Protest – successful!

It’s been well over a month now since my last post to this blog, and I’m sure that my reader(s) have been eagerly waiting to see what I’ve been up to. Although it might seem like I’ve just been slacking, really I was involved in a month-long online protest against SOPA/PIPA. Sure, some websites went dark for just a day on January 18th, but I was ahead of the game. In order to protest these bills, I made sure that this website was dark from December 19th until the bills were defeated. Sure, they bills might have been defeated a couple weeks ago, but I stayed dark a little longer, just to make sure.

Also, I took a little vacation for part of the hiatus. This picture pretty much sums up how I spent my time:

Drinking delicious coffee and enjoying the excellent cycling infrastructure of the SF Bay Area. What could be better?

How about this sweet ride? I was visiting an old friend in the East Bay and his downstairs neighbor loaned me one of his bicycles. It was an old Italian lugged-steel road frame, built up with MTB handlebars and a 1 X 8 drivetrain. It was a couple sizes too big for me, but with a few adjustments, it was a perfect loaner bike.

I’ll have more on my trip later, but I’ll leave you with this sign from Valencia Street in San Francisco’s Mission District:

There’s a 1.5 mile stretch of Valencia Street where the lights are timed such that a cyclist riding at a comfortable 13 MPH can get green lights the whole way. This was possibly the greatest feeling on Earth. The cyclists can just tool along, getting passed by motorists who then must stop at the lights. The cyclist approaches the light and it magically turns green. The motorist roars ahead for half a block, but then has to slow down again for a red light. The cyclist just continues to pedal at a comfortable pace. It was truly awesome.

Twitter on the blog post

Along with this highly-successful, well-read blog, I also have a twitter account called @carfreepvd. I realize that some of my readers may not use twitter, and some of my best photos recently were only posted there, so I’m taking some time to re-post them here, but with bonus longer-than-140-characters content.

Here’s one of my favorite photos I recently took and only posted to twitter:

(Oh yeah, I bought a bike trailer a few months ago. I’ll have to do a full review of it one of these days.) I picked up my Christmas tree with my bike. Luckily, the grocery store is only a few blocks away. In the short amount of time I was on the road, I had a few motorists and pedestrians give me some form of positive feedback. Although it could be a bit of a burden, maybe cyclists should all ride around town with trailers carrying Christmas trees all of time – it could be an effective strategy to reduce harassment by motorists (not unlike the “Mary Poppins” effect experienced by Velouria of Lovely Bicycle, or a similar effect experienced by me when I borrowed my friends’ kiddie bike trailer).

Spouse captured a better picture of me, pulling out of the parking lot.

photo credit: Spouse

I was feeling pretty good about this until just today when I saw this on Biking in Heels:

photo credit "cycler" from bikinginheels-cycler.blogspot.com

Dang! That’s some impressive p0rtage pr0n!

Oh well, my bird seemed to like my tree just fine:

photo credit: Spouse

Mattie-bird even matches the tree.

And here is my least favorite picture that I recently tweeted:

Although I use puncture-resistant tires (gatorskins, in my case), I don’t think that there’s much that could have stopped a giant construction staple from puncturing my tire. Hard to tell here, but there’s a full inch of staple embedded in the tire. Ever since my last pinch flat, I always carry a patch kit, tire levers and pump. I set up on the sidewalk and repaired my tire in a reasonable amount of time.

Although Spouse originally taught me how to patch a tube, I re-learned it at Recycle-A-Bike when I took the Wrenching Wednesday class about 2 years ago. Since that time, I’ve become more and more involved in Recycle-A-Bike and I’ve seen it grow tremendously.

Recycle A Bike mechanic, Nik teaching a bike maintenance class (photo credit: Recycle A Bike)

It’s a great organization helping to empower people by getting them on bikes and helping them to become more self-sufficient in using those bikes for transportation. Recyle-A-Bike moved to a permanent location this year and RAB is now a 501(c)3 tax-exempt non-profit organization. In 2011, the first year of operation as an independent non-profit, RAB served over 600 people through bike maintenance and repair programs. We (I can say “we” because I’m on the board) are now having our first annual fundraising appeal. I know that some of my readers have already made a contribution – and I thank you very much for that. If you have not made a contribution, I’d encourage you to take a look at the Recycle A Bike website and consider making a gift.

If you live in a different city, chances are there’s a similar organization near you. I’d recommend that you check it out, get involved and volunteer.

And that’s about all of the earnestness this blog can take at this time. So I’ll wrap up this post by letting you know about a milestone my blog has now achieved:

My blog has finally been visited by a comment troll! I’m so proud.

Eastside Marketplace and Bottles

My neighborhood boasts something you don’t see too often, an honest-to-goodness independent grocery store, the Eastside Marketplace. Right next door is a very good liquor store, Bottles. Between them is an abomination of a bike rack.

Earlier this week, I visited Bottles to buy a case of wine. That’s right, I can buy a case of wine and transport it by bike. That earns me both smug points and Bourgeois points (and a 10% discount). This time, however, Spouse came along and transported half of the case by backpack. NO MATTER! I have the potential to transport it all and that makes me feel smug and that is all that is important.

When I got to the liquor store, I found a scene similar to this:

This particular bike rack has been deteriorating over the last few years. It’s a crappy design to begin with. The cyclist has the option of hoisting the bike over the rack as most have done (this can scratch the frame and possibly damage the headset), or lock only the wheel (as I did when I took this picture).

I’m okay with doing this for short periods of time because I have locking skewers. I would not recommend this for cyclists with quick-release or bolt-on wheels. You can find this type of rack many places. It’s kind of an old-fashioned idea of what a bike rack should be, and amazingly enough, they are still being built. This one has deteriorated to the point where many of the bars have either fallen off or were removed to facilitate bike theft:

The rack was pretty full when I showed up and I had had enough of this crappy rack! So, I brought my bike into Bottles. The young woman at the front said, “there’s a bike rack right outside there.”

“I’m sorry, but that’s not a real bike rack, I can’t use it – would you mind if I leave my bike up here while I shop?” I replied.

Another clerk chimed in, “Well, I wouldn’t say it’s not a real bike rack, but it does suck. You can leave your bike here if you like.”

Spouse and I picked out our wines (that is to say, Spouse picked 11 bottles and I picked 1 – I’ve never quite developed a wine palate). When I got home, I started drafting an angry email to the manager of Eastside Marketplace. After writing the draft, I decided to sit on it for a day, which is always a good idea when one writes an angry email.

The next day, I received an e-newsletter from Bottles. I’m on their email list, so I’m used to seeing their e-newsletters. Shortly after that, I got a second email from the manager informing me about some sort of special bourbon. I seized on this opportunity, and replied to the manager’s email thusly:

I’m happy to receive your emails and I enjoy shopping at Bottles. I
was very glad when you guys moved into the old Blockbuster space. I
have one small complaint that you may or may not be able to address.
The bike rack outside your store is in horrible disrepair. I couldn’t
properly lock my bike to it last night, so I brought my bike into the
store. Your excellent staff was kind enough to watch it for me while I
shopped. Does Eastside Marketplace own the bike rack, or is there a
landlord for the entire strip who is responsible for it? I would
greatly appreciate it if you could talk to whoever is responsible for
the rack and ask them to replace it. It’s a poorly designed rack, and
now it’s falling apart. Even on a relatively cold night like last
night, there were at least 8 bikes parked there, many parked in a way
that could damage the bike. More and more people are riding bikes for
transportation these days, and businesses that make the investment in
quality bike parking can expect to be well-patronized.

[I went on to request that they carry Southern Tier 422 Pale Wheat Ale, because while I may not have a refined palate for wine, I do know my beers and that shit is awesome.]

A few hours later, I received this response:

The “bike rack” outside is a joke — I completely agree with your comments.  We are partnering with the Steel Yard to have a new bike rack custom made for us this spring.  Stay tuned!

Cheers,

Eric
Bottles
General Manager

I’ll gladly suffer through the winter if they’re going to end up with a Steel Yard rack. [for those unfamiliar with the Steel Yard, you can check out their work here.] But now what can I do with that angry email to Eastside Marketplace? Post it here, of course. Now that I know they are planning to replace that horrible rack, my rage is no longer justified. Instead, I’ll hold onto this until the next time I come upon dilapidated bike rack.

Imagine a customer drove his car to your store to find that he was unable to safely park his car in the parking lot. There weren’t any lines separating the spaces, so cars were parked in an un-orderly fashion, some pressed right against each other, causing them to scrape against each other. The lot was full of potholes that could damage his wheels. There were shopping carts left all over the place that could scratch his car. There were strips of metal in most of the parking spaces that could damage his car when he pulled in, and somehow, these same metal strips made it difficult to properly lock his car. This made the customer worry about his car while he was shopping. He hurried through the store as quickly as possible. The next time he needed groceries, he went somewhere else.

I’m sure that sounds like a parking nightmare. You wouldn’t put up with a parking lot like that, right? You’d have the lot repaved to get rid of the potholes. You’d paint appropriate lines separating the parking spaces. You would remove those metal strips so your customers’ cars don’t get scratched and they can lock their cars properly. In short, you would make sure that your customers don’t even have to think about the condition of your parking lot. They would drive in, park their cars, do their shopping, load up and go home. And your customers don’t have to think about your parking because you have a perfectly acceptable parking lot. There are plenty of well-marked, properly spaced parking spaces. I’ve driven a car to your store many times, and I’ve always found your parking lot to be perfectly maintained. Your staff does an excellent job of keeping the shopping carts under control. You also accommodate those who take the bus to your store by providing seating for those who wait for the bus.

Although I’ve driven to your store many times, I live less than 2 miles away and I prefer to ride my bike for short trips. The bike parking at Eastside Marketplace is equivalent to the nightmare parking lot I described above. The bike rack in front of your store is poorly designed and in a horrible state of disrepair. Although you may see this type of bike rack installed many places, it does not allow cyclists to properly secure a bicycle. This rack is designed to only secure the bike’s wheel to the rack. If a cyclists only locks the wheel to a rack, a thief can easily release the bolts holding the wheel to the frame and take the frame and rear wheel, leaving only the front wheel. Instead, many cyclists put their front wheel over the rack in order to secure both the frame and front wheel. This can scratch the frame and cause damage to some of the bicycle’s components. The best option is to lock a bike to one of the ends of the rack, but those two spots are usually taken. In addition to it’s poor design, the rack is falling apart. Many of the vertical bars have been removed, I assume by someone trying to steal a bike, or perhaps they just fell off.

I don’t know if Eastside Marketplace owns the property, or rents it from another company. However, I am certain that you would never allow your parking lot to deteriorate to a similar condition. I hope that you will consider installing a new bike rack that will allow your customers to properly park their bikes. Please take the time to consult with someone who rides a bike before choosing a new bike rack.

Ah, that’s a thing of beauty, isn’t it? Probably one of the best screeds I’ve ever written, and now I don’t even get to send it. Did you see how I casually mentioned that I’ve driven a car there? That’s to show that I’m not some lunatic who only rides his bike everywhere. Of course, I fail to mention that I drive a car there maybe twice a year nowSpeaking of lunatics, I saw these two parked at the farmers’ market the other day.

That’s the rare, elusive “shopper” version of the Elliptigo. Here’s the sporty version, captured on Blackstone Blvd.

Think I could mount my panniers on that?

Back To The Hospital

I finally had my last appointment with the orthopedist this week. (For those coming to this blog more recently – I was seeing an orthopedist due to breaking my collarbone, which happened when I fell off of my bike.) It had been a long time since I visited the hospital. The last time I went, I took the bus because I was not yet cleared to ride. This time, I took my bike.

The bike parking at Rhode Island Hospital is… lacking. The bars on this railing are unusually deep so I couldn’t reach my lock through the bars and around my frame when the bike was resting on the ground. Instead, I had to lift my bike up a few inches and allow it to rest on the top bar of the railing. It rested on my left (front) shifter. Not ideal, but I’ve done it before.

With a good U-lock locked to a thick metal railing, I should feel pretty secure with how my bike is parked. There is quite a bit of foot traffic at the main entrance to the state’s largest hospital. It seems unlikely that a casual bike thief would be able to do anything to my bike, and it is not in a setting that a dedicated bike thief would touch. And yet, I still didn’t feel completely secure. In an overly security-conscious world, a hospital employee could see this bike as a threat and have it cut off. Seems unlikely, but it’s been known to happen. Perhaps I’m just paranoid. Comes from riding in traffic.

Here’s my latest X-ray:

And here’s what I looked like back in March right after the accident:

As you can see, the yellow pain lightning is gone, and that pesky red arrow finally went away. Along with that, my bones have knitted themselves back together, but now in a different and more exciting shape. How fun!

Fuel

Have you ever found yourself at work saying something like:

“Hey, co-worker, would you mind if I siphoned a half-gallon from your gas tank?”

No? Well consider this scenario:

If you’re a bike commuter, you may keep a collection of snacks at work. Here’s my stash:

I’ve got some cereal, banana chips, and various types of trail mix. They are all in somewhat sealed containers to discourage office mice. Blocky Bot is trying to protect them as well.

My co-workers have learned that I always have a stash of snacks and they come to me when they get peckish in the afternoon. I’m (mostly) happy to share,  but I do have a little bit of a gripe.

My snack stash is not just food. This is fuel for my vehicle.

Perhaps you can see where I’m going with this.

Hands off the food. Or feel the wrath of Blocky Bot!

In other news, Steve, of DFW Point-To-Point, had a near-encounter with a sidewalk cyclist, once again illustrating that it is almost always a bad idea. I had a near-encounter with a sidewalk cyclist a few weeks ago. I encouraged him to ride his bike like an adult, but I doubt that it was a “teachable moment.”

Answers to tweets

Because I am the single most important bike blogger in America’s smallest state, people often ask me questions about their bike needs. Since I don’t bother with things like a contact link on this blog, nor do I publish an email address, my minions must contact me via twitter with their questions (or, I suppose they could use the comment feature of this blog, whatever works).

Here are two recent twitter questions or as they are sometimes called, “twestions.”

Okay, so these are the only two twestions I’ve received in a long time, but they came on the same day, so I figured I should answer them. I’ll answer @matthewcoolidge’s question first:

I don’t use any route apps for smart phones. Occasionally, I’ll check out mapmyride.com or veloroutes.org for route ideas. I’d been out that way before, so I kind of know the lay of the land. Before I set out, I looked at google maps and made a general plan of where I’d go. I then stopped frequently and looked at the map to check where I was and make adaptations based on how tired I was and how much time I had left. For this ride, I had hoped to do 62 miles (aka 100 KM, aka a metric century), but I was quite feeling up for it, so I opted for 50 miles instead.

For those who missed the previous post, here’s an overview of my route:

I went back to mapmyride.com and re-plotted the route to reflect the route I should have taken. That is, I should have not made that wrong turn off of Plainfield which led me to an interesting section of Silver Lake. It wasn’t bad, just kind of slow. Map My Ride indicates that this route is merely 38.69 miles, but it doesn’t know about the couple of wrong turns I made, plus I took a long way home at the end to insure I got up to 50 miles because… it was important to do so. My route is available for all to enjoy HERE.

After plotting out that route, I spent about an hour plotting various options for longer rides out into western RI. I’d like to have a ride that includes a pit stop at some sort of pancake-serving establishment. Any suggestions?

On to @stephaniedoes’ question. Tonight, I participated in the Rhode Island Bicycle Coalition’s “Light Up The Night” event. I stood on a street corner and shouted at passing cyclists that they needed to put some damn lights on their bikes installed lights on bikes for cyclists who did not have lights. It was fun, and it helps to reduce the number of “bike ninjas” out there. I don’t like bike ninjas, I like to be able to see other cyclists and I want the motorists to see them as well.

So, @stephaniedoes, what kind of bike lights do I recommend? Well, there’s really a whole range. First a recommendation of what not to get. I am not fond of the little rubberized single LED lights that wrap around the handlebars, like these made by Knog:

Tonight, we were handing out the Planet Bike Blinky Safety:

These is a decent, basic “be seen” type of light set. It won’t help you see anything on a dark street, but it will help motorists see you. There’s a single LED in each light, but it gets the job done. These cost about $20 for the set. They run on flat watch-type batteries that can be purchased in any drugstore.

A few years ago, I bought the Planet Bike 1/2 watt Blaze/Superflash Combo.

This is probably one of the best values out there at about $55 for the set. The headlight on the flashing setting will get you plenty of attention from motorists, or you can turn it to a steady beam on darker streets. It won’t give you a great light pattern, but it’s good enough for most city streets. The taillight has two small flashing LEDs plus one mega-bright strobing LED. Motorists can see these a mile away, and they should definitely notice you up close. These lights have seen plenty of abuse from rain & snow, and I’ve dropped them a few times and they are still going strong. However, I’m a bit of a geek, so I opted for a stronger headlight last year and got the..

Planet Bike 2 Watt Blaze headlight. It’s 4 times as strong as the 1/2 watt!

I know, it’s silly, but I do like this light better. If I’m not careful about how it’s aimed, motorists will flash their high-beams at me because they think it’s too bright. Too bad, I like to be seen. This can be set to low power steady, high power steady, or strobe which flashes twice at low power followed by a bright flash at high power. It’s awesome. So awesome, that somebody stole it off of my bike while it was parked in the vestibule of my office building. I immediately ordered a new one.

There are many light options out there. As you can see, I’m partial to the Planet Bike brand. Other brands that seem to be good are Princeton (makers of the Tec Swerve), Portland Design Works, Blackburn and CatEye. There’s a few that are rechargeable via USB, which is kind of neat, and others that work off of external battery packs. I think those are more for the people who ride in places without streetlights. Of course, the retrogrouches in the audience would be disappointed if I didn’t mention dyno-hub generators and the lights that go with them. These work off of a generator in the front hub that uses the spinning wheel to generate electricity to power the lights. They’ve improved greatly in the last 10 years, but are still far more expensive than battery powered LEDs.

So, who’s up for a metric century later this month?

Stay-cation Sentury*

Earlier this month, I made this declaration on Twitter:

I did this as “re-tweet bait” that is, I hoped that others would agree with my sentiment and retweet my statement throughout the world, thus securing my twitter victory, or twit-ctory. (I haven’t quite figured out twitter – but it is some sort of competition, right?) However, it was only retweeted by one @MoneyOvaBisquik – aaannnd, I’m not sure what that was all about. I’ll have to secure my twit-ctory by other means.

Although it was retweet bait, I certainly agree with the statement whole-heartedly. Cool October weather is perfect for cycling. With that in mind, I scheduled a few days off to enjoy the crisp air. Little did I know that we would have snow storms on during my vacation. I was able to get in a little bit of cycling here and there, however. On Wednesday of last week, I took a leisurely ride up the Blackstone Valley Bike Path. Where I took the obligatory pictures of the pretty little bridge:

and the fall folliage:

The Blackstone Valley Bike Path is my favorite of Rhode Island’s three major bike paths. It rolls gently alongside the river, crossing it multiple times giving the rider views of the valley and there’s hardly any road crossings.

On Thursday, it rained and in some parts of the state, it snowed. But Friday, it was sunny and beautiful, so I was out on the bike again.

This time, I went to the end of the Washington Secondary Bike Path, and then headed out on the roads around the Scituate Reservoir.

I ended up riding just over 50 miles, which is my longest ride since my accident in March, and the longest ride on my road bike (but not my longest ride ever – I performed that on my trusty hybrid). I was pleasantly tired and sore at the end of my ride, and the next day I was only a little bit sore. It was a perfect day for a cool weather ride. Cool enough that I could wear cold-weather cycling clothing, but not so cold that my nose was constantly running. Here’s an approximation of part of my route:

That’s not the full route, I had to extend my ride a little bit at the end in order to reach the arbitrary goal of 50 miles.

I took this picture when I was far out in the hills so I would have a record of there being snow on the ground in October:

Little did I know that we would have a couple of inches of snow in Providence just two days later!

Now the sun is shining, so I’m going to head out on my bike to enjoy my last day of stay-cation.

*okay, so it was a half-century. I did get to ride well over 100 miles during my brief staycation, so that has to count for something, right?