Who doesn’t love riding a bike? The freedom of the road. The wind at your back. Racing your friends. Exploring your city.
Okay, so I’ve come to learn that not everyone shares my enthusiasm for cycling. And if that’s you, then you may want to skip this week’s edition.
An essay about cycling (and striving)
Over at Medium I published an essay about the social fitness platform Strava and what it has taught me about the rewards and pitfalls of striving more generally. Here’s an excerpt:
The constant feedback of performance data and social comparison encourages users to constantly strive harder without taking pleasure in the more enjoyable parts of the sport: enjoying the passing scenery, slowing down to chat with a fellow cyclist, stopping for a pastry, and aimlessly exploring new routes without purpose or destination.
We think of dopamine as a chemical reward, but in fact, dopamine is released in anticipation of achievement and recognition, whether they are attained or not. The anticipation of seemingly small incentives — the like button on Facebook, the follower count on Twitter, the top ten list for a Strava segment — can trigger our dopamine addiction so that we are constantly seeking, never satisfied.
When I speak to my younger colleagues at work, I hear a generational shift in how they think about ambition and how it relates to their work on gender equity and racial justice. I’m thinking through a couple more essays on the topic, so hit me up if you’re interested. (Many thanks to my fellow riders and writers Jamie Knowlton, Ted Nordhaus, and Nathaniel Heller for their feedback on drafts of the Strava essay.)
Any interest in a bicycle book club?
I have read two reviews of Jody Rosen’s new book, Two Wheels Good, and I’m convinced that I now want to read the actual book.
Modern humans emerged around 300,000 years ago. And yet somehow our allegedly clever ancestors couldn’t come up with the modern bicycle until 1885? We even managed to invent the steam train before the bicycle!
So the modern bike has only been around for 135 years, but as Charles Finch writes in his review:
the relatively brief time frame of “Two Wheels Good” makes it a crystalline portrait of modernity. The bicycle has touched nearly every element of life on earth since then, it turns out. The Vietcong used bikes in their counterraids; Susan B. Anthony once commented that the bicycle had “done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world”; it was a Parisian bicycle maker who patented the ball bearing, the so-called atom of the machine age. We even rode it into the age of flight, in a sense: The Wright brothers were bike mechanics.
The title of the book comes from the quote “two wheels good, four wheels bad.” The 20th century began with bicycle mania. But it didn’t last long. Henry Ford introduced the Model T in 1908 and humans have largely chosen cars over bikes ever since, despite that some 1.25 million people die in car crashes each year and motor vehicles are the largest net contributor to climate change.
In her New Yorker review of Rosen’s book, Jill Lepore notes that the start of Covid-19 led to a boom in bicycling and a bust in driving. Unfortunately, we’re quickly reverting to our uncivilized ways with a massive increase in traffic fatalities in 2021. (I’ve been a Lepore fan for years, so it was fun to read about her purchase of a Cannondale back in 2001 to celebrate tenure and then riding around with a speaker blasting Indigo Girls. 🥰)
Let me know if you’re interested in reading Two Wheels Good over the next six weeks and then participating in a Zoom call with a Belgian beer or glass of wine sometime in late August to discuss.
The Tour!
It took humans 300,000 years to invent the bicycle in 1885, but then it didn’t take much longer to come up with the Tour de France as a publicity stunt to sell more newspapers in 1903. This year’s race has been fantastic so far. Even if you know nothing about cycling, the Tour is an enjoyable morning coffee companion just to admire the scenery they ride through. Be warned though: as you get to know the riders, it’s hard to not get caught up in the competition. If Comcast Xfinity is your internet provider, you likely already have free access to Peacock, where you can stream the Tour de France live each morning. Otherwise, NBC publishes 30-minute recaps on YouTube. The two commentators are each goofy in their unique ways and they’ve never learned to stop speaking over each other. The goofiest of the two, Bob Roll, was one of the early members of my local Berkeley Bicycle Club.
(Today’s stage was disrupted by climate change protesters who want French buildings to be more energy efficient. You’d think that maybe protest a car race? Or a conference for architects?)
A Useful Tool
I have a love-hate relationship with Strava, as you can see in the essay above. There is so much they could do to improve the app. Then again, it’s the easiest platform I’ve found to keep a record of my rides, runs, and swims — and to monitor goals.
It’s especially useful when I travel. Wherever I go, I can easily find the best rides, runs, and hikes … and it has helped introduce me to local running and cycling clubs — most recently in The Hague, Nairobi, and Accra. The map above is what Strava recommends if you ask for a 30-mile bike ride leaving from my house. If you sign up for Strava, add me as a friend.
Kudos
Major kudos and admiration to the community builders who lead weekly group rides:
Ollie Martinez, who leads the Wednesday morning Mochi ride out of Oakland
Bob Gade and Vernon Kwan, who lead the Saturday Anarchy ride out of Berkeley
Bruce Matheson, who leads the Noon Ride each weekday down in Palo Alto
Jamie, Michael, Phil, Shannon, Ian and all the Rapha ride leaders in SF.
Kiet T. for the Open Air Coffee rides and Thursday run club
Also, big props to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and People for Bikes for all the hard advocacy work they do to keep cyclists safe.
Happy riding,
David