As an avid bicyclist, it’s hard for me to understand why anyone wouldn’t want to ride a bike. Sure there are down sides during inclimate weather, and there’s always the possibility that you’re vulnerable to some guy changing the CD in his four-wheel ghetto-blaster or some young lady busy chatting or texting on her cell phone. But there are ways to avoid those problems.

In addition to a pair of flashing red lights on the back of my bike, I’ve added  red and silver reflective strips to the front and back of the crank arms. I’ve found that wierd alternating reflection does me more good at night than the standard blinking light and that by having two lights, one on the seat post and the other down lower on the frame, each one blinking at different intervals, has greatly increased my visibility at night. And having a bright white flashing light on the front seems to have eliminated the cases of an automobile cutting in front of me much better than the headlight ever did.

Actually, I have more problems at sun-up and sun-down where my position is in between the sun and a driver. With that in mind, I simply avoid being in that position. If you’re riding into the sun, a vehicle coming up behind you probably will never see you until it’s passing by you. Be aware of that and either ride on the sidewalk or find a parallel route on a less busy street. For that matter, I’m never in so much of a rush that I can’t travel through residential areas and enjoy looking at the landscapes and architecture instead of risking a problem on a major traffic artery.

As to the benefits – that could fill a book. In fact, there are several good books on bicycling that  you might want to read if you’re a novice on two wheels. A couple that I really like are, “The Big Book of Bicycling,” a comprehensive book that came out last fall, and, “Cycling Past 50 (Ageless Athlete Series).”  And if like me you intend to live to be 100, then by all means get a copy of, “Bike for Life: How to Ride to 100.” Any or all of these books will get you going on two wheels and having fun!

That is, after all, what “Older & Active” is all about – having fun no matter what our age. To me, it’s a quality of life issue. And quality in my opinion means getting out and having fun!

So this week, and especially on Friday, the 20th, bike to work if at all possible. And if you’re retired, then YOU have no excuse at all! Instead of biking to work, you can bike everywhere!