Gerry Samuel, 53 from London kicked off his "BikeShare career back in 1994, when he clocked up 3000 miles on the bike of a complete stranger. "His name was Clarence Brown," says Gerry, and he lived in this traditional, white clapboard New England house. He had a BMW K100LT (most of the bikes on the scheme are BMWs) which I took off on for three weeks. The scheme works by members swapping the use of their own bikes, at no charge. The world is their oyster.

"We rode around Amish country in Pennsylvania , then visited an interesting town called Intercourse. Clarence had pointed out, deadpan, that the next town was known as Ecstasy....

"We rode the Blue Ridge Parkway with my brother, Brian, who was living in Virginia at the time. We stayed in a log cabin. The Americans don't rough it, do they? Air con and TV! Got to have your basics!

One of my most memorable rides was down Broadway, right to the end. The road starts way upstate in the countryside! You see the sign 'Broadway' and wonder.... You follow it south and it dawns on you this is, in fact, THE Broadway and, as you enter Manhattan, it's fascinating to watch the changing neighborhoods

"We also crossed into Connecticut and noticed the first biker we saw wasn't wearing a helmet. At the first set of lights we asked a motorist. No helmet law: so off they came!"

Gerry next used the BikeShare scheme in 1998 when he and his wife, Pat, were living in Colorado for a year. They borrowed a machine from Bill Davies, who'd come to the UK three years previously and ridden around on their BMW R100R.

"We had the choice of twp bikes and went for the Yamaha Venture: stereo, radar detector, his' n' hers backrests...!

"We toured California, going as far down as San Diego. The pacific Coast Highway's a stunning piece of road. We wanted to turn right around and do it all again!

"You know all those Hollywood movies you see? With overhead tracking shots of some hero riding down the California coast road? It was like that. totally awesome!

"Such evocative names too: Big Sur, Santa Barbara, San Diego, San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive....

"Every so often, in the midst of farmland, you come across dozens of parked cars at the side of the road: old cars and they belong to Mexican workers. Guess they'd rather be earning dollars in the U.S. than a few meagre pesos in Mexico. This is the land of opportunity alright. We had a cab driver from Lebanon, a waitress from Ethiopia... We even saw a triangular warning sigh with a silhouette of a woman and a child running. Apparently, quite a few illegal immigrants get killed on the highway each year, attempting to cross the border from Mexico.

"As for L.A., it's pretty grim. The sheer volume of traffic is stupendous. These urban Americans certainly worship the god of the automobile."

Next in 1999, Gerry an Pat journeyed to Wisconsin, to be paid back for their hosts, Greg and Terri, having used their bike to tour Europe a couple of years earlier.

"They offered us a choice of two vehicles: a BIG Dodge truck (yes I was tempted!) or an R1100GS. The über traillie won.

"That year was a major heat wave. The media people were advising people to visit air conditioned malls and theatres. Pat and I saw a movie every day for five days! Needless to say we didn't do too many miles on that trip. That part of the States is pretty boring anyway, unless you're into corn.

"After a week of cornfields though, we were pretty damn expert on what the stuff looked like. Then all of a sudden, we'd come across a field of triffid-like stuff: real towering monsters, obviously part of the American GM programme. Unlike Europe, there's a baffling absence of public or media discussion about it.

"Consequently, the fruit and vegetables are enormous but tastless. It's the land of big is best. Monster Whoppers and fries with a gallon of Coke to go? Purleease!

Article courtesy of: RIDE Magazine, Issue #104, (Dec., 2003)

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