Chuck and Mario on Bikes

I’ve been biking a lot lately. I picked up an old rental bike for $50 from a vendor in Ocean City, New Jersey, in August of 2010. I felt large and foolish as I rode it on the boardwalk, but that feeling soon melted into sweet nostalgic memories of being a kid and biking absolutely everywhere. After that Ocean City vacation, I’ve been biking pretty regularly during the non-winter seasons of the year. I’ve been taking a route through my neighborhood, bringing the bike with me back to the beach, or hitting the nearby C&O Canal bike trail. I’ve come to really love it.



So much so, that in January of 2012 I finally broke down and bought a real bike from Dick’s sporting goods. My Ocean City rental bike was just skipping gears too much and had become unreliable for the kinds of trips I’ve been putting it through.

I’ve roped my buddy Mario into biking with me. Every Sunday morning for about six weeks now, I’ve been waking up at 4:40 A.M. to load up both my bike and my old Ocean City rental bike on the van and drive to Mario’s house in Ashburn to be there by 6:30 A.M. After hitting the weights, we’ve been hitting the WO&D Trail, which is right near where he lives. It’s not as flat as the C&O Canal, but it’s a really nice ride. We’ve been experimenting with different sections of that trail to keep things fresh and to find out what parts we really like to ride on. There’s one stretch that’s almost entirely uphill that has really been kicking my butt. However, that same stretch also offers a really pleasant ride back to the car. That’s the dichotomy of biking.



After awhile using my old, rusted, Ocean City rental bike, Mario decided to buy a bike of his own. Problem was, neither of us were really well educated on the different types of bikes and their uses. Mario got a very affordable mountain bike from Walmart. On its first use, Mario was miserable. We took the WO&D Trail again, and Mario had trouble keeping up with me, felt uncomfortably low and pitched forward, and found that he couldn’t coast downhill. He had to peddle every inch, because the tires of the mountain bike were designed for maximum traction.

Not only was the whole experience miserable, but Mario got bit by a giant flying bug while we were back at the car rubbing our sore butts and loading the bikes back up on the bike rack. We decided to label that incident as “Attached by a vicious, beast-like form of wildlife”.


Mario returned the mountain bike to Walmart and began his search anew. This time getting some education from the people at Dick’s on the differences between mountain bikes, cruisers, and hybrids. But the whole incident kept playing around in his head. Until he found himself on my crusty old Ocean City rental again the very next Sunday, only this time thoroughly enjoying the ride and keeping up easily.

“Hey… what do you know about old time, Prisoner like, bikes with giant front wheels?” He asked.


I paused for a minute, then had to capitulate. “Not a thing.” I answered.

“I think they were easier to peddle.” Mario was mentally comparing his seating position with the Ocean City rental bike against that of the lower seat and handlebars of the mountain bike. “I think the higher up you are, the easier it is to peddle.”

“Huh.” I hadn’t given any of this any thought. “I dunno.”

“Write a blog about it.” Mario tossed out the idea.

So here we are.

Extremely minimal research on my part has turned up that the type of bicycle Mario was talking about is called a ‘penny farthing’, or an ‘ordinary bicycle’. It was a French innovation of a constantly evolving form of bicycle. I haven’t found anything that said the higher seat made peddling easier. But a Wikipedia article on the history of bicycles did mention that they were very difficult to to ride because of the high seat and weight distribution.

Mario and I have vowed to find two of these bikes and ride them around like kings of the bike trail; stylish kings of the bike trail… in super hero t-shirts. We’ll get a Kickstarter project up and running for you to contribute to soon enough.



Something that I did read about the evolution away from the Penny Farthing into the bicycle we have today is that the peddling and steering were both on the front wheel, which was kind of a disastrous design that led to a lot of problems. The effort of putting the peddling to the back wheels of the bicycle necessitated the addition of gearing.

Apparently, there was a bicycling craze in the 1890’s that led to ‘The Golden Age of Bicycles’. And it was one of the primary modes of transportation right before the invention of the car.

Yeah… but what did they do on hills?

I do remember biking absolutely everywhere in the 1980’s. That’s how I got to the Safeway that sold comics. That’s how I got to the Seven Eleven that sold comics. That’s how I got to the K-Mart that sold super hero toys. That’s how I got to the comic book store that opened at a strip mall in Burke, Virginia. I even biked to a music store once to get a cassette tape of Simple Minds’ greatest hits. And when I was sixteen, that’s how I got myself to my summer job at Burke Lake Park picking up trash five days a week. So I could pay for comics.

Even such a manly post as biking seems to drag me back into comic memories. It’s almost as if I was obsessed or something. Can’t imagine.



Thanks,
DCD

The Greek Perspective

Last Sunday, my buddy Mario Adractas and I were relaxing in the pool after our exercise routine. The conversation turned to comics and childhood memories, as it almost always does, and Mario had this perspective to offer.

Apparently, when he and his brothers would visit relatives in Greece in their childhood, there was very little to do. Greek television was sorely lacking compared to American programs and Saturday morning cartoons. Mario characterized comic books as the only option for childhood entertainment and therefore treasured by he and his brothers during these trips.



It’s an interesting anecdote for its applicability to why kids just don’t read comics anymore. In the 1940’s, comics were a very new form of entertainment and widely read. The competition, if any, was radio programs and maybe the Saturday movie matinee. Television came along in the fifties as comic books, not un-coincidentally, began to wane. And then the Adventures of Superman hit the airwaves and the medium was given a boost.

Today, when my son sits down with his iPad, he has just a few choices of entertainment. He can read comics. He can read books. He can watch movies or listen to music. He can browse the internet, watch YouTube, or listen to Pandora radio. If he’s feeling creative, he can write, draw, make movies, make music, and even make animations. If he’s in an educational mood he can learn about a variety of different subjects in many different ways. And then there are the video games – which are hands down his favorite use of the device.

And that’s just with using one tool available in the house. Albeit, it’s the most advanced tool, but there are still other options around the house vying for his attention.


The point being, our culture has changed. Our entertainment choices have changed drastically in the last seventy years. It’s probably changed more in this last century than ever before.

So how are comics, just one medium in the dull roar of things fighting for your money, supposed to survive?

Odds are, they won’t. They’ve only survived this far because of the characters. People are drawn to this American mythology. They may stay for the unique storytelling or other factors. But this is a rare case of the subject of the medium driving the need for the medium.

I’m constantly trying to push the idea that change is good. With my kids, where I’m trying to prevent them from getting stuck in certain mindsets. Especially at work, where people find a groove and tend to want to stick with it. And with myself. Trying to expand beyond the boundaries of who I decided I was in my early formative years. I’m a better person for it. Logically, I understand that.

But still, there’s the romantic notion of nostalgia that keeps plaguing my mind. I’ll catch myself driving to work early on a summer morning remembering fondly my days of biking to the 7-Eleven to look for new comics and get a Slushee. And there’s nothing wrong with those nostalgic feelings. As long as when I get to work I force myself to get out of the car, get in the door, and continue the push to expand.

Thanks,
DCD