I spent a better part of my youth on a Sears bike trying to jump and crash like Evel Knievel — him and the Bionic man were my heroes, later it was rock n roll.
Reading about his death brings back all kinds of memories of why I even ride a bike.
November 2007 Archives
I’m in London next week for business and will ride all over the place. Any of our readers across the pond got some tips or want to meet up for some coffee and a ride?
In preparation for the trip, I’ve been reading the BBC, weird stuff and gossip on the Daily Mail, listening to LDN from Lily Allen, Goldie Looking Chain (You Knows It!), and reruns of Are You Being Served.
There’s an interesting article in the Grey Lady today about some bicycle culture popping up in NYC all the way from South America. Guyanese and Trinidadian youth are loading down their rides with batteries and speakers — 5,000 watts worth of loud! — and cruising the neighborhood.
It’s great to see this taking off in the youth as an organic outgrowth of their culture, I don’t think it’ll be long before we see this around a bit more broadly. I always enjoy a ride with tunes, and wearing ear-buds is a bit too dangerous and anti-social (especially as I’m ringing my bell before I pass you on the left, eh?). I’ve been hauling around the big-a** boombox on my xtracycle for a while now, but it doesn’t have quite the oomph I’m looking for. I’m still considering some ‘motorcycle speakers’ and a small battery for the next RideCivil event. But these kids have clearly got it wired. As does D.J. Fossil Fool.
So Huggers — what do you do for sound? Would you ever install speakers on your bike? Enough that you’d need training wheels like the dudes in NYC?
Ana bought her husband a Bike Hugger jersey and wrote this about it
I purchased a Bike Hugger jersey for my husband and he used it at his last cyclocross race… thank you for making such a great product - it’s been through mud, blood, and mountains, and it’s in PERFECT shape. Mike, my husband, loves his bikes and loves this jersey as it epitomizes who he is: a true bike hugger.
Her husband Mike had this to say
… this is the best quality material: it’s durable, great for hot and cold weather, and love the full-length, high-quality zipper with the plastic border on the inside really keeps the jersey in place. After many falls, this jersey is TOUGH! and the only thing to stick to it is me! neither mud nor blood will, though. Finally, I love the logo, and if they could, all my bikes could attest to that.”
Mike is wearing the jersey in every race and it’s his unofficial team jersey; he’s his own team. Hincapie Sportswear makes those jerseys for Bike Hugger and that’s a testament to their work.
Right on Mike, but you’re not on your own. We consider you part of Team Bike Hugger.
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Issaquah cut the ribbon today on a new pedestrian and cycle trail, connecting the dots between several existing trails and some central locations. Kent Peterson’s (from the Bicycle Alliance of Washington) been working on this for a long time and has these notes and a few photos from his talk at the ribbon cutting. As Getting Around Issaquah notes, the new trail is really focused on transportation rather that recreation. It should be a great resource for the 425 crowd for beating the I-405.
I haven’t reached anyone at UPS HQ to comment, but do have it confirmed that in Seattle they are going to deliver packages during the Holiday rush with cargo bikes. The brown trucks will deliver to various stations, where the cargo bikes will load up and deliver in certain neighborhoods. We’re on the watch and will blog it as soon as we see them. If you see the presumed brown bikes, please comment here or contact us.
The World Clock is closing in on 100 million bikes produced in 2007. There are some daunting stats on there.
Bikes make frequent appearances on the Sartorialist, and this, to me, is the epitome of urban cycling: riding to work comfortably in business attire with briefcase and umbrella slung nonchalantly over the handlebars.
Scary for me to think, but this story is probably from ~12 years ago. I worked as shop hand at a bike shop in Redmond, WA. In the shop, we had an ace mechanic named Val - this guy could fix anything. His handlebar mustache made him somehow seem even wiser. Val continues to dazzle folks with his wrenching skills - and he shares his experiences here from time to time with his comments.
Anyway, the store assistant manager was a bit of a blow-hard, and had a serious case of short-man’s disease. He was headed out on a biking vacation with his old riding buddies in California. He was talking a big game about how he’d upgraded to Cat3 and he was going to be making his buddies suffer with his new-found fitness. Of course, being the manager he used his position and had Val pack the bike for him.
... Read more »Stressing that it gets him where he needs to be, Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Dhani Jones, rides a fixed-gear Surly bicycle around town.
Quite possibly the best video ever made … at least for cross racers
and that completes our thong coverage for the year, which began with Thong Boy at Le Tour.
Hrmmm - Do I really need these?
From Engadget
When I first read about the UW piloting an electric bike program, I thought, “wusses need motors,” but then hey I got a motor on the Bettie and it’s bad ass!
Also see bike patrols in Seattle.
That’s a load of Clip-n-Seals, Bike Hugger Jerseys, and Shirts on the Bettie and en route to Amazon.com for the holidays.
7 packages, a hundred pounds, carbon offsetting, and quite fun to show up at the mail depot on Bettie. Check the Bettie Delivers movie from earlier in the year for more.
Uploaded by jctdesign, this photo, reminded me of my rides in Beijing
After a discussion, we agreed that a “fast and freezing” descent back home was better then the “slow and cold” longer way home. We wanted to get that ride over with … we got the turkey, fixins, and rather cold.
Friday looks like it’s going to be as nice as Thanksgiving here in Seattle, brisk but clear, a great day for an evening ride!
The media climate is shaping up as well: check out this recent SeattlePI letter to the editor criticizing Critical Mass. I’m not 100% down with Mr. Dudley, but I definitely am down with having a down-town ride that’s a bit more integrated and a bit less confrontational than CM. Hopefully that’s just what we need here in Sea-town. Mr. Dudley, we’d love to have you and anybody else who’s wanted to come to CM rides but been put off by it’s reputation.
We’ll meet around 5:30 at Westlake Center in downtown. We’ll plan on leaving shortly after 6:00, and wrapping up the ride around 7:30. See you there.
Earlier in the week, the conditions were just right — a side tailwind across the bike, “lifting” the wheels — and I rode the Modal fast. As “a roleur” type of rider, I get a rush from the momentum of a bike, from getting on top of the gear, and holding it there. Riding a tailwind for me, is like a surfer dropping into a big wave and with 60 mm of wing surface, the Jet 60s catch that wind and roll almost effortlessly.
I was just planning on picking up the turkey and fixins on the Bettie, but this dude cooks his turkey with a bike rotisserie …
The ratio is 7 pedals to 1 turn of the turkey.
Last week Mark toggled the Modal to geared mode and I videotaped the process. The Modal is a travel bike that folds and toggles between single, fixed, and geared modes. In geared mode, I’ll ride it around Seattle and trips where I’m touring, training, and riding longer.
Switching between single and geared took about 16 minutes (without the cassette change, we’re clocking it at around 15 minutes).
Note: the time is compressed in the video.
... Read more »Take a look at these maps of where Cars and Bicycles collide from the Portland Oregonian and the Seattle PI (warning: 500k+ download). Interesting data in both cases, but check out the big brains on the Oregonian! Explorable Google maps, an ODOT analysis of fault (50% motorists, 42% cyclists, 8% shared), and reasonable advice to motorists and cyclists about how to NOT appear on the next version of the map.
Best though is the video of Jeff Mapes talking about Amsterdam, Portland and road travel safety.
This is a topic that comes up a lot in online cycling forums and always seems to garner a rather polarized response - and I don’t get why. With the advent of new compact, high-wattage lighting systems cycling commuters have become either the haves or the have-nots. I’m a have-not by choice. I have a Light and Motion Vega light that only puts out 85 lumens. I can see fine with it on low power on the trail(1), reserve the high setting for rainy nights(2), and the flashing mode only when on city streets(3). The whole point of the light is for safety, and I outline my usage to maximize for each of these conditions below.
Here’s a pre-race write up of the West Hill Shop Cyclocross Race in Putney Vermont. It’s a great taste of Cyclocross on the other coast. It sounds like the fall in VT has been a bit more autumnal than what we’ve been having here in Seattle this year, wood stoves and cider are par for the course. What I like most about the HUP write-up is the focus on the locals. It seems like great spectators is a universal feature of cx races no matter how unique the locals are.
The race was actually last weekend, but here are the results, some photos, and video of this years race just went up a few days ago.
You’re cordially invited to our next Ride Civil ride (formerly Critical Man-nerds) this coming Friday the 23rd. Meet at Westlake Center, 5:30 pm.
All Ride Civil rides will focus on getting cyclists out on the streets, driving awareness of cyclists and cycling rights, having fun, and encouraging civil behavior between cyclists, motorists and pedistrians. This is your chance to come out and show Seattle traffic cyclists are here to stay and that we can share the roads with them without conflicts.
It’ll also be a great chance to get out and be social with other cyclists, maybe burn off a bit of that thanksgiving weight or haul back your Black Friday loot. So please bring your selves, your bike (cargo or otherwise), and your sense of humor and fun down to Westlake Center at 5:30 PM. We’ll go bike bus style — 2 abreast, social speed, no one left behind.
There’s another cargo bike focused ride earlier in the day for those who can’t make the later time.
p.s. We’re not stopping for any shopping, so get yours out of the way early, eh? See you there!
We worked with men.style.com, the online home of Details & GQ, on the City Bike section of their Upgrader. The Upgrader is the “latest and greatest in cars, clothes, watches, whiskies, and all the other important issues confronting today’s man,” including bikes.
Editor’s picks from the Upgrader include
Note that two of the picks — Otis and Milano — were designed by Sky Yaeger.
It’s time to start making your weekend plans, and decide which cyclocross races to go ride or see. There are two races queued up this week — Cyclocrazed Tractor Cross near Bellingham, and the Washington State Championships near Bremerton (a bit closer to Seattle).
For those of you not sure what to expect from a cyclocross race, here’s an older introductory article on what you’ll be in for. One of the benefits of cyclocross races for spectators is that the courses are usually quite compact, so you can see almost all of the action without having to shuttle around the course.
See you at the races!
Check this video for a sampling of what the bike industry rides. From the high to the low end, cruisers, a tall bike, and BMX was all in the bike check room during Interbike. Many considered that room the *other bike show.”
Shop bikes are usually some unique combination built from the back room, found in a parts bin, with an old frame, solid wheels, and various gadgets. For a time, I didn’t ride a bike that wasn’t equipped with at least one Sun Tour part.
So what do you ride? How do you roll? What’s the favorite bike you’ve built up?
My current fave is the Modal.
During Interbike earlier this year, we spent a morning riding the strip, the bike expressway, and hearing from a local and a RTC employee about cycling in Vegas.
The road featured in the video is one of the calmest in America. It’s engineered to slow cars down and accommodate cyclists. I think they pipe in the sounds of songbirds, but couldn’t confirm it. If you do ride the strip, take up a whole lane like we did to let the cabbies know you’re there.
As I wrote earlier, “It’s surprising, yes, but Vegas is a bike-friendly town.”
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I was watching the Amazing Race tonight and saw 2 segments in Holland being hugger-focused! They had to find city bikes, and ride them 5 miles. Then they had to put one person in the front of a Bakfiets and roll to the finish. Now everybody in the states is going to want one.
Byron will tell you that I NEED to have matched wheels. It’s a bit of an obsession, but I can’t help it. Anyway - I’ve been shopping for a good internal geared hub to run on my SS Cross bike. I’ve got black hubs - so I need black Internal gear setup. The only one I know of is the much sought-after, but non-US available Shimano Alfine group. I’ve found the disc compliant model (I don’t need disc) in some obscure German site - Alfine Hub in Black. With the weak dollar and that fact that my German sucks if something were to go wrong with the order - is it worth it? Anybody else got a lead?
Spatial relationships and analysis are important when packing a travel bike (at least to me they are). Where Pam spent about a 1/2 hour packing her bike, I spent about 2.5 hours making sure everything lined up, the space was used to its potential, and the package would arrive safe and intact.
Both bikes did arrived safely and with no damage. However my packed items shifted all over the place and Pam’s was in pristine condition. I’m now deconstructing what possibly went wrong with my pack and she’ll just pack like whatever next time. I explained to Pam that it was a guy thing to do the perfect pack and I had to get it right.
Some of the worlds finest bicycles are built in Oregon and they’re on display this weekend at the Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show. Check their blog for the details. The Modal, our latest project, was handmade right here in Seattle. Builders attending the show include
Having worked on bikes for years, I am used to handling tools. I always find those 50-something-function folding multi-tools to be disappointing, having a lot features that are just not practical to use. Give me something simple, but beautifully made. I have a 3-piece set of headset/BB/pedal wrenches made by Shimano that surpass even Campagnolo. However, the set is just about obsolete when dealing with today’s bikes. But I just got the coolest tool out there.
It’s called the “Pro Tool Super” and it’s marketed in the United States by Euro-Asia Imports. But the back story is that it was originally marketed in Japan years ago by legendary keirin builder San Rensho. Nowadays, it’s made by their successor Makino.
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Dan Kaufman from CrankMyChain, a unique tricycle powered video blogger from Portland captured this video of some of the hot cyclocross action out at Barton Park this last weekend.
Not exactly comprehensive coverage, but Dan’s site is great for its video driven take on cycling culture. For example check out his next post on the badass challenge results — winner gets a purse (literally) for riding out to the races, racing, and riding back home. Give Dan’s site a good once over, there’s some great stuff there.
We asked Tom a daily commuter and reader to ride the Intermezzo and blog about it for us. Below is his review.
How to get more people using bikes for transportation? Convenience. And what could be more convenient than a Dutch designed city style bike? I reached a stopping point in my work and decided to take the Intermezzo out for a spin. Let’s see: I’ll need to put on some shorts and a cycling jersey and change into my cycling shoes. Wait, this isn’t that kind of bike. It’s a come-as-you-are kind of bike. OK. So out to the garage, grab a Velcro band to keep my pants cuff out of the chain. Hey, look at that: full chain guard. So all I need to grab is a U-lock and my keys. What’s that? Built in lock? And the key is captive until you lock it? So all I need is my helmet (yes, it’s the law here).
Texas style bike lanes are featured in the fifteenth episode of the Huggacast. I think this is a token bike lane painted to get federal funding. It’s about 34 seconds long.
What’s the most ridiculous bike lane you’ve ridden?
Bike Hugger was in San Antonio test riding the Modal, a travel bike concept that folds and toggles between single, fixed, and geared modes. Besides this ridiculously short lane, San Antonio did have a good system of paths and roads on the Mission to Mission ride.
Update
Google Videos ongoing sketchiness results in sometimes the 34 second bike lane is available and sometimes not. You can download and view it from directly from our servers.
This November, environmentalists, social activists and concerned citizens in as many as 65 countries will hit the streets for a 24-hour consumer fast in celebration of the 15th annual Buy Nothing Day, a global cultural phenomenon that originated in Vancouver, Canada.
You can celebrate this “you weren’t born to shop” event in Seattle, on bikes of all types, by joining the Cargo BIke Ride on the 23rd at noon.
In a unanimous vote last night, the Seattle City Council adopted the Bike Master Plan. More over at Cascade:
Today is a milestone in the history of bicycling in Seattle. For three years, Cascade Bicycle Club has worked with the Seattle Department of Transportation, Toole Design Group, the Mayors Citizens Advisory Group, citizen organizations, and thousands of members of the community to craft an exceptional plan. With the passage of the Bicycle Master Plan, we believe we are well on our way to transforming bicycling in Seattle.
Having spent my lunch reading over the spew that is the Seattle Post-Intelligencer comments board, I’d ask that the hugger readers take at least a few of these car-focused comments to heart. Let’s not blow red lights. Let’s at least make an effort to stop at stop signs. Let’s be safe when/if riding on the sidewalk. There are a lot of people working very hard to improve the position of the cyclist in the roads, so please make their job easier by following the rules - even just a little bit.
There is interesting article in the New York Times today, all about Portland. The article covers some of the well known cycle-friendliness of the city itself, but really centers in more on the 125 cycle related business the city sustains.
Watch your backs and memorize license plates, Seattle area cyclists. Thursday November 1st Peter McKay suffered a punctured lung after being shot from a moving car. The police speculate the weapon was a .22 hand gun loaded with b-bs. Check out the comments on Peter’s blog to see the outpouring of support form the commuter and Randonneur community.
Earlier in the week police were called to the scene of a road rage incident. A SUV driver tried to hit a cyclist or run him off the road, apparently following him from the Freemont Bridge to Stone Way. Police were called when the driver pulled his car sharply into the bike lane, causing the cyclist to reach out and hit the car’s window.
Update: The PI’s chimed in with an article about tensions between cyclist and cars, specifically citing these two cases. As always, the ‘sound off’ section proves educational about just what people think about cyclists.
I’d imagine most of these incidents go unreported and un-responded to. So Huggers, have you had experiences like these recently? What would you do to reduce tensions between motorists and cyclists?
From the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology, at Humbold University, check the Pedal Power How-to, guides, articles, and examples. Like this pedal-powered washing machine.
Also see the the commercial HPG and HPT (human power generation and trainer) from Windsteam technologies for all sorts of uses.
The last time the lights went out in Seattle, I desperately needed an Espresso machine and so with an HPG, I could just crank that baby up!
Ah yes, any bike-themed basement or garage isn’t complete without a saddle-sofa and matching stool … presented at Design Tokyo by ScarabBike and noticed by one of our readers.
I managed to make it out to the Lovely Ladies on Beautiful Bikes calendar release party (previously reported) with the camera and got a couple of shots. Lots of people having a good time, great music, lovely ladies with their calendars, the works!
Be careful out there cyclists! A study done by a couple of Carnegie Mellon professors (Paul Fischbeck and David Gerard) indicates pedestrians are 3 times more likely struck and killed after the switch to Standard Time. I can’t find the actual study to review the data, only a couple of news reports. I’d be surprised if cyclists weren’t either included in the pedestrian data set or had similar risks.
Riding in San Antonio is pretty much like Austin and I don’t know if it’s the Lance halo effect or what, but the people we met were very nice to cyclists, even giving us a ton of room on the road. When the Modal was built, we also converted Pam’s Davidson to S&S, and this was our first trip with them. We wanted to spend time with the bikes, assembling, learning how to do it, but two late meetings later and a couple business crises, we were slamming them together to get out and ride. And it went pretty well.
Pam’s bike took about 1/2 hour and the Modal was about ten minutes less because of the single speed configuration. We both struggled with the chain master links. Probably some secret bike shop knowledge we haven’t been blessed with yet, but after several tries and techniques, we got chains on both bikes. As I noted in my comments on another Modal post, riding a single speed is liberating. Where we had to stop several times to adjust Pam’s derailleur and fiddle with the master link, I was set.
The Modal at the Alamo.
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The nice fall weather here in Seattle is bound to give way to rain soon enough, and you’re going to need to keep your legs dry. Full on rain pants are an option, but if you’re riding hard your pants or shorts may get as wet from the inside out as they do from the rain. Rain knickers help balance out the moisture inequity by being ‘open air’ where your legs are largely sheltered from the rain, and waterproof where you get the brunt of the precipitation. Khyungyokpo’s got your DIY solution photo documented up on flickr. DYI still to expensive? There are other options as well.
If you’re looking for a high-quality pre made set take a look at some RainLegs.
Mark built up the Modal in Single Speed Mode this week. There are lots of bike geek details to share and I’ll cover what I can and add a travel report from Texas this weekend.
One of Davidson’s specialities is S&S Coupling travel bikes and Mark has traveled with them more than 30 times, all over the world, in various configurations. From Mark’s experience, Davidson’s direction, and creative input from me, we began working the Modal Concept in May of this year. The Modal is a travel bike that folds and toggles between single, fixed, and geared modes.
