Commuting - new convert!!!

Great news!

A good friend of mine is starting commuting! He was involved in a minor traffic accident some months back it just so happened he did not have his ins card in the car and was at fault. in Kansas anytime you are given a major traffic ticket ( dui, no ins, no liscence etc ) there is a 90 day suspension period automatically applied. so you can guess where he is right now. His commute will be 5 miles each way. previously to being exposed to me he would have never dreamed you could cycle in traffic any distance and live, now he sees it as doable. before he would have had his wife get up at 4 am with the three kids to take him to work. I seriously think I had responsponsibility for his change in outlook. when i first met them they would both ask me you know where have you been and when i told em i rode across town the response was invariable either your crazy your gonna kill yourself or....hope u rode on the side walk.. gradually they came to accept i was not going to die or anything and it became more normal. I happened to be over on one of my days off when he learned he has no liscence for some time now. Of course hysteria ruled for a few minutes, once everyone calmed down I asked why can't you cycle? I told him i ride to that end of town all the time and it is not a hassel. I had to shoot down all the usual arguments against it but in the end he agreed to try it out. WAHOO tonight I am taking him to ride the route i proposed so he can see it is no biggie. :beer:

Hey, good luck, keep us posted.

I am finding him to be woefully out of shape. A 5 block ride at a sub 10 mph pace is too fast so I have to work on him for endurance how do i do that with out getting him discouraged? its going to be a week before he is ready to ride that 5 miles even one way.... if then LOL

Originally posted by nemo
gradually they came to accept i was not going to die or anything and it became more normal.

isn't it interesting how when people accept that you do ride, they tend to become more and more interested in cycling? ;)

as for your friend, sometimes you will have to be patient to make the other person feel comfortable on the bike, think back to when you started riding for real you probably were slow and out of shape as well? good luck :)

I am thinking of nice slow every widening circles around home over the next few weeks. eventually he will be riding 5 miles w/o realizing he is..... the key as you say is (I think) to be patient balance pushing enough to get him in shape but not so hard that he burns out or anything. The ironic thing is he is a large powerful man who has told me repeatedly I am out of shape and he can ride anywhere i do at any time and any speed. Until now he has not had a bike so there has been no opportunity to disprove or prove that. Now his wife and I are really closer than he and I are she knows the length of my rides and how long they take. Last night he was complaining to her that I was trying to outrun him at 7-10 mph she told him my average ride is 15 miles and lasts 45 minutes or so. no more bragging i guessLOL. seriously I expected to have to work a bit but he lifts all the time so you would think there would be some semblance of fitness there?

lifting and cardio are completely different, quite a few lifters dont want to burn off what they build and dont touch cardio.
Glad to see some states actually do more than slap offenders with a fine for major traffic violations. (wa state no insurance is $450, show up to court with proof of ins. and they reduce it to about $80 and give u months to pay, the only punishment involved is sitting in the courtroom for hours)

Ks Has a major influx of illegal immigrants who get a family member or friend to buy, insure, and tag a car for them then drive without a license. To combat this the laws for that kind of infraction are much more severe than they used to be. Get stopped with a suspended or revoked license in most parts of kansas and you go directly to jail.

Instead of giving them a fine, have them to, or force them to buy a bicycle for that money and then revoke theire licence and force them to use the bike for commuting. That would do it...;)

Good to hear you manage to get this guy into cycling. Good luck.:)

well on tonight's "training" ride, I had him ride my bike back after riding his cheap huffy. now he is 6'3" and about 350 lbs or so. He bought a huffy with a 17" frame. My trek is a 21.5" frame. Do the math here LOL he picked up 3 mph right off the bat. Now he is returning the huffy or something and is going to buy a real bike. he fell in love with my bike I think LOL