What if the automobile had come first?

What if the bicycle had never been invented in the late 1800s, would engineers come up with a similar design today?  Even if they did, I doubt it would be taken seriously as a viable form of personal transport.

The bicycle came into being at a time when the only other form of personal transport was the horse. These animals were not only expensive to buy, they needed feeding and housing. Working class people could not afford horses.

However, once the bicycle had been invented, and a few years later mass production put this new machine within reach of the poorer classes it became a revolutionary form of personal transport. Many forget that the automobile came later and eventually replaced the horse as the wealthy person’s transport of choice.

I often wonder, what if the automobile had come first? The poorer working classes would have continued living in cities where they could get to work either on foot or by rail or other form of public transport.

The bicycle had less of an impact on America’s history, because in the US it was the automobile that became affordable due to mass production, and the luxury of plenty of space led to urban sprawl, and the suburbs.

In the UK and other smaller European countries, it became viable for a working class man to live in a rural area, and cycle 5 to 10 miles to work each day. The humble bike was the working man’s wheels all the way up to the late 1950s, early 1960s. 

Even though commuting to work by bicycle is a hard sell today for the majority, think how much harder it would be if engineers were only just developing the bicycle now. Almost everyone can at least ride a bicycle, and most households have at least one bike in their garage.

Would today’s engineers even think of a two-wheeled vehicle? If there were no bicycles there would be no motorcycles, only four wheel vehicles. There had always been four wheel horse drawn vehicles, so it was inevitable once gasoline engines were invented the automobile would follow. Don’t forget the first autos were called “Horseless Carriages.”

Above: A German Draisine or Laufmaschine, circa 1820. Predecessor of the bicycle.

The bicycle’s predecessor, the Hobby Horse came on the scene in the early 1800s as a rich man’s whimsical plaything, it only needed two wheels because its rider kept his feet on the ground. No doubt it was soon discovered that its rider could lift his feet clear of the ground and remain balanced when coasting downhill. 

What has always amazed me is that it took until towards the end of the 1800s for someone to attach a simple foot crank to the front wheel and it became a bicycle.

I started out by mentioning that before the bicycle the only form of personal transport was the horse. I am sure ever since men rode horses, children pretended to ride horses astride a stick picked up from the ground.

When the wheel was invented, model horses with wheels were made as children’s toys, from this came the adult version in the 1800s. The Hobby Horse was a pretend horse, and from that came the bicycle. The bicycle evolved, rather than it was invented, it was certainly not invented by any one person. 

It is one of the simplest and most efficient machines that humankind has ever made. What I find surprising is that today almost 200 years later, engineers are still asking, “How does its rider balance, and how does it steer?” The bicycle still raises more questions than answers.

I for one doubt very much that today’s engineers, even knowing about gyroscopic precession, caster action and such, would even think of building a two-wheeled vehicle for personal transport.

Even if they did, consumer agencies would no doubt deem it too dangerous and take steps to ban its use. I am glad that the bicycle came first and then the automobile, it may not have even happened the other way round.

What do you think? Just a little food for thought for you to munch on.

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Sweet Sixteen

On November 12^th, 2005, I posted my first article here and so last Friday marked 16 years of writing here on “Dave’s Bike Blog.

Crazy really when I consider my California business began in January 1982 and lasted until October 1993. Less than 12 years.

During that relatively short time, I created a body of work that still exists today and probably will for many more years.

Plus of course the frames I built in Worcester, England in the 1970s. So, I guess I can add Dave’s Bike Blog to the list of my achievements.

I think of all my other achievements during my life. Engineering projects, some of which still exist, I am sure. Machinery and various equipment I have either worked on or designed and built, in England and The USA both before and after I left the bike business.

But this is no different from most craftsmen, engineers, and people in construction. They create a body of work over their lifetime, but they don’t get to put their name on it, and that is the difference.

“I started out in the bike business with nothing… Today I have most of it left.”

But that is not the point. When someone buys one of my bikes used on eBay, although I will receive no financial gain from the sale, I get great satisfaction in knowing they will enjoy owning and riding that bike, and then maybe pass it on to someone else. Rather than it be left to rust or end up in a landfill.

Today I am a retired framebuilder, and I have moved on to other creative endeavors, songwriting is one of them. I also get satisfaction when a person comes up after hearing me perform a song at an open mic and say, “I really like that song.” Then ask, “What is your name?” I know that person genuinely likes my song, he or she is not saying it because I am a known songwriter.

And when other artists who are great songwriters in their own right, ask if they can record one of my songs, that is indeed a compliment. This has happened on two occasions. Although there is little financial reward in it for me, they spent their own money to record the song.

Which brings me to my personal life, and my personal Facebook page. If you have ever sent a “Friend” request to my personal Facebook page and I have not responded, please don’t take it personally. My Personal FB page is mostly made-up people I actually know. I have 324 friends, if I include bike riders it will increase to thousands.

They are mostly songwriters, musicians and writers, and they are not interested in bikes, anymore than bike riders are interested in my songwriting. The last thing I want is people loading up my personal page with bike pictures and questions about bikes.

I feel I allow plenty of access, writhing here, and then there is the Dave Moulton Bike Facebook Group where I post regularly. In addition, there is a link to my personal email on this page and my Registry.

Email me if you have a question, but please not a 1,000 word essay, you may include a phone number, I have been known to call people if the answer is too long to write.

Please don’t PM me to my personal FB page, as if I reply, then you have access to my personal page. Some have got on that way and for the most part if they don’t give me grief, like taking my jokes as serious statements, I probably won’t even know they are there.

Here's to more years writing on “Dave’s Bike Blog.” And if this Covid nonsense ends, maybe a few of us might meet again. I appreciate your continued support. Thank you all.

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Maintaining weight, eating right and feeling good

Six years ago, in 2015 I decided to make a concerted effort to not only lose weight but to maintain a healthy level. I wrote about it here on this blog. I will be 86 in three months’ time, and I now weigh 150 lbs. The weight I was in my teen years.

Key to maintaining this weight has been the practice of weighing myself every morning on rising from my bed and keeping a daily log. On reaching my eighties, I found it amazing the small amount of food I needed to take in daily, to maintain my current weight. Only 1,250 calories a day.

On a typical day for breakfast, I will eat a bowl of cereal, sometimes a cup of boiled rice, with blueberries added, or two eggs with a slice of sourdough bread.

Midday, a glass of A2 milk, and a hand full of nuts, or maybe two boiled eggs. Sometimes a protein shake made with milk and eggs added.

Evening meal, cheese, and crackers with fruit. Or for a cooked meal fish and a vegetable, or maybe a shrimp and vegetable stir-fry.

On occasions we may eat out at a restaurant, and a typical meal will be a thousand calories in one sitting. I can practically guarantee when I weigh myself the next morning, I will have gained three pounds, which is not a problem as I will be back down to my 150 lbs. the next day, two days at the most.

If I did not religiously weigh myself and log my weight each day, it would be easy to gain a few pounds each day and before I would know it, I would be 10 or 15 lbs. overweight. This daily logging of my weight is an essential part of the weight loss and maintenance regimen.

In 2016, year after my initial weight loss success, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle became even more important. Here I am six years later, and I am still managing my condition well.

I occasionally have a tremor in my right hand, but not all the time. It does occasionally affect my speech and I stumble over certain words, but it has not affected my walking or balance yet. I view it as an annoyance rather than a disability.

The other big change I made four years ago in 2017, I stopped eating meat. I came to this decision not because I believe meat is inherently bad, but the way meat is produced today is not good.

Animals are raised in a small space, where they have no exercise, and just eat. This cannot be healthy for the animal, so can it be healthy for me to eat the meat of the animal?

The animals are fed genetically modified food, given growth hormones to make them grow in as short as time possible, and antibiotics to prevent them from becoming diseased due to the unhealthy conditions they live in.

I now eat a mainly plant based diet, and apart from that I eat wild caught fish and shrimp; I feel farm raised fish is no better than other forms of meat. I buy only free-range eggs. So where do I get my protein, everyone asks? You can get protein from plants, but I eat such a small amount, how can I possibly get enough?

It is true, most protein comes from meat, and our body turns those proteins into amino acids, which we then build muscle and neurons in the brain, etc. I take plant based amino acids in the form of supplements.

It has worked for me because during my last annual physical exam, when my doctor did extensive blood work, not only were my protein levels normal, but my heart, liver and kidneys were, “As those of a 25-year-old,” in the words of my doctor.

I also take supplements for my gut, and others that are anti-toxins for my joints, organs, and others to repair neurons in by brain. It is the fact that neurons in my brain are dying that has caused my Parkinson’s, and my diet, exercise, and the supplements I am taking, at least appear to be slowing the process down.

I also cut back on vegetables that are in the “Nightshade” group. Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and potatoes. I have not cut these out altogether but limit them to once or twice a week. The result has been that my arthritis pain in my shoulders, hips and knees has ceased. My wife has had similar results.

People sometimes ask if I miss eating meat, and yes, I do remember the taste of a nice juicy steak with fries. But I enjoy feeling good, and being pain free a whole lot more. And growing old sucks a lot less.

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The Loneliest Whale

I recently watched “The Loneliest Whale in the World,” a documentary about a single hybrid whale that was first discovered back in the 1960s and is still alive out there somewhere in the ocean.

Apart from being an interesting and touching story, I was reminded how in the 1960s and 1970s the large Blue and Humpback whales were almost hunted to extinction. Everything changed when someone recorded the sounds they make, and people realized “They could sing.”

Originally hunted in the 1700s to provide lamp oil that fueled the Industrial Revolution, it continued into the 1960s when lamp oil was no longer required, but whale meat was still a cheap source of pet food worldwide. That is how I remember it, and even if I am wrong my point is that it was not necessary to hunt whales almost to extinction.

One commenter on the documentary stated, “When enough people care about something, they can change the world.”

I realized this is what actually happened. No one rioted or destroyed property, people the world over demonstrated peacefully. It was somewhat of a joke at first, then when Greenpeace got involved and went out in tiny boats to confront these huge whaling ships, people saw what was going on. It was no longer okay to slaughter whales for no good reason.

At the time it was tough luck on the companies that owned all these whaling factory ships, and all the people who were put out of work, but had this not happened, there would be no more whales left by now, and the whaling industry would have ended anyway.

The same thing is happening now with the closing of coal mines. No one likes to see people deprived of their livelihood, and governments don’t want to give up a cheap source of fuel for electricity. But is there still a choice when time is running out on global warming?

Which brings me to an issue that few are talking about. The world population. There are just too many people.

The world’s population has doubled in the last fifty years, that is since 1970. No time at all really, we cannot wait for it to double again, which is why some of us say time is running out. Watching this documentary illustrated the issue, seeing the huge amount of shipping required to distribute food to feed everyone.

Then there are all the animals required to feed the people, and the food required to feed the animals. People don’t like change, and no one wants to give up any freedoms. But, “If enough people cared, they could change the world,” but it seems to me that people are protesting less important issues and doing it in the wrong way.

Everyone, not just the people who are concerned about destroying the planet, should maybe more concerned about the planet destroying humankind. It is what Nature does.

I have two daughters, granddaughters, and great grandchildren. I am concerned for their future, but what can I do apart from write here? If enough people care, we can change the world. Maybe whole families of several generations need to demonstrate quietly, just as they did for the whales.

I don’t have all the answers, but perhaps we should at least talk about it. (Don’t you think?) The only other thing can be done, is cut back on consumption of certain foods, and all other goods.

There will be many who disagree with me, I am sure, but how long can the denial go on? Know that my intentions are good, and I ask you please keep your comments in the same vein.

Footnote: I am not sure what happened on Monday, but it seems a glitch deleted the post. This is a re-post.

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Words Re-written

What sets the human species apart from all other creatures? I believe it is not that we have a superior brain or opposing thumbs, it is language, our ability to communicate with words that can not only be spoken but written too.

I prefer the written word. It can be edited, whereas often the spoken word comes out and cannot be taken back. The old saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” is seldom true.

“Physical pain we tend to forget, but when someone says something nasty those words are locked away in our memory bank to be brought back along with the hurt, repeatedly. It takes a strong person to recognize that these are only words, and it is our choice to be hurt or offended by them.”

Fond memories can be re-told to others and relived in our own mind. Bad memories often get re-told and are exaggerated, made worse than they originally were. The smart lines and witty come-backs we recite in re-telling the story, are not the words we actually said, but rather what we wish we had said.

Told over and over the stories eventually become our reality. Others will steal our stories, make them their own and retell them until they become their reality. This is how urban myths are born.

“Talk is cheap,” is another common expression. Some can talk for hours and say nothing, certain politicians have honed this to an art form. Words may be cheap, but the cost may be enormous. Say the wrong thing and it can destroy the reputation of a politician or other public figure dearly.

People who talk incessantly miss out on a lot. For one thing by talking continuously they are not letting others express their views. Then when the other person speaks, they are not listening because they are thinking of what they will say next.  

It is only by listening to others that communication pays off. While I am talking, I am only repeating what I already know, whereas a thought from outside my own mind can spark an entirely new line of thinking. I other words, I learn something.

If talk is cheap, the Internet and social media often make words worthless. If someone makes a comment one strongly disagrees with, what is the point in firing off some knee-jerk opposing view? It divides people even more, and you are anonymous, why waste your time? I try to follow my mother’s advice, “If I can’t say something nice, say nothing at all.”

“Silence, it has been said, is golden and can sometimes speak louder than words. Words may say something, but silence can make a more powerful statement. I fail to see the logic in protesting hate speech with more hate speech. Protest in silence and let the other side spew the hated, thus proving your point.”

Or to an angry mob protesting any cause, ignore them in silence and walk on by, I guarantee that protest will fizzle and die in short order. Another wise response I remember from my mother when in my defense I would say, “Well he (or she.) started it.” My mother would always say, “It doesn’t matter who started it, it takes two to make an argument.”

Though talk is cheap, words should not be wasted. Words can heal a person or destroy them. Words can teach or miss-inform. Words can spread love, or they can spread anger and hatred. Words can be both a blessing and a curse, choose them with care.

This is just me trying to say something nice. Say something nice in return or please, say nothing.

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