He's a humorist. I found some of his articles to be funny. Humor is not one-size-fits-all.

Many of the reactions I read here smack of the 'it's because I'm [insert nationality/creed/sexual orientation here], isn't it?' school.

How are some of you able to balance your bikes with such enormous chips on your shoulders?

Caution! Some humor was involved in the statements posted above!

-Rob

Hunter posted the follow-up that John Kelso wrote, but here is some background based on the article https://www.austin360.com/aas/metro/k...02/071402.html

Mr. Kelso received a lot of feedback from unhappy readers so he DID actually get together with a local bicycle group for a short tour.

It seems they put him in US-Postal Service spandex and brought him bicycle touring.

Mr. Kelso's second article was more pleasant and I give him a lot of credit for actually going on a bike ride and writing a follow-up article.

Those of you who were motivated to write something nasty to Mr. Kelso or the Austin American Statesman newspaper would be ambassadors for bicycling if you wrote back and complimented him for his effort to actually bicycle and to publish a follow-up article.

Hear Hear! Good sportsmanship will never go out of style!

-Rob

Thanks, Rob. Let me state that I did write to Mr. Kelso and complimented him on his follow-up.

Still the absolute majority crank the car and drive. Though many of them could ride the same itinerary with a good bike.

It is more fun, takes about the same time as by car (including tanking, service, washing, warming engine, etc.)

I saw an ad on TV recently of a car (SUV), which takes 17 liters per 100 km. I do not get it - why smoking a cigarette in a public place could be outlawed and running such an engine can not be. A cigarette contains couple of grams of the burning material. Say, a man seats in an open air restaurant where it is illegal to smoke, 4 feet from him an engine runs, which emits thousand times more toxic fumes, and it is OK.

It is good that smoking is being outlawed more and more. However, excessive burning of fossil fuel is not touched for some reason. Though 5 liters per 100 km is enough to make a comfortable car.

I cycled last month from Washington D.C. to Pittsburgh, PA, and back. It was my first trip to the USA. The ride along the C&O Towpath and the Great Allegheny Passage was splendid.

At the same time I noticed that the usage of an automobile is even more widespread than in Europe. The petrol costs the same as in Ukraine, though the average income is much lower here. I am not a medical researcher, but I can add 2 and 2. I saw strikingly many individuals who suffer from obesity. I guess it is the car, who did it to them.

Why John Kelso does not write about it? Neither he writes about road 837 near Pittsburgh. I cycled this road twice this year, because the bike trail is not completed there. The traffic is incredibly intense on this road and there are a lot of houses very close to the road. The inhabitants of these houses, who are to bear this endless flow of trucks, are not free. That was the thought, which came to my mind, when I cycled there; that these people are not free.

Do not misunderstand me, I am not bashing the US, in my country there are probably places much worse than road 837. I just wanted to notice that Mr.Kelso do not care about such issues in his column.

Wait a minute... Does any one know if the oil is processed in Austin? I mean - are there companies, which are involved in the fossil fuel business?

I have to admit that I don't find him to be that funny either- it's the same, baby-boomer, couch potato, middle class humor that is part of most daily newspapers. But I also don't think he's being HARMFUL- he just doesn't know what he's talking about. At least in his followup, he's humbled a bit and admits he's a couch potato and out of shape. SO he's proud of it, so what- at least he tried riding!

As for "trying to look like lance armstrong", I am not sure what's wrong with that. Better to aspire to looking like Armstrong than looking like Luciano Pavarotti!

... yes, and five minutes later another one comes along and does the same thing, so all that trouble was for nothing. The whole point is that you won't stop people from writing this crap whilever 'the great unwashed' are stupid enough to continue buying and reading it.

Ok I get it now. Anyone who is offended by this and responds are "the great unwashed" whatever that is and at the same time are stupid for reading, and buying it. I see now, thanks Chris L.

Apparently not, so I'll explain it one more time.

The great unwashed refers to the stupid majority of people who generally follow fads without any thought whatsoever and as a result, probably would have found this article amusing, given the number of 'comedians' who have tried cyclist-bashing as a way to get some cheap laughs (it's more common than one might think). Let's face it, this guy is mainstream as another poster said earlier. This is what 'the great unwashed' means.

Responding to it is not going to stop it from happening again, so you might as well find something else to do. In fact, responses are what this guy wants because it shows people are buying this crap, which ultimately pays his salary. If you really want to stop it, you're better off simply boycotting the entire publication. Giving this guy the attention he wants will not change anything.

I thought the stuff about the bulls was funny - either that or it was a bunch of bull.

This guy was actually mildly amusing. He was kidding.

He was trying to be funny; he's just not very good at it.

As a soccer fan (in the US), this thread really makes me feel at home. Replace the word "cycling" with "soccer", and this thread is just like a zillion theads on BigSoccer. The thread title usually goes something like, "Yet another soccer-bashing article."

It makes everybody feel good to feel persecuted, get all incensed and write the guy, I guess. But it's wasted energy. It won't keep somebody else from writng an article like that, and it won't make the sentiment go away.

Those kinds of articles can't change YOUR enjoyment of cycling, unless you let it.

I saw the humour in it, but it was perhaps misguided.

Anyway what was Richard Attenbourgh doing an article on cycling for? Shouldn't he be in rehearsing the next Jurrassic Park?

The follow up was ok. I suspect he had failed to follow his approach through.

Man, some of you take this way to seriously. Do you spend most of your time stressed out about everything? His follow up had some interesting points in it, as did his original articule. His follow up said MOST Emails called him FAT, or cussed him out. I am sure that cast a favorable light on the cycling community as a whole. His first articule might actually be the view most americans have of cyclists. Maybe changing this perception would be more benifical than ranting about it? it would seem that we see these articules every now and then, but really none of the reverse. Let me ask this, are there no cyclists that write? It would seem the cycling community could come up with an articule to bring to light the cyclist side of the issues. But to work it would have to appeal to non-cyclists. Just some thoughts.

fofa,
What subjects people choose to tackle or what ever "gets them going" should not be open to crticism. If ones opinion on a topic anger's or frustrates them to the point of doing something to inact change them so be it. I do not understand your or anyone else's criticism on given topics. Why is it that there are always those who feel they must interject their negative and sometimes insultting comments on waht affects individuls? So what if people here take it seriously. That is there reaction. I am sure there are topics that you react to and would get angry if someone critcized you for it.
Since you brought it up however you write an article. Apparently there is some kind of motivsation behind the thought. So do it.

The fact that he did the second article about his 1 mile ride, demonstrated that he does, in fact, have a sense of humor. I agree that it is hard to tell when just reading what he writes.

I am inclined to give him a break because he meant the first article to be taken as a good-natured poke at the local cyclists who take themselves too seriously.

As to the remark about the bulls, We local cycle commuters have a tradition much like this in Detroit. It is called Rush Hour. It is played with SUVs instead of bulls, and it happens each morning and evening.

regards
Dan

I need to know ... is "whilever" a real word?

It is now.