Genesis

I've been biking for a while (generic department store Huffy bikes as a kid, used my dad's old Schwinn to "commute" back to old neighborhood to get to/from sports practice in middle school after our family moved) and I got my first real bike, one I actually picked out and paid for, a Gary Fisher, in 1989), and I've been on web for a while (Netscape in 1995, BBS at uni since 1990) so it's about time I combined the two.

There are a few new reasons for this urge to start Yet Another Two Wheel Blog (ya2wb), but they won't be all I write about. The new items which will make up the content of at least some of my initial posts:

• Building a bike shed (storage)
• E-Bike Commuting

Neither of which is mainstream, so this blog isn't likely to get very popular, but that's ok.  As I get older, I want to write things down, not only so I don't forget them, but for when my kids are old enough to look back fondly (?) on our time together when they were young and carefree and hopefully bring a smile to their faces when they come across these pages. 

For the biking shed, I live in the US where there is lots of room and we have big houses! (supposedly) but our home is a modest one, without a garage.  Now that my E-Bike is on the way, this will make 8 bikes in our household of 5 people (well, 7 bikes once we give away our smallest Ibex 20" bike to my brother-in-law now that his daughters are ready for a cool little rear shifting+front suspension bike).  Long story short, our two existing sheds are bursting at their seams and so full, they cease to be usable for their other needs.  Solution: build the bikes their own shed of course!

About E-biking.  Man it sure is loathed in many circles.  I've been a member mtbr.com for years and those guys generally dislike e-bikes.  I get why on some more delicate singletrack you want only human power (no horses, no e-bikes, just hikers and bikers) but, ask a hiker and acquestrian, and they'll give you a different answer.  Well, for now, I'm not looking to replace my Yeti FS bike with an e-bike for off-roading, or convert it for that matter. But I am looking to re-incorporate bike commuting into my life, mainly for fitness but also as a means to de-stress and smell the roses vs. sitting in traffic grinding my teeth. But things have changed since I last bike commuted:

• I am older by 20 years
• I am heavier by 70 pounds 
• This route is hillier by far, than the previous mostly "rails to trails" route I was lucky enough to have before
• I have less time/more responsibilities so need to do it more quickly
• I don't have a shower at either of my two primary targets, away from home, so I'm looking to do the hills with enough pedal assist to not get drenched (what can I say, I'm a sweat'er)
• I want to keep the cardio low level also because I will use this as my active rest or low intensity days. I won't be commuting daily, but a targeted 2-3 x per week. I found it difficult to not hammer on hills and push myself when commuting before - not just because I like to hammer (well now at 270# I more like to bomb downhills, but I digress) because often the most dangerous part of a route is the hillclimb/crest where I want to spend less time on, without going all-out physically.

All of these reasons point to an e-bike with pedal-assist.  So more on this later.

If you're reading this, I hope biking gives you as much joy as it does me. Teaching my kids to ride and then showing them the trails I rode 25+ year ago has been fantastic and brings us together outside of organized team sports. Being able to teach them to work on their bikes, changing a flat, adjusting shifting and brakes, not only makes me not quite as lame in their eyes, it does allow me to pass on skills and spend quality [non Fortnite] time with them.

Taking my eldest when he turned 12 to Pisgah and Dupont in Brevard, NC was a magical father+son trip.  Even biking the flats in OBX on vacations creates great memories as a sort of Kinetic Zen with ocean breeze, salt air, and cadence coming together.

I've raced road, crits, MTB.  I was a bike courier in DC (it's still my 10-20).  I worked at bike shops, wrenching and on the floor. I've ridden in nearly a dozen US states and BC Canada, and I toured Italy solo for nearly 3 weeks.

Biking has been a constant happy-place I go back to, after any longer break where life kept me away from the saddle, I say internally: "why did I stay away? I forgot how much I love this..."

Plus, if you stay on the bike, you bum get less sore when you start back up - so that's another reason to keep going!