If you were anywhere near the Internet yesterday, you no doubt saw the video of the Georgia man who proved Newt Gingrich wrong by installing a gun rack in his Chevy Volt.
But Fresh Energy colleague (and transportation advocate) Ethan Fawley said via Twitter last night that he was more annoyed by Gingrich’s comment on bicycling.
If you read all the way to the end of the Hill article we posted yesterday, you saw that Gingrich followed his Volt zinger with “It just drives the liberals crazy – how dare we go out and drive vehicles bigger than their bicycles?”
The comment, Fawley says, casts bicycling as “part of some made-up culture war that shouldn’t exist.”
Indeed, most cyclists that I know (myself included) use multiple modes of transportation, including owning and driving automobiles.
And while Gingrich didn’t specifically address the gun-toting utility of bicycles, he will be no doubt pleased to know that innovative American cyclists have figured out ways to bring their beloved firearms along for the ride.
In a 2008 post on the cycling blog Cyclelicious, Yokota Fritz writes about a Cleveland man who has outfitted his bike with a gun rack:
The bike owner’s son wrote to Fritz:
It’s a pretty simple rack using two wood mounts and some elastic to hold it in place. He is not a hard core gun nut or anything crazy like that, just a practical person trying to protect his garden, farm, and beehives from critters.
Elitist!
At the time, Fritz wrote, you could even buy a commercially-made bike gun rack from a company in Texas, which sadly appears to no longer be available:
Then there’s this guy, who owns both a bike and a pickup truck, but uses the former for turkey hunting:
Or, if you’re a bit more bold, you could follow the example of this cyclist from Washington state who found a way to combine non-motorized transportation with his love of assault rifles:
Note which way the business end of the weapon is pointing. Always remember to leave three feet of space when passing a bicycle.