Column: Olympics may inspire desire to try mountain biking

The Herald-Sun
Aug 24, 2004 : 9:25 am ET

The 2004 summer Olympics in Athens have already seen some exciting race results in cycling.

After leaving the Tour de France because of a back injury, Tyler Hamilton won the United States its first-ever gold medal in men’s road time trial.

Axel Merckx, son of the legendary five-time Tour winner Eddie Merckx, earned a bronze medal in the men’s road race.

Anna Meares and the Australian pursuit team have each broken world records in the velodrome and they aren’t even finished racing yet. And all this has happened on skinny tires … the fat tires begin racing tomorrow!

This is only the third Olympics for mountain biking, which debuted in Atlanta’s 1996 Olympic Games. Since then, the world of professional mountain biking has reached its halcyon days. The competition will be fierce Friday and Saturday as riders hurl themselves and their bikes down rocky slopes, clearing boulders and dirt jumps alike, approaching 65 mph. Don’t miss it!

Pisgah National Forest and the Tsali trail network in the western end of our state draw mountain bikers from all over the country, but you don’t need to drive out to there to get in some time off-road. Mountain biking is well-established in the Triangle.

Lake Crabtree County Park has a great network of trails for beginners. Call the park office at 460-3390 to make sure the trails are open when you plan to ride.

New Light is a collection of trails on Wildlife Resources land near Falls Lake. Route 66, one of the trails at New Light, is a favorite, showing off some of the best of what mountain biking is all about.

You can find descriptions of trails and directions to these and many others in the Triangle area at www.trianglemtb.com. The Durham Orange Mountain Bike Organization (DOMBO, www.dombo-nc.org) is working tirelessly to finish Durham’s first mountain biking course. When completed, it will be at the Little River Park off Guess Road in northern Durham County.

To ride the kind of course like in the Olympics, dedicated XC race courses, you can head to the mountains. Ski slopes often open their chairlifts to downhill and cross-country bikers in the summertime. Call the Sugar Mountain resort (800) 784-2768 to see when the next weekend of operation is.

single speed flow

Tonight was my first ride on my new single-speed set-up. I converted my 9-speed hub, using spacers where the cassette would be, just to test it out, to make sure this is what I want to do. After tonight, I know I won’t be going back.

Wow! One theme that sticks out in my mind is liberation. I had an idea what to expect from single-speeding: tougher climbs; more cautious, thoughtful riding; keeping the momentum. What I wasn’t prepared for was how quickly I felt freed from thinking about speeds and gears. I was focusing on the trail, not on the bike.

I know everyone has different riding styles. After 11 years of mountain biking, it was exhilarating to experience something new that reaffirmed what I’ve known all along. To me, finding that flow is more fun than anything else about mountain biking.

Column: Single-speed bicycles give rider more feel of the road

Phillip Barron
The Herald-Sun
August 10, 2004 12:10 pm

DURHAM — When I was a kid, riding a bicycle with multiple gears was something for adults. My blue banana-seat cruiser had only one gear at the rear wheel. I admired my dad and the older neighborhood kids who could change gears, go faster and ride greater distances. I dreamed about the day when I’d share that privilege. My first 10-speed didn’t just make it easier to climb hills, it confirmed my maturity.

Today, the term “10-speed” sounds dated. Bicycle manufacturers cram gears onto bikes allowing riders to select from as many as 30 speeds. Even contemporary kids’ bikes frequently come equipped with a rear dérailleur and at least three speed options. So, why in this age of innovation are some people going back to just one gear?

Single-speed bicycling is a counter-culture movement within the bicycling community aimed at rediscovering what bicycling is all about: the simple elements of human-powered transportation. It’s a movement that says to the manufacturing world, “just because you can offer it doesn’t mean we need it (or even want it!).”

To a single-speed biker, using only one gear gets you closer to the bike. Pedaling is a more raw, more tiring experience. You really get to know the road (trail, if you’re off-road) that you’re on. You’re more sensitive to even the most subtle incline. You think twice before heading out on a ride where you don’t know the terrain. But, if you’re like most single-speeders, you’re up for the challenge.

In the forums of www.trianglemtb.com, you’ll find a small but growing band of folks who ride their single-speed mountain bikes on all the same trails that their friends with 21, 24 and 27 speeds ride.

The most interesting are the fixed-gear folks. A fixed-gear setup is a single-speed bike where the pedals move in fixed proportion to the rear wheel — backwards and forwards. There is no freewheel, there is no coasting. If the rear wheel is moving, so is the pedal. If the pedals speed up, slow or stop, so does the rear wheel. If you ride a fixed-gear bike, your feet are constantly moving. I know a few of these purists, and they are some of the most physically and spiritually self-aware bicyclists I know.

Cannondale and other bike manufacturers have begun marketing single-speed bikes, but most riders who try the single-speed lifestyle simply convert their own gear-laden bikes. If you’re interested in learning more about single-speed biking, come to REI in Durham at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. REI’s bike specialists are hosting a workshop on how to convert your current bike and rediscover the elements of pedaling. Registration for the workshop is required since seats are limited. Contact Heather Phillips at (919) 806-3442 or hphilli@rei.com to register.

moral habits

Over lunch the other day, I was talking with a friend about habits. We were talking about food, about why I’m vegan, and I was saying that at this point it’s easier for me to just keep on eating vegetarian than it would be to think about how to integrate meat and dairy back into my diet. That’s because I’ve cultivated the habit of eating vegetarian… just like anyone else, there are things I know I eat, and when I make decisions about eating, I go for what I know. This is why eating vegetarian doesn’t feel as restrictive to me as my diet sounds to everyone else.

It was helpful to talk this through, because it helped me see that being a vegetarian is just one way of developing a morally relevant habit. I believe, as Aristotle did, that your moral character is just the constellation of the morally relevant habits you have. Fleshing out what makes a “morally relevant habit” may be where Aristotle and I depart. I argue that a morally permissible habit is the tendency to perform a justifiable action that contributes to your happiness. An action is justifiable when, if asked, you can produce a reason or reasons that others accept. A reason justifies an action when it explains why you performed (or plan to perform) the action in terms acceptable to others.

Well, this raises some questions. Answering these kinds of questions in full detail and developing bullet-proof counterarguments is part of my past life, when I was working on a PhD in philosophy. It’s not part of my present life, so I don’t pretend to have all the answers. However, finding answers to the questions raised by a moral theory matter more to me now. Academia tends to trivialize the importance of questions of morality because ultimately nothing matters in the academic world. Academic stakes are as artificial as end-of-semester deadlines, but the concerns of morality are real… they extend beyond the ivory tower into the stomachs of starving children, the habits of the wealthy, and the procedures of the execution chamber. I don’t think I’ve got moral theory figured out, but at the same time, I’ve got to have something to live by. Duty-bound Kantianism and the calculations of utilitarians always seemed too cold to me. Something like Aristotle’s flavor of virtue ethics is a little warmer. So, this is why I’m concerned with habits.

Why should whether something is right or wrong depend on whether someone else accepts your reasons? I think morality is essentially a social institution. The limits of morally acceptable behavior are defined by people, not history, not duties, not gods. If you’re all by yourself, and you’re trying to decide to what to do, but whatever you do will affect no one (or no other sentient being), then I don’t think it really matters (morally) what you do. It might be honorable in some other, some non-moral, sense that you stop to consider how you should act. But, in order for your actions to be morally relevant, they have to affect people (or other sentient beings) and you have to perform those actions for reasons.

Whose acceptance of your reasons matters most? Reasons justify actions when they explain to those affected by your action why you did (or are doing or plan to do) that action. So, who has to accept your reasons? The person or people affected by your action. When you do something, and you have a reason for doing it, and the people affected by your action accept your reason for doing it, and doing that thing contributes to your happiness, then that action is a morally right action.