I have thought about writing a blog about biking for a while.  And I can't possibly find a better title than the title "Bikers are nuts".

First off,  biking sounds cool but it requires of upfront investment which sometimes could be quite steep.  It could easily cost a couple of thousand dollars for the biking gear (either road bike or mountain bike) - and an old bird will still consider such amount of investment as "entry-level".   Before you know it, you spend a few more hundred dollars for speed pedal, shorts, jersey, gloves, arm warmer, knee warmer, power drink and so on.  Soon you might want to buy "just a few more" jerseys, or upgrade your crankset from double to triple, etc.   Before long, you realize that you're "investing" and might need to file all the biking-related expenses as "capex"...

And then, with such heavy investment,  bikers are trying to balance the emotional account balance sheet by telling themselves - "yes, but I am gonna ride the bike instead of driving a car, so I can break even" - while in reality, most of them have a car already and the break-even analysis might assume they would ride at least 30 miles every day for five years, given the gas price is so (anti-biker-ly) low these days.  Many bikers believe in themselves, so they start biking every day or so to work to "recover the cost".

But hell, who really knows how a road biker in the morining rush hours feels like ?

He needs to be getting up early, for one.  A typical 15 minute/10 mile drive now easily becomes 30 to 40 minutes biking in the best case scenario.  This is assuming that the biking lanes are available and no steep uphills/downhills in the route.  Otherwise,  add at least 15 to 20 minutes. Shower time is additional although not totally optional.

He also needs to be absolutely alert all the time.  A sleepy eye, a wrong turn at the wrong place, or a rolling stop, or even a little rock or debris on the biking lane, can turn everything upside down in a nanosecond.  Unlike his fellow car drivers, there's no airbag, no ABS, no NPR radio or iPod earphone, no GPS, that can entertain or protect the biker.  The biker is absolutely on his own.

If this is not crazy enough,  another weird thing is that the biker needs to "deliver" himself from end to end.  He could be driving a 50-pound Wal-Mart all-steel commuter bike or a 10-pound customized all-carbon-fibre road bike - this doesn't mattter.  What matters is he needs to travel from point A to point B, sweating like an Ox, breathing like a Yak, and enduring like a camel.  He's not expecting help from anyone unless he's injured or dealing with a flat tire (even then, most bikers have back-up tubes and will fix that on the spot by themselves).

Tell you what - biking to work is perhaps what bikers consider as "less exciting" thing comparing to their weekend activities, mostly involved with a small or a big group ride to climb some hills and then scream down other hills.

This is a typical weekend biking scene that you can see at Old La Honda road, between Woodside and Portola Valley:

You will find a few bikers are cranking their bikes slowly to go up the 3.5 mile hilly mountain road (at some point it's almost 15% grade) - some bikers might even talk about stock markets or a recent PE/VC investment deal - and some other bikers fly down the hills at perhaps 35 mph like they need to catch the last space shuttle to the moon. 

Also, at that intersection at Old La Honda and Skyline,  you could find groups of bikers and motorcyclists at all ages and shapes on weekend mornings.  It only takes a professional cyclist less than 20 minutes for that 3.5 mile/2000 ft (?) climbing, but only insane people will sacrifice a weekend morning beauty sleep, buy a piece of expensive equipment, train for weeks, and then try it for fun.  What's strange is that most of them just ignore the sign there saying "Downhill biking is strongly not recommended" given the extreme dangerous nature and past accidents.

Well, as we all know, bikers are simply nuts. 

They are just happy like hell when they are on their bikes. Those biking nuts. 

What can I say ?   I am one of them and one of the happy biking nuts.