elements of a bike - in other's words

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it if you live." (mark twain)

why not?

"Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride." (john f. kennedy)

how so? surely, there are other ways to get around...

"A bicycle does get you there and more.... And there is always the thin edge of danger to keep you alert and comfortably apprehensive. Dogs become dogs again and snap at your raincoat; potholes become personal. And getting there is all the fun." (bill emerson)

"Think of bicycles as rideable art that can just about save the world." (grant petersen)

save the who? saywhat now?

"Consider a man riding a bicycle. Whoever he is, we can say three things about him. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We know that at some point he will stop and get off. Most important of all, we know that if at any point between the beginning and the end of his journey he stops moving and does not get off the bicycle he will fall off it. That is a metaphor for the journey through life of any living thing, and I think of any society of living things." (william golding)

how do we maintain that motivation?

"The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine." (john howard)

any rewards for this challenge?

"It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle." (ernest hemingway)

wind in your face...

"Tens of thousands who could never afford to own, feed and stable a horse, had by this bright invention enjoyed the swiftness of motion which is perhaps the most fascinating feature of material life." (frances willard)

and what more, in this day of progress?

"When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race." (h.g. wells)