Goode Reasons to Ride Without Brakes

I'm going to try to write something every day to this blog. I will say my say probably in dribbles. Maybe later the flow will augment. Some time ago I heard Greg Goode, in an interview, say that he had no fear of crashing his fixed gear bike--no brakes--in New York City traffic because he was convinced that no objects exist to crash against. He described the process of reasoning that had led to this conviction. As far as I can tell it consisted in unpacking objects, analyzing their contents, the  evidence they present to the senses. He found that there was actually no substance in, say, an apple. All  that is there are qualities--redness, hardness, sweetness, apple aroma, crispy mouth-feel, crunch sound when bitten. Each of these qualities--these sense states-- exists in its own realm. It is itself. It has no necessary connection with any of the rest. When one bites into an apple the taste that the biter perceives is real--but what does it have to do with the red sphere he is holding in his hand? Did it come from the red sphere? How could a taste come from a color? Or from a sensation of round hardness? Each of these is a separate experience. It stands by itself. These cats can't be herded into a whole called an apple any more than the stars that make up the Big Dipper can actually be said to stand in any actual big dipper-like relation to one another. And Goode says that on the strength of this reasoning he has become a man of no fear threading with his bike through the big city stampede. 

More on this tomorrow.