Martin Krieg, known by many in Palo Alto as the “bicycle man,” has a passion for biking that has led him on two transcontinental biking trips and another one planned for 2010 to be a torchbearer of the movement for the National Bicycle Greenway (NBG). He overcame a seven-week coma, paralysis and clinical death. He has HiWheel bicycles, which is an old-fashioned bike with either a large front wheel and a small back wheel or vice versa. “It’s fun and great exercise,” Krieg said. “I can pretty much go any distance.”

Krieg has been car-free since 1989. “If I’m in a car, I’m [trapped] by glass and windows and I don’t see the world,” he said. “[Biking] gives me freedom. It’s like a church for me. I can feel the wind blowing in my hair and I can enjoy feeling like a kid again.” He has always loved biking from training wheels in his childhood to his current HiWheeler. Krieg received his first quality bike, a new Schwinn Varsity, in fourth grade after asking his mother if she would buy it for him if he got straight A’s. “I became a very good student after that,” Krieg said.

Later on Krieg was involved in car crash and was debilitated by paralysis and diagnosed with clinical death. After a seven-week coma, he woke up and began the gradual process of rehabilitation. “I learned how to walk again, then talk again, then go to the bathroom and tie shoes. I stuttered, I trembled,” he said. “I’m still waking up from the coma, as the world gets less fuzzy.”

His book, “Awake Again”, tells his journey from his head injury through the hardship of recovery to his two coast-to-coast rides.

His first ride across the country was in 1979. “I kind of was running away from home, and needed a change in scenery,” Krieg said. The second trip in 1986 was to fundraise for the National Head Injury Foundation. “I promised myself that if I ever got normal and could walk again I would do the greatest thing I could do.”

Krieg also attempted a third cross-country ride starting in San Francisco during the summer of 2009, but ended the trip early due to the weather. He’s preparing for another trip in June 2010 to promote the NBG, a network of bicycle roads and trails that will interconnect the country and major cities, of which Krieg is a founding director. “[It] is my number one thing in life,” Krieg said. “I’ve dedicated my whole life to this cause. [I want to] inspire people to come together to think outside of the box.”

Spanish teacher Carol Stroud also usually bikes to school. She has spotted Krieg four times and supports the use of bicycles as a way of getting around. “I think that self-propelled transportation is great.” Stroud has also been on a 500-mile long bike ride from the Missouri to the Mississippi Rivers.

Overall, Krieg thought that the trips were opportunity for meditation. “[You] learn to be your own best friend,” he said. “You start going out and figuring out thoughts, there’s a lot of inner thinking going on.” He also noted that the trips give a feeling of achievement. “It’s a triumphant feeling looking at a map and knowing that by the end of the day you’ll be 150 or so miles from where you started,” he said. “Everyday is going to be a success.”

Krieg is going through deprivation training to toughen up for the next ride. “I’m not giving myself a lot of creature comforts,” he said. “I spent the winter in the garage last year to toughen up for the ride and to keep me keen. It keeps me going, it keeps me burning on why I’m doing this.” He will be the first to cross the country on an Eagle HiWheeler, which is the only one of its kind in active use in the world.

He rides around 20 to 30 miles a day, on one of his ten bikes. Passerbys’ response are usually one of surprise or friendliness, according to Krieg. “People often take a picture of me, sometimes their jaws drop, or they smile and wave and say hi.” Junior Kathrina Oñate has seen him from time to time. “Palo Alto’s a bicycle town and you see bikes everywhere,” she said, “but he’s really cool because every time he passes I think of all the old black-and-white pictures of old bikes from the 1880’s.” He is also the caretaker of the Busycle, a contraption powered by fifteen pedaling people constructed from the hodgepodge from the junkyard by M.I.T. engineers. The community rides it about once a week. “It’s a total outrage,” he said. “It makes everyone crack up and smile.” The Busycle is going home to Boston with Krieg in June.

According to Krieg, his transcontinental bike rides show people more than just a man biking on a HiWheel. “They are to show people that there are no limits,” Krieg said.