Transcriber: Dequan Cai Reviewer: David DeRuwe
Hi, everybody!
I’m here in incredible Moab.
This is bicycle heaven,
and I was thinking to myself, wouldn’t it be amazing if bicycles saved the planet?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once said, “When the spirits are low,
when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous,
when hope hardly seems worth having,
just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road,
without a thought on anything but the ride you are taking.”
And I would argue that with the invention of the bicycle in 1817,
the world became a better place.
You know, the bicycle has impacted the entire world’s industry and culture.
The development of the bicycle is credited with essential technologies like:
air filled rubber tires, the use of ball bearings, wire spokes on wheels,
differential gearing, and was the impetus for the national highway system.
As a matter of fact, you might recognize some names like Henry Ford
and the Wright Brothers all started out, as you guessed it, bicycle mechanics.
The impact of the bicycle on modern civilization is unparalleled.
In Europe, bikes are such a part of daily life.
Women ride bikes in a dirndl, a traditional Austrian dress.
I'm the child of Austrian immigrants.
They would take me out of school in the middle of April,
much to my teacher's dismay.
Not only did I learn how to yodel, I would see my cousins learning trades:
woodworking, carpentry, baking, and mechanics.
Now they're doctors and architects,
and their work ethic and skills were discovered
in that transformational hands-on educational space,
and like most Austrians, always have that trade to fall back on.
With over one billion bicycles worldwide,
they are the most widely-used form of transportation.
Here’s another statistic:
About 1,500 bicycles are produced every hour,
and two bikes are bought every second in the world, did you know that?
My thought exactly.
Who’s going to fix all those bikes?
As you can imagine, all those used bikes have to go somewhere,
and it is estimated that 15 million bicycles,
15 million are discarded every year, most of which end up in landfills.
The good news is that when we do ride a bike,
our carbon footprint is one tenth of when we use an automobile.
In addition, we get to reap the benefits of movement,
increasing our overall health and wellness.
But what do we do about those pesky 15 million bicycles
that are discarded every year and are in the trash?
Can we make what is old new again?
Of course we can. I’ve worked in the bicycle industry over 30 years.
I so love what I do now.
I run a non-profit called Project Bike Tech
that places bike tech classes into high schools.
So here are some statistics:
Half of U.S. schoolchildren are dropped off at school in a family car.
If 20% of those living within two miles of school
were to bike or walk instead,
it would save 4.3 million miles of driving per day.
Over a year,
that saved driving would prevent 356 tons of CO2
and 21,500 tons of other pollutants from being emitted
According to the bike industry and all the bike shops that I talk to,
the main reason bikes are left in the garage and not ridden is a flat.
Like really? OK, who here doesn’t know how to change a flat?
Exactly, nothing to be ashamed of,
but the fact is most of the population does not know how to fix their own bike.
Can we transform old bikes into new and get them to people in need?
Yes, there are several organizations that do just that,
including “Free Bikes 4 Kidz.”
Can we help high schools to train students to work on bicycles?
Of course we can. Yes.
When we train a student to work on bicycles,
they get much more than the mechanical skills.
They get a trade, and they develop a lifelong passion for bicycles.
Most importantly,
the understanding that they can singularly make a difference in the world.
They can impact the world by learning skills that are transferable
to the solar industry, the aerospace, and the electric vehicle market,
just to name a few.
Just like Henry Ford and the Wright Brothers,
our future is by teaching our youth to work on bikes
to help propel us into the next century.
Whether they get a passion for riding or wrenching,
they come out understanding their environment and how they affect it.
Just like you can.
Take it from John Lennon, who once said,
“As a kid, I had a dream. I wanted to own my own bicycle.
When I got the bike, I must have been the happiest boy in Liverpool,
maybe the world.
I lived for that bike.
Most kids left their bikes in the backyard at night.
Not me.
I insisted on taking mine indoors,
and the first night, I even kept it in my bed.”
So go home and cherish that bike like John Lennon did
and dig deep and see how you can help the world one pedal crank at a time.
Go ride your bike.
It makes the world a better place.