about long lifespan and increased energy use: a lot of people live to a great old age without cycling! if you look at 100-year-olds, i doubt that most of them have spent any significant amount of time biking. you can hike or swim or play basketball or run on a treadmill or whatever for two hours a day and get in great shape. you don't have to get rid of your car to do those things, and you might even use your car to drive to the mountains or swimming pool or basketball court or health club; driving to those places uses gas, and cycling doesn't. as far as i'm concerned, cycling is better.

besides, i don't think most cyclists think in terms of making one change (using a bike instead of a car) to save the world. if you want to save the world, you have to do other stuff, too. (have fewer kids, recycle, eat organic local food, whatever.) i'd think most "environmentalist" cyclists would make a holistic effort to be less of a strain on the earth.

i don't mean to argue or anything! that's just my opinion.


anyway, i started riding bikes for fun, then (this summer) more for fitness. somehow along the way i got serious about wanting to ride my bike to work instead of driving. i don't know how that happened! i have a partially broken "biodiesel vessel" (82 mercedes 300d) that after a year of work still isn't roadworthy, so maybe that was part of it. i wanted to do *something*. i've only been avidly, neurotically fixated on cycling for the past few months, and already i feel like i'm in a totally different category of aerobic health. it's awesome! i use my inhaler less and less while riding longer, too (i have allergic asthma). maybe when i'm 80 i'll be doing ironman