John Martin Patterson

Growing Older on Two Wheels; From Tricycle to Ragbrai John Martin Patterson

This is not a "How-To" cycling book about losing weight, bike fitment, setting an exercise regimen, or selecting the perfect bike. There are countless other books about those topics written by experts, of which I am not. This is the story about my life on two wheels. I recount my earliest recollections of bicycling to how it has played a role in my life; friendship, adventure, recreation and fitness culminating in participation in Ragbrai the summer after I retired. It is amazing how many things you remember when you start to write them down. I actually started writing just a paragraph about my Lapierre ten speed for my Facebook page and this book was the result. Each chapter of my life that involved bicycling just seemed to flow into the next, soon it was no longer just a paragraph but a recollection of some of the greatest times I ever had growing up on two wheels. If it inspires you to get on your steed and ride again, that is fantastic, but at the very least I hope you will be able to identify with my story, and that it will take you back in time to when you first stepped on the pedals of your bicycle and rode down the street with your friends, or a time when you pedaled over country roads and let the cares of the day fade from view. My hope is that it makes you laugh, and brings you back to memories of a simpler time.