Gotta Have My Bicycle

The Rock band Queen never appealed to me. I considered them
overblown and everything that Punk Rock was railing about in
terms of popular music. That being said, I have to give the
blokes some credit...I think Brian May is a brilliant axe-man
on the guitar, and I think Queen's tunes "Crazy Little Thing
Love" & their bicycle ditty were great. I especially liked
the bicycle song.

Living in San Francisco near the top of a hill (most places
in SF are either uphill or downhill from someplace else),
riding a bicycle in my neighborhood could be considered to
be a suicide attempt. I didn't have a bike for years, though
I seemed permanently attached to one when I was a kid. Then
came motorbikes and scooters (how I loved my Vespa!) which
almost got me killed.

For several years after coming to work & live in Japan I
was without a bicycle, or any other means of getting
about other than mass transit or taxis. When we moved to
a neighborhood near the urban mass of Tokyo, I bought a
bike. I felt free as a bird until the local cops kept
stopping me to check whether my bike had been reported
stolen. They still do from time to time.


My first bike was a 3-speed shopping bike (called a
"charinko" in Japanese...which could mean either the
sound of its bell or the sound of jingling coins...
I've heard different opinions). The bike had
"Fortissimo" emblazed on its frame. I thought that
was funny because the term could be translated to
mean "noisy" or "loud" in Italian. To the Japanese,
it sounded foreign and sporty. My bike was neither
foreign nor sporty but I rode the daylights out of it
for years. It finally just flat wore out.


I then upgraded my bikes to snazzy mountain bikes,
the expensive ones kept getting stolen in spite of my
locks. So I got a cheapo Spalding and it has lasted
years...in spite of assaults upon it and my person.

In Japan there are traffic mirrors at many intersections.
These give a bike-rider a false sense of security as
other riders (often in a hurry to get to the train
station) may ignore them and come zooming through the
intersection, often causing collisions with others.
This has happened to me several times. I sometimes feel
that I need "body armor" before going out riding.

There has been a lot of discussion as to bike safety
in Japan. What many civic planners don't seem to be
able to realize is that streets in urban areas are
incredibly congested. It's a policy now that bike
riders no longer cycle on sidewalks to avoid hitting
pedestrians. Where is a cyclist supposed to go? Bike
lanes have been proposed, but putting them on narrow
streets with auto traffic speeding by is an invitation
to roadside mayhem. I could go on and on about this,
but I won't for now. I'll just avoid busy streets and
enjoy the bikepaths along the river near my house...
but don't get me started talking about crazed joggers
and wierdo dog walkers!


Yurz, Martin