For those of you that bike, you’ve probably heard of Bike Shop Girl. She was hit by a car recently – she is okay physically, but understandably (at least to me) she isn’t doing as well mentally and emotionally.

The post quoted below by Kent’s Bike Blog, speaks to the risks of riding and not riding. It’s excellent, I hope you’ll visit his website and read the full post.

Life’ll Kill Ya   (Excerpt from Kent’s Bike Blog)

My Twitter friend Arleigh (aka Bike Shop Girl aka @arsbars) was hit by a car last week. Prior to being wisely “advised not to write, blog, tweet or facebook update until things get settled,” she shared these thoughts on Twitter:

“Mentally I am really screwed up. I’m a safe rider and this was a calm afternoon and bike commute. Nothing I could have done different. Scary.”

and

“Bicycling, commuting & encouraging others to do the same is my life. I was just hurt badly by that lifestyle..not sure how to swallow that.”

I’ve never met Arleigh in the real world (the one with bikes and cars and roads and traffic) but we’ve traded bits and bytes and thoughts and pictures and I think of her as a kindred spirit, a fellow rider and a friend. I wanted to write a “it’ll be OK, get back in the saddle, keep ’em rolling” kind of thing but as Arleigh noted, things like this are scary. Damn scary. (Read More)

Autumn is the best time of year to bike, at least in Oklahoma – and I would imagine, in most places.

The winds are lighter, the weather is less stormy and one of my favorite things – the sunlight has a golden hue.

I refer to it as Tuscan sunlight because it reminds me of the sunlit villages in Tuscany when we were there several years ago. 

Cetona, Italy



Nathaniel Hawthorne on Autumn