New lanes in DC, now if only we had some better representation...

Thanks to FastLane.dot.gov for the picture
These lanes have caused a bit of controversy, check out WashCycle for more info on the process, maybe they are worse than the version 1.0 but they are there none the less and should significantly help. There may be an issue with pedestrians at crossing, especially at night, hopefully the problem will be solved before any major harm is done.

These buffered bike lanes are right down Pennsylvania Ave. in DC, hopefully if the bike share is up and running by the time I get to go back down, I can start doing some trips using the infrastructure, and taking pictures. (not deleting my memory card this time!!!)

Ray LaHood was there as part of the ribbon cutting and to show his support for these projects, which is always great!

check out his blog on the installation here and the WashCycle coverage here. There is a video on both posts as well

To Nantucket I go

Yep, I will be on an island for the next 3 ish days. I have a bunch of posts that are backing up here, seriously, you should see the draft page. I will be putting them in order shortly and getting them out, sorry for slacking so much, but my laptop is not on as much, and I am busy a lot with either garden work or MassBike work.

anyway I shall try not to neglect for too much more :)

have a good day and look for some infrastructure posts from the island very soon!

One Pot Pledge

Thanks to USDAgov photostream on flickr.

This is something I found a little while back and thought intriguing, its the One Pot Pledge. Its from the UK (if pot didn't give it away) with the goal of encouraging people to grow their own food who have never grown food before. It is also a way for experienced gardeners to help as well as generally interested people to show support for the campaign.

The campaign is run by Garden Organic, a UK charity.

This is specifically for the UK folks who read, however the idea is something that we can take over here and make work, although more likely on a local or regional scale. Whether it is is a vegetable pot on the windowsill, flowers outside your front door, or a full garden in the backyard, we can all do our part.

I felt the need to share!

cheers

People for Bikes

Image from MorBCN via flickr

If you have not signed up for the People for Bikes campaign I highly recommend that you do, they just held a give-away last month of 3 new bikes for anybody who has signed up or signed up during the month of May.

I signed up a couple months back, and this blog is part of the network.

From the website:

Peopleforbikes.org is dedicated to channeling that passion to improve the future of bicycling. Our goal is to gather a million names of support, to speak with one, powerful voice—to make bicycling safer, more convenient and appealing for everyone.

Simply put, we believe that life is far more enjoyable when it’s experienced on two wheels. We believe that by coming together, we can make our world a better place to ride

We are all people for bikes, will you join me?

Sign the pledge

This is an initiative from Bikes Belong

The joys of a new kickstand

A picture of it on the bike will be forthcoming.

Well I had my bike in the shop the other day, mainly to make sure the squeek coming from my bottom bracket was not a problem, they tightened it and looked over and found no problems, which was good. I also had them instal a nice new kickstand because I was tired of the bike falling over the moment I put any weight in it really.

The Breezer uptown 8 is a wonderful bike and I have no faults with it except for the kickstand. For a bike like this it really should have come with something better than a one sided small stand, which held the bike fine but the moment I start loading the back down, would fall over.

It is with great relef that I welcome the Pletscher Double Kickstand into the family. This is a nifty kickstand in that it has two legs but folds up to one side out of the way.

In its current form I need to saw a couple inches off of it because it is lifting my front tire about a food in the air when deployed. However, even with that, it is stable like no other.

This is a stand built for people doing heavy loads and awkward weights. The Breezer has a wonderful kickstand plate so mounting was super easy for the guys at the shop. The only qualm is the price on it, running $58 from my bike shop, the link for the online shop recommended by EcoVelo would run 55$ with shipping so not to much in savings from buying online.

I don't mind keeping the money local.

It is swiss built though and the quality is top notch. After I cut a bit off and lower it to a more reasonable level it will be absolutely perfect!

Here is the link to the EcoVelo mention of the kickstand, EcoVelo: Kickstand Love

The New Face Of BP. From BostonBiker.org

This is from the great folks of BostonBiker.org and I loved it, figured I would share.

so true...

the original post can be found Here

From Streetsblog: The Persistence of Bike Salmon

image from streetsblog via Salim Virji from flickr.
Streetsblog.net The Persistence of Bike Salmon

This is a old post from about a month and a half ago, but got me started on my sidewalk cyclist post, as well as mention the sidewalk salmon in a "bikes seen today" post.

It is something that I have thought and read a great deal on, why do we have "wrong way" cyclists.

I have read in a couple places some thoughts that make sense, many are from David Hembrow, many are from Streetsblog and many others are from the depths of cyber space.

In this country the age when you ride your bike dictates the rules you must follow. It starts out with the training wheels on the sidewalk, and then it progresses to regular low speed (although some kids go pretty fast!) cycling on the sidewalk. At a certain age it moves to cycling against traffic, especially in neighborhoods that have no sidewalks. The example is they are acting like pedestrians and feel that this is the safer method, so the cyclist can make sure the car has seen them. I understand why this is encouraged, especially with kids; bikes in the US do not have mirrors included with them. And many are bought at big box stores that do not sell these accessories, and parents who are not clear on the rules themselves, feel that this is safe (or safest) for their child. Finally you must ride in the same direction as cars once an adult, and must act like a car in all you do.

For many people that are starting to enjoy riding again, they last rode a bike when they were a kid, they might be from a generation where 16 meant a car and freedom; the bike was quickly forgotten. When somebody who has not ridden a bike in many years, picks one up today, they revert back (typically) to the last time the rode and the rules that were in effect then, as well as how safe they felt riding a certain way. This typically means riding either on the sidewalk or against traffic, or both.

This is the problem.

In the Netherlands, children do not have training wheels, they learn to balance on scooter type things with two wheels a seat and no pedals, once they learn how to balance which can be achieved in one day with enough dedication, they graduate to regular bikes, sized for them.

As David Hembrow has shown, children's bikes have racks, fenders, lights and breaks just like their parent's bikes. They also have the safe separated infrastructure to ride on and are taught in school to ride like a cyclist. They are not told how to ride like a car or ride like a pedestrian, they are a bicyclist and are neither of the above. So even if they turn 16 and forget the bike for a while with a new car, when they choose to go back, they ride the exact same way they learned as a child, which is safe, efficient, and easy.

It is because of the infrastructure though; we have either sidewalks or roadways here in the US. Cyclists get nothing (really in the vast majority of communities). We have to choose to ride like a car, or like a pedestrian. It feels safer to be a pedestrian on the sidewalk and so many people ride there. David has talked in depth about the ideas of subjective safety; his posts on the topic are worth a read.

However some studies have shown that even with limited on road bike lanes and what would be considered the least effective (and sometimes dangerous) cycling infrastructure in The Netherlands, that rates of wrong way cycling as well as sidewalk cycling are reduced by over 50%.

Bike salmon are a consequence of infrastructure that does not serve a cyclist and only serves pedestrians (not always bad thing) or cars. This is the case with sidewalk riding as well.

I am a firm believer that if you provide true separated infrastructure, away from fast moving traffic on roads over 25mph, roads faster than 40mph create more of a separation and provide under or overpasses at busy junctions, make zones that are 20mph or less have bicycle priority, provide for safe interactions at intersections via roundabouts or bike only lights, and make safe secure staple racks available at any destination and place of business, that the US can achieve the 30%+ bicycle mode share that many cities in Europe, and especially Denmark and The Netherlands have achieved by providing for their cyclists.

Bike salmon will be an endangered or extinct species, if we manage to achieve the goal of true equality on our streets.

We know what needs to happen; doing anything less is tantamount to lip service, and pandering, and in many cases can be more dangerous than nothing at all. It is never too late to start doing it right.

For further reading I encourage a look back through the wayback machine over at David's blog, its a treasure trove for anybody that wants to see how it could be done right.

Squeeky Clean

Friday was a good day outside, it was about 70 or so and a light breeze. After working in the backyard with my dad to pull up some older high bush cranberry bushes that had outlived their welcome, I decided it was a good time to break out the car-wash equipment and wash and scrub the bike. It had not had a good wash since I started riding it back in early March due to the lack of supplies I had with me in Plattsburgh. I also did not want to buy new supplies to wash it, nor hassle with figuring out how to hook up the hose to the house.

Anyway, it went very well! I was able to scrub it all down and especially the tires and rims, which had built up brake-dust on them. I guess that’s one of the many benefits of disk brakes, no break dust...

It took a couple scrubbing passes and light rinsing with the hose to get everything but unlike most bikes, I didn't have to grease anything, because everything is enclosed and resistant to the elements (or my washing) so little to no grease was lost which meant it was pretty much dirt and brake dust running down the driveway.

One of the myriad of benefits to a traditional European style bike, the fact that everything is enclosed from rain and dirt, not only prolongs the life of gears, chains and cables, it minimizes the need for repairs, prevents grease from getting on pants or shoes, allows riding all year long, and finally allows the bike to be cleaned and scrubbed down without dumping grease into the drain, worrying about getting water in places that might cause harm, or destroying any cloth that is being used to clean the bike.

Some people I feel may think it silly to carefully clean a bicycle, its suppose to be dirty anyway right? But I feel that if you have a good bike, something that does a wonderful job getting you around and carrying everything you need, that that bike should be taken care of and that includes regular washing and inspections to make sure everything is working properly.

I took some pictures and they will be up as soon as I dump them from my camera.

Enjoy the weekend everybody and try to get out on a bike! Its loads of fun!

Welcome to MassBike

Today I started my first internship with MassBike right in downtown Boston. I will post links and other useful information as they come up. I will also talk about, where able, the various projects I am working on.

I will also be doing blog and press updates for the MassBike website.

for now, I hope you have had a great bike to work week, and enjoy the rest of bike month!.

The end of Bike to Work Week.

Well it has been another bike to work week, today is bike to work day. It’s hard to tell if there was much of a change here in Plattsburgh. I am rarely on the roads when commuters would be going or coming home from work, so I can’t tell too much.

However in the short time I was on the roads yesterday, I saw maybe 12 cyclists out, and only 3 of which were on the sidewalk when observed, but only 2 were in normal clothes and not suited up.

Saw one gentleman riding north on 9, he must have been very tall, he had very long legs and the frame of his bike was huge! I seriously thought it might have been a double frame bike from a distance, but nope, it was just a really really big frame, he fit it though so more power to him!

Was at the Co-Op on Wednesday meeting a good friend named Jon to make some butter (Jon bakes bread). I arrive in my usual way, but I do have quite a bit of baggage, and I have loads of bells and whistles (well really only one bell) so I guess I can look kinda impressive...

Anyway a nice older woman outside on her classic 3 speed Raleigh, mistook me for an officer in training... I must say I take that as a compliment. While I have no intention to go into law enforcement at that level, if there are some out there that see me as possibly and officer in training, then good, maybe they will give me a bit more room on the road...

She was having a problem with her bike though, the breaks were not working well on the back and she had already gone over the front trying to stop a day or so earlier. It turns out she was riding it and trying to get it ready for her granddaughter to use at the university in the fall. I commented on how wonderful of a bike it was and that with a bit of love it could be made into an object of desire, and to be sure to get a good lock for it.

I opened up the handy tool case (e.g. the mess of tools in my bike bag) and gave a whirl at tightening the break pads. I quickly came to the understanding that the pads were very hardened and would not be useful in stopping in any form. They seemed like they original and probably should be replaced. I recommended that she head over to Mountain Riders and have then take a look at it, She did not know where they were so I pointed her around the corner, after all they are really close to the Co-Op.

I saw her again a little later, she was so very happy, they had filed down the breaks she had to get to non cracked rubber, and oiled up her shifters.

This is the third person I have directly helped in terms of breaks, gears, or seat fitting. I helped the bicycle of a forth, unknown person earlier in the semester. The chain was un-oiled and was rusting away, I had a few minutes so took the opportunity and oiled it right up.

Never underestimate what a bit of oil, or grease, can do for your bike. I use a corn based biodegradable oil, which works very nicely :)

For god's sake though, don’t oil your bike with WD-40!! It wont work and might make it worse!

Happy bike to work day, enjoy your commute :)

I will be back and active on here in short order, I might also be talking up my own on going projects through the internships I have, providing they agree to that.