First, a confession: I love bicycling. I have enjoyed it, at various levels of fitness, for over forty years now – and well over 100,000 miles. It is a technology I embrace.

I raced bikes as an amateur in Colorado during the late 70’s. I was only a Category III rider, but the competition here in the mountains catered a bit to my “lighter” frame.  Not to say a light body-frame was necessary, I remember riders like Eric Heiden (an Olympic speed-skater and summer bike racer) having thighs the size of my waist and weighing nearly 200 pounds), but it certainly didn’t hurt.

In the early days of racing, we would shoot for a few hundred miles of riding a week to be competitive, the racers in the higher Categories (who didn’t seem to have the demands of steady jobs, like us “lesser” riders) were getting a minimum of 400 miles a week to stay competitive. That requires a lot of time, and for me, it meant about 8,000 miles on the saddle of the bike each year – nowadays I’m pretty happy with 800 miles a year instead, and I tend to enjoy the rides much, much, more.

So, are there issues regarding physiology vs. technology when it comes to bikes?

Here are the upsides of Bicycling:

• A beautiful, easy-on-the-joints, rotary motion of the legs is transformed, by technology, into smooth, forward motion of incredible speeds. I never cease to be amazed.
• A few hours of exercise can take you outside, and over as many as 20 miles or more of city, or country scenery – with the wind in your face, and the sun on your arms.
• It is as close to environmentally pure, and exhilarating exercise as you can get – especially in the mountains of Colorado – Mountain Bike, or Road Bike.
• At competition levels you can eat anything you want without any of it “staying”. However, my recent views on diet have changed the way I think about the habit of carbo-loading (see my blog on Low-Carb Diets).

And, here are the downsides of Bicycling:

• Even though I have had much practice, and I seem to do it less, and less –Falling-off of a bike always hurts. First, because it’s either onto concrete, or rocks; second, because you are usually going too fast; and last – It’s not that the bike is much higher off of the ground than a normal standing height, but the fall always feels like it ends with a “thud”.
• Being out in the sun for the long hours that it takes to get an equivalent work-out to running, results in a lot of skin exposure. Generally, even for triathletes, the bike/run-ratio is about 4 to 1 – a bike ride is so much “easier” on the body, that it has to be 4 times the distance to get the same physical expenditure as the run (in a Triathlon, the 26 mile marathon is usually followed by a +100 mile bike time-trial). Fair skinned riders like myself tend to get a lot more sun “exposure” and damage than we think, especially early on. Part of it is because the wind you create makes you feel cooler than you really are – something you usually notice immediately upon stopping.
• I don’t know how it effects women, but for men, I think putting your full weight on your prostate gland for excessive amounts of time can lead to lasting issues – especially heavier people. Not cancer, or necessarily anything that bad, but if nothing else, just peeing issues in general. Many cyclists my age, even with negative Prostate Exam results, report “restricted” urine flow (unless, of course, they’ve had lots of beer recently).
• This is from the American Family Physician website – Most injuries occur in males and are associated with riding at high speed; most serious injuries and fatalities result from collisions with motor vehicles. Although superficial soft tissue injuries and musculoskeletal trauma are the most common injuries, head injuries are responsible for most fatalities and long-term disabilities. Overuse injuries may contribute to a variety of musculoskeletal complaints, compression neuropathies, perineal and genital complaints. Physicians treating such patients should consider medical factors, as well as suggest adjusting various components of the bicycle, such as the seat height and handlebars. Encouraging bicycle riders to wear helmets is key to preventing injuries; protective clothing and equipment, and general safety advice also may offer some protection.

So, If you have somewhere safe to ride, please feel free to embrace the technology of bicycles with open arms – even though it is decidedly NOT Paleo in any sense of the word.

If you do NOT have somewhere safe to ride, run instead – preferably barefoot, and not on concrete. You will get twice the exercise in 1/2 the time.

What the bike brings to the “table” is the ability to cover a vast amount of distance and scenery, with much less pounding on your joints. Also, the bike can be a little more conversational/social even while you’re riding, but then it is your duty to be a little more aware of your effect on the auto traffic around you.

As a cyclist who wishes to continue to enjoy it, this is my plea to other cyclists:

In the “eyes” of cars, all bicyclists are the same – as in; if one lycra-clad biker upsets you – they all upset you. If one runs through a red light, they all probably do. If one blocks traffic while talking to his friends, they all do. And with this perspective – the next time that “upset” or “wronged” driver is behind a group of cyclists, his patience level will probably be less than for the prior event. The result might be that the driver doesn’t wish to give the bikes quite as much room as before when he goes by – or he may lean on the horn a little longer – or as occasionally happens in Colorado, they just run you off the road.

I only say this because, the fewer drivers that bicyclists piss-off by running red-lights, and blocking the road, the safer it is for me. In any altercation I’ve ever seen, the car won the first round – and it usually ended there. Please obey the traffic rules, a bicycle traveling at anything above 10 miles an hour becomes, for all intents and purposes, a vehicle – and, since the bike is always the lesser of the two vehicles, it is wise to give way whenever possible – sometimes even when you are in the “right”.