humancongereel

i was at a house show last night and sat outside between bands drinking with some pals, when an old friend shows up. we talk, and i mention my love of bicycles that developed since we last talked. when i mentioned i'm considering moving back to portland and starting track racing, she said "oh, car racing?" after i rolled my eyes, i started in on a litany of how great bikes are, how great going fast on bikes is, how bikes are so fantastic to ride and so on and so ...the whole time she has a "you're f---ing crazy" look on her face and seems to slowly back away. ah, boise people. "you...what? ride a bike? like a motorcycle? bike? what?" sometimes i think i don't belong here, except to spread the good word about bikes.

Roody

Boy that Boise. I get the same reaction here in The Car State! But I love Michigan, and I secretly enjoy being "freakishly different

humancongereel

yeah, i wouldn't be posting that story if i didn't get a kick out of her reaction. i thought it was pretty funny.

Flippin Sweet

It's like I always say, "People from Idaho are not people at all..."

mtnroads

Yeah, I happen to like Boise, especially the clean little downtown and easy access to the bike trail and hills north of town, but it is a very conservative state and people are generally still totally caught up in the whole motorized lifestyle, suburban sprawl thing.

CagerTools

Humancongereel,

Your influence is very important. Keep it up.

humancongereel

ha ha, i do it more cuz i prefer to ride, not to influence people, but...if i can, i do. i know a couple of car-lite people i've been nudging and a couple i've influenced straight from cars to car free. though it's not just me, it's gas prices, the pain in the ass of driving, yadda yadda yadda...just get people to see that, and that there's an alternative.

xyz

I use to ride from Garden City(orchard rd) up to the Shopco warehouse on Gowen every day. Forget those hills, take a ride on Gowen with a 30 mph headwind and 45 mph gusts. One time I had that as a tailwind on the way home at 1:30 am and I made it 12 miles home in 18 minutes. That would be a great bikeriding town if not for those %$#^%$# goathead thorns.

humancongereel

i know, i know...i got tire liners and slime tubes, and the only flat i've had since is from me filling it too full and...well...it exploded. slime all over.

garden city, eh? that's a bit of a ride. i also hate some of the headwinds that are here in boise. like you said, 45 mph gusts. sometimes they're ****ing big.

xyz

The wind didn't get to bad untill you got up in the desert on Gowen. But the climbs on Orchard made up for it.

The hills in the north are great. I use to ride up 15th street, about 1 1/2 mile climb. I always meant to do the Bogus Basin race, but I was never in good enough shape to do it while I lived there.

Climbing the dam is another good one. Go when it is hot and you can show off for the bikini women at the "beach".

humancongereel

oh, i know, i hit bogus about once a week, and i never get as far up it as i'd like.

and just getting on the greenbelt and riding east until it ends and you start going up to lucky peak is a beautiful ride. i took a wrong turn in an alleycat race on saturday and ended up taking that lovely ride--it's only too bad it was during a race!

xyz

What's an alleycat race? I thought they only had one crit per year downtown.

To bad you can't keep riding after lucky peak. I would have been great to take a long camping ride out that way. But those winding, two lane, no shoulder roads are not a good idea on a bike.

uberleet

I've seen bike tourists (quite a few, actually!) on 21 east of Idaho City, even on the really hairy stretch just between Banner Ridge and Lowman . Once you get past Lowman, though, it would be a pretty plush ride.

xyz

Wow, I only drove up that way a couple of times on camping trips but it looked pretty scary to me. Then when you get up into the mountians(I think we turned off at Lowman) you have these 1000 foot dropoffs on one side of the winding road. I would love to ride around up there but...

I remember long ago when I first moved there. I worked nights at the Fred Meyer in Garden city and lived in the north end. I was riding down state street in rush hour traffic every morning(gah) because I didn't know about the greenbelt.

humancongereel

an alleycat race is just a fun race--it's sort of a scavenger hunt, i guess. you go to different checkpoints and either find some information and right it down, or there's a contact there you have to find who makes you do something (normal drinking an alcoholic beverage). sometimes the order is up to you, sometimes there's a set course. so you have to know your way around town as much as you have to ride fast.

there are different forms of alleycats, but that seems to be the most common from what i know.

tacomee

If you're at a House party with semi-good bands AND you're riding in alleycat races--- moving to Portland isn't going to change a darn thing for you. Don't get me wrong, Portland has some really nice things going for it-- lots of cyclists, some nice cultural stuff, good public transit. Portland is also full of idiot cagers living in the 'burbs.

Boise isn't bad--- I love downtown. The trouble is that the "American Dream" for most of this country is buying a big house just outta town. This means that the *town* (wherever you happen to live), gets a bigger every year. Never mind the all the farmland that's paved over with souless McManions, all the packed roads of endless congestion, the mega-mall parking lots packed with SUVs--that stupid *American Dream* sucks the logic out of most American minds.

Cycling clears your head of all this foolishness.


humancongereel, you're fighting a good fight. Moving won't change that. Besides, somebody has to hold down the fort in Idaho.

As a guy who used to bike in Montana and Idaho, I always told non-cyclists that riding is what seperates the childern for the adults, the cowboys from those big hat posers from Cali. The West was settled by tough resorceful people-- not whussies in SUVs. Cycling honors the real spirt of Idaho-- self reliance and gumption.

Roody

Nice post, tacomee. Us Americans always want to relocate to find "a better place." Sometimes the better place is right at home, if you can find the true spirit of your place.

But I gotta admit, your post kinda made me want to move out west!

humancongereel

yeah, i know things won't change that much, but i feel really at home in portland. i'd have never left if i hadn't decided to go to college here, near my family.

but i agree, cycling clears your head--you think very differently and live differently and changes so much of your mind and life. i also like your comment about tough, resourceful people instead of wussies in suv's. i sometimes tell people that there's not a lot that scares you after a) riding down bogus basin road at 30-35 mph with no airbag, seatbelts, etc and b) sharing the road with road-raging hummer drivers. it does take a certain amount of being tough to do this.

anyway, even though i feel like my home is elsewhere, while i'm here, i know what i care about and just sharing that with people some, i guess you'd say.

Katrogen

I'm suprised none of you folks have mentioned Sun Valley. Thats the cycling heaven of this state.

Far as Boise is concerned I really like biking down Chinden, Federal Way, State Street, Hill Road, through downtown, up near Bogus/Lucky Peak. This is an awesome biking town.

I live 2 minutes from the West Y, love the locale of everything. Boise rules.

xyz

I bet! At least for you and the other hundred people who live there.

Flippin Sweet

Even though Sun Valley may be cycling heaven, all the cyclists there are tourists! The SUV's and the whole SUV lifestyle is still rampant. There are some terribly dangerous drivers there...I was sure one day that I'd get run over by someone distracted by Bruce Willis coming out of the grocery store.

humancongereel

yeah, that's bruce willis' hobby. ha ha...

i'd be too out of place in sun valley...the only thing that makes me feel less at home than religious conservatives in suvs is rich people...i'm just a punk kid. i'd feel weird...

anyway, katrogen, i'll have to check out some of those rides...i always just go up bogus or hill road or out after the greenbelt ends and there's the trail that goes east...i think i mentioned this...i got lost on an alleycat a couple weeks back and ended up out by harris ranch. lost the alleycat bigtime. got a pretty ride out of it, though.

also, i'm looking at your picture and thinking "i have to know this person...how?"

humancongereel

oh, looks like you did mention hill road, bogus and toward lucky peak. whoops.

Katrogen

Lol. I don't live up in SV fulltime, we just have a vacation house up there. Rich folk aren't that bad once you get to know em. I am sheltered majorly but oh well lol. Plus I'm a religious conservative. haha. Gotta love Idaho.

I have no idea if you know me. I'm a regular at the West Y. Plus I go to Centennial. Not ever anywhere else.

humancongereel

hmm. maybe not then...i dunno. i'm having trouble with your pic...are those dreads? if they are, then you do look familiar. and i don't go either of those places.

yeah, i don't have anything against rich or religious people...everyone's just people to me. but there are certain situations where i feel out of place.