When our managing photographer, Bill Kelley, sent me a press release from PeopleForBikes.org titled "Three Ways to Make the Most of National Bike Month," I felt a twinge of guilt. No, actually it was shame.
          
National Bike Month—May—is just packed with occasions and opportunities to get on human-powered transportation devices and move—beginning with the first-ever National Bike to School Day, which is today (Wednesday, May 9). There's CycloFemme, the International Day of Women's Bicycling, on the 13th, then National Bike to Work Week (May 14-18), which culminates in National Bike to Work Day. And the National Bike Challenge is running as we speak—it kicked off on May 1 and runs all summer, till August 31. Its goal: to get 50,000 people to bike 10 million miles.
 
A Nice Blue Bike in the Garage
          
Now I have a nice blue bike in the garage. A seven-speed Schwinn; not a bike-geek's bike by any means, certainly not a cool "fixie," and I'd feel terminally self-conscious riding it to, say the Angry Catfish bike café for shade-grown Nicaraguan. But it's a good bike. I bought it years ago--before the bike boom--but  I rode it about seven times total. My wife, who gets on it maybe twice a week to run up to Victoria and Grand on errands, calls it "her bike" now, and I guess it is.
          
But here's the thing: I'm overweight, pre-hypertense. I need exercise. One of my closest pals is über-bike-advocate Jay Walljasper. I edit The Line, into which I try to get regular doses of bike-related content (there's always a nice traffic spike when I do, and of course I mean web traffic).
 
Nobody expects journalists to do all, or even most, of the positive things they write or edit about, but for God's sake, I'll drive my nondescript Toyota Corolla on an errand eight blocks away, as if I lived in some suburban subdivision named after a Jane Austen character. There's something wrong here.

How to Celebrate?

PeopleForBikes have a couple of suggestions for celebrating the month that are clearly aimed at people who spend more time on the little seat than I do.

"Go for a type of bike ride that you normally wouldn’t: If you’re a road rider, try a mountain bike ride. If you’ve never ridden your bike to work, give bike commuting a shot. And if the ride to work isn’t something you can tackle this year, ride your bike to run an errand you would normally do by car, even if it’s just a trip to the coffee shop or ice cream parlor. Remember—forty percent of trips Americans take are two miles or less, an easy bicycling distance.

"Introduce one other person to bicycling. Whether it’s your partner, a coworker, a family member, or just a friend, help someone find a bike and go for a fun ride. Bicycling is a pretty amazing thing, right? Why not encourage someone else to discover the activity that brings you so much happiness."
 
Whoa--one step at a time here, fellas. I actually intend to celebrate National Bike Month by going from no biking to some biking. I declare my intention to pump up the tires on the Schwinn and go somewhere— on errands, to restaurants, over the High Bridge to the West Side for a Smith Avenue ride, or across the river to make my maiden voyage on the Midtown Greenway, and who knows where else. I'll let you know how it goes. And if you are as addicted to internal combustion as I am, by all means join me in celebrating the month by pushing some pedals.

Photo by Laurie Phillips