I set out on a cross-country trip. Two miles from home, my bike broke — Two days ago I set out to ride across the country on a bicycle, from my home in Brooklyn to the Pacific coast off Portland, Oregon. Two miles from my house, crack: My bike broke down. And so this is my little tale of an eternal lesson: Things rarely go…

For my entire life, I was allergic to sports and exercise. Then I fell in love with long-distance cycling — That picture above? It’s a snapshot of my 16 year old son arriving in Montreal by bicycle. I’m the one who snapped the picture; I was cycling behind him, and you can see the skyscrapers of Montreal in the background. We were nearly at the end of a long journey…

Feel like crap? Get on a bike — Today I stumbled upon this gentleman’s post on Tik Tok — where he describes how cycling has made him happier. It’s a lovely video, so you should check out the original …

For a long-distance cyclist, which one is freakier? — It’s funny how your sense of what’s risky —and what’s not —can change in an instant. This happened to me recently during my coast-to-coast cycling trip across the country. Let me explain. Basically, I’m spending my summer cycling from NYC to Portland, Oregon, for my next book on micro-mobility. …

Pushed onto a bike by the pandemic, I discovered it makes navigating NYC a joy — Imoved to New York 23 years ago, and quickly discovered that one of the best parts of living there was riding the subway. It’s a gorgeous riot of life — one of the best people-watching venues on the planet. As a tech nerd, I also loved the subway’s steampunk engineering…

I get clarity — and a big-picture view — when I’m on two wheels — Three months ago I wrote about how cycling improved my mental health. As I noted, going for a ride nearly always makes me feel better: If I were worried? A brisk ride would part the clouds. If I felt pissy, it’d expel the yellow bile. If I were blocked or…

Tailpipe emissions are gnarly, awful, health-wrecking pollution — dumped right into our neighborhoods — When we talk about the need to electrify vehicles, it’s often posed as a very global issue. We need to power cars and trucks with renewable energy so we can curtail greenhouse gases, right? But there’s another big reason to electrify the way we drive, and it’s not global. …

A gorgeous slab of leather that molds itself to your rear end — When I decided to cycle 3,600 miles across the country, I had to get very serious about my butt. I’d done long-ish tours before — cycling up to 450 miles in a few days. And I learned the agonizing lesson that all nascent long-distance cyclists learn: Any part of your…

How an early accident while cycling made me more cautious on the road — So, this is the story of the first time I got hit by a car while riding a bike! And the psychological after-effects, which were kind of interesting. Back in 1992, I’d just graduated from the University of Toronto and had landed a job as the administrative paper-pusher at the…

Hectic, dangerous, and requiring constant vigilance — just like a first-person shooter — Cycling in New York City is incredibly dangerous. I do it a lot; in the last week — while running errands, shopping, going to meetings or visiting friends, plus some pleasure cycling — I’ve pedaled about 80 miles. But with each trip I’m in a state of constant hypervigilance. I’m…

Maybe not my best idea — Since the US is currently in the grip of a record-breaking polar vortex, it’s time for a cautionary tale about winter cycling! The tl;dr is: Wow, did I mess up yesterday. …

When cyclists do a “rolling stop” at an intersection, it can — counterintuitively — make everyone safer — Yeah, I’ve done it. I’ve broken the law while cycling around NYC. It’s most often around stop signs and red lights. If I’m cycling up to a stop sign, I’ll check to see if there are any cars or pedestrians arriving in cross traffic. If there aren’t, I’ll do…

American intercity roads really weren’t made for cars and bikes to share — For the last two days I’ve been doing a long cross-country bike ride, cycling from Brooklyn up to Montreal. I and my son are traveling about 100 miles a day, for four days. We’ve done many “century” rides before, so we’re pretty accustomed to having our butts in the saddle…

It transforms your bike into a machine for hauling tons of stuff — When it comes to cycling, I’m not a big gearhead. I don’t ride an expensive cycle; I have an entry-level one that’s pretty heavy, actually. I don’t wear cycling shoes that clip into the pedals. …

It’s all about the right gear. Here’s what I use — As I wrote last fall, COVID-19 turned me into an urban cyclist. Beginning in the pre-vaccine summer of 2020, I didn’t want to ride on public transit or take rideshare cars. So I began cycling everywhere. I soon grew to enjoy it so much that, even after getting vaccinated, I…