Shape up, Emporia!
Bill Borst, Special to the Gazette
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
I was just a scrawny kid of 6 or 7 when I first poked my right leg through the frame of a neighbor’s adult bicycle and rode off the side of the machine. You see, I was too short to sit on the saddle, even straddle the frame. It was an old, single-speed, narrow-tired, V-frame bike, but, boy, was that first ride down a dirt street in Salina exhilarating!
Later my parents bought that bike for me, and over the years it has been replaced by a number of bicycles. These included various single-speed, fat-tired bikes and a series of from 10- to 27-speed road bikes. These facilitated jobs and transportation in high school and college, commuting, shopping and errands in adulthood.
There have been four motivating factors in my 75 years of riding — pleasure, physical fitness, economy and environmental.
Pleasure
That sheer joy of wheel and geared self-propulsion was probably my first realization of freedom. The bicycle gave me freedom to move so much further from home and back in the same day. There was a lot more world out there. Well, more countryside, more Salina.
I am mostly a road rider. Emporia has many short and longer rides right out of the garage. I like riding with friends out to Americus, Allen, Admire or Olpe for coffee. We take longer rides to Lebo, Hartford and Madison for breakfast or lunch. The Flint Hills offer many beautiful rides including K-177 south from Council Grove to Matfield Green. Several times each year, I meet family and friends from Manhattan to do the lovely Mill Creek road from Alta Vista to Alma.
Since retiring and moving to Emporia in 1990 I have made solo rides to Broken Arrow, Okla., and to Fort Collins and Colorado Springs, Colo. A friend rode with me to Red Cloud, Neb., and on to Sioux City, Iowa. In 1995, we spent three weeks riding the historic Santa Fe Trail from Santa Fe, N.M., to Independence, Mo.
But my favorite riding is on rail-trails. Rail-trails are rail banked by an act of Congress to allow discontinued railroads to be used as parkways by the public. They are preserved for a future return to railroading. I’ve ridden the Katy Trail in Missouri, the Wabash Trace in Iowa, Nebraska’s MoPak , the Virginia Creeper and Kansas’ Prairie Spirit and Flint Hills.
Riding is exhilarating. It feels good to move so quickly with so little effort, the air on one’s face (or even better at one’s back!), the fresh smells of the countryside, coasting downhill. One sees and hears things not possible from a car. I still get the “whe-e-e-e!” thrill of bicycling and would continue to ride if for no other reason.
Physical fitness
I have a stent in one of my heart arteries and arthritis in feet, knees and hands. Bicycling strengthens muscles around the knees and relieve pressure on joints. Bicycling builds stamina and heart muscles. When I do not ride for a week or two my knees tell me to get out there.
My special road challenge is an annual ride to Herington and on to Salina for high school class reunions. Although I have made the ride solo many times, usually I am accompanied by friends and family members. Last July, my Class of 1943 met for its 65th reunion. And, God willing, I plan to make that ride again this year.
Economy
The 2008 IRS deduction for mileage is 41 cents per mile. So every 100 miles one rides for other than pleasure saves $41. Most errands are for fewer than two miles. Think groceries, library, school, barber, coffee. Oh, there is a cost in bicycling — the machine, accessories, proper safety wear and maintenance. But one does not need a state-of-the-art, high-cost bike, nor the latest style bikewear to enjoy all the satisfaction of bicycling.
The bike was my commuter vehicle for work when my work took me to Manhattan. I was able to do family shopping when I hitched a trailer to the bike. Using a bicycle for work meant that our family could manage with one car and saved the cost of the extra auto. My children know that I am a natural Depression-era tightwad and buying unneeded gasoline is a waste. Out of the Depression came a life-long passion for conservation — reduce, reuse, recycle has always been my lifestyle.
Environment
Bicycles do not pollute the air. They use relatively little of our earth’s resources. They are virtually soundless. Livestock are usually not aware of a passing bicycle. When they are, they usually move toward the cyclist out of curiosity. I once had a small group of curious prong horn antelope run alongside to get a better look. When we were driving only one car we were sending less emission in the environment, taking up space on streets and parking.
I have an old all-terrain bicycle or mountain bike that I call my training wheels. I like it for running around town. It is comfortable with handle bars that allow me to sit in a more upright position and fat, low pressure tires that make the ride smoother. It has a rack allowing me to attach bags to carry stuff.
But its main purpose is for back roads and off-road riding. With its more forgiving frame, low pressure tires and rugged construction it can take rough riding.
One of my favorite rides is in the open-range areas west of Madison. Out there in the corners of Lyon, Greenwood, Chase and Butler counties is some gorgeous prairie. That is where the infamous Death Ride is held.
I will never understand racing through that patch of God’s garden. One needs to stop and meditate by the clear streams, move out on the hilltops and take in the panorama that even most Kansans will never see.
When teaching bicycling, my philosophy is that one needs to have good, well-maintained equipment, know and be not afraid of the road system and have one or more compatible riding companions.
That scrawny kid became an old curmudgeon. But they have a lot in common. And together they will ride into that beautiful Kansas sunset.
Shape Up, Emporia! is a weekly fitness and health column aimed at readers of all ages to get off the couch and get into shape. Each week will feature a fitness, health or nutrition professional from around the area who will share some friendly tips on how to improve your overall health. Our goal is to make getting in shape fun and easy to fit into your existing lifestyle and daily routine.
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Posted by prmarko (anonymous) on February 25, 2009 at 12:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Mr. Borst:
Thank you for sharing your inspirational story of lifelong cycling! Writen under the rubric of "Shape Up Emporia!" (and heaven knows Emporia--and all of America--could use it), I hope that readers will grasp that the physical benefits are only the tip of the iceberg--the mental health aspects being far greater. Having grown up in Olpe (and delivering the Gazette on my stingray bicycle) before embarking on a military career that landed me in Reston, Virginia nearly 14 years ago, I was thrilled to learn of riding opportunities to pursue during my next visit home and even a great trail I had not yet heard of right here in Virginia! If I am lucky enough to mark a 65th anything, I'll ride my bike to it and think of you. Finally, it would be my honor to host you or any readers of this column on a ride along the W&OD Trail which passes through my town (http://www.wodfriends.org/) when you next find yourself in Northern Virginia.
Kindest regards,
~Patrick Markowitz
prmarko@gmail.com
Reston, VA
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