Life in the Bike Lane By Tom Frady After over 30 years, June 1 -7, 2025 will be the last AIDS/LifeCycle, a charity ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles to benefit AIDS services, education and research, not only in California, but the rest of the US and the world. I tell you this because ALC is what changed me from a bike rider to a cyclist.  Initially, I had to train to be able to ride 60-100 miles a day for seven days.  I had to think about nutrition, exercise, rest, equip

The Bike Column By Tom Frady Recently, I took a couple of hours of my precious retirement time to observe motorists at stop signs.  I sat at three 4-way stop intersections (McCourtney and 12th, 3rd and L, and Sun City and Stags Leap) in Lincoln.  I tallied 100 vehicles at each location.  I counted only behavior that was not influenced by other cars at the intersection.  Admittedly, this is only semi/quasi-scientific, since some of my judgements were a bit subjective, but I th

Life in the Bike Lane By Tom Frady   Bike riding is freedom.  No matter your route, you’re getting away. Like many, if not most people, I have always had a bike.  I remember my dad helping me to learn how to ride on a hand-me-down bike from my sister.  No gears.  No brakes.  No paint.   A true fixie. Looking back, I am amazed how much freedom I had on my bike.  My first “neighborhood” was actually on the grounds of the California Institution for Men, a prison in Chino, CA. (M

Life in the Bike Lane By Tom Frady I was reminded recently during one of our usual morning rides, what a beautiful area this is.  Recent rains have greened-up everything, there is wildlife running across the road (some skunks didn’t make it) and plenty of interesting domestic animals to see, including the free-range cattle we were able to stampede.  Even the rocks and trees seemed extra vibrant. If you ride in this part of Placer County for much more than 10 miles, you will f

Life in the Bike Lane - Tom Frady Several years ago, when I was brand new to bike riding, I traveled to San Luis Obispo to visit my sister.  I took my bike with me (My first road bike, a Bianchi Eros) to allow me to take a couple of rides in my former home town. My sister arranged for me to ride with some friends of hers and a rendezvous was set up for one early morning, meeting in the Food-for-Less parking lot.  I had not met the folks with whom I would be riding, but had no

Life in the Bike Lane - Tom Frady Mrs. Bike Lane and I had driven down to Folsom last week and I was feeling a little down because I have not been able to participate in my usual rides due to weather, holidays, family and (mostly) a nagging injury keeping my mileage down. I started to show her where a bunch of us got flat tires from thorns left in the road from some maintenance work about ten years ago, but held off.    Just a bit farther down the road was where Dave hit a cu

Life in the Bike Lane - Tom Frady I’d like to ask you nine loyal readers help me to delete a few tropes from the general argot in the debate about bikes vs cars, misinformation that is used over and over again to assert that cars take priority.  While I am both a driver and a rider, I will admit my bias might skew a bit toward cycling.  After all, this column (with apologies to the Eagles) in not called “Life in the Fast Lane”. Let’s look at a few of the most common “pro-auto

Life in the Bike Lane Tom Frady You six or seven (I’ve gotten confused over the exact number) loyal readers know I have never met a 50...

Life in the Bike Lane Tom Frady A couple of weeks ago my riding posse had stopped to regroup at the corner of Rocklin Road and Pacific,...

Life in the Bike Lane Tom Frady I don’t really care for New Year’s resolutions. Although I recognize the holiday season from, oh, about...

Life in the Bike Lane Tom Frady Those of you who read this column faithfully (yeah, right) know I have been writing about the recent...

Here I Go Again Life in the Bike Lane Tom Frady If you five loyal readers (I thought I was up to six, but one moved away) will check your...

Life in the Bike Lane Tom Frady There was a time early in the Covid-19 universe, the streets and roads around Lincoln were eerily empty....

Life in the Bike Lane Tom Frady If you are an avid cyclist you know about the unpredictability of good days and bad days on a bike....

Life in the Bike Lane Tom Frady Recently, very recently, one of the members of my Bicycle Club was hit by a car at an intersection....

I have ridden in the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Waves to Wine ride since 2010. In 2009 my best friend since 6th grade was diagnosed with MS,...

Life in the Bike Lane By Tom Frady Share the Road. I remember seeing that sign for the first time. Actually, my wife had seen it on a...

Life in the Bike Lane By Tom Frady Dogs are some of my favorite people. They’re sometimes a real pain, though. Most of the cyclist/dog...

Life in the Bike Lane Tom Frady Most articles I read about staying safe on a bike are written for urban areas. Areas with heavy traffic,...

Life in the Bike Lane Tom Frady If you know me (and if you do, I apologize) I really don’t like climbing hills on my bike. But unless you...