omar bici gurù

omar paraguayo de 46 años lleva 19 años en bici,con una monark 10 brasileña , desde 1991, lleva recorridos 45 paìses y 140.000 km


blog de omar

http://omarglobal.lacoctelera.net/


facebook

http://www.facebook.com/omarglobal

Omar Ruiz-Diaz currently made an extensive cycling
expedition around the world. He wrote more than a
dozen diaries about his travel experiences on the road.
Adventurer and nomad, Omar took seriously the issue
of environment with the slogan: “quality of life means
quality of air”. His main motivation is to tell everyone
how important it is to use alternative transportation
(bus, train or bike) to any urban destination. Also, he
petitions the governments to make more bicycle paths
in the streets and avenues. The matter is less pollution
and noises and more fresh and clean air in the cities.

Bike on!

As the trip continues through different countries, he
has developed various projects like editing a video
documentary, the publication of a book, the design of a
new web page and organized a foundation to promote
the idea of bicycling worldwide.


1 - Bicycle and the Environment

The bicycle is one of the greatest environmental discoveries ever invented. In the
early days, bicycles actually helped ease a pollution problem that most of us have
forgotten about: city streets clogged with horse droppings. Today, they improve the
environment in numerous ways.

And they do more than clear the air. Riding a bicycle is a reasonable way to live a
little closer to the world norm. For instance: On a bicycle you take up little space,
burn no gasoline and produce no waste, and a bike can travel 1,600 km (960 miles)
on the equivalent energy of a gallon of gas.
Between 70 and 100 bicycles can be built with the resources required to build one
car.
People living up to 12 km (7.2 miles) from their workplace can commute by bike in
less than one hour (some, a lot less!) Also, a roadway can carry about three times
as many cyclists as people in cars.

Protecting yourself from Air Pollution

Cyclists spend a lot of time breathing exhaust fumes. Lead and carbon monoxide
can build up in a cyclist’s body, and this will eventually hurt your health. Although
most city cyclists feel that other benefits outweigh this drawback, you should be
aware of it so you can do your best to minimize its effects.
Some riders wear an air filter or mask. These only protect you from airborne
particles, however, and not from carbon monoxide or other gases. (Don’t worry too
much, though; a study that monitored the air inhaled by a sampling of Toronto bike
couriers carried out a few years ago found that surprisingly small amounts of toxic
gases were entering their lungs.)
Make a conscious effort to stay away from the backs of buses and trucks, and
exhaust pipes generally, while waiting in traffic.
Consider public transit as an option for days when your local authorities declare a
smog alert or bad air warning day.
If you ride to work, and have the opportunity of flex hours, try to take advantage of the
lower traffic times of day.
And remember: if we were all able to ride bikes, we probably wouldn’t have an urban
air pollution problem!


2 - Bicycle and the Public Health

Cycling is a healthy option

a - Cycling regularly will improve your fitness and can help you live a long and healthy
life.
b - Riding a bike can help you maintain a healthy weight.
c - Three quarters of all personal journeys are less than 10 kilometers long - that's
half an hour on a bike.

Switching these short journeys from car to bicycle will benefit your health and your
community. You'll be helping to reduce noise and air pollution as well as traffic
congestion
.
What's In It For You?

More cycling is good news for the environment and your local
community. But the biggest benefit is for you as an individual.

Increasing Fitness

Your strength, stamina, aerobic fitness and general muscle function will all be
improved. Cycling is a low impact activity and one of the safest ways to exercise
without risk of over-exertion or strain to muscles and joints. Regular physical activity
also facilitates other healthy behavior and could help you reduce weight or even give
up smoking.

Lowering Risk of Heart Attack

Your heart muscles are strengthened, resting pulse is lowered and blood
fat levels reduced. People taking regular physical activity suffer far less
heart disease than people who don't!

Shedding Excess Weight

By burning body fat and raising your metabolic rate you can lose weight.
If you undertake physical activity regularly you can enjoy a more varied
diet without increasing body weight. Cycling is one of the more
comfortable forms of physical activity for those who are new to exercise,
allowing most people to get fit easily and safely without undue physical
strain.

Reducing Stress

Anxiety, stress and depression are all alleviated, partly due to the
physical activity itself, but also due to the pleasure and satisfaction of
riding a bike. Cycling is convenient for short journeys, and often faster
across town than other forms of transport. It's a stress free means of
taking physical activity because it can form part of a daily routine. So
there's no need to worry about fitting your new healthy lifestyle into an
already overcrowded schedule.
So come and ride with us - you'll feel better for it!


3- Bicycle and the Soul

“Indeed, I found a whole philosophy of life in the winning and wooing of
my bicycle.” –Frances Willard, 1895

When you ride a bicycle (as opposed to driving a car) the world
changes. Your approach to life changes. The body becomes a
metaphor, the road - life - each hill an obstacle. You are using your own
power. You are thousands of years of human technology. You are losing
fat, strengthening your muscles, heart, lungs, entire physical wellbeing.
Problems dissolve. You de-stress.

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best,
since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you
remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill
impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country
you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.
~Ernest Hemingway

Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride. ~John F.
Kennedy
Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia.
~H.G. Wells

It is curious that with the advent of the automobile and the airplane, the
bicycle is still with us. Perhaps people like the world they can see from a
bike, or the air they breathe when they’re out on a bike. Or they like the
bicycle’s simplicity and the precision with which it is made. Or because
they like the feeling of being able to hurtle through air one minute, and
saunter through a park the next, without leaving behind clouds of
choking exhaust, without leaving behind so much as a footstep.
~Gurdon S. Leete

The sound of a car door opening in front of you is similar to the sound of
a gun being cocked.
~Amy Webster

Bicycling is the nearest approximation I know to the flight of birds. The
airplane simply carries a man on its back like an obedient Pegasus; it
gives him no wings of his own.
~Louis J. Helle, Jr.

There is nothing like walking to get the feel of a country. A fine
landscape is like a piece of music; it must be taken at the right tempo.
Even a bicycle goes too fast. ~Paul Scott Mowrer
You never have the wind with you - either it is against you or you’re
having a good day. ~Daniel Behrman

I came out for exercise, gentle exercise, and to notice the scenery and to
botanise. And no sooner do I get on that accursed machine than off I go
hammer and tongs; I never look to right or left, never notice a flower,
never see a view - get hot, juicy, red - like a grilled chop. Get me on that
machine and I have to go. I go scorching along the road, and cursing
aloud at myself for doing it.
~H.G. Wells

The secret to mountain biking is pretty simple. The slower you go the
more likely it is you’ll crash. ~Julie Furtado

If you ride you know those moments when you have fed yourself into the
traffic, felt the hashed-up asphalt rattle in the handlebars, held a lungful
of air in a cloud of exhaust. Up ahead there are two parallel buses. With
cat’s whiskers, you measure the clearance down a doubtful alley. You
swing wide, outflank that flower truck. The cross-street yellow light is
turning red. You burst off the green like a surfer on a wave of metal. You
have a hundred empty yards of Broadway to yourself.
~Chip Brown

All bicycles weigh fifty pounds. A thirty-pound bicycle needs a twenty-
pound lock. A forty-pound bicycle needs a ten-pound lock. A fifty-pound
bicycle doesn’t need a lock.
~Author Unknown

Think of bicycles as rideable art that can just about save the world.
~Grant Petersen

Most bicyclists in New York City obey instinct far more than they obey
the traffic laws, which is to say that they run red lights, go the wrong way
on one-way streets, violate cross-walks, and terrify innocents, because it
just seems easier that way. Cycling in the city, and particularly in
midtown, is anarchy without malice.
~Author unknown

All creatures who have ever walked have wished that they might fly.
With highwheelers a flesh and blood man can hitch wings to his feet.
~Karl Kron

What do you call a cyclist who doesn’t wear a helmet? An organ donor.
~David Perry

Consider a man riding a bicycle. Whoever he is, we can say three things
about him. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We
know that at some point he will stop and get off. Most important of all, we
know that if at any point between the beginning and the end of his
journey he stops moving and does not get off the bicycle he will fall off it.
That is a metaphor for the journey through life of any living thing, and I
think of any society of living things.
~William Golding