A Little Bit About Me
How I Ended Up With A Windcheetah
The Windcheetah's Quality
The Windcheetah's Handling
Links To Windcheetah Reviews
and Related Items
How I Ended Up With A Duplex
The Arrival Of Windcheetah
#490 . . . A Photo-Journal
Windcheetah #490 . . .
Another Photo-Journal
Windcheetah
#490 In The News
#490 Gets Some New Paint
The View From A Windcheetah (last update Aug/31/2001)
A Little Bit About Me
I have been an enthusiastic cyclist since I purchased my first ten-speed with money I made mowing lawns. I might have been eleven years old at the time and that would have been around 1971. In retrospect, it was an unmitigated piece of crap that never did shift correctly. It would probably have killed me had I really needed to use the brakes but it was my bike and I rode it everywhere.
Since then I have used bicycles as transportation almost exclusively. In fact, when I turned seventeen, my dad had to make me get my drivers license after I showed no real interest in obtaining one on my own. Driving just never seemed to be a primary concern. If you were a kid in DeWitt, IA in the 70's, you rode your bike or you walked. Eight-lane, soccer-mom dragstrips hadn't hit the midwest yet and I lived in-town. Had I lived in the country or had suburbia over-run America to the extent that it has today, I might have felt differently. As it was, I no more thought about driving a car than I did about flying a helicopter or piloting a submarine. It wasn't a conscious decision or a political statement. I just never thought about it because I didn't need to any more than I needed to think about parachutes or shark attacks.
When I attended college at the University of Iowa I didn't own a car. I walked or rode my bike.
When I was in the Air Force and stationed at Hulrburt Fld, FL, I had a car that was given to me after promising to get it off the previous owner's property. It didn't run very often and when it did, not for very long. Rather than spending every free moment keeping the "Skunk-Mobile" running, I tended to walk or ride my bike.
It was during my Air Force years stationed in Florida that I developed a real passion for cycling. I started touring and found that I enjoyed going fast so I started racing locally. I would ride 20 to 30 miles every day at lunch during the week and then I'd ride from Hurlburt Fld Air Force Base to Pensicola and back on Saturday and Sunday. When I wanted to go to the beach, I'd cycle from the base to Fort Walton Beach or Destin. I also took University extension courses in engineering and would ride my bike from Hurlburt Fld to Eglin Air Force Base and back on class nights. My roommate was a body builder and he introduced me to weight lifting. We joined Ford's gym and would ride our bikes from the base to the gym in Fort Walton Beach, work out, go get something to eat, and then ride back, four nights per week.
When my tour in the Air Force was over, I went back to the University of Iowa. I owned a horrible little car at that time. A nicotine-stain yellow, Datson F10 with fake wood paneling on the sides. As you might have already guessed, I tended to walk or ride my bike.
Now that I'm married, a computer consultant, and teach University courses in 3-D computer modeling, I own a very nice VW Jetta that sits in our one-car garage. Great car but we don't use it much as we tend to walk or ride our bikes.
If you have questions or comments, feel free to contact me at: steven-beck@uiowa.edu.
Last modified: Aug-27-00
