chr-@thinairad.com

Here is an interesting read from the New York Times. It seems Pres Bush and

Sen Kerry are both avid bike riders.

I pasted the whole article since you need a log-in account to read the only

line news paper



Chris "Gun" Browning





Culture Wars, on Two Wheels

By CHARLES McGRATH



Published: August 1, 2004





NE of the many differences separating John Kerry and George W. Bush is their

choice of bicycle - not an especially presidential mode of transport, one

might think, except that these are not ordinary bikes.



Mr. Kerry reportedly pedals an $8,000 Serotta Ottrott, as high-tech and

skittish as a sports car. It is made of space-age carbon tubing and comes

equipped with the patented ST rear triangle, whatever that is.



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Mr. Bush pumps away (often emitting low "hrrr, hrrr, hrrr" grunts, according

to an Associated Press article last week) on a $3,000 Trek Fuel 98. It, too,

is made of carbon tubing, but unlike the Kerry machine, it has shock

absorbers fore and aft. That's because it's meant to go off-road. If Mr.

Kerry's bike is a Ferrari, Mr. Bush's is a Land Rover. Mr. Kerry rides on

the flat, more or less, and usually on paved surfaces.



Mr. Bush likes to ride up into the hills of his Texas ranch and then come

flying down. To put it another way, Mr. Kerry is more nearly like Greg

LeMond, Mr. Bush more like Evel Knievel.



What this says about their political philosophies is best left to the

analysts and the pundits. But a study posted recently on a New Zealand

biking Web site suggests that downhill mountain-bike riders, like Mr. Bush,

score considerably higher than cross-country riders on something called the

Sensation Seeking Scale. (Road riders, like Mr. Kerry, are comparative

wussies when it comes to sensation seeking.) Downhill riders are also more

likely to drive a car too fast, and to have had a brush with the law.



Of course they also get hurt more often. According to Tim Blumenthal, the

executive director of the International Mountain Bicycling Association,

"minor cuts and scratches are pretty common in our sport."



As far as we know, Mr. Kerry has fallen only once recently, after skidding

on a patch of sand last May. On the other hand, Mr. Bush has tumbled twice

in the last two months - and that's not counting the time in June of last

year he fell over the handlebars of his father's Segway scooter, because he

had forgotten to turn it on.



Mr. Blumenthal said that some of the worst mountain bike spills happen at

slow speeds and are not necessarily the result of reckless driving. "I

believe the president could benefit from an hour or two with a top mountain

biker who could give him a few tips," Mr. Blumenthal added. "They say that

once you learn how to ride a bike you never forget, but there are a few

little technical things the president could probably learn."



On his most recent crash, last week, Mr. Bush executed what is known as an

"endo" in mountain bike parlance - a sort of reverse wheelie, in which the

rear tire lifts in the air and the rider sails over the front. Mr. Bush

landed with the bike on top of him but was unhurt except for a cut on his

knee. The last time, in May, he scraped his face, hand and both knees.



At least he didn't hurt his liver, a particularly vulnerable area for

mountain bikers, according to The Lancet, the medical journal, which has

discovered that during a fall, the handlebars frequently slam into the

rider's right side, causing internal bleeding.



The origins of mountain biking are unrecorded. The sport probably began the

first time some nut case took a two-wheeler off the road and went careering

down a too-steep hill.



The advent of the balloon tire in the 1930's made the experience less

bone-shaking, but the finer points of mountain bikes and mountain biking

were not developed until the mid-1970's, when cyclists in Marin County,

Calif., began racing down Mount Tamalpais.



 From the beginning the sport has manifested a certain daredevil quality, and

in some circles, it is fashionable for mountain bikers to brag about their

mishaps. Many of them are recorded on the Crash 'N' Burn message board at

the mountain bike Web site www.dirtworld.com - a remarkably upbeat catalog

of road rash, concussions, and broken legs, collarbones and teeth.



The more interesting recent posts include ones from a guy who made a wide

turn onto a highway and was smacked by a dump truck; from someone whose

brakes melted during a 100K race; and from a rider who wiped out while

attempting a wheelie drop off of a loading dock.



The palm, however, goes to a fellow who slid off a curve, deposited a lot of

skin on some sharp golf ball-sized rocks and then dropped 40 feet into a

river, where he found himself in Class IV whitewater rapids. Final E.R.

total: broken ankle (requiring two steel screws), broken ribs, cracked

skull, fractured wrist and missing fingernail.



Mr. Blumenthal said the crash-and-burn aspect of mountain biking is

frequently overemphasized, but admitted that a certain element of surprise

is part of the sport's appeal.



"It clears your head," he said. "In modern society, there are few

opportunities to be spontaneous or adventurous. It's not like we're going to

be running from a wild boar or anything. But in mountain biking, there's

always the chance to have something go wrong. It's fun."