A child of the 1950s, I grew up on a three-speed “racing” Schwinn that I’d often rifle between two trees touching bark with both hands. In my 30s and 40s, I mostly ran. But once I hit 50, I started riding the big bumps of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the back trails of Bent Creek. Later, I cycled the streets and bike paths of Carrboro and Charleston, and small towns in Colorado and Florida.

Around here, while I love the river road out to Marshall, navigating a path from A to B in Asheville has always been challenging at best and a conundrum at worst. How do you avoid Hendersonville Highway, for example, or Tunnel Road or West Patton? Better to snake through quiet neighborhoods, even if it involves a climb that feels like Stage Five of the Tour de France.

Getting somewhere—anywhere—on a bike is always way more than half the fun. It is, after all, a conversation with the world at large. You feel the place up through your feet, you smell the air, you blend into the moment, you hail someone, or stop to jawbone. One ride is never like any other, especially in Asheville when the wind boots up, mists settle in, or slanting light brushes in golds and blacks at the beginnings and ends of days. Sorry, none of these is nearly as available in a car.

As a teacher at Evergreen Community Charter School, Mike Sule doesn’t own a car. He uses a bike to travel from his home in the center of town to his job in Haw Creek. He says he sold his car years ago and used the savings from not owning it (which he figures amounts to $10,000 a year) to buy a city-centric condo.

“I absolutely love the commute,” says Mike. “I love the experience of traveling on a bike, even in the dead of winter. Plus, it just feels like a responsible thing to do. My students ask me, ‘How can you do this in February with snow on the ground?’ I just say, ‘Same reason you guys go snowboarding.’ It’s fun.”

All of which begs the question: Where will Asheville be in five years as a bike-friendly community? Claudia Nix, very active at both state and city levels as a bike path and local transportation advocate, won’t go so far as to say we will be like a city in Holland, as much as I’ve tried to draw that conclusion out of her.

“We’ll be a lot more connected,” says Claudia, meaning that the 181-mile network of bicycle lanes and paths and shared roadways and greenway routes outlined in the city’s 2008 Comprehensive Bicycle Plan will be a lot closer to being real and part of city life.

In the meantime, at a recent “Downtown After 5” on North Lexington, 130 people rode their bikes to the event and and stayed to enjoy the evening. And, chances are, somewhere on their ride back home, they took a street with a “Sharrow” painted on it, passed a sign that says “Share the Road” or climbed a hill inscribed with a bike lane. And getting there, coming or going, was way more than half the fun.

For more information on the city’s plan and about biking in general, visit ashevilleonbikes.com. Jay Fields can be reached at pimiento@charter.net.