Short break

I hadn't intended to take time off, but between moving and not having active internet service at the new house I haven't been able to write. I'm going to yield to the inevitable and take a short vacation through next weekend, when my internet will be hooked up.

Hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year's.

Random bike-spotting (4 in a series)

Today's "bikes in life" comes from a while back. It actually has me a little puzzled, but more on that in a minute:

"Marriage is a wonderful invention; but, then again, so is a bicycle repair kit."

I've seen that quote attributed to two different people. One, the link above, is Geoffrey Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales. The other is comedian Billy Connolly. My confusion here is over the age of the bicycle (~1816) and the writing of the Canterbury Tales (~1380-1400). I'll freely admit I have only read sections of the Tales, in senior English in high school, so I have no idea what context the quote is in, or if it is a modernized translation. (My reference for citing it here is the great Short Attention Span Philosopher podcast from Roy Trumbull, followed up by some Googling). Whoever said it, it qualifies as a bike reference in a non-bike setting.

A little help?

I have written about Elden "Fatty" Nelsen before. First off, I identify (far too much) with someone who goes by "The Fat Cyclist" and secondly I really respect what he's doing. Elden's blog is largely about his wife's fight against breast cancer, which isn't going so well. He has been a long-time supporter of the LiveStrong foundation, resulting in Lance giving Fatty's wife a shout out. This year he decided to put together a grand scheme to have the largest team ever pulled together for the LiveStrong Challenge and raise more money than any team had before. (For the details from the horse's mouth, go here.)

I've decided to jump in, and have signed up for the San Jose ride. If you are willing to sponsor me, please go here and make a pledge. I think it's a great cause and will be using this as incentive to get myself in shape to do a metric century (100 km) ride. If you have questions, let me know.

Thanks in advance.

Joel

Update: 12/16/08 7:00AM

One thing I forgot last night - If you are interested there are a number of other riders who are raffling off prizes for people who donate. I'm not able to do that, but Fatty is (see the link to his site above) and as I come across others I'll post them.

New gear

Sometime in the next few days I'll be moving to a new house. My new place is on the west side of the hills, which means I'll be in a better place to ride into work. Instead of being about 30 miles away and on the wrong side of the Berkeley Hills I'll only be about 10 miles away on mostly flat roads. Additionally, there is a BART station about halfway between my house and the office which has a full service bike parking facility.

Since I'll be riding farther I won't be doing it on the upright, which means I won't be wearing my work clothes. To make transporting my duds a little easier I ordered the garment bag fromTwoWheel Gear. The short version is that the bag is a full length garment bag which hooks to bike racks like normal panniers. I don't need to carry much other than some papers with me, and the bag has plenty of pockets for various things.

In the upper picture you can see the non drive-side of the bag, which has most of the external zipped pockets on it. The bag also has a zipped pocket on the top in the section that sits on top of the rack. The bag has two types of handles with shorter carry handles as well as an adjustable shoulder strap. Also, clearly visible in the pic are the day/night-glo strips on the rear of the bag. The reflectiveness of the strips is more evident in the lower pic. Also visible there are the angled hooks for attaching to the bike rack.

I just got the bag and haven't been able to test it yet, but once I have I'll write it up.

Another bike/camera post

Rather than repeat the post, I direct you here to a post from mid November on Bike Hugger. The post is about a nifty little rig the author saw in Japan, where a cyclist had mounted a small camcorder (looks a little like a Flip but isn't) to the front axle on his bike. 

With the right angle adjustment and a sufficient record-time on the camera this could be a really cool way to record a tour. It would require either a remote on/off (like I discussed when I posted about mounting a still camera to the racks on my Trucker) to allow easy recording of fun stuff (crazy descents, great views and the like) or an amazing amount of time and patience allowing the rider to flip through a day's worth of riding to find the segments worth keeping.

Either way, I've been thinking that a camcorder like the Flip might be a nice addition to documenting a tour. Hopefully I'll be in the shape to start some S24O tours early in the new year and wills tart playing with some of the ideas I have.

Random bike-spotting (3 in a series)

Today's "bikes in life" might be a little bit of a stretch, but I think it's worth a mention anyway.

REI is my toystore. I spend too much time and too much money there. When I was looking at getting into touring I checked out some of the Novara bikes for the OTS option before finding the LHT frame I wanted. Now REI is taking their support of bike commuting from being a supplier of cool toys to something more.

Recently REI launched "Bike Your Drive", a website loaded with utility/commuter information including:

• Cycling myths exposed - what it sounds like
• An interactive parts guide
• How-to videos
• and of course - links to gear and classes available at your local REI

The site is also tied into the Green Bike Project which is a project aimed at getting more people to bike commute by offering commuter-equipped bikes for people who pledge to shift 60% of their commutes to cycling.

Like I said - the REI site is on the edge of non-cycling specific. In this case I chose to view it as a major company using its clout to encourage more people to ride.

More lighting, again

I've always been a bit of a gear snob when it comes to cycling, preferring to buy cool toys rather than DIY. Specifically, I've been of the "go big" school of lighting and have felt that the multi-tool option of using flashlights attached to the bike instead of a headlight was gauche. I'm beginning to change my mind, especially as more and more high quality, low cost flashlights come on the market.

The other night I was watching TV with my dad and saw a Home Depot ad for two sets of LED flashlights. I have no idea how bright these are (either set), but if they're any good they can at least be used as "to be seen" lights. A little work with some red plastic and you've got taillights to go with the headlights too, since the one set is 5 of the things.

Another interesting option for visibility was recently featured on Urban Velo - reflective lanyards. The post is about a company (Scott's Knots) that makes to-order lanyards, some of which are made from reflective cording. The site actually has a section specifically for bicycle use, which actually qualifies them for inclusion in the bike-spotting series, where they feature seat danglers and side markers (for handlebars). Reflectors are a secondary "look at me" (see Sheldon on the subject) and I put these in the same category as reflective tape - a great, passive way to draw extra attention to your ride at night while also adding some style.

Can't we all get along?

A little while back I griped about the animosity directed from some bike activists towards the general driving public. Today I have a similar gripe, this time about the conflicts between mountain bikers and hikers over access to parks.

This gripe was kicked-off by this article from BRAIN (Bike Retailers And Industry News) on proposed changes to national park rules. Currently, there are few national parks that MTB riders can access, and the new rules would essentially reclassify MTBs (all cyclists actually) like other non-motorized trail users, like horse-back riders. The International Mountain Biking Association has been advocating for this rule change since 1992. The proposal drew a rapid response from the American Hiking Society, which sent an alert citing specific concerns about the rule change: namely that it would go into effect without appropriate environmental impact and public comment, and that the new rules would negatively impact Wilderness designations.

I'm not going to debate one side or the other. Frankly, I haven't studied the issue well enough to form an opinion on it. Instead, my issue is with the fact that there is an issue. What I mean is that these are two groups that advocate for expanded outdoor/wilderness activities and instead of combining efforts to make sure that their respective constituencies are getting the most out of membership they're butting heads. I fall into both camps, although not a member of either group, by being a hiker/backpacker and avid cyclist (and aspiring MTBer). I would love to know that I could take my bike to national parks that lend themselves to trail riding (my one visit to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park left me dreaming of trail riding through it) and I doubt I'm alone.

I hope that a reasonable compromise can be worked out and that the two advocates can somehow find the common ground in the middle, the place where they are both working for increased access to appropriate backcountry areas rather than fighting over who should be banned from where.

Random bike-spotting (2 in a series)

Like I said last time, I will be filling this series with random places I see references to bikes in the real world (read: anything not related to cycling pros, hipsters, or other aspects of bike culture.) Today: The Economist.

First, About the Economist for those who aren't familiar:

Established in 1843 to campaign on one of the great political issues of the day, The Economist remains, in the second half of its second century, true to the principles of its founder. James Wilson, a hat maker from the small Scottish town of Hawick, believed in free trade, internationalism and minimum interference by government, especially in the affairs of the market. Though the protectionist Corn Laws which inspired Wilson to start The Economist were repealed in 1846, the newspaper has lived on, never abandoning its commitment to the classical 19th-century Liberal ideas of its founder.

"Classical Liberal", for those unfamiliar with the term, is similar in many ways to Libertarianism, and I don't want to get diverted into an economic/political argument about differences between the two. Suffice to say, The Economist is not the sort of place that biking would be covered for the sake of "being green".

The point of that was to bring you this:

PEDALLING to work each day, I spend most of the journey looking out for London’s deadly, articulated “bendy buses”. The 60-foot beasts can happily scissor a cyclist while turning, so as I speed along High Holborn I have never given much of a second glance to the buildings that whizz past on each side. (Emphasis from the original, all articles in The Economist start with the first word capitalized).

This came from an article entitled "MI6's secret tunnels: A deep, dark secret", an article in the Correspondent's Diary. The article itself is about a bunker complex in London, dug during the German bombing of WWII as an air-raid shelter for 8,000. The article covers the history of the complex, but that's not what I am interested in. 

My interest was the nonchalant way the author mentions not once, but twice, cycling to work. The riding is only mentioned as a lead-in to the story which could have been done as simply by the author talking about walking down the same street. But because the author (all Economist articles are presented without an author credit, so I can't say he or she) rides to work the bike was used.

An excellent example of real-life cycling drifting into the mainstream.

Grumble...

There is a gremlin haunting my commuter bike, the Schwinn. I've already written on my problems with the rear tire, and it has once again attacked me. This time I know it was a gremlin.

I rode Monday and Tuesday of last week because my truck was in the shop. Tuesday afternoon I got off BART a few stops early to pick up the truck, then drove to the Concord station to pick up the bike. Both days the ride was fine. When I got to BART the bike was fine. When I unloaded the bike from the truck at my house the back tire was soft, and by Wednesday evening it was flat.

I'm taking the lazy way out, and trying the "pretend there's no problem" option of just pumping the tire back up without actually doing anything. My hope is that there was something in the way I loaded the bike into the truck that caused the tire to flat, but I'm not expecting to get that lucky. Thankfully work takes me out of town on Monday so I couldn't ride anyway and that will give me Monday afternoon to take it apart and try to find the problem...

Random bike-spotting (1 in a series)

For me, the best way to judge how well biking has moved into the mainstream is the appearance of bike-related content in non-bike area of the media. I'm going to start documenting this when I see it, and hopefully it will get to a point where there is too much to cover, and then we will have taken over the world and all will be good.

Today's post is going to be light because I want to set out the goal of this series. Every now and then I've been doing something random, like watching TV with my dad, and I'll see a bike or cyclist in a shot where there isn't any reason for a bike there. What I mean the bike isn't the focus, it's just there because someone thought it would be natural for there to be a bike. That, or I'll see a news report about someone from a random walk of life and there will be an innocuous mention of cycling, just because. Again, the article isn't about the person being a cyclist, but the riding flows in naturally.

Those are the types of things I want to start documenting. To me, that sort of ubiquitousness of cycling shows that the "cycling lifestyle" is drifting into mainstream culture, which is my big hope.

Today I'll start with some levity from the folks at Indexed:

WHY?!

I'm sure I'm not the first bike commuter to discover this, and I won't be the last, but maybe my experience can help others avoid the problem. What problem? Going more than a month off the bike and letting little things become reasons to not ride.

The ride this morning? Fan-freaking-tastic.

I remember now what I loved about bike commuting in the Bay Area before, 4 AM wake-up and all. My plan, to "trick" myself into riding by having my truck in the shop worked beautifully and I fully expect to continue.

Why did I stop in the first place? I can't even remember.

Forcing myself to ride

I've been a bit lazy since I moved, using any number of arguments to justify not biking to BART in the mornings, despite the fact that it's only a 15-20 min ride. Now I've put myself in a place where I have to ride, hopefully it'll stick and I'll keep doing it at least a few days a week.

What I did was wait until late in the afternoon on Sat to take my truck in for the smog test (to get re-licensed in CA) and service that it needs. I also declined the free loaner that the dealer wanted to give me. That ensured that I wouldn't have my truck on Monday morning and the only way to get work is by bike.

Let's see if it works.

Tired of the animosity

Some thoughts:

• Why do so many cyclists (or at least blogging cyclists) feel that the only way to refer to drivers is to call them "cagers"?
  
• Why are there so many blogging cyclists who seem to want the complete annihilation of everyone who has ever or will ever own a motor vehicle?
• Why do blogging cyclists seem to miss the fact that their hatred of drivers is an exact mirror of the driver hatred of cyclists that they are all blogging about?

We get it - mixing cars and cyclists on the same roads is tough. There are some (large in number but probably not in percentage) drivers who actively dislike the presence of cyclists on the road. The laws, and often law enforcement, are tilted in the drivers' favor. Cyclists are often relegated to a form of second-class citizenry and not treated with the respect we feel we deserve. The point is made.

Here's another question though - given that there are a heck of a lot more people driving than cycling are we really going to get anywhere by being rude?

Whenever "bike rights" issues come up people think about the experiences they've had with cyclists in making a decision. Most people in urban areas have encountered messengers dodging between cars and blasting across intersections without a care for the chaos they cause. Most BART commuters can tell at least one story of a cyclist forcing their way onto an overcrowded train during the times where bikes are embargoed. My own father, who knows how avidly I ride (as does my older brother, an Ironman triathlon finisher) has come home on a number of occasions and ranted about the packs of cyclists he has encountered, blocking traffic by riding three- and four-abreast in their club kit, not caring that there is a line of 15-20 cars wanting to get past.

Are these really the thoughts we want people to have of us?

I've seen too many posts on some of my favorite blogs (no, I'm not linking to them today because I don't want to call anyone out) with nasty, antagonistic, prejudicial, and most of all STEREOTYPICAL language regarding drivers. Guess what? I drive. I like my truck and it's a useful tool. I also love my bikes. There isn't any reason people can't be both drivers and cyclists.

Well, except the attitude that drivers are evil incarnate which permeates the blogging cyclist community.

Off-topic, but entertaining (to me)

After seeing it pimped on BikeSnobNYC I decided to check out the Gender Analyzer for both oy my blogs. The interesting thing is that I write differently on them:

Results

We guess http://liberationcycling.blogspot.com/ is written by a man (56%), however it's quite gender neutral.

We think http://preparednessandresponse.blogspot.com/ is written by a man (75%).

I've never really paid that much attention to how I write on the two different blogs, but apparen't it is quite different. I wonder if it's something about the subject matter that leads to the shift in language.

Team Fatty

I've mentioned the Fat Cyclist blog a few times, and he's got something new up his sleeve that I wanted to share:

For 2009, I am going to form Team Fat Cyclist: Fighting For Susan for the LiveStrong Challenge, and I want you to join me. If you’re willing to put in some work, together our neighborhood will not simply break these records; we will crush them.

No, we will demolish them.

And humiliate them, just for fun.

Oh, and by the way, by either joining the team or contributing to the team — your choice — you will automatically be entering yourself in raffles to win prizes that will make your head spin.

For those who aren't familiar with the LiveStrong Challenge, it is a fundraising ride/walk/run event for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. If you don't know what they do...

I haven't done a charity ride like this before, but I have done a couple of metric centuries. Since I've been having some trouble getting off my rear to train and this may be the motivation I need. I'll be watching Fatty's blog to find out when the team goes live.

Political Friday: Bailouts and car companies

Because I get pedantic when it comes to politics I'm going to avoid politics except on Fridays. With the upcoming administration change, not to mention the bailout  (today's topic) I have no doubt there will be a lot to rant about. Hopefully, keeping politics confined to one day a week will keep me brief.

Anyone who has been watching the news lately knows that we, the American public, just got sucked into a gigantic "investment" in various failing companies. If my language doesn't make it obvious, I think this is a bad idea. It is not well thought-out, with Treasury Dept officials admitting that the $700 billion number was pulled from thin air ("It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number.") Now, the American auto industry is crawling into DC to ask for money, and it looks like they're going to get it. The "Big Three" are failing because they chose to invest in a dead end - SUVs - and not fuel-saving technologies like hybrids. They are now regretting that and for some reason think that the people who have chosen to not buy their cars (the tax payers) should pay for their retooling. 

Rewarding the Big Three for their poor choice of direction (bigger = better) isn't good for anyone. Not to be too unsympathetic, but companies sometimes fail in a capitalist economy, that's part of the risk. The advantage is that when companies fail their competitors (in this case, the companies that invested in smaller, fuel-efficient and/or hybrid cars) will be able to expand into a larger section of the market, hiring many of the workers and potentially buying up the manufacturing facilities. Then we, the consumers, can buy the best products. OK, enough econ for one day.

Ghost Rider hit on this same topic over at Bike Commuters.

More lighting

Continuing on Tuesday's post on lighting, here's a short one. 

A little while back I saw a post referencing a semi-hack that Gino was working the bugs out of before getting it manufactured. What? A nifty little device that can be screwed into any 5mm braze-on and will hold most lights that go on handlebars. Head over to Gino's blog for the details on why it's better to keep your light low.

I love the look of these and will probably pick up a few for my touring bike. Since it is being equipped for loaded touring handlebar space will be at a premium and I don't really see where I would put a light. One option is to add a secondary bar, but since I have a front rack with a top platform, any light mounted behind the rack might get blocked. Having the lights down on the fork avoids that problem nicely.

(The pic is Gino's, but it's pretty close to what I'm looking for)

Over at EcoVelo last week was a great post on the lack of lighting on many commuters. Short, to the point, and even including some statistical analysis (for people who like that sort of thing). The point is: if you ride in the dim, dusk, or dark you need lights. If you're riding through well-lit areas go with the blinky/steady combo to make yourself visible (blikies to attract the eye, steady to give something to focus on). If your ride is darker, go with something high powered to give enough light to see the road by.

Cameras and bikes

A little while back I posted about using a mini tripod on my handlebars for taking pictures while riding. I used it to shoot a Sunday drive style ride, but the goal is to figure out the best way to carry a camera on a tour to get shots without having to stop and dig the camera out. Shortly after that post I came across this one from Bike Hacks, a great collection of commercial and home-brew camera mounting options.

Another option that I'm beginning to think about, especially if I can resolve the remote issue I mentioned before, is hooking the camera to the front end of my front rack. I purchased a set of Nice Racks, which have platforms on both the front and rear racks. The racks are about the same width as my camera and it shouldn't take much to rig something up to hold it. Obviously, that set-up requires 1) 2 cameras - one in front for the road and one in back for the other people on the tour; and 2) cameras with remotes. It's certainly something I want to look into.

Some good news

Coming out of the Board of Directors of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), not people you would expect to be super bike-friendly, is this news (from the Adventure Cycling Association press release):

The United States is on a path to creating what could become the largest official bicycle route network in the world, thanks to the approval of a new plan by America's leading authority on national route designations. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) has just approved a National Corridor Plan laying out the framework and guidelines for the development of this system.

The plan identifies corridors connecting America's urban, rural, and suburban areas. The corridors cover well over 50,000 miles, which, if transformed into routes along roads and trails, would create the largest official bicycle route network in any country or on any continent. By comparison, the planned Euro-Vélo network in Europe is projected to be 60,000 kilometers or 36,000 miles.

The U.S. plan has been under development for nearly four years under the auspices of an AASHTO task force on national bicycle routes, with representatives from federal and state transportation agencies and nonprofit organizations. The plan has gone through more than a dozen revisions—with input from hundreds of federal and state officials, cycling advocacy groups, and individuals—as well as review and approval by AASHTO's committees on traffic engineering, design, and non-motorized transportation.

I will be eagerly watching the news and the ACA website for more information.

THIS is a light

(with apologies to Paul Hogan)

Lighting is on most commuters' minds as we lose DST and the days get shorter. There are a couple of ways to go about properly lighting a bike, and each has its proponents. 

Generators: My main commuter bike has a generator hub and permanently installed lights. I like this option because I can grab the bike at any time and ride without having to hook up lights, worry about batteries, or worry about not having lights. The downside is that there is less variety in the style of lighting than with battery-powered and I have to be careful about where I park since I can't remove the lights to avoid theft.

Rechargeable: I used to have a NiteRider TrailRat on my MTB; the light was stolen along with the bike a few years ago. This style of light, with the rechargeable power cell, is a good compromise between the smaller battery lights and the larger generator lights. They are removable (which has pros and cons) and have to be charged.

Battery: The smaller lights, mostly in the "to be seen" category. Most serious cyclists have a few different options floating around. I have more tail lights than headlights. Some are powerful but not if you're riding in the black or fast.

Flashlights: A final option some people go with is strapping a flashlight to the bars. This is especially useful if you don't want to buy bike-specific lighting or plan to do some hacking and build your own system.

And then there's this:

The Polarion PH50's ergonomic design was specifically developed to meet the mission requirements of Law Enforcement and Military personnel in the field. The Polarion PH50 draws it namesake from the power and intensity of the sun. This 50-watt powerhouse features a High Intensity Discharge (HID) arc lamp emits an incredible level of blinding white light ~ 5,200 lamp lumens.

Yeah, that says 5,200 lumens. In comparison, the NiteRider SlickRock, which they describe as "just about the brightest bike light available" comes in at about 920 lumens

The downside to all that power? It'll set you back $2,395. To really appreciate the power of the light check out some of the pictures on the Polarion website.

A disappointing ride

Sunday was a perfect afternoon for a ride - mid 60s, light breeze, sunny - but I just couldn't do anything with it. I attempted a ride that I used to do regularly with almost no problem, and died at the very beginning. I knew that I hadn't been riding much, let alone climbing, but I had no idea that I was that shot.

A short distance from my dad's place is a decent hill - Ygnacio Valley Rd - and I had planned to head over it to where the Contra Costa Canal Trail (Ygnacio Valley Trail) crossed, and head along the trail for a little while before heading home. That was the plan, but the reality is that I got about 1/2 up the slope leading to YV Rd and my legs died. I pulled a U-turn and headed along the same route I took two weeks ago.

It is very emasculating to realize that rides that were simple only a few years ago are completely out of my reach. I will be riding a lot more often now to try and rebuild that capacity.

Bikes and disasters

This is a post I wrote for my other blog - Preparedness and Response - which is about disaster preparedness (my professional life) issues. It draws on a few bike blogs that I read and since it is bike related I figured I'd cross post it here. 

In my last Personal Preparedness post I discussed the NEFRLS and a few ways families can avoid getting separated and losing each other during a disaster. Today I'm going to talk about another good tool for evacuation - a bicycle. I'll lead off by saying I'm a cycling junkie (as this makes clear) and this is something I've been thinking about for a while.

I've seen a few different discussions on bikes and emergencies, one was prompted by this cartoon panel:

Here is a great account from one guy who used a bike to get around after Katrina.

There are a few different things that argue for bicycle use after a disaster:

• Fuel - One of the most reported aspect of any major disaster is the lack of gas and diesel available in the area. Add to this the increased cost for any that might be around, and you have a clear weakness in even the toughest SUV. Bikes, on the other, require no fuel beyond a mobile person.
• Mobility - Many natural disasters can leave roads unusable by dumping debris and disabled vehicles in the way. In these instances cars are of limited use, especially in urban settings where it isn't possible to just cut around a blockage. In San Francisco this was a significant concern that a number of paramedics (who were motorcycle riders) organizedthemselves to respond to emergencies that ambulances couldn't get to. Even more than  a motorcycle, a bike is a means of transport that is almost impossible to stop. Don't believe me? Check out a cyclocross race and watch people run, jump, and wade through mud while lugging a bike. 
• Gear - There is a clear limit to how much "stuff" (an all-encompassing term in this case) any one person can carry. By adding a few simple racks to a bike you can greatly increase that amount. Even bikes that aren't specifically equipped for racks (the holes for screwing things like racks and water bottle carriers are called braze-ons) can have racks fitted to them. This is a topic that could go on for ever, so I'll end by saying that if you are interested in racks for a bike check out bike commuting and bike touring websites.
  
• Maintenance - There were stories in all the national news outlets following Katrina warning people to be on the watch for used cars that had been submerged in the storms. The warning was that these cars, which may be dead, were being sold at too-good-to-be-true prices. A bike, on the other hand, isn't going to mind a little flood. Short of leaving a bike in bad water to the point that it rusts out, there isn't much damage a flood or storm will do. This means that if you need to get somewhere, your bike will be there for you.

Obviously, using a bike to get around requires a little familiarity with it. There are things like a helmet, lock, and lights that you should have, and so on. If you are thinking of prepping a bike, either for a disaster-specific backup or for routine transport, check out one of the commuting links above or drop me a line.

The test

Monday evening I decided to make a test-run on the ride I'll be doing when I decide to get of my lazy @$$ and get back to biking at least part of the way to work. It's a not overly special ride, a little more than 3 miles each way down a quick (speed limit 40 MPH) well-maintained artery of a road. This was my first ride in months on the Scwhinn and I felt it.

I've mentioned before how sore I get when I switch from one bike to another, mainly because I have a couple of different styles of bikes. My day-to-day commuter is an upright Schwinn that's older than me and almost as heavy. As happened the first time I rode it, I felt most of this trip in my quads. The other thing I noticed is that the new dress shoes I bought last week are very slick on the bottom. I did the ride in my work clothes because I will be doing it that way "for real". The slick shoes led to an odd foot position on the pedals  (all the way back so the heels caught on the back of the pedal) which will really screw me up when I ride clipless on the weekends.

All told it took me about a half an hour (including the pleasant visit with the other commuter I mentioned in my last post) to do the 6+ miles. It will feel great to be doing that on a daily basis again.

A pleasant encounter

On Monday evening I decided to take a stab at the ride from my temporary sleeping place (AKA Dad's house) to BART. I want to start riding to the station in the morning rather than driving and wanted to get an idea about the time it would take. I'll be posting about the ride itself in a bit. What I wanted to get down first is the pleasant and very unexpected encounter I had on the trip home.

I did a quick loop, along Clayton Rd. Clayton is a drag-racer's dream - long, straight, and almost flat. It's not my favorite road to ride on, but it is the street I take in the morning (at that time of day there aren't many cars) and since I don't especially care about how long it takes me to get home I decided to go the quick, direct route. Anyway, I was about 3/4 of the way home, and noticed a mini-van parked across a side street with the driver trying to get my attention.

I pulled over to see what he wanted. Turns out the guy was a bike commuter and wanted to advise against riding on Clayton because of the speed of cars and the buses. It's always nice to encounter not only another commuter, but one who cares enough to mention to a total stranger that there are other, safer routes. I've bad-mouthed preachy activist types before. To me, this is the kind of pro-bike activism we should all be doing.

A timely post?

Yesterday I was whining about the discomfort my neck feels from the head-whips I still do, years after my semi-beloved Trek was stolen. And what do I see this morning in my feed, but Yehuda Moon about to know the same pain.

Followed by THIS over at CycleDog.

Good wishes to anyone who has gone through this.

And if you haven't been reading Yehuda Moon & the Kickstand Cyclery, what's wrong with you?

Visit and support

I imagine that most people who read my sketchy writing have come across Elden "Fatty" Nelson as well. If not, head over to his fantastic blog and give it a read.

The main reason I want to encourage everyone to read Fatty's blog is so that there will me more Friends of Fatty lending their support to Fatty and his wife Susan in her ongoing battle with cancer. I don't soapbox or preach much here, because I'm not all that great at it, but this is one case where I will do it. Head over to his site, read his blog, and if you can buy some FC gear to help support them. Or, as Fatty has recommended more than once, head to your favorite anti-cancer charity (mine is here) and donate.

If you happen to find this yourself Fatty, here's an oldie but goodie for you.

WIN

Post Bike-Theft Trauma

So my actual bike theft happened a while back - better part of two years I think - but that hasn't lessened my annoyance. It hasn't lessened the whiplash-inducing head wrench that I engage in every time someone goes by on an even remotely similar bike. I've now moved across the country, and I still spin my head.

Let me back up a little so this all makes sense. A few months after I moved to Baltimore (call it March of 2006) my Trek 930 Singletrack (green/black/green, outfitted as a commuter bike and tweaked over a year of travel back and forth across the Oakland hills) was stolen out of my pick-up. It was my own fault since a camper shell isn't all that protective, but I was still irked at whoever did it. I made a brief tour of the closer pawn shops just in case, but mountain bikes are popular transport for the unlicensed pharmaceutical industry in Baltimore so I didn't have much hope. From that point on I took a look at every bike I saw going by to see if it was mine. For as long as I've been a serious commuter I've had swivel-head for bikes passing me by. After my bike was stolen I became obsessed. Any mountain bike got scoped out, if it was green I would stare.

I've now moved from Baltimore to California, there is no way my bike made the same trip, but I still find myself hunting for it. That being the case I've decided that I'm suffering from the bike-theft equivalent of PTSD, I just need a better name for it. Any ideas?

A different take on Critical Mass

I've been a long-time critic of what Critical Mass has become. I remember when I worked in San Francisco (1998-2000) and it was a small but active presence on the streets of the Financial District. I've seen it move from being a bunch of cyclists getting "in the way" to the violent "everyone sucks but us" mob-rule ride it often becomes these days. I agree with what it is supposed to be about (raising the visibility of cyclists, protesting the lack of accommodations) but not the way the message is delivered. On my BART ride into work this morning I was listening to a podcast and got a different take on it.

 

I was listening to the show Law in Action from BBC Radio 4. The first 10 minutes or so of the 10/14/08 show are on a case involving Critical Mass that has worked its way through the British legal system until now, when it goes before the Law Lords. The short version is: the 1986 Public Order Act organisers of mass-gatherings are supposed to inform the police about the event (like in the US) ; an individual who was part of a CM ride challenged the law and won under the "there is no organizers for CM" argument; the appealed and won on appeal. The general argument from the rider is that CM 1) is not organized and 2) there is an exception in the law for "customary"(regularly occuring) events which CM is. The general argument from the police is that knowing the route in advance would allow them to better serve the general population by rereouting traffic as with normal parades.

 

It is a very balanced presentation, with the presenter going so far as to take part in the ride and record at least a few moments at the begining, despite having not ridden a bicycle for years. This is one of the few instances of coverage of CM that I can think of in recent times that hasn't been trying to argue one side or the other. Additionally, the presenter is careful to mention possible negative ramifications of the case going for the MP, namely a potential chilling effect on other marches if the organizers are afraid the participants might stray from the approved route.

 

Whatever your take on CM I recommend checking out the podcast. The story is the first ~ 10 minutes, and includes interviews with riders, police, laywers, and law professors.

New camera set-up

I am not a photographer, I'm a shutterbug. By that I mean that I carry a wee little digital camera (Canon PS A540, if anyone cares) around just about everywhere I go, and I pop off pictures of pretty much anything that catches my eye. I shoot for myself, and so I can share some of the things I have done with friends and family. If you are looking for beautiful photography with a cyclist flare check out Russ Roca's stuff.

This is mine, not Russ' - go to his site and prepare to be amazed

All that being said, I do like to take pictures while I ride, and I've been trying to figure out a convenient way to do it. I used to just slip the camera into my OYB bag on the bars and pull it out when I wanted to shoot. The good is that the camera was in my hand and I could really see what I was shooting, the bad was that I had to wait for it to turn on, fire up, and be ready to go each time.

On my ride on Sunday I decided to try strapping my mini-tripod to the stem and see how that worked. The good was that I left the camera on for the whole ride, the bad was that I had to adjust the angle before I set out and hope I was catching what I wanted - no zoom, no framing.

All in all I'm happy with the results. The next step will be figuring out a way to hook the camera up to a wired remote so I can shoot from the drops/hoods rather than having to let go and hit the button. Another step, especially if I pull together a tour, will be to get a new camera with a re-positionable screen so I can have a better idea what the shot is going to look like.

Finally

I have no one to blame but myself for this, but still. Yesterday was the first day in many moons (since September 8 according to my log at Active Body) that I got out for a ride. It wasn't anything special, but then again, it was. This was my first ride of any length on the Trucker, it was my first ride with the racks on the Trucker (unloaded), and it was my first ride testing out my mini-pod tripod as a camera holder on the handle bars.

I had done some short rides on the Trucker, but nothing more than commuting really. Today I did about an hour in the saddle, and went a whopping 12 miles. It was long enough to put me firmly in the "Brooks B17 works right out of the box" camp. It also was long enough for me to discover a couple of odd sore spots (right elbow, left knee) that show me just how long I've been away from biking and pretty much any working out.

You probably can't see it in this picture, but there's a deer running from R to L across the path

All things considered I'm ecstatic to be back in the saddle, and can't wait to do it again. I hope to start doing a few rides like this in the evenings after work, building up to doing some more serious rides on the weekends.

Bike commuting in the Bay Area 3

I mentioned that some BART stations have lockers that you apply for, and some now have first-come lockers. The last option for bike storage at BART stations is only available at a few stations, and is supervised bike parking.

Three stations (Fruitvale, Downtown Berkeley, Embarcadero) have bike parking. Fruitvale is operated by Alameda Bicycle and is located in the back of a small shop (great for getting new tubes). The others are in the BART stations themselves, and are operated in partnership with Bikestation. Unfortunately, all of these stations are on the wrong side of the hills for me.

I need to do a little legwork (har har) and check out the area around the stations at my end of the commute to see if there are options. If I had the money to ride a Rivendell (sigh, someday) I would stop by the shop and see if there was a way to park there, since they are walking distance from the Walnut Creek station.

Note - this whole set of posts was actually inspired by this article from the NY Times blog. The blurb that showed up in the reader irked me because it sounded as if the article was arguing that there should be government-sponsored bike valet parking set up, and I couldn't figure out why there needed to be government involvement. Then I read the piece and saw this:

The city (or perhaps a third party like Transportation Alternatives) should license the valets so people would be be confident that their valet isn’t a fly-by-night bike thief. The city has already used its licensing power to increase the availability of fruit and vegetable vendors in poorer neighborhoods, why not use it to increase parking valets?

Government licensing could be necessary, especially if the parking area is not right where the bikes are dropped off. The only one of these I've ever used is the one at Fruitvale, and you can see them wheel the bike into the back and place it on the rack. Plus, the fact that there is an obvious brick-and-mortar facility makes it a little easier to know who you would "go after" if your bike went missing.

Bike commuting in the Bay Area 2

My last post on commuting in the Bay Area was full of hill-love, this will be a little more of a downer. I mentioned last time that I liked to ride home over the hills rather than take the train. Even on those days I usually took the train partway, I just went over the hills first. The full trip is about 30 miles, one way, which is why I usually multi-moded it.

Where I worked before (Alameda) was a short hop from a BART station, about a 10 minute ride. That meant I needed my bike at both ends of the trip, which meant getting up really early. BART is semi-liberal with bikes, but excludes full sized (non-folding) bikes during commute hours which are ~ 7:00-9:00 AM and 4:30-6:45 PM. The issue I ran into before was that I would have to leave work really early to catch a train I could fit in (no bike-specific cars) which meant having to start really early so I could get my full 8 hours in.

The new office is across the street from a station, which means that bringing my bike with me is pointless unless I plan to ride after work. That means I'll be locking up at the station, which gives me the heebie-jeebies. Some stations have lockers that can be applied for. I have no idea how long the wait list is for the station near my dad's place, but the last time I was there I counted maybe 10 lockers. Apparently, some stations now have electronic, first-come/first-served lockers that can be registered for. The station near my dad's house is on the "coming soon" list. If I can't get a locker it means locking up outside which is something I've never had to do and I'm not at all comfortable with.

My plan is to check out the electronic lockers at one of the other stations (about twice as far away, but a locker would make it worth it), and time my ride to it. Hopefully I'll be able to do all that before I start working. If not, I'll check out the lockers by driving to that station for a couple of days during the week (to judge the usage) and time the ride on the weekend. The other option is to buy a folder, and as much as I'd love to do that I don't know how practical it would be. Given that my office is almost on top of the station at the other end of the trip, leaving the bike at the "home end" just makes more sense to me.

While I was away

While I was away there was some big news for cyclists. It was covered by just about every cycling-related blog I read, including:

• Bicycle Commuters
• Bikes Belong
• Bike Commute Tips Blog - two times
• Bike Hacks
• CycleDog
• Cycelicious
• Freewheeling Spirit
• Urban Velo
• The Velo ORANGE Blog
• The Wash Cycle

So what was it that got all of these fellow-travelers off their bikes and onto their keyboards? The inclusion of the Bicycle Commuter Act as part of the gigantic outpouring of taxpayer money for the financial industry.

From the San Jose Mercury News (by way of Paul Dorn's blog):

Effective Jan. 1, people who use bicycles as their primary means of getting to work will be eligible to get up to $20 a month in tax-free payments from their employers for the costs of owning and operating a bike. Employers can deduct the payments as an expense from their federal taxes.

As a cyclist, I think this is a good thing. Not because $20.00 per month is really going to make a big difference, but because it puts bike commuters on equal footing as other commuters, if only in the eyes of the IRS (but really, is there a stronger indicator of reality than the IRS?). However, I have a couple of problems with the way it went down.

First - This is just one more piece of pork tossed into a bad piece of legislation to bribe (yeah, I'll say it) reticent members to vote for it. The leadership knew that they weren't going to get the votes they needed, so they added superfluous amendments like this one to get more people on board. That rubs me the wrong way. If the bail out was so important, why weren't more members willing to support it on its own merits? If bike commuters deserve equal treatment at the hands of the tax code, why couldn't the Act pass on its own merits. The obvious answer to both questions is that there wasn't enough support for either on its own, and only by pooling the supporters of two flawed pieces of legislation those supporters able to get them passed.

Second - I know I'm committing bike blogger sacrilege by questioning the need for laws relating to cyclists, specifically benefits for cyclists. The line of argument that a lot of advocates have made is that other commuters can get pre-tax money to buy mass-transit tickets, and cycling serves the same "greater good" by removing people from cars, so cyclists should be able to get the same pre-tax benefit to offset some of the affiliated costs. My concern is that this is demonstrating one of the worst characteristics of federal laws - unnecessary complication. There is a reason that the index for the 2008 Code of Federal Regulations is over 1,000 pages long. Rather than adding a new law for bike commuters, wouldn't it be better to remove things from the old law, specifically the parts that indicate the means of commuting? The whole idea is to allow commuters to use pre-tax money to pay their expenses, is there some reason that this should only apply to certain types of commuters, and if so, why?

All things being equal, it is a victory for cyclists that this has passed. Personally, I have reservations about the way it happened, but that's just me.

Bike commuting in the Bay Area 1

As I prepare to once again bike commute in the SF Bay Area I am faced with the same challenge as the last time around: I will be living on the east side of the hills and working on the west. People from the Bay Area will understand without explanation the semi-obstacle that the Oakland-Berkley hills present, for those who don't, I offer this:

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE riding in those hills and am eagerly awaiting rebuilding my climbing motor using them, but that riding is for the weekends and afternoons.

When I was there before I lived in Concord (the A point on the map) and worked in Alameda (the island to the west of the B point). This time I'll be living in the same place and working in Oakland (the B point) for at least a few months, then I'll be moving into my own place. My commute to Alameda was crack of dawn early (4 AM) so I could leave work early enough to get on BART before the 4:30 PM "no bikes in commute time" rule kicked in. Sometimes I would ride over the hills instead of taking BART home, which gave me trips like this:Personally, there's no better way to end a long day spent over a lab bench (at that time) or in front of a computer (this time) than a 10-15 mile climb through semi-wild rolling hills. That, and the bragging rights that I earned when I was strong enough to ride the whole route home while my preparing-for-a-tour-I-couldn't-go-on buddies couldn't do it.

I will get back to that, but initially I won't be taking my bike all the way. The new office is right next to the BART station, so I would be lugging my bike on the train just to carry it into the office.

But those hills are calling loud enough that I can hear them all the way in Baltimore...

Rediscovering the town I grew up in

As I mentioned before the blog went dark, I moved from Baltimore back to the SF Bay Area. Specifically, at least for now, to Concord, where I grew up. I biked around town as a kid, and to/from my dad's place to BART as an adult, but never really thought about how bike-friendly my on-again/off-again hometown is.

I haven't gotten out on a bike yet, too busy half-unpacking  (I will be staying with my dad until I find my own place) and the like. I have been driving around town, and saw a few things that I didn't expect. First - there are a whole lot of bike lanes. Even to the point of having a bike lane that has a right side paint line, to set the lane off from the on-street parking. Second - at the end of one of those fancy two-sides-painted lanes was a turn-lane sign indicating that cars must yield to bikes. Third - a number of intersections around town have the nifty little devices for bikes to trigger the traffic signals.

Like I said, I never really thought about my hometown as bike-friendly. I guess it's time to rethink things.

Cut and paste

This is a direct cut/paste from the Baltimore Spokes daily email newsletter. If you live or ride in the Baltimore area you will probably be interested.

Title: Assault while riding?
Author: The human car
Date: Tuesday, September 23 2008 @ 02:25 PM EDT

Part of the City's Bike Master Plan we are trying to track incidents. If you have been assaulted while riding if you could email the following information to the City's Bike/Ped Planner "Evans, Nate" <Nate.Evans@baltimorecity.gov>:

Date of assault:
Time of assault:
# Of Assailants:
If the bike was stolen:
Owner's name:
Street Location:
If police report was filed:

Thanks for your assistance in helping make Baltimore a better place to live.

I will also note feel free to contribute a story here on Baltimore Spokes. Our mission is to help promote biking in the city, whether its problems to be fixed or sharing positive experiences, whatever it is we are all part of a community that is out to help one another.

Read the full article at http://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20080923142506744

Away

I probably won't be posting much for the next couple of weeks. I'm wrapping things up at my old job and packing at home. I hope to be back to writing after the move.

"But the waiting is the hardest part"

With apologies to Tom Petty.

A few days ago I got notice that my racks (Nice Racks, in fact - yeah, I had to go with Surly for the Surly) for the Trucker were on their way from Bikeman in Maine. Now, everyday when I get home the first thing I do is scan the door, mailbox, and stoop to see if there's a "we missed you" tag from UPS letting me know the racks are here.

No luck yet...

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

Making the rest of us look bad

I will never claim to be a saint when it comes to cycling. I'm not a 100% VC guy, I drift through both stop lights and signs, I only signal turns at a few spots...you get the gist. There are a few things I avoid at almost all costs: I don't ride on the sidewalk, and I don't ride against traffic.

Today I was walking to my car (meetings make me drive) and was almost hit by a cyclist. This guy was:

• in full spandex
• going the wrong way on a one-way street
• riding on the sidewalk
• using a gear that would have been more at home scaling Alpe d'Huez than riding on level ground
  

He made a slight noise that might have been "Left" as he went by, but I only figured out what he said as I saw him going past me. I'm not a narrow guy, so it was a tight fit for him to get by, and I had a wall on the other side. About a block after passing me he went into the street, sliding around the parked cars, and kept on going - apparently playing chicken with any oncoming traffic.

These are the cyclists people remember. His bright red jersey, the spandex shorts, and riding the wrong way and on the sidewalk. No matter how many of us ride the right way, no matter how many of us ride civilly, it's the guys like this people remember whenever there's a discussion of bike infrastructure.

And we wonder why we usually lose those votes...

Trucker, fully loaded

I've been riding the Trucker for my commute for a couple of weeks now. (I will repair the rear of the Schwinn, someday.) Over the weekend I decided to finally get off my duff and move some of the accessories over to it.

First I moved the OYB bag. It hangs on a nifty no-tool bag mount that Velo Orange had for sale as NOS for a little while. I thought it might not fit because of where the brake cables emerge from the bar tape, but there was no problem. I also transferred the Polar CS100 computer over. Unfortunately, in order to get the wireless cadence sensor to work, I have to put the computer on the top tube. I discovered on the first ride with this set up that the angle of the stem is such that it obscures the computer. This may be a good thing (no watching the time/distance on longer rides) but I doubt it. Finally, I moved the essentials - the pump (Topeak RoadMorph) and lock (Kryptonite Evolution).

Finally, after too many months, the Trucker is almost complete. Next come racks and bags, then an overnight.

Surprisingly, the government gets worse

The new plan? Gas stamps. Think food stamps for your car and you have the right idea.

Gas stamps would work like traditional food stamps, which some Americans have collected since the 1930s. They would be used, however, to pay for regular unleaded instead of meat and potatoes.

Under one version of the proposal, a person earning up to $31,200 or a family of four earning up to $63,600 could receive government payments totaling $500 for gas.

Because the only way that any of us can get anywhere is by driving a family car. Somehow, the congresscritters in favor of the idea (Dems trying to shore up their appeal in the heartland based on the article) are comparing the pricey gas we have now to the war-imposed gas rationing from WWII, when you were only allowed a little at a time and had the stamps to allow you to buy more.

The idea for fuel stamps was first proposed by maverick Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), chairman of the House Income Security and Family Support subcommittee, who remembers his family using gas stamps when he was a boy during World War II.

“If you had to drive to work, you got to buy more gasoline than if you just drove your car on the weekends,” he said of the wartime policy.

Who knows how much time and eventually money will be blown on this. Making gas appear to be cheaper (and it will only be on the surface, after all, it will take higher taxes to provide a new service) does nothing to resolve the real problems. On the other side of the aisle are the GOP members claiming that opening offshore drilling will take care of everything. Again, at best this will add a fractional amount of new crude to what we already use and will not fix the systemic problems.

Is biking more the solution for everyone? No, but added to public transit and walking it would reduce the demand within the US to the point that prices would come down. Beyond that, people need to make it clear to manufacturers that they want cars that go farther per gallon and are willing to pay for them. None of this requires government action, it requires lazy-@$$ Americans to do something, which means it won't happen.

And I thought I've had some rough commutes

Most people who bike commute have to deal with a simple and similar set of problems:

• drivers who ignore you (or are actively antagonistic)
• pedestrians who wander out into the road without looking
• buses and other large vehicles that drift into the bike area
• getting doored

And then there's this:

Teacher OK after crashing into bear on a bicycle
A middle school teacher suffered some bruising and a big scratch on his back after he struck a bear while riding his bicycle to school.
Jim Litz said he was traveling about 25 mph Monday morning when he came upon a rise and spotted a black bear about 10 feet in front of him. He didn't have time to stop and T-boned the bruin.
He tumbled over the handlebars, his helmet hit the bear's back and the two went cartwheeling down the road.
The bear rolled over Litz's head, cracking his helmet, and scratched his back before scampering up a hill above the road.
Litz's wife drove by shortly after the crash and took her husband to the hospital. He hoped to be able to return to teaching science at Target Range Middle School on Friday.

OK, that trumps anything I've had to deal with.

Also covered at:

• Missoulan.com
• Cyclicious
  

Just because...

...every other bike blog I read has something on it, here is a listing of stories about The Return of Lance.

News:

• Armstrong says he's coming out of retirement - Baltimore Sun
• Contador would welcome Armstrong - BBC News
• Armstrong Plans 2009 Tour de France Return - The Guardian
• Armstrong Will Ride Anticancer Message in his Return - NYT
• Riders welcome Armstrong's return - Reuters Africa
• Armstrong Confirms his Retun - WSJ
  

Cycling:

• Et tu, Ulrich? - Bicycle Spokesman
• Comeback Confirmed - Bicycling Magazine
• Reactions from Europe - Bicycling Magazine
• Don't Call it a Comeback: Lance Returns - Bike Hugger (LL Cool J - FTW)
• Bike racing may be hard, but it's easier than growing up - Citizen Rider
• Lance Armstrong in Vanity Fair - Cyclicious (includes video)
• Endurance Buzz Round-up - EveryMan Triathlon (links to a couple of Lance stories)
• It's Official: He's back for 2009 - EcoVelo
• Exclusive: Lance Armstrong Returns to Pro Racing (Plus Insider Reactions) - Fat Cyclist
• Lance Armstrong: video statement - quickrelease.tv
  
• Lance Armstrong Rides Again - Urban Cyclist
• In case you've been trapped in a well - Wash Cycle

Other:

• Lance Returns - The Monkey Cage (a primarily political science blog)
  

Two things - these all came from my RSS feed (I didn't go looking) and the blogs have much better titles than the news sites.

Downsides to cycling in kit

I've mentioned before that I don't commute in a lot of bike-specific clothing. That has shifted a little as I have gone to the Trucker as my commuter of choice. I've had to go back to bike shorts (mountain shorts with a removable liner - keep me from looking to Fred) and wearing gloves.

The shorts are a necessity, not for comfort (Brooks B17, is there anything better?), but because the leather of the saddle was coloring my normal shorts. (Note - no lesser an authority than Sheldon Brown indicates that the reason cycling shorts are black has to do with leather saddles - 2/3 down, "Breaking in a leather saddle"). That means I'm back to having to remember all of the necessary underthings for when I change.

The gloves are more about comfort than the shorts. The bar tape is soft and padded and undoubtedly will be great when I start touring, but it can also be a little gummy in the humidity. Wearing gloves helps avoid this. The biggest problem with that is I end up with glove-funky hands, which for some reason even repeated washing doesn't seem to ease. Guess it's a good thing very few people come to visit me.

A final, not overly related issue with wearing cycling-specific clothes comes at the end of the work day. I hit leaving time and want to just go. I'm so brain-burned that even the effort of changing seems like more of a hassle than it's worth. Yeah, too lazy to change but looking forward to a ride home, how addicted am I?

More bus problems

Anyone who has read more than a few posts here knows how I feel about buses. Today I had another less than pleasant encounter with the brain trust that is the MTA.

For reasons I haven't bothered to figure out buses in Baltimore seem to always be stacked. It is rare that I come upon a single bus on a route. Most of the time there are two and occasionally three or more. This morning I somehow managed to end up between two, so I had one breathing down my neck (at one point it had pulled close enough behind me that my shadow on the road was obscured by the bus') and one belching soot into my face.

Thankfully I had some movies to drop off at the post office and I dumped off the road a little early.

Bike freedom

When I decided to stop annoying my friends with bike-related nonsense and start a blog I chose "Liberation Cycling" because it captures a number of things about me. I realized that I never really fulfilled a semi-promise from my first post, which was to explain the name, and since I've been thinking about it recently, why not?

This week I've had to drive to work. Yesterday specifically drove home the freedom that you lose driving (when you should/could be riding). I got stuck on a road where a delivery truck for a construction site had blocked off one of the two lanes of a major commute-direction street. This led to a significant back-up stretching through two lights. As I sat there all I could think about was that I could be dodging the whole thing on my bike. The freedom of cycling.

Another aspect of it for me is the clarity of mind that develops, primarily on longer rides, when you can settle into a cadence and ride. No shifting, little effort, just riding. I miss that here, since there aren't easy places to take longer rides that aren't crowded MUPs, and can't wait to get back to CA and have the backroads I know available practically at my door.

The last aspect of liberation that I get from a bike, or at least the last significant one, is the freedom of movement. Not just freedom in commuting, discussed above, but true freedom of movement. Bikes allow you to go anywhere, and with a little preparation (or a high-limit credit card) you can go everywhere. Getting around town is easier on a bike, taking a vacation (touring) isn't necessarily easier, but it is certainly more open to changes of whim. There are very few barriers that can stop a person with a bike.

Those are a few of the ways I see bikes as liberating. There may be others for you, and there are some other, smaller ones for me.

Another bike quote

This one, from the great Elden "Fatty" Nelson, is specifically bike-related (not like the previous, political, one) and is a little too close to home:

I was training very seriously, and was trying to get down to racing weight (i.e., the weight at which my knees no longer squoosh into my belly on the upstroke).

Ah, how well I know that feeling. In fact, one of the things I love about my Schwinn commuter is that the upright posture of it completely prevents the squooshing from happening. The last week plus that I've been doing the commute on the Trucker have forced me to acknowledge that the belly is still there, no matter how much I avoid looking at it.

Thank you Fatty, for giving me a great new term for the unpleasant (and occasionally painful) impact of knee to gut when riding in the drops, as well as a way to use "racing weight" without making myself laugh.

Random, but fantastic, bike-related political quote

I've mentioned my politics before, so there's no reason to beat you over the head with them again. This morning, as I was reading my feeds and getting caught up on what the world did while I was asleep, I came across this line:

Yes, that's the problem: It's not that Palin's record as a reformer has proven as durable as an oragami mountain bike.

(emphasis mine)

That was quoted from the reason magazine Hit & Run blog, in an article written by David Weigel about Sarah Palin. The whole post is available here.

Stepping back from the politics, I think that's at once the greatest political use of a bike in a non-bike-related discussion, and just a fantastic metaphor, one I plan on using often.

Slow leaks

I can't think of any aspect of bike maintenance that drives me farther up the wall than slow leaks in tubes. Especially with my Speedster. Why that bike in particular?

• No quick release - The rear (internal gear) can't be and the front just isn't, and for commuting that's just fine (it buys me an extra 0.5 seconds) but for replacing tubes it's a pain
• No work stand - The other bikes hang on a rack and I could probably get their (quick release) tires off on there, not the Schwinn because...
• It weighs a lot - This is an old school steel tank, which I love, but the lean-against-the-wall style rack my other bikes are on wouldn't hold it
• Full metal fenders with attached taillight - This makes it tough to just wheelie the bike up and over on the rear wheel, I get about 1/2 way and hit the fender
• Odd tire size - When I had new wheels built I did the cool but not smart thing and kept the original S6 wheels, which makes getting new tires and tubes a pain (that will change soon)
• Tires that don't sit easily - I don't know if it's S6 in general or just the tires I have, but they do not sit well on the rim so pinch flats are a constant source of worry

That's the beginning of the list, but you get the point.

For the last week I've been commuting on the Trucker because the Schwinn is flat in the back. I pulled it off this weekend, couldn't find a hole, put the tube back on and a few hours later (3 or 4) it was going flat again. In the end I will probably pull the tube and replace it, tagging it as leaking and fix it later (when I have access to my dad's fountain to find the leak). I think I'm also going to get new rim tape because the old stuff looks pretty shot, and some of the add-it-yourself anti-flat goop.

Maybe my next bike...?

I can't imagine actually using this, but I love the ingenuity.

When I was a kid we had a smallish yard and a push mower. The smallness of the yard did not in any way make me any more willing to mow the lawn on the fairly rare occasion that I was asked to. A mower like this might have done so. Here is a pic of the bike in action (links to a page with a video).

At any rate it beats this style.