Life cycles: Pencil pusher as case manager for San Francisco’s Lyon-Martin Women’s Health Services; pedal pusher planning transcontinental tour


Diagnosis: March 1990—“Awful way to enter your 30s.”


Next ride: This spring she’ll see the USA on a seven-week Crossroads Cycling Adventure. “It starts in LA with a wheel-dip in the Pacific Ocean. Then 3,432 miles later in Boston, we’ll put it in the Atlantic.”


What got the wheels going? When a broken heart sent Johnson west in ’86, she moved into a hostel. “A lot of the kids talked about biking overseas. I said I never wanted to see another country until I saw this one.”


Revolution now: “Forty is the age to do outrageous things. You know, have an affair or something. But I’ll keep the wife [her gorgeous partner, Karen] and ride my bike.”


Roll model: “You don’t see women of color out there caring for themselves. I hope to inspire people. If you’re feeling it, you gotta do it.”


Gone with the Schwinn: “I know I have to take the HIV with me, but to not have it in my face—oooh. This is about being with myself and my health.”  

*Name has been changed