You can be sure that Bookstore department manager Forrest Halford rode his recumbent tricycle this morning.
He rides it to and from campus five miles every day, except for Monday, he said.
On Monday, he brings a change of clothes for the week to his office and goes grocery shopping.
Then he needs his Xtracycle.
According to Xtracycle.com, an Xtracycle is a bicycle with the rear wheel stretched out behind the seat. Atop the wheel is a stable platform for a passenger or load. Saddlebags on either side expand when you need them and are cleanly out of the way when you don’t.
“It’s the next generation in cycling,” Halford said.
Halford has five other bicycles, too. If he wants to ride fast, he takes a Biscetta Corsia. If it’s raining, he takes a bike with fenders.
“Each bike is like a different lover,” he said. “They all bring something different.”
He said he rides his tricycle so he can make it up the hills of Bowling Green. He always wears a helmet and gloves.
When he rides to campus each morning, he hears the sounds of the world waking up; he feels spring, he said.
He said he’s very much in tune with the world.
“You see things and you hear things,” he said. “I wave and talk to people.”
On Earth Day, he rode down Regents Avenue on his tricycle.
Taking Cabell Drive, he crossed 31-W Bypass in the middle of the lane.
“People notice me,” he said. “Most of them probably think I’m handicapped.”
He rode down Magnolia Street, crossed Scottsville Road.
“You cross at your own risk,” he said.
He rode through a cemetery. He said he loves riding through cemeteries.
“It always puts things into perspective,” he said.
Eventually, he rode into Kereiakes Park on a trail – called a greenway – made specifically for bicycles and pedestrians.
The Greenways Commission of Bowling Green and Warren County was created in 2001.
The mission statement is to develop pathways “that bring the community and nature together.”
City Commissioner Bruce Wilkerson said the project expands across Warren County.
Hopefully, it will be done before school starts next fall, Wilkerson said.
Halford said he’s excited about the project.
“It’s the mark of a progressive city,” he said.
Halford said Bowling Green is on the way to becoming a bicycle-friendly community.
A bicycle-friendly community provides safe cycling and encourages its residents to bike for transportation and exercise, according to the League of American Bicyclists’ Web site.
Halford sold his car a few years ago.
He still doesn’t have a car, but he doesn’t look down on them, he said.
“I don’t want to drive that much anyway,” he said. “I’m used to riding my bike.”
Cars are overused, he said.
He said his world view has expanded since he began riding bicycles consistently in 2003.
“I had an old bike then, and I decided I didn’t want to be 300 pounds anymore,” Halford said.
He said a one-and-a-half mile bike ride put him out of breath.
“Your body will adapt,” he said.
He said he rode that old bike until it died of rust.
He lost 100 pounds.
“Once I realized I didn’t need my car, I couldn’t stop riding my bike,” he said.
When he rides his bike, he figures out the roads where cars don’t usually go and maps his path. There are ways to get to the Greenwood Mall without taking Campbell Lane or Scottsville Road, he said.
“And with so many cars and so much exhaust, why would you want to?” he said.
Halford rides the back roads of Bowling Green.
“Bikes should be on the road like cars,” he said. “They have all the rights cars do.”
Halford said he rides the back roads of other cities too. He takes a 40-mile route down Polksville Road into Franklin, just north of the Tennessee border.
He rides across Iowa with a group of cyclists annually.
“We’re blessed in Kentucky,” he said. “We have beautiful scenery, wonderful roads.”
Halford said he rides his bike because of the rising cost of fuel, he said.
On April 1, a group of students began a critical mass to show that fossil fuel usage could be reduced.
Critical mass is an event where a group rides bikes, roller blades, skateboards, scooters and takes up a lane of traffic to show that alternatives exist, according to the Facebook group.
They met four times this semester, about once every two weeks, said Nick Asher, Elizabethtown freshman and group organizer. Their last meeting was on Earth Day.
Halford said he hasn’t heard much about the critical mass in Bowling Green, but he knows it’s a national thing.
He said despite being 50, he feels like he can ride with the younger crowd. When he was riding in 2006, a couple of younger guys came up from behind and passed him, Halford said. He asked if he could draft them, or ride behind them to benefit from reduced air pressure, and one of them replied, “If you think you are up to it.”
Halford said he not only drafted them, but also ended up dropping them.
When Halford leaves his home in the morning, the path begins with an uphill, he said.
“But for every uphill, there’s a downhill,” he said.
Reach Ryan W. Hunton at news@chherald.com.
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