Reason No. 19 – Ride more, weigh less

Reason No. 19 to ride is the more you ride, the healthier you’ll be.

Did you know that if you bike two miles a day, you will burn 36,000 calories over the course of a year—the equivalent of over 10 pounds of fat. In fact, the average person loses 13 pounds in the first year of commuting by bike.

Reason No. 18 – You Can Always Find Parking

Bike Parking in Venice on Washington Blvd.

Reason Number 18 to ride is you don’t have to struggle with finding a spot to park your vehicle.

Oh, and its a whole lot cheaper to park too!

I’ve been pretty impressed with the different cities and the efforts that they have been making towards providing secure places for your bike that also fit into the neighborhood.

I hadn’t seen the one above provided by LADOT until recently, and I stumbled upon the adorable sunflowers below in Downtown Long Beach this morning.

Bike Lock-up in Long Beach

 

Long Beach Sunflowers for Your Bike

Reason No. 17 – Ride your bike to work day

Reason Number 17 to ride is Today!

Not only is May National Bicycle Month, but Friday, May 21st is Ride Your Bike To Work Day. Are you ready to ride and encourage others to do the same?

Lots of places offer Bike-to-Work events, like free coffee and bagels to cyclists, and the League of American Bicyclists even has tips to help you get started if you’ve never tried a bike commute before.

Google Maps has bicycling directions (even mobile ones) and you’ll find that for local treks it is faster to don your helmet and bike to work than to use your car! Those of you commuting 20 to 30 miles will most likely feel different.

For a better ride, and safety’s sake here are the top seven items to carry with you – my personal fave is to carry a $20 bill at all times. If needed, I can use it as a shim for my tire. this not only saves the day but then I have enough money on hand to replace the tire/tube when I get to the bike shop. What’s yours?

Reason No. 16 to Ride – Holiday Bike Giveaway

Reason No. 16 to Ride is a great holiday bike giveaway!

Here’s your chance to give your and others the gift of health this season.  Sign up for the San Diego Tour de Cure or better yet, Team US Cares rides the Tour de Cure and start your fundraising to help make a difference!

Raise $100 by December 16th and be entered to win a Specialized Road Bike courtesy of UC Cyclery!

$100 = 1 entry; $200 = 2 entries; $300 = 3 entries

About Diabetes
Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. The cause of diabetes continues to be a mystery, although both genetics and environmental factors appear to play roles. There are 23.6 million Americans living with diabetes, a disease that is outpacing heart disease, cancer and AIDS. Diabetes is a disease that has deadly serious consequences, and there is no cure.

Reason No. 15 to Ride

Reason number 15 to ride is you make a difference to people like Virginia Garner and others like her.

Virginia Garner is a blood cancer patient who became part of the LLS family when she was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML).  She is now a First Connection volunteer, a vocal member of her local CML Support Group, active in the Light The Night Walk “CML BUSTERS”, a mentor through Team In Training, involved in presentations through the School & Youth program and just an incredible resource!  Here is a recent note from Virginia:

Ten years ago today (April 19, 2009) I sat in an examination room at UCLA as a participant in a clinical trial where I swallowed my first Gleevec pills.  It’s hard to believe that all that time has passed.  I remember having the pills in one hand and a cup of water in the other and chatting with Dr. Sawyers, Ginny the nurse, Van my husband, and Connie my sister-in-law until they lost patience and demanded that I swallow the pills.  When I did, there was a hush in the room that I’ll never forget.  I interpreted it as everyone there wondering what would happen next:  Would my eyeballs fall out?  Would my arms fall off?  Would I descend into uncontrollable fits of coughing?  Of course, what did happen was absolutely nothing, except that I walked out of that room armed with a new hope and on the road to complete molecular remission of the CML that had ravaged my body.  That’s a pretty big nothing, huh?

For over two years now, my follow up tests have come back showing no detectable cancer cells, and I live a full and productive life full of energy and joie de vivre.  These days I gratefully dedicate my time to others going through cancer treatment, whether it is by sharing my story with patients or fundraising for cancer research.  I have the hope that one day all cancers will be obliterated, and more people can live a satisfying and full existence like me.  Life is good!

To learn more about LLS, please visit www.LLS.org.

Reason No. 14 to Ride

Reason number 14 to ride is you create scientific proof.

I saw this on another blog and thought they were spoofing, but when I clicked on the link I was stunned to find an actual study!

Strange but True: Helmets Attract Cars to Cyclists
Although you might not want to leave your protective gear at home, just know that if you do, drivers will be a lot more scared of hitting you…

Reason No. 13 to Ride

Reason No. 13 to ride is Togetherness

Couples need a common goal. It foisters togetherness.  For some, it can be planning your start in life together, building a new business, raising kids. For others it takes it form in  the hobby realm of life. Sporting activities such as golf or cycling fill that niche’ beautifully.

And if you need further proof that couples can enjoy time on the bike together, just take note that Valentine’s day I teased another group of cyclists in passing about spending the day of lovers cycling. They all responded without hesitation that each one was riding with their spouse!

(for more on this topic please see Dr. Janet Raymond’s blog)

Reason No. 12 to Ride

Reason number 12 to ride is so you don’t end up like this guy:

All that show, where ya gonna go?

Need I say more?

Reason No. 11 to Ride

Reason number 11 to ride is you meet amazing people.

I’ve been fortunate enough to meet and cycle with a man who has a fabulous story about his road to recovery.

Joe doesn’t wear the fact that he is an ex-Olympian on his sleeve or boast about his being part of Team Simple Green. Instead he told me isn’t one of those “jerk cyclists” and would enjoy a ride or two with me. Early in our friendship he sent me his story where a head injury took him off his bike and his racing path to a world of epilepsy and surgeries.

Reason No. 10 to Ride

Reason number 10 to ride is that you see the coolest things!

So I’m tooling down the beach path, which is one of my favorite relaxed day rides (46 miles round trip if you are wondering) and I see this sign that says “Hang Glider Xing” , not your most common traffic post so I take notice. Right there, I mean right there! are the two most beautiful hang glider thingies practicing landing and taking off. It was amazing to watch. I also think that Southern California just may be the only place where you would see an official traffic sign for this.

Since I ride through Venice, Ca — land of the beach walk freaks you see on TV — I also viewed no less then 6 sidewalk Henna tattoo artists, body piercing and a guy on an oddly adapted mountain bike that had tires about 12 inches thick that looked like the kind of intertubes you may have used as a kid. Oh… and you know this was the same guy I saw with 2 large parrots on his handlebars!