Author: A Dude Abikes

10 Years Ago Today, I Bicycled 50 Miles in My First Charity Ride

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 4 Comments

Way back in the autumn of 2014, two things that happened that led to me signing up for my first torture I mean fun fest also known as a charity bike ride. First, I was gifted a bike which would come to be known as Sonnie, my 25-pound steel triple triangle GT Arette. Second, I was working for a beneficiary agency of the event when and somebody said, “Hey dude, you ride your bike everywhere, why don’t you do this charity ride?” They tempted me with a shorter distance than when I was riding on the day we spoke. In previous years I had always said “The first word is hill, so no thank you.”  As a fat yet somewhat fit middle-aged dude, I didn’t think I would survive the distance or elevation. I figured I could just back out, but for some reason, this year I didn’t. So, after struggling and suffering on numerous training rides, on April 28, 2015, I joined hundreds of other riders out in the beautiful and terrible Hill Country west of Austin, Texas, and rode my bike half a hundred miles. Which ain’t nuthin’. And as they say, the rest is history. Here’s how it went down.

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4/4/2025: Bike Story Night in Austin, Texas

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 4 Comments

As a dude who’s been telling bits of his bike story here for going on a decade, I was curious to check it out an event called Bike Story Night. The stars aligned, meaning I heard about it in time and wasn’t busy. So, last Saturday I pedaled Soqi the Cannondale over to the University of Texas at Austin, commonly known as UT (you tee). (Check out my post about UT: The University of Texas and Me:  A Short Autobiography.) There I saw a few familiar faces and a few dozen new ones. The premise  is fairly straightforward:  people come together to tell and hear stories about bikes. Here’s a short report.

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Dude, Come to the Dark Side of E-Bikes

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 20 Comments

After years of pedaling a person-powered bicycle, and complaining all that time about the physical difficulties of the same, I have relented. I got an electric bike. It’s April in Austin, and the weather is by turns, rainy, cool, hot, humid, or windy. But overall, it’s nice, and spring is in the air, perfect for hopping on a pedal-assisted machine and ambling about town on errands or just for a recreational ride. So has A Dude really gone to the dark side?

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3/3/2025:  When Things Fall Apart, Keep On Biking (Or Like, You Know, Whatever, Man)

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The library book When Things Fall Apart:  Heart Advice for Difficult Times (1996), the classic work by American Tibetan Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön, sits unread on my scuffed black card table. Next to it is another of her more recent books, How We Live Is How We Die, also untouched. They’re thin books but on heavy subjects. If you missed it, my last post was 2/2/2025: 7 Lessons from Buddhism, Biking Daily, and the Film “Groundhog Day”. I’m sensing a theme here:  finding ways to cope with the sometimes spectacular, sometimes shitty, show that is human life on Earth. With all that’s going on in the US and the world, it always feels a bit trivial to write a blog post about one fat old dude’s bike riding. But it’s not a bad* thing to explore whatever ways that help us navigate difficult times. (Or as George Orwell said in 1984, *doubleplusungood.)

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2/2/2025: 7 Lessons from Buddhism, Biking Daily, and the Film “Groundhog Day”

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“When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter. From Punxsutawney, it’s Phil Connors. So long.” —Bill Murray as Phil Connor in Groundhog Day

(The film Groundhog Day came out almost 32 years ago, so you’ve had three decades if you’re over 32. SPOILERS AHEAD!) When you ride your bike every single day–as this dude has for five years and almost four months–things can get to feel a bit repetitive. When you ride your bike every single day–as this dude has for over five years and almost four months–things can get to feel a bit repetitive. Biking daily is a bit like Groundhog Day. As as with the classic film, one puts on similar clothing, starts out doing the same thing from the same place, and may see many of the same places. While I can barely claim to be even a lower-case buddhist, the teachings of the Buddha aka Buddhism can also be found in the film and are instructive to not just cycling, but life. Waking up every day in a fictional Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, sitting on a bike seat or a cushion cross-legged are all optional.

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A Return to Be Car-Free for Me:  Pros & Cons

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 7 Comments

Twenty years ago today, on January 25, 2005, my car was totaled in a crash thanks to a truck t-boning me (pulling out before I had time to stop aka they were at fault). It was a return to be car-free for me. For 15.75 years, I did not own a car. In January of 2016, weeks after starting this blog, I began a series of annual posts with 11 Years not a Slave to Cars. Then, in August of 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I was gifted a car, which I wrote about January of 2021 in Come to the Dark Side, Dude: Where’s My Car?.

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11 Years of Consecutive Daily Yoga Practice

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 4 Comments

The voice from behind me at the Safe Street Austin holiday fundraiser bar spoke, unbidden, deeply timbred, but friendly. “I happen to know a dude. And I would like to thank him for introducing me to Yoga With Adriene’s Yoga for Cyclists.” Surprised, I turned, and there was a tall, not dark (if a little greyer), and handsome man. He was much taller than I remembered, since I was used to seeing him on a bicycle, usually only at the beginning or end of training rides. Because those long getaway stems and thin frame are far faster than this fat and slow dude. His eyes glimmered with mischief, or maybe it was not his first brewski, while I only had a sparky water. We chatted; it was nice to see him in person, not digitally only on Strava. As it turns out, although I’ve met Adriene, I’ve not seen this video, but I’ve been doing my own yoga for cyclists as of today for 11 years. And that’s not nuthin’.

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Safe Streets Austin Had Another Fundraising Party, So I Went

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

Safe Streets Austin, formed from the merger of Bike Austin, Walk Austin, and Central Texas Families for Safe Streets, had their annual fundraiser back in late November. Yours truly attended their first one a couple of years ago, missed last year (though am not sure they had one), and was invited again this year. I’m filing this belated report. Don’t sue me. I know lawyers.

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11/11/2024: A Month After My 59-Mile Ride and 5-Year Daily Bicycling Streak, I’m Still At It

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 10 Comments

If you missed the belated edits to my last post, 10/10/2024:  What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been:  5 Years of Consecutive Daily Cycling Tomorrow, please go check it out first. I’ll wait. (Cue the Jeopardy theme music.) It was written the day before my big annual ride. The spoiler version is that I managed my 59.59-mile bike ride, and I’m still doing the deed daily. Although I’m biking slower for various reasons. Extra weight from high stress and low sleep and also after stopping a gig where I walked five to seven miles a day. Biking 100+ miles a week might have something to do with being tired. Whatever, each mile counts. And the only race I’m in is against myself. Or maybe Death. And we all lose that one, eventually. But not today, Death. Not today.

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