Put your credit card away (better still, cut it up), dust off your tent, get on your bike and go and put the adventure back in your life.

But you get up, brush yourself off and get on the saddle again. And eventually you learn how to ride a bike.

'Cyclists have equal rights, but in fact a lot of motorists think they should get off the road,' says Lynne Goldsmith, manager of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority's bike program.