Green Bicycling

A few years ago I subscribed to Bicycling Times (BT) magazine.  I enjoy commuting to work by bike when it's warm and light enough, and the occasional day trip on the wonderful bike paths that criss-cross Wisconsin.  BT caters to people like me.  It has many articles on practical bikes and gear, and whimsical uses of bikes as well.  There's also a certain save-the-planet mentality that appeals to me.

One issue had a marvelous article on bamboo bikes.  If you live near New York City, you can go to the  Bamboo Bike Studio in Brooklyn and build your own!  Just the kind of thing I'd enjoy doing some day.

The article rejoiced in the renewable, practical aspects of bamboo.  It grows like a weed in New Jersey, and its strength makes excellent frames. 

In the next issue, there were a couple of letters to the editor which I unfortunately did not keep and cannot find on the BT website.  The letters argued that such bikes were not really "green" since they used carbon fiber on the joints.  I composed the following reply, which to my regret I never sent in.

"Most issues of Bicycling Times include one or more items that touch on “green” bicycling; the most memorable described some cool bamboo bicycles.  Amazingly, these precipitated complaints from some of your more earnest readers that joining the bamboo together with carbon fiber destroyed its green advantages.  Huh?  In comparison with the alternatives, riding bicycles is so green that it hardly matters what the bike is made of. Be yours carbon, magnesium, scandium, petroleum, whifnium or whafnium--as long as you ride it,  you’ll still be far greener than your fossil-incinerating neighbors.  Relax and enjoy the ride."

An early version of the above replaced "petroleum" with "plutonium"--tongue-in-cheek, of course.  The point is that the use of non-renewable, even exotic, materials on items such as bicycles that last a long time and, in particular, serve as a substitute for liquid-fuel transportation, makes ecological sense. The amount of petroleum that went into the above carbon fiber joint is probably comparable to a few block drive by the diminutive hospital worker who barreled past me the other day in her gigantic F-150 truck.

Until we manage to ween ourselves off unnecessarily using our valuable petroleum reserves to move ourselves effortlessly from one place to another, there is no point in obsessing over trivial matters such as carbon fiber joints on bamboo bicycle frames.