Kerry v. Bush cycling
 

Kerry: Roadie. Has a couple bikes including a Serotta (I'd have a bike like that if I married the ketchup lady, too). Seems to prefer flame-colored bikes. Sometimes rides without helmet while talking on cellphone. Recently took a spill riding in Boston. From the same state as Tyler Hamilton.

Bush: MTB. Trek Fuel 90 (I'd have a bike like that if I was an oil tycoon, too). Known to wear helmet and mouthguard (??) while riding. Recently took a spill riding on his ranch. From the same state as Lance.

Who wins?

Kerry also appears to wear Sidi Genius 4 Carbon shoes.

I think bicycle magazine did an article on this. Atleast they both ride! Well, there do always seem to be cameras around...

If I had the dough Kerry does I would be riding the lightest bike ever made. Those tens of millions from ketchup sales could buy some awesome bikes! If he is elected, Kerry will be the richest president ever... not a good or bad thing, but interesting.

In general mountain biking would take more technical skills (unless compared to a peleton), but I doubt that Bush does anything tough. As far as the mouthguard, that is understandable, really. Nothing like going to a summit meeting missing a couple of teeth from a mountain biking accident. If Kerry wins I hope he has the sense to wear one too. They both seem to fall victim to gravity on occasion.

Jk is setting a great example there, riding without his helmet while on a cell phone. Looks like something i would do.

All things are relative, but I've read that Bush rides some pretty challenging trails on his ranch. Bush took up biking because running has taken its toll on his knees.

Kerry's hair's still not out of place.

Havent seen any pics of Bush riding, but it seems Kerry's always pre-occupied with fawning for the cameras and not his ride.

Who knows, I wasn't there though ;)


As for the worth of the bikes they ride? Maybe they don't wanna be too far out of touch with the common man...a good move, not provoking envy and all.

Kerry's hair's still not out of place.

Maybe his hair offers enough protection to not need a helmet?

How expensive can a top-of-the-range bike be?
Given that people buy cars for $30k or so, I think most employed people could afford even the most extreme bikes...

look at those pale, puny, pathetic legs. now look at the ride he's strutting. what an idiot. he should be on a huffy for as much as he rides. that bike deserves better. there oughtta be a law...

my fault, didn't realize there was a political section. never scrolled down that far.

as great the publicity is for riding, it really is just sports cars vs. suvs. do either use them for commuting?

They're both "Freds".

What wrong with his "legs"?

My guess is that George Bush Jr. doesn't really ride a mountain bike, or any bike for that matter. I base this on a photo I saw of GB on "his" carbon Trek Fuel. He was sporting tennis shoes. Who the heck wears tennis shoes on a Fuel**********

On the other hand, perhaps that's why he keeps crashing? :D

bac ,

Actually President Bush is very physical and does extensive work outs. His MTB crash made headlines all over. Here is a clip off the AP that gives you an idea of a 18mile ride with the President.

07-26) 18:43 PDT CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) --

President Bush charged up punishing climbs and down steep dirt paths on his high-performance bike Monday, at one point sailing over the handlebars and landing flat on his back.

The president dusted himself off from his fall on a treacherous descent, waved his medics away and kept rolling, a small cut on his knee and dirt on his back the only signs he had wrecked. He allowed that he was a bit shaken up.

While the Democrats were at their convention, working to wrest his job away, Bush was indulging his new hobby, which he sees as a way to get his heart rate up and spend time outdoors without aggravating his achy knees. With an Associated Press reporter riding with him, Bush pedaled to remote corners of his 1,600-acre ranch.

Bush has been riding the knobby-tired mountain bikes since February, and he rides with abandon.

He takes on dangerous sections that would give veterans pause. He keeps a cramp-inducing pace on long uphill sections, panting hard, emitting low "hrrr, hrrr, hrrr" grunts with each stroke of the pedals, his shoulders bobbing up and down.

Over an 18-mile ride that lasted an hour and 20 minutes, he burns about 1,200 calories and his heart rate reaches 168 beats per minute. That's nearly four times his resting rate and in the same range as Lance Armstrong's when the six-time Tour de France winner is pedaling hard.

"At my age, you're more concerned about the cardiovascular" benefits of a workout, the 58-year-old president said. And mountain biking, he said, has a certain "mind-clearing" effect.

His bike is one of the best: a Trek Fuel 98 made of space-age carbon fiber with rear suspension that soaks up big bumps.

List price: about $3,100. He had it specially fitted by a Washington bicycle retailer.

"My right knee has finally had it," Bush said. "Running is really a painful experience for me now."

"Swimming is outside exercise, but you don't get the feeling of the wind rushing by you, nor can you swim your favorite piece of property," he said.

Swimming does not offer countless ways to get injured either. Crashes are routine in mountain biking.

On May 22, he lost traction on a dirt road, scraping his chin, upper lip, nose, right hand and both knees. The next day, a Secret Service agent riding behind him slammed onto the ground at high speed on a paved section, breaking his collarbone and three ribs.

Bush approaches steep downhills warily.

In the moments before Monday's crash, he warns his riding party of a sharp drop and a hard left turn ahead.

"I'm gonna show you a hill that would choke a mule," he says.

He hits the brakes and is steadily advancing downhill when his front tire loses its grip amid the loose rocks. His foot gets stuck in a strap that keeps it on the pedal.

In the blink of an eye, his rear wheel is in the air, and Bush is flying high over the handlebars, landing on his back with the bike on top of him.

He lies motionless for a few moments. The reporter hoists the bike off him just as his medics arrive to attend to him.

There are trees and a drop-off nearby, and the road is littered with rocks, but Bush, wearing a helmet and a mouth guard, is uninjured.

A reflector has snapped off the bike. He leaves it as a warning marker for next time. Bush straightens out his handlebars, throws a leg over the bike and keeps rolling.

"We've got thrills, spills -- you name it," he says.


He jokes that he was leading the "peleton," the rolling swarm of bicyclists in races like the Tour de France -- a race he watched regularly this month before Armstrong's victory Sunday.

Bush loves showing off his ranch, and he takes his guests -- and the Secret Service agents who ride with him, pistols bulging through their shirts -- to far-flung areas.

Monday's ride brings his entourage past the new office that contractors are close to finishing, a 2,500-square-foot structure with a stone facade and lots of windows where he says he will probably practice his convention speech next month. He slips at first, saying he will practice his inauguration speech there.

A 50-acre patch of newly turned black earth will serve as the field where Laura Bush cultivates blue stem flowers that she plans to distribute.

In one meadow, cattle stare back at him as he rides a path littered with cow dung.

Bush is here unwinding during the Democratic National Convention and before the home stretch of his re-election campaign, and he has spent the morning in meetings, some of them concerning the recommendations of the independent Sept. 11 commission. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice arrived Monday afternoon to talk about it.

He's also been relaxing. Bush is fiddling with his fishing rod when a fellow rider pulls up, and he says he's just finished two books. One is "Washington's Crossing," about George Washington's traverse of the Delaware River. The other is "The Rule of Four," a thriller set on the Princeton campus and built around an arcane text from the 15th century.

The ride is officially a politics-free zone. Bush swats away questions about what his ad man, Mark McKinnon, is doing on the ranch.

When the reporter points out that Democrat John Kerry has a $8,000 road bicycle, Bush says, "Who?"

"Over an 18-mile ride that lasted an hour and 20 minutes, he burns about 1,200 calories and his heart rate reaches 168 beats per minute. That's nearly four times his resting rate and in the same range as Lance Armstrong's when the six-time Tour de France winner is pedaling hard".

Nearly four times his resting rate would mean 42 to 45 resting rate, that sounds pretty good to me ?..hmm

I never stated he wasn't physical. I just don't think he rides much, if @ all. He may do publicity rides, but it seems to me that the tennis shoes tell the real tale! :eek:

The same range as Lance Armstrong? Okay, I rest my case regarding his publicity rides, and the spin machine that is American politics. :rolleyes:

Well you got me there :lol: I would add it is more than just American politics but politics in general. I would surely never equate the President's bike riding with Lance's but at least he is out on 2 wheels and riding more than just around the block for a publicity shoot (18 miles).

Chris

True enough!

Hey, here's a thought. If the election turns out as close as it did last time, there should be a bike race to determine the real winner. Since Kerry is a roadie, and Bush rides a mtb. How about a cyclocross race to determine which politician will be stealing from us for the next 4 years? :)

As long as we're talking about the biking of Bush and Kerry, I think it's fine to do it here. If you want to talk about Iraq policy, draft dodging or swift boats, go to the political section.

And, like bac, I'd like to see a cyclocross race between Bush and Kerry. Maybe they should have done that in place of the third debate. And if Bush and Kerry did a cross race, what would the Veeps do?

Edwards and Cheney on tricycles. Oooh, or mini-bikes!

Both Bush and Kerry are serious about biking and about physical fitness. Not many guys nearing sixty years old are in the kind of shape they are in.

Publicity about a President who rides bikes would be good for biking. Maybe Bush and Kerry need to rent a fleet of bikes and start doing their press conferences on bikes. Most reporters I have met look like they could use the exercise.

It is funny to hear TV commentators frothing at the mouth about how different the two candidates are when, at a personal level, they seem like twins who were separated at birth. They both had wealthy fathers who held high government office. Went to the same exclusive private college. Joined the same "secret" society at college. Both went into public service. Both love sports, including riding bikes. One got three Purple Hearts serving in Viet-Nam. One drank three kegs of beer while avoiding service in Viet-Nam.

I heard a standup comic talking about why most average folks do not seem excited about either candidate..."Yeah, we are having a hard time deciding which of these two rich white guys we care least about"...

But, whoever wins, we will have a President who cares about physical fitness and riding bikes. That might be a start on solving one of our biggest problems: we are a nation where most people need to be a lot more involved with physical exercise and fitness.