JUL 18, 2011 – 12:00AM

Back when I was a cub reporter for this paper, I recall a game I used to play with my college roommate.

He’d come up with a word, and I was supposed to try to get it into print. The payoff, I recall, was beer, or, since I was underage at the time, some other sort of refreshing yet non-adult beverage.

After a couple of beers, er, sodas, had changed hands, my curmudgeonly-yet-sage boss was reading a story I’d written about a cross country race. He read silently a bit, then bellowed, “He perambulated across the line? Perambulated? Runners run. Save your big words for your professors.”

My boss — a few years later, he came to be described as “older than dirt” — then lectured me about writing simply. He thought I was trying to impress somebody with my vocab. He probably would have been livid to learn I was violating the sanctity of the publication in the name of free refreshments.

I bring this up now because, a few weeks ago, a loyal reader and regular online commenter recalled sitting at a downtown pizzeria and having his son-in-law say, “I think I just saw Jesus on a 10-speed!” He went on to challenge: “The first thing that came to mind was ‘Andrew could make a decent blog from that line!’”

Down was thrown the gauntlet.

At first, the skeptic in me thought, “No way.”

People see Him in all sorts of places — cheese (Cheezus), toast, perogies — so I figured the pizza-place vision really was just a case of one of our fine town’s PBR-swilling hipsters cruising past on his fixed-gear.

But I don’t profess to know how He rolls.

I’ve never seen Him on a bike, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. I guess that’s the very nature of faith. (I have, um, called out to Him when I’ve come uncomfortably close to becoming a hood ornament, and once or twice, when riding in the Hotter’N Hell 100, I felt uncomfortably close to meeting his dad. Or the other guy, the one who resides in the place the ride I was in was purported to be hotter than.)

The more I thought about it, the more Jesus on a bike made sense, and not only because I turned to Dr. Google, who said some folks use that as an exclamation of surprise (I’d always heard of Him on a popsicle stick, but whatev).

I fear His sandals wouldn’t be great — He’d definitely have to go without the clipless pedals — and He’d have to pinch-and-roll His outfit, lest His tunic get caught in the chain.

But I think next time He drops in, He’ll seriously consider going by bike. I don’t picture Him behind the wheel of a Prius or Hummer, and though He hoofed it last time around, He’d definitely cover more ground by pedaling.

And there’s no questioning the green cred.

His appearance came just a few days before the “Carmegeddon” that was projected to throw California into a tizzy, and what better way to navigate that mess than by bike? (I have to admit I sort of wanted to watch that auto end-of-days on the Left Coast, but apparently it was all overblown.)

Who am I to say that was or was not Jesus on a 10-speed?

Next time I bump into my former editor at the grocery store, I’ll ask him. I’m pretty sure they were elementary-school classmates.

(Aside to Roedapple: A whole blog about Jesus on a 10-speed? Sorry, man. Just can’t do it.)