Great time scootering hither and yon

I had a great time over the weekend exploring the utility of my Mibo folding scooter (pictured left).

I had to 'go into town' to attend a conference so I staid with the offspring who live 20 minutes from a suburban railway station. So each day tooing and froing I rode the Mibo to and from public transport. 

I use a double bag method to bag my scooter when I have to on some transits, but when I don't need the packaging the scooter will sit freely against me in a train carriage. 

In and out of traffic and pedestrians in built-up inner city areas, the Mibo rules the footpath and roadside kerb.It's a breeze to ride and manoeuvre with no danger of being upended by sudden cement edges or asphalt rises or gravelling because:

• pneumatic tyres
• 12 inch wheels
• handlebar control
• kickboard height

Each morning when I left the offspring's abode, I'd give a few kicks and roll down the slope to the broad valley below. Effortless.

So a journey that took over 20 minutes on foot was scooted in 7 or 8. 

The Mibo is heavier than I'd prefer (it was a product for a time of the  Czech 'Iron' --rather than 'Alloy' -- Curtain afterall) but so long as I'm not forced to carry it long distances I can handle the weight -- about 9 kgm. 

Porting up railway station  stairs works OK because of the double stem to the front as it offers a comfortable grip. Manoeuvring while carrying the scooter among a crowd of people  is not so easy as you often want to carry it folded and as 'vertical' as possible.  And since there is rough overhang, you need  to bag the scooter. 

But hey! I'm delighted!  I've had the Mibo Folding scooter for almost 5 years but now it really registers with my out and about needs.

While I've tried to find a better scooter for this role -- and one that is easier to obtain and lighter -- I have not been able to top it.

Here's a good review of the Mibo:

• Barak's Choice: A Mibo Gepard Kick Scooter

And my experiences with it are logged here.

With the tyres pumped up, kicking along a footpath which carries a bit of foot traffic is a delight. Think skateboarding -- but skateboarding with much more control over your weaving and the comfort of air filled pneumatics.  You have brakes too! When there's a traffic jam. You hop off and walk around it. Hop on. 

My kickbike and I are still in love

This year marks my sixth year scooting about this planet on a kickbike.

And they have  been six  very happy years.

This scooter has given me not one moment of trouble and we have had many adventures together.

In fact, like the coppers in Flan O'Brien's dark comedy, The Third Policeman I'm beginning to turn into my ride:

“The gross and net result of it is that people who spent most of their natural lives riding iron bicycles over the rocky roadsteads of this parish get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them and you would be surprised at the number of people in these parts who are nearly half people and half bicycles...when a man lets things go so far that he is more than half a bicycle, you will not see him so much because he spends a lot of his time leaning with one elbow on walls or standing propped by one foot at kerbstones.” ― Flann O'Brien, The Third Policeman

Yesiree happy days indeed.

I also own  the smaller wheeled, Mibo Folding scooter which I portage on public transport and use for forays across suburban Brisbane. But about my township more or less every day I'm pushing my kickbike about.

I'm known for it. 

On a kickbike you stand out. Kickbikes give you street cred.

It frustrates me that the road into my patch is not bike friendly so I tend to be contained by geography to routes no longer than 14 km. But on a kickbike you are not held hostage to distance because you can easily exert yourself by pushing harder. That way, short distances  seem longer.

Nowadays kickbiking for me  isn't about the exercise. I scoot because I love to scoot. My morning rides thrill me. Out and about is always fun. As I've said before you can enter a sort of zenhood scootering like this. 

No bicycle ever gave me that sort of feedback.

Mine is also a utility vehicle. It's my shopping trolley. My mule. I carry everything from groceries to seaweed to firewood to junk mail on it. 

En route my body has changed. Tight buns. Firm, well developed ankles. My gluteals are as honed and as strong as an obsessed gym junkie's backside.

So after all those times pushing about town it is so much easier to go out and do it some more. It's disconcerting that I can easily stand on one leg and push  with the other  seemingly for ever. 

A kickbike is a simple device. Two wheels. Handlebars. Brakes and a footboard. There's not much in the way of hardware. It's light -- a mere 10 kgm -- so it is easy to pick up and carry the alloy frame about. 

It's one handicap is  that the footboard is a tad too low. While it's height suits cruising  at a steady and comfortable cadence,  negotiating gutters and humps will usually mean you'll be scraping your undercarriage. The Mibo, on the other hand, has a higher footboard.

When I get on a bicycle now it seems strange and foreign. You're higher up. You motor about driven by leg pistons. Your ass is stationary while the bike moves beneath you.  The gearing ratio allows you to cheat effort. 

For me there is no romance. No passion. It's all rather mechanical. You become an appendage to a machine. You pull at levers and push things about. Turn knobs. If you stop peddling, you fall over.

No wonder you tend to obsess over where you are going and not take pleasure in the getting there.

But a kickbike kick....well, it's balletic. A dance move that has its own inbuilt rhythm. It's a Crouching Tiger  springing forth over an over again. It's like running on wheels for the sheer pleasure of it. 

Interested? Check out Kickbike Australia.

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The delights of kickbikery

Well, to be frank, the delights of kickbikery primarily rest in humility: you can only move so fast and no faster.

But what you do is all your own work. 

In that sense the 'fun' of the kick scooter is the thrill of DIY..of all that effort.

It's like some running addictions. 

Free. Feral. It's the journey rather than the distance. 

...and the feel for topography . On a scooter you get to know undulations and rises. You and the earth below your foot-fall are partnered for all of your shared journey.

It's all rather organic. You don't so much 'master' nature as work with it. You're not its victim so much as its partner. 

And socially, among the young set, you are so cooool because you have transcended skateboards and micro scootering. These youngsters have no where to go as they age except onto a Malibu and a wave. 

But you...you have moved on and up.

We groove on -- taking on pavement and road for all the fun -- on and off road -- to be had in the 'hood. 

On top of all that -- if fun is to be sourced below the belt -- kickbikers always have a cute ass.

Hell! We have the bestest asses on 2 wheels.                            

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The joys of folding...a bicycle (with small wheels)

Don't get me wrong. I scoot. I am dedicated to push scooting and I own and ride two scooters.

• a Kickbike
• a Mibo Folding scooter 

..and I've been scooting for years. So I know my onions.

It's not that I'm anti-pedals  or chains or gears  but I reckon that in many instances there is a lot of overkill in bicycling culture  and over short distances in an urban environment, push scooters are tops.

If I had to commute 10 ks every day to get to work, I'd probably ride a single speed bicycle. If it was a mountainous route, I'd consider getting gears.

But if I was hoping to ride my route, in part, on a footpath -- I'd not get a large wheel bike at all. I'd definitely op for a smaller wheeled bicycle or scooter.

My Mibo has 12 inch wheels and it's a dream on a footpath. And since I've had small wheel bikes in the past -- I owned a Moulton once (20 inch wheels)  -- I think small wheels are a great way to travel.

The Moulton model I used to ride to work in early 1970's.
8 kms in a suit.

With an uncertain surface underneath that may require you to weave around a bit, and the challenge of pedestrians,  small wheels rule . With your legs  closer to the ground , quick dismount and remount is easy.

That you could fold such a bike or scooter adds to its versatility especially when using public transport or packing up the bike to go into a car boot.

So if you don't want to scoot as I do,  then consider getting a folding bicycle because folding bikes usually have small diameter wheels...and they fold.

So why are smaller wheeled bikes so good?

Why smaller bikes are better:

 - Bike has bigger wheel-distance (given a fixed length of the bike) and its ride is therefore more stable.- Accelerates faster (because the wheels have less momentum) and therefore also decelerates faster.

- Accelerates faster (because the wheels have less momentum) and therefore also decelerates faster.

 - The rack (and therefore the cargo) sits lower, making the bike and the ride more stable.

 - Small wheels are more robust (lower leverage of destructive forces hitting the spokes).

 - Hub dynamo turns faster, thereby generating power more efficiently. (A lower-weight dynamo can be used.)

 - Bike needs less space.

 - Most small wheelers can be folded, needing even less space. [Source]

Maybe the fold isn't essential but that's what you get nowadays when your wheels are small.

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Horses for Courses: Push Scooter Imaginings

If I was Czech I wouldn't have to say what I'm about to say, because if I was Czech we'd all be scooter literate and accept two wheel push scooter-ing as a kosher mode of transport.

No questions asked.

The Czech Republic is Scoot Central.

I don't know the ratio between scooters and pedal bicycles in that land  but the demographic -- and the cultural difference -- would warrant some comparison to our own bike frenziness.

Australians are buying bicycles like crazy  at a rate that outstrip car purchases -- 1.4 million bicycles were sold in 2010. -- but as Professor Chris Rissel ponts out:

The Australian population grew by 58% between 1986 and 2006 and the daily average number of bicycle trips grew by only 21%, representing a net decline in cycling.

The major single factor in this is probably mandatory helmet laws which may have reduced cycle use by a factor of 30-40% .

From my , albeit eccentric, POV, people often purchase bicycles for the various  reasons  and then don't use them as they had assumed they would. Bikes are often seen as recreational vehicles  without much utility function.

Indeed much of the retail cycle trade is generated among models for children.

But let's say I wanted to get out of my car  -- indeed become less car dependent overall in my day-to-day -- and cycle.

Since I don't drive, this is an easy one for me. It is also why I scoot.

Who scoot when you can pedal?

The Yedoo company -- Czech scooter manufacturers -- offers a short meditation on scooting that I think holds up quite well:

• All Parts of the Body are Involved Equally Scooter riding is a complex movement in which not only lower and upper limb muscles, but also abdominal and back muscles are involved. And since all parts of your body actively work when you ride a scooter, you can practice scooter riding even in cold weather conditions without the risk of becoming ill. 
•  A Remedy That Relieves Back and Joints Pain When riding a scooter you perfectly stretch and relax your back muscles. Scooter riding is recommended by physiotherapists as additional physiotherapy exercise as well as prevention of neck and hip bones pain. Moreover, it does not cause joints damage. 
•  Effective Weight Loss When riding on a scooter you burn up to 30% more energy that when cycling and easily shape the problematic parts of your body – thighs, buttocks, hips, belly and waist. Scooter riding is as energetically demanding as aerobic or fast running. Moreover, it’s fun! But don’t forget to change feet regularly.
• Perfect Mode of Urban Transport You can hardly find a better mode of transport in an overcrowded city full of various obstructions. You can ride shorter distances on your scooter faster than on a bike or on foot. You will reach your destination in a shorter period of time than if you go by the urban public transport sometimes. Due to the fact that a scooter has no pedals and due to its smaller size and lighter weight, it is easier to handle and more storable that a bicycle, for example. You can usually travel with your scooter by a tram, a bus or a metro without any problem. 
•  Perfectly Elegant There is no need to worry about losing any of your style or elegance when riding a scooter. In fact, it is quite the reverse, since the scooter may be considered a stylish accessory. Women and girls may ride their scooter wearing a dress or skirt, while male riders do not have to worry about tearing the trousers or creasing the suit.  
• Storable and Practical You can easily store your scooter into a trunk of a car or a lift, you may store it on the balcony, for example. You can transport your handbag, backpack or your shopping bag in the handlebar basket. Mums will definitely appreciate that they can fix the child seat on the handlebar and thus have their child under control when riding. Children will get a much better view and will thus enjoy the ride much more. 
•  Low Purchase Price and Easy Maintenance You can buy three scooters for the same price for which you buy a bicycle of the same quality. Moreover, since there are only few parts that might get broken, the maintenance of a scooter is quite easy. Generally, you will manage with a bike pump and pre-season service.
• Environmentally-Friendly and Economic Mode of Transport Scooter riding combines healthy lifestyle and a responsible attitude towards the environment. Scooters as a means of transport do not pollute the environment by exhaust fumes or noise. 
• Joy and Entertainment Scooter riding is, above all, great fun! Whether you are training on the scooter, relaxing, walking your dog, or using your scooter as a mode of transport to get to school or work, it will bring you joy and pleasure. Click here to read the stories of persons who have literally become addicted to scooter riding.

The above is via Google Translate but you are sure to get the drift.

I have arguments with my son about scooters and in his shift to a two wheel upgrade -- from a BMX --  he chose a pedal bicycle to get him to and from work. But I told him two things which are I-told-you-so things:

1. Scooters are a great fit for public transport especially folding scooters . They are easily portaged in and out of train carriages and up stairs. Their slim, no pedal outline, sits well among any nest of crowded commuters.
2. Scooters handle footpaths  qualitatively much better than bicycles.You have much more control over what you do especially with pedestrians, kids, prams and dogs sharing the pathway. In fact the only bike injuries I have sustained  in my life have been riding pedal bicycles on footpaths. From a saddle it's a long way to the ground. (I've been hit by cars but there have been no injuries to my person).

On  a scooter I'm an opportunistic rider. I use both road and footpath depending on the typography, surface and traffic conditions.  When riding on footpaths I'm often jumping on and off the scooter to negotiate around people and over bumps, gutters and tree roots at a speed just above jogging pace. 

This way I can move very quickly across an urban environment.

Two Wheels

In fast moving traffic a scooter is not so much at home as you can't keep up with the  flow, and jumping off and on isn't de riguer. But in light traffic, in congested traffic or in slow moving peak hour a scooter is a very responsive means to a destination.

Of course scooters don't possess a gearing ratio. There is no engineering on your side save gravity and two wheels. That means they won't climb so easily unless you invest extra energy to push the scooter up a hill. However, the smaller the  wheel diameter of the scooter, up to a sweet point,  the better your scooter will climb. There is a happy diameter  between 12  and 20 inches that will facilitate your uphill quest. Smaller or bigger and bad karma physics seem to intervene. 

My  Folding Mibo with 12 inch wheels climbs superbly. My Kickbike with a 26 inch diameter front wheel, lags  when pushed upward over steep contours.  But on the flat it out performs my Mibo. 

You'll note that the Yedoo folk mention scooter price in their check list.

 "You can buy three scooters for the same price for which you buy a bicycle of the same quality. "

That's an advantage not only for your transport budget but it also gives you the option to purchase more than one scooter and still shell out less dough than buying 'a' pedal bicycle.

I have two scooters because I use each of them differently. One folds. The other doesn't. One is a racer/trainer. The other is a nifty commute. One will carry heaps of shopping, the other travels best light. Only one will fit in a car boot (folded  I can carry it any where)....

I mention this because I'm thinking of getting another scooter  -- one for off road use. Where I live butts onto superb mountain biking country and I'm getting envious. What I have to work out is whether a scooter can handle the terrain I  am keen to tackle.

Would the Yedoo Mezeq? (pictured above).

Downhill it would work a treat, but in sand dunes, over saddlebacks and ridges, along  eroded gullies, over logging tracks...? I'm not so sure as uphill is gonna be a hard ask.

Of course the other problem is that the scooters I'm talking about -- other than the Kickbike -- are not available in Australia. You can get a Yedoo in New Zealand...but it  is too expensive to import one across The Ditch.  So you need to deal with the Czechs direct and language can be a problem...although Yedoo is English speaker friendly. Mibo ain't.

So I'm considering what's what....and for now I'm imagining.

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Exercise: the good and the bad of it...as far as I'm concerned

I now and then wonder about why I do what I do. A good part of that speculation questions  the amount of  time and energy I invest in exercising.  I  ask myself, why bother? Where are the gains?

And it's true the promise of exercise -- so much promoted as a lifestyle essential   -- isn't really there. Our obsessions are seemingly fed by myths.

Will exercise help you lose weight?

No.

Will it improve your general  health and well being?

Yes -- but that's a perhaps 'yes'...so long as you 'exercise' properly.

If I do more exercise am I gonna be healthier?

Definitive answer: No. Volume doesn't decide these matters.

These above observations are the sort of conclusions coming out of more recent research into exercise and its effects on the human body. (See video below for over view of some of these). That 'exercise' is such a huge industry today cynically obscures this underlying physiological reality.

Assuming the above...I'd like to review what I do and assess it according to these criteria.

What I do is too much

Yep. I really don't have to exercise as much as I do do  -- that is, if I was you. That's what I'm telling myself anyway.

At one time during the distant past I ceased to consciously exercise and my health and mobility suffered terribly. I soon enough had to rely on a walking stick to get around. I thought this was just pathology doing its evil work, but the fact was that while I was gaining nothing self evident from 'consciously exercising' I was nonetheless, holding back the grosser impacts my chronic condition, Fibromyalgia, was having on my body.

So that's the heads up for exercise: not that you are gonna feel better, but that you won't feel worse.  That's a consequence which is extremely hard to get your head around.

Exercise -- of any amount -- is gonna be primarily preventative.

Now if I knew way back whenever what I know now I would have definitely always exercised and done much more of it.

"Of it"? Of what? What kind of exercise would I have been doing?

All exercises aren't equal of course and I had to apply myself to my own body's quirks.

So, let's assume , that after a hiatus I started off on a journey of recovery through exercise. Not that I'll get anywhere special but at least I won't be going backwards.

Walking

Walking is my core ever-so-conscious exercise routine. I try to do it daily -- and to help me do it regularly I rely on my pet dogs to force me out the door.

You want to 'exercise' but don't trust your ability to always do it?  Simple answer: get a dog...and walk it.

Dog walking is probably the best long term exercise strategy available to suburbanites and there is nothing like a dog to keep you doing it. When one dies you go get yourself another...then another as you adopt to the  pack life style.

As I began to  ramble further in my doggy routes I addedx trekking poles to my walking rig. These are  hiking sticks about the height of ski poles. As a walking tool they generate upper body activity and increase the aerobic quality of your exertion.

Today I neither walk with a stick nor with trekking poles  but they were a great means to an end. As  my distance increased and my confidence improved I embraced the 10,000 steps walking program and began to seriously notch  up some ks.

That was over 5 years ago....and today I'm still walking the dogs. On average I'm out most days , preferably in the evening and usually I walk those dogs for at least 5 km. No aids of any kind. While I used to listen to audio podcasts on my mp3 player  as I walked -- for maybe 40 plus minutes -- I now partake of the experience device free.

Just my legs and a dog leash.

My walking stick and trekking poles are now family heirlooms resting against the garage wall.

Swimming, well sort of anyway.

Another invention I pursued was to walk in the water. We had a round 3 metre wide pool  filled with water up to my chest and I'd get in and drag myself walking around and around for a couple of  kilometres or so such that I'd create this whirlpool. Lovely in the Summer heat at night. When it got cold   I even had a wet suit so that I could jump in and do the routine during the cooler months.

 Water aerobics like this  was useful  because I could often do it despite the way I may have been feeling as the water offered buoyancy and I had to carry less of my own body weight around.

But really a pool and all that may be kosher for the kids -- and we had sprogs -- it is, nonetheless, a bit ritualistic -- what with the special dis-robing, towelling off and such. It's not much of a challenge given the effort and hardware required.

So aqua-robics like this  is an exercise option I mark down. You can't do it all year. If you use public pools you need to  commute to them before you can get wet. And really, it didn't have much of an impact on my health. I could get a better 'workout' --  which ticked the same boxes -- staying dry by   walking the neighborhood with a pair of  trekking poles.

Scootering

If you walk, sooner or later you may wonder that maybe instead of walking you could begin to run. I had been a keen jogger in my past pre-illness existence and loved it. Since I used to run long distance,  I knew what running required of a human body.

I was much heavier than  my old jogging weight and I knew that running was all about pounding the pavement and ramming gravity down hard on the ankles and knee joints.  Running can also be an injury waiting to happen.

So I thought: no I'm not gonna run. I'd like to but back then I didn't.

Nonetheless, this year I began to run the soft surface of tidal flats where I live. Had a great time, running with the dogs for 5 km at a stretch.

But I stopped running because (a) injury set in despite all my care and (b) it interfered with the time I spent scootering. I was delighted that I could so quickly notch up 5 ks -- at my age and given my condition -- but what was the supposed gain that I couldn't reach more easily and with less threat of injury by another means?

Back then - concerned that my condition was deteriorating -- I thought I may be sentenced to an electric  mobility scooter soon enough, as here I was already dependent on walking with a cane. 

I didn't want to cycle as it was too hard to always push down on the peddles and mounting a bike with a leg over wasn't going to be an option.  

I then had an epiphany: why not push a scooter? 

My first scooter was a home built vehicle cannibalized by my neighbor from two BMX bicycles (pictured left).

Thus began my  scootering passion....I later got a kickbike and then supplemented that with my cute Mibo Folding Scooter.

What can I say? Kickbiking rocks.

Unlike standard peddle powered cycling, scootering is always a physical challenge as there isn't much in way of hardware to assist your travels. Two wheels and the rest is all your own work.

Easy to mount.  Easy to dismount. You can always -- as you will so often -- get off and walk.

And the 'work out' is top to toe. A kickbike doesn't just demand that the legs do all the work. It's all over cadence.

While I  relied on  my scooters to get around, it was when I consciously deployed them as part of my exercise regime that their utility soared. 

I realized that each morning I had a brief window in which my relentless pain and stiffness was yet to make up its mind as to how brutal it was gonna be that day. So opportunistically I'd get on the scooter and push it around the block, exploiting the window. First once, then two times around, then three...while I logged my efforts.

Today I do 14-8 kms on the kickbike on a morning scoot without turning a hair . My base distance is around 7 km and if I can I go further. Scoot out of town. Walk the tidal flats if the tide is out and scoot back in again. 

It is, aside from dog walking, my  core (hopefully daily) routine.

Some days I don't make it because I am indeed so far under the weather that walking itself isn't  an easy option, let alone scootering.

But there, you see: great workout/injury free and a transport plus.

Weight Lifting and HIIT

Walking and scootering is all very fine -- thought I -- but I didn't feel like my body was changing for the better. This is when I started going to a gym, got a personal trainer (weekly sessions) and started boxing.

Great experience it was too. I loved the society of it all and the way I was pushed to the max.

It cost a pretty penny  -- and I shelled out for it for a year or so. 

I'd love to go back to that gym -- Northside Boxing -- but I now live so far away  and am my own personal trainer. 

The gym experience taught me how to lift weights properly and how to box. And it was there that I fell in love with kettlebells.

It's here that some of the recent research begins to really matter.

While exercise won't take your weight off and while aerobic activities are a bit of a physical plus in way of cardio efficiency (and that's all), lifting heavy things is now thought to be much more useful than was  originally believed. Bone density, insulin resistance, muscle glycolysis ... are all greatly improved by following a weight training regimen. If you are diabetic (like me) or pre diabetic (like so many in the population at large, all unaware that they are) weight training is gonna be  one of  your best options so long as it is pursued  within HIIT protocols.

HIIT means High Intensity Interval Training and to get your share of that I think you really do need to do weight work  even if the weight you lift or pull is your own body.

I love the kettlebells but I also now use dumbbells.  The problem with weight training is that it can be  so darn boring and so exhausting. I mean it hurts, really hurts to generate all that required grunt.

But  it's what the gyms won't tell you that really matters: do the weight training less for shorter times for the same or better results. 

Chris Highcock's wonderful manual, HillFit  offers a great summary in its introductory essay about this wonderful logic -- so go read it. 

Chris's perspective is 5 minutes of HIIT exercise 2-3 times per week! 

So that's what I do:  but I alternate every second day (sort of) the HillFit regime lasting about 5 minutes with a kettlebell and dumbbell routine that requires 18 minutes to complete. I do the  exercises slowly --  very very slowly.

Injury free. Challenging. Exhausting. Painful. But over and done with soon enough. 

• Video on HillFit
• Video on my KB/DM routine

I think this every second day HIIT routine I follow is one of the best things I've ever done for my physical self. I'm mastering my stiffness and pain by pumping heaps of adrenalin and other relievers through my protesting body.

I only wish I knew this decades ago. 

Knew what? That you can exercise less for much greater gain so long as you worked hard at it when you do.

So if I was designing an exercise program for whoever this would be my numero uno. 

The KB or DB lifting is customisable; the HillFit is not. But you need to research the physiological rationale otherwise you miss the point of what you'd be doing.

Start with  Body by Science  by Doug McDuff and John Little...

Is that too much?

The reality is, as far as I'm concerned, I am indeed doing too much. The HIIT stuff should be an ample investment if I wanted to do good things for my health.

But I'm not gonna give up the kickbiking...because I love those morning scoots. I'm not gonna give up the dog walking because I love those evening walks.

In fact I've recently added  to this routine by once again hitting the bag boxing. I do this under HIIT protocols via a Tabata schedule which means I box  for less than 5 very painful minutes in staccato 20 second bursts.

While  I love boxing, I'm primarily doing this because I have learnt that intense burn workouts like  Tabata  pump my muscles  with analgesia concoctions and I appreciate all the long term pain relief I can get.  A session on the bag -- despite how short its duration -- will stay with me and my muscles all day.  

So every other day I'm now back punching the bag. 

In terms of the current research into HIIT you don't have to do what I do -- but if your are arthritic you learn to appreciate what works for you and for once, in my exercise journey, I can say that through HIIT I am logging tangible results.

I guess I'm one of those -- again according to research -- who are  exercise resistant.

I didn't see  results from a year of gym work with a personal trainer. I didn't see them in the pool, and I don't see similar tangible results from my walking of kickbiking. While most of my exercises are  deployed as  preventative measures, the conscious HIIT has  made me  into something a little different from what I was before I started it. And that's despite how little time it demands.

But there's more...

That's not the end of it either. There's more. I didn't begin Urban Soul Line Dancing  because I wanted 'to exercise' -- I began it because I wanted to dance and I  had reached a level of physical capacity such that I knew I could sustain  the challenges posed by stepping.

So my exercising prepared me, with my illness handicap, for my dancing.

However, I can dance on days even when I can't do this other stuff and that's a wonderful bonus.  I also find that dancing changes me physically  in a way that these other grunt routines do not.

I do however do a lot of dancing on a daily basis.

The more I practice the steps the more my body flexes especially along the spine and hips. The groove takes over. It has taken months for this to begin to happen. My body  is changing as it moves into Gene Kelly mode. My foot work is still tardy -- but maybe in time....?

Dancing has given me a way to become  more movement aware and I haven't had that going for me since way back when I was doing T'ai Chi ch'uan which is one of the best 'movement awareness' regimes on offer (as is Yoga, Feldenkrais, Pilates, etc).

So the irony is that while dancing is pursued as an exercise it isn't the standard criteria that actually may rule on its efficacy. It's impact is multi layered. 

If only I was dancing decades ago! ...and doing HIIT my life would be much better today.

ADDENDUM: What I haven't discussed --and won't but I will refer to it -- is  how exercise improves your cognitive and emotional existence.These are the subjective plusses that a routine offers. The sense of accomplishment. The excitement of physical challenges. The excuse to get out and about. The camaraderie of the dog pack.Sunsets. Sunrises. Sunshine.  Distances logged. Real pain from real physical effort and exertion. The joy you get when you finish the straining. The horror you feel when you begin...All these things keep your wonderfully attuned to yourself.

• Follow up  post on this Topic: some thoughts on NEAT 

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Bagged Bike

I last described my new bag system for the Mibo Scooter. Nothing special I suppose.

A bag for a bike.

But I worked out that I can so easily strap the bag -- when not in use -- to the Mibo's handlebars(see image at left).

For neatness I insert the bag into another bag -- a small plastic shopping bag.

During this week's foray into the big smoke I confirmed that bagging is indeed the way to go.

Again I had to negotiate a  couple of crowded trains with standing room only options. On one occasion I even bagged the scooter while in the carriage. The wide opening to the bag -- a single doona cover -- makes bagging an easy business.

I also removed the scooter's mud guards today. Since I seldom ride in the rain, never in mud and most often on concrete or bitumen -- I'm hoping I can transit without the extra weight of the guards and the way they stick out of a folded package.

The scooter with bag now weighs just over 9 kgm.

An Exchange

[the]... bottom line, which one of these two scooters do you really feel travels the fastest and or the furthest with the least amount of physical effort put into it?

The kickbike by a factor of....well there you go. The kickbike is gonna be  faster because it is more responsive to effort I think.But when you stop scooting the legs... I suspect that the momentum of gravity is gonna be further with the Mibo. Also with the Mibo there is much less crouching (crouching tiger stuff) and lift -- more like leg dips like oaring a boat.

As I said the focus of the exertion moves north -- from the thigh to the lower back . The fulcrum shifts upwards.

There is less dropping of the ass.

So IF I was journeying across -- whatisit? -- Florida?-- I'd seriously look at the road surface rather than the distance first. The street model kickbike sucks on gravel. The Mibo survives but won't go fast.

I also think the Mibo will CLIMB better than the kickbike BECAUSE of the smaller wheels.

Then after your first day on the Mibo you are going to be crippled by backproblems. True. The scoot technique is different from the kickbike. But you won't have that annoying experience that your get with the kickbike where you have to bob up and down without gaining that momentum edge. You seem to hit a wall. I've wondered about this and it surely has to be related to some sort of Zen or ergonomics. Some sort of body core issue.

But then, here at home, my preferred distance vehicle is the kickbike ...because I don't want the lower back issues.I know I'll roll OK but 'pain' won't set in as my whole body is engaged...and I'll get a more demanding workout.,..and simply, if push comes to shove, run out of puff.

SHORT ANSWER: kickbike...

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Mibo Portage comes wrapped

When I last discussed bagging the Mibo Folding scooter I was using an old nylon clothes bag.

The problem was that the bag was a tad small and since it was old, was already ripped and threadbare.

I looked around for replacement nylon but settled instead on a cheap doona cover I bought in an Op shop.  

$3.

Quality cotton. Sturdily sewn seams. Flashy colours.

Extra hardware: Light bungee cord to wrap around the package.

Voila!

Hand luggage for Mr Cool.

My last major outing 'into town' has convinced me that bagging is the way to go. I got on a train that was packed -- standing room only -- and if I hadn't folded and bagged the scooter I would have been a cause for much inconvenience and annoyance -- maybe even an injury -- in the carriage. As it was I could posed as a tourist and  stood the package upright and lent it against my standing frame. So I took up not much room at all as we all stood cheek to jowl.

The doona cover scrunches or folds up into a dense little  haberdashery fold when not in use -- which I can then backpack or lash to the handlebars. The wide mouth for the doona opening makes it easy to slip in the scooter and while the drapes are aplenty for now I'll see how much of all that extra I need for wrap around before I snip snip.

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The Kickped -- a kick scooter option for the inner city commuter

Much as I love my Mibo Folding Scooter my hostility to micro wheeled scooters may be undermined by this cool number: the Kickped.

This little scooter is engineered both to last and  handle abusive mean street use. With an ingenious fold setup and a sturdy build if I was after a scoot to  travel  short distances within and about a built up area -- such as inner city travel -- well, this is da wheels.

One distributor -- NYCE Wheels in New York --  the pricing may even make it worthwhile to import a Kickped as I assume the US price for  cartage is not going to be massive.

If you don't get it, I'll tell you why this scooter ticks the boxes.

1. It folds easily.
2. It  can be carried when folded  ergonomically.
3. It has an elevated handle bar and front stem for tall folks like us adults.
4. It's a sturdy indestructible build.

What's not to like? Of yeah, those small wheels...Not the best gauge for long distance travel or free form descent; and wheels this size make your ride accident  prone due to  road or pavement grit and rubble or sudden bumps. Wheels like that would make the handle bar steering a tad top heavy but at least the Kickped is a solid build from the ground up to your fingers, so stem wave would be less than what gets caused by the ultra lite alloys used in other micros.

But then the Kickped weighs in at less than 4 kgm -- so despite the lack of 'lite' this ain't heavy.(The Mibo, in comparison, weighs  just over 8 kgm).

The Kickped sells for $239 (US) . If you can land it in Aus for a $100 (AUD) extra (or there abouts) this is an excellent buy if you are based in an inner city area and want quick transit about your hood and on public transport. A travel arc of 2-3 km would be a breeze  on the Kickped. Longer rides would be problematical, perhaps, but then  if you check this vid out -- one guy touring the Norwegian fjords on a micro scooter --  you'l be inspired. 

But look at it this way: on a Kickped you'd be traveling at twice standard walking pace and matching a running option if you were commuting to and from work. So you go to work, the pub or whatever on these wheels and if you get a  lift home or catch the bus, tram or train for your return journey the Kickped can be easily  ported.  

It converts to hand luggage.

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The Mibo Folding Scooter: gets around, folded and bagged

It has been a while since I considered my dear little Mibo scooter. Not only is the thing small, but it folds in on itself, so it can be a condensed form of commuting hardware.

At 8 kgm it isn't especially light but that's  not the primary issue in way of cartage. Unfortunately, the Mibo isn't a balanced carry and after a distance discomfort can set in. 

This can be a complication if supporting the scooter when traveling on a bus or train or when climbing stairs.

Outside, out and about, the scooter is better riden rather than carried but when folded and 'ported' between scoots I find that it is preferable to bag the scooter rather than let it travel naked.

Although the fold in the scooter locks into place -- and a fiddly lock it is too -- bagging doesn't hold the scooter together so much as wraps  the scooters bits and pieces and protects  its travelling environment. 

When I fold I don't disconnect the handlebars as  I like to quickly assemble the scooter when I complete my bus or train journey. A minute   is all it takes  for me to get going again: a flip and a few flicks; a test to see if the stem is locked into place...and off we go. 

Bagging 'encloses' the  scooter so that it's easier to manage on public transport:

• to slip under the seat
• to stand upright leaning against the wall of the train or resting against myself (uncovered , the wheels will roll and the scooter will fall away to the floor).
• to rest on a seat
• to keep any grease or water on the scooter from getting on you or fellow passengers or furniture
• to prevent the scooter from unlocking, popping open and unfolding when you dont want that to happen at all.

I mention this preference of mine because it took me some time to work this out.

Local train regulations specify that folding bicycles can be carried on peak hour services so long as they are folded and bagged. This is a space issue, I'm sure -- as normal bicycles are discouraged from these transit times.  And bikes cannot be carried on buses at all. But then I bus my Mibo no problems.

However, while it may be debatable that the Mibo is a 'folding bicycle' -- as its surface area and weight is much smaller than  folded bikes -- that's not the main reason to bag. 

While bagging makes cartage so much easier, don't go thinking that you need some sort of heavy duty  luggage to carry  the scooter. A simple nylon bag open at one end will suffice so long as it is long enough to cover the scooter up to and over  the handle bars. Bags like that come (or are made) cheap and are easily scrunched up when not in use. That's one piece of nylon folded, and stitched along one side and the bottom.

Think about that: most bike bags are hefty back packs. You don't want that. It's only more gear you'd have to carry. 

I used to use a postal bag but really its weave  was too heavy and it took up too much room when not in use. But nylon -- of the sort they make cheap tents out of -- works fine...and you can tie the bag to the enclosed scooter by pulling some  cord around the bag.

And nylon blends are light,  and can  be scrunched up or wrapped up again and tied onto the  scooter in a neat little package, ready for the next fold.

This week   I scooted my Mibo across town in a trip that extended to 16 km. The Mibo flies sometimes when it's on a roll.  Since the bike path I primarily used for this was busy with other traffic it is an informative comparison    to contrast the Mibo Folding Scooter with other transit means. 

I was certainly faster than runners/joggers but slower than the cyclists. I out paced any walker significantly and did the return trip without respite. I do have the option to get off and walk especially up hills -- but that's par for any scoot out. The Mibo climbs quite well because of it has  smaller wheels than a kickbike. So it is easier to negotiate rises without having to break your cadence.
Also on a scooter like this, when travelling on a shared carriageway it is so very easy to jump off and walk around traffic obstructions -- like feral dogs and small children.
So despite what may have been the contour and the obstructions I was scooting at maybe over 12-15 km per hour. That's over twice  walking pace but less than a bicycle's average speed (ie: over 15 kph) and is an extension of jogging option (average: 8-10kph).I expended more energy, of course than if I had walked it and could have got there faster on a bicycle -- but then who packs up a bike and carries it around where ever?

 

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The homies call me mister

I worked up the above graphic as an indulgent amusement...then went out and scooted on the Mibo Scooter along the Kedron Brook bikeway.                  

One cool dude....

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Cycling: I likem my two wheels cheap, simple and light

I'm not bike obsessed -- but this  is a cute Raleigh Pioneer I got for $40 from the local Sunday markets.      

We go to the Caboolture Markets every week and the bric-a'brac, seedlings, fruit and vegetables feed our lifestyle. 

If there is one thing I can do  in way of DIY it is fiddle with  bicycles.    So I tweaked it by cannibalising other stock and now the missus has a light  well-made bicycle to chuff around the township.   

When you straddle a peddle and chain driven bicycle  -- after all my years on a scooter -- it's the bulk and add on-ed paraphernalia  that annoy me.  The best peddling experience I've had for years was on a 'fixie' -- fixed wheel, single speed bicycle.

I'd never ever consider getting gears on a bike (that is if I was a bi-cy-clist).

Gears (and peddles) are for whimps.

A lot of cycling seems obscene to me: hyped up, consumerist, hardware driven, pseudo ... over done.

I likem my two wheels cheap, simple and light.

That's why I appreciate the way that  'fixies' are referred to as 'pub bikes': keep it cheap, simple...and expendable. [Ride it to the pub and if necessary leave it there and make your own way home...and maybe it will still be there in morning.]

So much of the stuff on a bike is add on...but seriously, what add ons do you really need?

My kickbike (no gears, peddles or seat) in all the years I've had it has never given me a moments angst. I maintain it. Had one puncture. I've replaced one tire due to wear. I oil it occasionally and pump up the tires.

But compared to a normal bicycle...what's not to like? 

Although us scooterers have to work harder to travel less at lower speeds we still get from  A to B with a relentless capacity to perform the task of transit we set ourselves.

And besides, I get to wear a cuter butt from kickbiking.

However, I am in the market for a Moulton bicycle as having owned one in the past I value its engineering niche and...simplicity of line.Just quietly I'd love to own and ride another Moulton before I die.  A Moulton is something you hand down through the generations in respect of of its attention to physics and ergonomics. So if you are on the way out and own a Moulton think of me in your will. But then they aren't cheap....But consider me a good home.

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Dancing,Kickbiking, Running: oh the chi of it.

Twenty years ago I was a Tai Chi Chuan practitioner -- Yang style.

Yang family-style (Chinese: 楊氏; pinyin: yángshì) t'ai chi ch'uan (taijiquan)

This wasn't my first foray into Tai Chi but at the time I  mastered the form and even help teach it.

There is a lot  to be said for tai chi-ing the decrepit bod. It racks up good consequence and I miss the ready centre-ing that being tai chi aware gives you.

Contrary to its supposed health benefits I was disappointed in its impact and over time got tardy and ceased to practice the form.

I guess I was too demanding (says he, 20 years later). My pain and stiffness staid very painful and very stiff.

Nonetheless, at the time I was studying various movement awareness regimes and was using and teaching some simple Feldenkrais exercises as well as doing Tai Chi.

I had also trained as a massage therapist and was earning a sort of at-home income from my interventions.

My front gate had a sign: Dave Riley , Massage Therapist.

Aside from the occasional request for 'hand relief' the professional excursion was instructive of what bodies can get up to.

So the years roll on by...and of late  I have moved back to an interest in movement studies.

Dancing did that.

Ironically, I have harnessed greater benefit from the dancing than  these other investigations.

My ruling is clear: dancing and learning choreography to music is more beneficial for me than doing Tai Chi.  

But dance too is 'movement awareness'. Being conscious of what you are doing when you are moving it/doing it can be achieved  via many different routes and while I greatly respect Tai Chi I think it is overrated and obscurantised by all its chi-energy mysticism.

You have to put up with a lot of yin and yang malarky when you do Tai Chi. 

If you want to believe in 'chi' energy go for it, but spare me the lecture. I used to study body sciences with chiropractors  and I know physiological spin when it is being spun.

Nonetheless, regardless of 'theory' what works is gonna keep on working despite the handicap of its  explanation.

In this regard I have been reading Danny Dreyer's book, ChiRunning -- and it is an useful movement awareness manual.

It's a brand of course but after delivering oodles of workshops and training so many runners, Dreyer has honed his method into a very useful DIY that transcends its Tai Chi Chuan origins. It is a quick way to get to the Tai Chi good oil without having to spend years learning the form.

I have referred here before to similar methods offered by Esther Gokhale: glidewalking.

Many roads can lead to Rome I guess....but what interests me is that the quest to develop a  method  for the way you move is very useful for controlling pain and stiffness ; and ameliorating muscle fatigue.

It's about being aware -- conscious of what you are doing when you are doing it.

Previously I had discussed how I thought kickbiking contributed to the way I walked or ran. In light of this 'chi' study I came back to those considerations and think there is indeed a point to them. A very similar approach to Dreyer is offered by Nate Fagan with his Tai Chi Running franchise. To me, the Fagan approach makes a bit more sense...

...More sense, that is, from the POV of a kickbiker (such as moi).

• kickbikers lean into the kick
• kickbikers crouch to kick
• kickbikers kick from the gut/abdominals
• kickbikers stamp light on the earth
• kickbikers stamp the souls of their feet  flat on the earth
• kickbikers kick square with their feet shoulder length apart
• kickbikers kick with a regular cadence and speed up by extending the length/reach of their kick

That's my ruling, anyway. All I have to do now is transpose what I know about kicking to running. So I have to be more aware while kickbiking and think how I can adapt what I do on two wheels to what I do on two feet alone.

There's also another relevance, one that affirms the Tai Chi perspective.

The exercising I do now is very slow. There's no explosion, no grunt. The lift and return of either my body or a weight is synchronous with the pace of a Tai Chi move.It may take me up to 10 seconds to slowly and consciously lift a weight (kettlebell or dumbbell) and a similar period to bring it back down again. But unlike Tai Chi I'm trying to reach muscle fatigue so I am seeking burn at some stage during the repetitions and the slowness of the exertion serves to hasten the onset of burn and fatigue. 

Tai Chi is performed without weights -- in fact weighted Tai Chi would upset the 'balance' of the form. Nonetheless, using weights and lifting them slowly has been proven to be much more effective exercise that  lifts a la the explosive clean and jerk.

Aside from these considerations, doing it slow and with utmost movement awareness isn't the nub of the business. At stake is harnessing core driven  impetus, core control. 

While we may think of dancing as so many arms and legs moving in time with music  I find myself addressing the irony that my dancing challenge isn't so much where I put my feet but where the music  begins inside of me. 

This is something of a revelation. At a time when I am stepping into more intricate footwork I find myself obsessed with the Southern Two Step -- a basic  step that can be counted as One and Two - Three and  Four. In Zydeco it can be as simple as a slide two steps one way and two steps return.

Easy right? Anyone can do that. But then this is where Soul meets Tai Chi Chuan. Taking two steps to the right or four steps to the right is going to be a move with many possibilities. If you think it is simple about keeping up with the beat you'd sentence yourself to  facile dancing.

Like Chi running, like kickbiking or Tai Chi Chuan your Two Stepping should start in your gut: its inner to outer. In Opelousas, Lousiaina, the local Creole community  passes on the Zydeco culture by drilling the youth in Two Step-ology: two steps to the right/two steps to the left/two steps to the right/two steps to the left/two steps to the right/two steps to the left/...it is an obsession insisted upon until the youngsters get so fed up with it they improvise how they get from a to b within the space offered by two steps.

Something so simple can be so crucial to  the whole caboodle. I watch videos of this two stepping business and am amazed how significant a simple  One and Two - Three and  Four can be. That may underline how creative the simple Rhythm and Blues form can be, but at its heart -- its  soul -- is the very same principles that animate the chi-ness in the running, exercising or kickbiking I've been describing.

So in a sense there aren't x number of studies  to pursue but the one focus.

Addendum: In my later life -- after Tai Chi -- I still used elements of the form and always taught a few simple exercises as preliminary to other stuff I offered. For instance I taught kids Theatre Improv for a time and would begin each workshop by utilizing the basic set-up moves for Tai Chi -- the initial descent and shift  of the pelvis and the formation of the ball in the arms followed by a left and right turn -- with concentration on the breathing cadence. It got  the children settled and quiet while encouraging them to focus on what was to follow. I've got half a mind to introduce the same introduction to my dance classes....

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