Author: jbo

Being “the baby” in a family of 7 siblings, spanning 14 years, I grew up surrounded by music. Pretty much any song from the 60s & 70s connects to a family memory. Tonight it was a song from a bit later, Marc Cohn’s Walkin’ In Memphis. When I hear Marc Cohn, I think of riding […]

These are the unhelpful truths you mutter to yourself — or to your co-riders if they’re so (un)lucky — when you’re in need of a distraction during an extra dose of work on the bike. I have a brain full of them, ready to not help at a moment’s notice. – Two Roads Diverged in […]

… and there is also a time for sleep. This was a common theme in my recent visits with my siblings who I hadn’t seen in over a year and a half. There was so much to catch up on, that we commonly were all sitting around talking until we started falling asleep in our […]

On a bike, “Road Closed” means “Traffic-Free Thru Road for Bikes”. Rarely does it really mean closed. So proceed with caution … and prepare for some adventure: Be creative … and ride on: This one looks like a pretty legit closed. But it turns out there was a path on the other side under the […]

“One love. We get to share it. Leaves you, baby, if you don’t care for it.”“One life, you got to do what you should.” – “One”, U2 When I head out on a solo ride, I put the buds in and queue up a good playlist. But as I start off, I pause the playlist […]

The riders I meet five miles outside of town are not the same riders I meet fifty miles outside of town. Five miles out, we wave and exchange hellos. Fifty miles out, one rider turns around to join the other. I wrote this in 2012. In 2014, it actually happened. It was day three of […]

A black cat crosses my path and I’m like, “Really? That’s all you’ve got?” That’s a scribble that I came across that I haven’t been able to match up to the ride it was from. That’s because, with year-round riding comes the necessity to ride through some pretty unkind weather. So there are many rides […]

(Hey John, if you don’t know the answer to this, can you relay this question to your parents who I’m sure will?) I’m pedaling down the Snoqualmie Valley Trail early on a Sunday morning. It’s beautiful. It’s remote. It’s quiet. Up ahead, I see several people just off of either side of trail, cameras in […]

It was spring of 1984.Pop had brought home a new car for the family, a baby blue Ford Escort. Being the handyman/mechanic/fixer-upper that he was, he wanted to see what he had to work with for the engine. I was coming out to see the car as Pop was lifting the hood. He propped the […]

You see a boy is circling around a street corner. His friends begin assembling, joining his circle as they talk. When the last friend shows up, they all take off. You see them riding all over, spending all of this time together. Cut to the next time circling and fewer people showing up, then flash […]