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My mountainbike passion

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sisko:
I feel like i own an explanation to some of you, especially those wondering why i spend less time in here and more on RL.
Well, i've been diagnosed with high blood pressure some time ago and this made me think about the future and the way i want to spend what should be the second half of my life (hopefully).  :)
So, i had to make some changes, and a healthier lifestyle was the first priority. I was already taking care of what i was eating, so in this respect, i only had to cut back on salt and eliminate processed food. It's not that hard once you get used to, but it's time consuming because if you want to eat something cooked, you have to do it with your own hands.  ;chef;
Also it was time to exercise more. I had something around 102 to 105kg last winter, which was a bit too much for a 187cm person. I don't like spending time at the gym and you can't make me excercise unless it's a sport i really enjoy doing.
Few choices there.. just basketball and cycling. I quited basketball in college because of reccuring tendinitis, so unless i was able to get a new pair of knees, i was stuck with cycling, which brings us to the point of this thread.

:bike:
Well, i first fell in love with cycling back in the school years. I learned to cycle on a full size bike, so i was quite "old" for that.. seventh or eight grade :dunno: ..and it was love at first sight. I learned how to climb hills, how keep a constant cadence, i took good care of her doing all the repairs by myself and she payed me back with a nice pair of muscled legs, which i was very proud of. 8)
We were never apart.. never, well untill i decided to sell her.  :'( And for what? Can you guess?
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To buy me a computer!!  :P 
And a computer i bought!  :mad:
By the time i discovered Alpha Centauri (the game), my knees were gone, so no basketball and the bike was loooong gone, so no cycling. The obvious result: i was lazy and fat, fat as in well over 100kg.  :-[   And guess what.. SMAC didn't help either.  ;D

Pictures coming up later in the thread, so stay tuned! :bike:

Green1:
I live in a city where bicycling is common. There are co-ops that help you build bicycles. There are bike lanes everywhere. Walking to a store or to work is common and all the public transportation has bike racks. A good portion of the population does this and here, at least, you are not viewed as a "loser" for not having a car. There are other cities like this as well.

I have lived like this for years and I am in my 40s. However, due to my extreme lifestyle (which is not too extreme here) I look in my late 20s. You hardly ever see really fat people here unless they are tourists. I have seen other folks from the suburbia I left decades ago. Most of the middle class men have had strokes and hear attacks from a sedentary lifestyle. The women my age who were hawt now hideously out of shape behind a SUV that costs a years salary to some. So, I take small comfort.

There is nothing wrong with biking.. even into your 40s, 50s and beyond despite what society declares or some potential wannabe trophy wife may think they need to have to show off to the other soccer moms. One guy I know is my friend. He is 70. He looks 40. He never drives and rides bikes everywhere. Needless to say, dude has a wife 20 years younger, a nice house he bought for peanuts and fixed up, and a free life without rent or employers and his health... all for not paying extortion car notes, insurance, tickets from pigs that ambush honest citezens, and gas.

Green1:
Sorry about the anarchist rant, lol. Most of the biking community are very much Anarchist leaning. Either that or very Bohemian leftist.

I had a question though. Why Mountain Bike? I have found the tires and maintainence on the Mountain-type bikes really inconvienient on maintainence and breakdowns, particularly cheap Wal-Mart china bikes (but there are some gems in Wal-mart). New Orleans and Louisana in particular are flat areas and I find a good cruiser is excellent for everyday use. A street or racer bike is a good way to get yourself killed as there are pot holes everywhere.

sisko:

--- Quote ---I had a question though. Why Mountain Bike?
--- End quote ---
well, i rediscovered my old passion :bike: some 3 years ago. we went to the mall and bought 3 bikes for the price of 2 (december sale if i remember well). mountain bikes for me (hardtail) and my son (full suspension) and a cross for my wife, nothing fancy or too expensive. the fact is, i knew nothing about 'modern' bikes. back in my youth all the bikes in my country were 'fixies' (no suspension) so, having a front suspension and wide tyres seemed like a cool thing to have.  ;lol
in time i found out that i did the right thing though, because if you want a safe ride in my area, you actually have to go off-road. the few bike lanes we have are all on the sidewalk and we are talking about some 8 kilometers of them for a 300k citizen town ;q;
if you try to use the roads, you have a big chance of being run down by a car because drivers don't pay attention to the bikers and have no idea of the speed you can develop on a bike. when you approach a crossing, in most cases eye contact is not established between the driver and the biker so you have to guess if the driver is aware of your presence or not.  :-\
we have no bicycle culture. that's a fact! and this is unlikely to change soon, at least not in my lifetime..  :( 

Green1:
Oh, man...EVERYBODY bikes here! I hear Portland, OR, New York, and many other places are like that. In the Bywater area, St. Roch, and the Quarter, NO ONE owns cars, even families! Hell, where would you park it?

There is also a local Plan B outside the Quarter that is a bicycle co-operative where the community shares tools. A project for biking that I plan to have by December after complete travel to different places catching up on old friends is a cargo trailer.

Basically, I know some folks who will let me into the French Market to sell wares. I am still doing research on it, though and may have an apprenticeship arranged with a local expert on fused glass.

With this and the cargo carrier, I can cart glass to the market to sell. One guy I gamed with back in the day quit his job as a crane operator to sell things in the French Market. He and his wife just bought a house off of that, so selling wares here is no joke. Because of the way New orleans works, you damn near have to "know" someone to get in.

Any of you guys attempted projects on this nature? I know big city biking is VASTLY different than the "weekend" bike culture. If so, how did it work out?

I am thinking something like the pic I have uploaded:

Although many of the other vendors have trailers that are MUCH bigger. I really need to take a picture of one set up. Good friends of mine are a husband/wife team. She reads tarot on Jackson Square and he his a street magician. They have awesome bike they use to carry the set-ups!

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