Bicycles | Links to Further Content

Bicycling is a lot of fun. I've done it for ages. On the serious side, transportation cycling addresses many of the problems of modern society; pollution, carbon emissions, traffic congestion, dependence on foreign oil, cardiac disease, obesity, diabetes and stroke. While doing all this, it can also be a delightful way to get around and see things. I've written a number of things about cycling over the years and this page links to them because I'm sure the world is breathlessly awaiting my writing! Have fun!

Links to Matt's Bicycling Articles

Bicycle Commuting Handout I commute to work by bicycle some of the time and have done so for many years. I put together a handout on Bicycle Commuting originally for a talk I was asked to give, and have used and updated it since.

Bike Touring Circa 1980 Right out of college with no job lined up I instead went travelling. I took my bike. This page is about the bicycle and equipment I used that happy summer. This is one of the earliest pages on my website, from about 1997, and still picks up comments from others who did something similar.

Riding to Duluth In 2005 I rode to Duluth with my 13-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter. We did over 80 miles each day. This page is adapted from the original blog entries about the trip.

The 2006 Lake Pepin Three Speed Tour The Lake Pepin Three Speed Tour is a brilliantly-conceived event involving, as the motto says, Three Gears, Two Days, One More Reason for your spouse to ask, What Now? Dress up as 1930s Englishmen, ride three speed bikes from stop to stop, it's a great time. The 2006 ride was my first. This is my account, put together from the original blog entries.

The 2007 Lake Pepin Three Speed Tour My second participation in this event. I went as the Quicker Vicar this time, and celebrated The Blessing of the Bicycles ahead of time.

Thoughts on Three Speed Gearing After the 2007 Three Speed Tour, I wrote about the gearing of three-speeds. I compare stock gearing, my somewhat-lowered gearing for the Tour, modern Nexus 8-speed internal hub gearing, classic 1970s ten-speed gearing and modern 27-speed gearing, with notes and a graph of which I'm very fond. This article is boring in the extreme to all but the worst bike nerds. You Know Who You Are!

The Order of Service for A Blessing of the Bicycles

I ride the Lake Pepin Three Speed Tour as the Quicker Vicar and we celebrate a short service at the beginning of the ride and do a singalong on the Saturday night. I've had some inquiries about this from actual clergy over the years so have decided to post all the Blessing of the Bicycle bulletins here.