Who is that guy riding up and down Route 23?

CATSKILL— If you travel Route 23, chances are you’ve seen him. Reclined on a recumbent trike, he pedals steadily along the highway, rain or shine. He’s a familiar sight to countless motorists, yet while many recognize his wheels, few know who he is.

His name is Jim Smith.

Born in Catskill and raised in Palenville, Smith enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1966, serving until 1970 as a machinist down below deck on a destroyer.

He came home and put those hands to work, spending years as a heavy equipment mechanic for Greene County and later for the Village of Catskill DPW.

But at 41 years old and weighing 300 pounds with a family history of heart trouble, Smith got the news no one wants to hear. He needed a triple bypass.

The surgery was a success, but the experience shook him.

“My doctor told me that your heart is a muscle and you got to work it out if you want to keep it strong,” Smith said.

So, he started walking four miles every day. Then walking became riding.

Smith picked up a classic Murray and a Korean-made mountain bike from Montgomery Ward while he figured out what kind of bike suited him. One day, a broken spoke changed everything.

It brought him to Performance Cycle in Ravena.

“That place opened up an entirely new world to me,” Smith said, remembering all the options on the walls.

He left with a Bianchi, an Italian, high-performance that was light as air compared to what he’d been riding.

“It was a totally different experience,” Smith said.

He bought the shoes, the toe straps, the cleats. What had started as a prescription to stay alive had become a passion.

He took that Bianchi from the Catskill Point out Cauterskill Road to Underhill Road, and all the way to Purling and back. He had been down Route 385, up 9W and to his old neighborhood in Palenville.

Then, in 1998, another challenge presented itself. He started having trouble keeping the bicycle balanced.

“It’s a good thing that I was in the Navy and I learned how to hold on to something to brace myself while tipping over while working out at sea,” said Smith.

Doctors told him he had vestibular labyrinthitis, an inflammation of the inner ear labyrinth and vestibulocochlear nerve that causes sudden vertigo and hearing changes, and destroys your balance.

Many people would have quit. Smith switched rides.

And that is when people in Greene County started to really know him—on his trademark trike, the recumbent he pedals while laying down.

When asked about close calls on busy roads like the Route 23 bypass, Smith laughs.

“There is a particularly bumpy spot on Cairo Junction where I notice a lot of trucks will lose their cargo that spills out onto the highway and I have to swerve to avoid them,” he said, comparing it to “flying a spaceship through an asteroid field.”

Smith has six siblings, but he’s the only one with a serious passion for cycling. At one point, his collection had grown to four bicycles and two trikes, all kept inside his house alongside boxes of spare parts he would eventually sell on eBay.

Today, he averages about 18 miles a week and only has to see a cardiologist once a year.

“You know when I would read about other bikers like me the interviewer would always ask them a question that sounded like something Confucius might ask, ‘Why do you ride the bike?’” Jim said. “Well, I ride the bike because I want to ride the bike and now because I ride the bike I’m talking to someone from the paper.”

So, the next time you spot Smith on the road, give him a wave. He’s still pedaling strong, with no signs of slowing down.