Two Recipes for Success

A Recipe for a Successful Bike Ride

(With Illustrations From Today and From Yesteryear)

  1. Dress appropriately
  2. Don’t take yourself too seriously
  3. Use your gears often and use your brakes when necessary
  4. Groove out on nature
  5. Don’t get bummed out because of wind, hills and view-blockers
  6. Stop and smell not just the roses, but also the weeds
  7. Observe animal behavior
  8. Wave in appreciation to auto drivers when they let you go first at a four-way stop.
  9. Wave in friendliness to pedestrians and fellow cyclists and predict if they’ll wave back. (Try not to be disappointed when they don’t.)
  10. Change hand positions frequently to avoid hand fatigue, and try out some new ones just for fun.
  11. Incorporate other activities into your ride–such as yoga.
  12. Upon completion, write about it on Cycle 365.
Step #1


Step #6


Step #7


Step #10


Step #11


Step #12


A Recipe for a Successful Batch of Chicken Wings

There is no place for a picture of chicken wings on a cycling website,” I thought to myself as I posted such a photo the other day. Yet, I left it there against all better judgement. I prepared to be vilified and shamed for it.

Here’s the picture I was referring to. Not a bicycle in sight.

Far from being ripped to shreds by my fellow Cycle 365-ers, I was showered with praise. Some of you said my chicken wings looked pretty good. I was quite humbled by the positive comments and by two or three people asking for the recipe. Thanks to that overwhelming public demand, I am going to publish my super-secret recipe. I typed it out last night just for you.




It would have been nice to say that I, the greatest chef since Lincoln — maybe greater than Lincoln — created the beautiful, beautiful, perfect recipe all by myself, but that would have been a whopper of a lie. What kind of person would state such obvious lies? That’s why I gave a little credit to Emeril at the bottom of the recipe, and that’s why I am posting the next picture of the original recipe that I cut out of Parade Magazine about a decade ago.

Try Emeril’s version if you prefer, but I should warn you that his sauce turns out way too runny. BAM!


Hi. My name is Greg and I ride my bike a lot. That is to say, I ride my bike almost every day. I go on long rides and short rides. Sunny rides, cloudy rides, and rainy rides. I like commuting, errand-running, day-tripping, overnighting, and touring on my bike. I ride on city streets, highways, gravel, single track, and snow with equal enthusiasm. Sometimes I ride fast and sometimes I ride slow. I try to keep my feet on the pedals at stop lights and I do not dismount when I hop up on a curb. I have a roadie bike, a mountain bike and a touring bike. I try to accept any challenge a bike ride can throw at me without complaint. But I don't like bugs.

7 response to "Two Recipes for Success"

  1. By: NancyG Posted: October 27, 2020

    TWO, not one but TWO, very good recipes indeed.
    Thanks Greg. I will taste test the wings in the near future.

  2. By: Suzanne Posted: October 27, 2020

    Thanks for the recipes! Although I knew the first one already. lol

  3. By: BobinVT Posted: October 27, 2020

    Thanks Greg, for both of those recipes. On the bike ride recipe, I definitely agree with point #2. Good advice for bike rides, and life in general.

  4. By: The Navigator Posted: October 28, 2020

    The nice thing about recipes is that you can adapt them to your tastes or circumstance. So, in the first recipe, we don’t have any four-way stops, so I would adapt that to: acknowledge the auto drivers who don’t cut you off in roundabouts.

    • By: gregblood Posted: October 28, 2020

      Those roundabouts are invading this country too. They’re new and U.S. drivers don’t quite know how to work them. I must admit that, at first, that included me. But WHEREVER I go in a car I look out for cyclists. I never ever want to appear in the newspaper as the motorist who killed a bike rider. And wherever I go on my bike I am ever-vigilant for cars.

      • By: jpescatore Posted: October 29, 2020

        I’m not a chicken wings fan and definitely not a cook – can’t comment on that recipe.

        Really like the biking recipe, though somewhere in the there (maybe inserted into rule 3) I’d add “Ride predictably and alertly” – which was my standard guidance to my kids when teaching them to drive.

        Thinking about it, I’d phrase it “Ride unto other users of the road/path as you would like them to ride unto you.”

  5. By: Bill Stone Posted: October 29, 2020

    Whew! I was momentarily concerned your photo of Step #7 was going to transform into a recipe for a successful batch of goose wings. 😉

Leave a Reply