I spent some time recently in Kalamazoo, talking with Paul Guthrie. Paul is a lab manager at Bronson Hospital, a bicycle commuter, a bike tourist, and someone who shares his experiences to motivate others. We spoke on topics including touring, commuting, winter gear, making new riders, and inspiration. The interview began with questions about his childhood bike experience, and how he became an adult cyclist.

“Well, I grew up near Centreville, Michigan. I remember riding my green Schwinn Stingray to town with my sister, to go to Beal’s Five & Dime Store. Then I graduated to a Huffy 10-speed, and I kept that through college at Michigan State, where you need a bike to get around.” As with many university campuses, MSU has crowded conditions for much of the day, and cars are impractical.

The Huffy died in 1993; garage openings are only so tall. The silver lining? “I got a Cannondale hybrid,” said Paul, “I rode that bike about 1,000 miles a year until 2007, when I got a real road bike…”

I interrupted, asking which bike was his first real adult bike. “It would be the hybrid, it was a quality bike. I got it when I was 32.”

His first century ride (100 miles)? “That was the Apple Cider Century ride.” This is a famous ride at the south end of Lake Michigan. Paul continued “Yes, you cross from Michigan into Indiana and back; 5000 people do that ride.”

His first two real bike tours were with Bike Tour Vacations (hooray!) in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. In 2012 he joined our  Great Waters tour, 300 miles in 5 days. The next summer he was along on our Porcupine Mountains tour in the far west end of the U.P. At some point we became Facebook friends, and I noticed Paul posting tours and rides all over the place!

I asked him about his many tours in 2019, and how he got time off from work. “I did 5 tours in 2019.” He continued “I’d maxed out on vacation accrual, and we have some big projects next year with a vacation freeze, so I thought I’d use it up.”

He toured in 3 time zones and many states. As he tells it, “The first tour was 5 days long, road biking in Asheville, North Carolina with a dozen or so friends in April. We rented a house and did it on our own. That was the only tour where I was in a building, the rest were tenting. The next tour was the Great Divide Mountain Bike Trail in Montana, on a Salsa Fargo steel bike with no suspension. It was the perfect bike, a bike-packing bike. I was there with friends, self-organized.”

“The longest tour” he continued, “was 13 days in the Pacific northwest, an  Adventure Cycling self-contained tour (no sag wagon). That was with 15 others, it was a great tour. Then I took a weekend tour here in Michigan, the  Fargo Sub 48   in Gaylord (gravel and two-track riding). It was a lot of fun.

“And then the last tour was a 7-day Cycle North Carolina tour,  Mountains to the Coast. We went from Asheville to the Atlantic coast. We had some rain, but mostly heat. It was 97 degrees, with 102 heat index, uncomfortable in a tent at night. We also had some flooding, too (laughs).”

Paul rode in 3 time zones this year, and flew to the west coast to tour. “I used  Bike Flights (for bike shipping). It was under $100. A lot of tour companies will arrange a bike shop for you to ship to, so that wasn’t a problem.”

Paul is very lucky. He commutes to work on his bike, about 20 miles round trip, and his employer has a program in place to help employees commute. I asked him to tell about the Bronson program. “We have the Bronson Bike to Work Club, and there are some incentives and facilities associated with it. I have a bike locker. You can lock the bike securely, you don’t have to take gear off (the bike), and it’s safe. We log our rides every day. There’s maybe 70 people in the program, riding varying amounts from once a week to every day. And there’s a small incentive; for every 5 miles you get a dollar, so I make, golly, $4 a day commuting and I save gas, too! (laughs)”

“The League of American Cyclists” he continued, “gave our hospital a gold level business award for the bike friendly program.”

Why would an employer sponsor a program like this? Construction cost for a parking ramp is between $20,000 and $30,000 per space, plus maintenance and operation. Compare that with some $500 bike lockers…and come to your own conclusion.

We met on November 12, as Kalamazoo was digging out from 10″ of fresh snow. Paul admitted to driving his car to work that day, for safety reasons. “At this time of year, the combination of leaf piles in the bike lane, plus slush…December or January I might have ridden, but yesterday, no…”

Out of 200 work days in a year, how many are bike commute days for Paul? “Typically about 180 days biking. I’ve done 200 days. I started out in fair weather. If there was rain in the forecast I wouldn’t ride. But then I decided to get the right gear, fenders, whatever. (Commuting) adds about 3,600 miles a year to my total…”

Math geeks will know if you want a high mileage total at the end of the year, regular daily inputs are critical. Right now Paul has about 8,500 miles in 2019, with over 40% of that from his daily commute!

I asked Paul what inspires him to do this much riding. His answer: friends. “Gosh, I think what keeps me going is a lot of my best friends I met through cycling. I also find, for commuting, the health and environmental benefits to be worthwhile. Plus, it’s a good way to start and finish the day…”

How are you going to inspire other adults to get on a bike? “Well, people I talk to (have a) drawback about safety concerns. But there’s still many places to ride out of traffic. Get the  Michigan Trail Map , there are trails all over the state.”

It gets better. “If you’re really interested, the Kalamazoo Bicycle Club has an event called  Bike Camp which is for new riders. It’s a couple of hours over a few weekends. They give you a good introduction on how to ride with others, traffic laws, maintenance, changing a flat tire. You don’t know these things intuitively when you start.”

Please stay tuned for future stories about motivation. Thanks!

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