April 2008 - Spokes Magazine

Great Gear For Cyclists...
mid-90s. He stopped, however, and just peddled off
and on – other than his mountain biking — for years
until Burleson pushed him to do more.
In 2006, he said he kept a log and documented riding
11,000 miles.
His wife Jessica has done some marathons in the past,
still is a pretty avid runner herself and supports his
bike riding and commuting, he said.
“But, yeah”, he laughed again, “she told me, ‘You’ve
got a problem’, when I was doing that much riding. I
was ridiculous.”
Rhoten said one day, about eight months ago, he just
stopped keeping count. The batteries in his bike’s
computers died and he didn’t bother to replace
them.
“I do what I can now and don’t worry about it anymore,”
Rhoten said. “There never is enough time to
do everything anyhow.”
Yes, and with his wife in nursing school, the ever-busy
mechanic is opening up a bike shop, the Eastern
Panhandle Bicycle Company, with an old BMX buddy,
Ryan Webber, at a new shopping center April 2.
“It’s huge, 3,200 sq. feet,” Rhoten said. “It’s definitely
something neither one of could have done alone. It’s
too much business for me and it’s too much manual
labor for him.”
Rhoten said he’’ll split time between his day job at
the landfill where he can retire with benefits in six
and 1⁄2 years and will work at the shop as the lead
mechanic on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and
Sundays.
Meanwhile, he’ll avoid driving his truck and his car –
even though he’s converted them to run on vegetable
oil like the furnace — as much as possible.
“I don’t ever see a reason to jump in there and turn it
on if I can ride a bike,” he said.
He also offers some advice for people who think they
want to start bicycle commuting. Or mountain biking
or doing triathlons – or starting a punk band or making
steel sculptures for that matter.
“Just do it,” he said. “People spend all this time preparing,
telling themselves they’re starting slowly, and
then they never get around to doing it.
“It’s not what the doctor will tell you, but jump right
in, I say,” he continued. “You’re body will get use to it.”
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House Bill 143, known as the “3-foot bubble bill”,
One Less Car executive director Richard Chambers
acknowledged recently appears to be dead in the
Maryland state assembly. The legislation, with 11 cosponsors
in the House, that requires a driver of a
motor vehicle, when overtaking a bicycle or a motor
scooter, not pass unless the driver can do so safely with-
out endangering the rider; and requires a driver of a
motor vehicle to yield the right-of-way to a person who
is riding a bicycle or a motor scooter in a bicycle lane.
The bill has strong support of Baltimore County
Delegate Jon Cardin, for example, and the support
of Delegate Maggie McIntosh of Baltimore City, the
chairman of the Environmental Matters committee,
among others, Chambers said. The major obstacle
in getting the bill out of committee, however, seems
to be Delegate James Malone, the vice-chair of the
Environmental Matters committee and whose district
includes Baltimore and Howard Counties.
“The fear that legislators say they have is that legislating
a safe passing distance will create confusion for
drivers,” Chambers said. “The law-makers who have
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defeated it say they don’t want to turn drivers into
lawbreakers and are concerned about enforcement.
Malone told me he didn’t want to bring it forward
(for a vote).”
Chambers added that 10 states now, including Florida,
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Utah and Arizona, have
enacted similar legislation, with at least two states,
Utah and Florida, writing citations for violations. He
also noted that the bill has the support of AAA Mid-
Atlantic.
Chambers added that he hopes to work with the State
Highway Administration to come up with a safety
campaign, if the bill remains stalled. However, pulling
COMMUTER continued on p.30
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April 2008
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