Some people mark the change of seasons by the flocks of geese flying overhead or the leaves dying in an explosion of color. I watch the bike racks.
As the seasons ebb and flow through the Palouse, the contents of the bike racks shift with them. Through the summer they sit mostly empty, occupied only by poor shells of bikes, abandoned for the summer by their student owners.
As classes start back up the racks fill along with the dorms. Some freshmen come prepared with bikes purchased expressly for school. Many of these sit unused through the year. Others come unprepared and are forced to visit the bike shop after a few weeks of being late to everything.
Through the late summer and early fall the bike racks in front of classrooms stay reasonably full. Then, as if by magic, in one week, late in October or early in November, they empty, almost completely.
One day I will ride my bike to class and jockey for a position to lock it among the hordes of others. The next I find myself alone, my tracks the only ones visible on a thin sheet of virgin snow.
For the next few months things will carry on this way, I will no longer need to fight for the best spot on the rack, instead I can look out the window and see my bike, lonely, forlorn, abandoned by its kind as freezing rain snobbles down around it.
It is easy to ride your bike when the sun is shining. Everyone loves the wind in their hair as they jauntily ride to class. It’s when the going gets tough though that the seasonal bikers start dropping like flies.
Don’t give in, don’t stop riding.
I know it’s easier to drive. I know walking helps avoid the mud splattered posterior that winter riding can produce. However, winter bike commuting has several important benefits.
First, it has an incredible impact on fitness. Winter is already a hard season to stay fit through. The combination of feasting holidays and short dark days leads to a caloric intake comparable to a bear just before hibernation. As soon as you stop biking to school you lose a valuable workout. Muscles once toned by daily riding become flabby and soft. Once rock hard calves jiggle and thighs more accustomed to pedaling work the gas and brake pedals.
Not only is biking to school good for your body, it is also good for the environment and makes for daily excitement.
I’m not exceptionally “green” but if you pass me with a “love your mother” or “don’t pave paradise” sticker on your car bumper when I am on my bike I sense a duality. I’m the guy who loves the sticker that says “Don’t like logging? Try using plastic toilet paper,” but if I am riding my bike and you are driving I feel like one of us is respecting our mother a little harder than the other.
Winter bike riding is also exciting. Some people think driving in the snow is exciting or scary, try riding a bike. Even an innocent trip to the grocery store becomes an adventure straight out of a video game. Winter bike riding keeps you on your toes and hones every reflex.
Don’t fall a victim to the yearly plague that empties the bike racks. Stay strong, ride on, you’ll save money, time and the planet. It might just make your legs look a little less terrible.
Cy Whitling can be reached at [email protected]