazzercise or the best impression of Zumba either.

How about these themed running events that have been popping up lately? Events like the Tough Mudder where people run in the mud for no reason and come out looking like mud pies? Again, not very appealing to me. I rather be dirty in my own sweat than caked in mud any day.  These events take a lame activity (no offense to any runners reading this, however I was also a runner and I know firsthand how boring it is) and try to spice it up by adding a theme or a cause and all the sudden it becomes something fun. It gives runners the motivation to continue aimlessly jogging around the trails to "train" for events like these.

Any physical activity, as long as it is being done regularly, will give results. The aim of these workout videos and clubs is to make the consumer believe that they have something no one else has. But in reality, people have been going to the gym and getting hard abs and fit bodies since Jack Lalanne. Sometimes it is a good idea to look beyond the flash and the bang and ask whether these training methods are necessary to be fit and healthy individuals, and whether they can be done on a regular and routine basis for the years to come.

In conclusion, I'll simply end this topic with a question "Which of these will you be doing when you're 60, 70, or even 80 years of age?". I know cyclists who are that old, and I also know old people in really bad health who are that old as well. Cycling is a long term activity. The results are not immediately noticeable, but the effects are long lasting. If you are someone who is getting winded or is getting their back broken trying to keep up with these trending workouts, maybe it's time to give cycling a try. When all the hype blows over, you'll be thankful you did. Stay tuned for more informative articles from A Bicycle's Point Of View.