One More Bike

I really shouldn't test ride the bikes that get dropped off as donations to Bike Works. Dan Boxer pointed out that this one has a little ding in the top tube. I had Kathleen at Free Range come up with a price for it and I'm employee purchasing it.

Suntour Superbe Brakes.

Suntour Barcons.

Shimano Deer Head Deore Derailleurs ("for alpine gearing").

Erickson Touring Frame.

It's pretty freekin' sweet.

The Speed Cruiser Manifesto

Schwalbe makes a bike tire called the Speed Cruiser. The name first struck me as being somewhat oxymoronic, like jumbo shrimp, but the more I listened to customers at Bike Works, folks looking to into biking for recreation or transportation, the more I realized they were describing something that really could be called a Speed Cruiser. The bicycle industry in general created the broad categories of road bikes and mountain bikes and then tried to fill in some grey areas with things they call hybrids or comfort bikes. And there are touring and cyclocross bikes and guys like Grant Petersen who've tried out terms like "all-rounder" and "country bike".

The shop I manage, Bike Works, is the retail side of a non-profit group that has this mission statement:

To build sustainable communities by educating youth and promoting bicycling. We teach young people how to fix bikes, reward them with their own set of wheels, and provide affordable bicycle services to the community.

Everything we do is geared toward getting people connected with simple, practical bikes. Because Bike Works is a non-profit, we get lots and lots of bicycles donated to us. Some bikes go to the kid's Earn-A-Bike program, some get shipped to Ghana, and some get refurbished and sold in the shop. Proceeds from the shop sales go to fund the various Bike Works programs.

The bikes we're selling the most of these days are what we've taken to calling Speed Cruisers. The Speed Cruiser is the answer to the customer who is looking to ride around town and doesn't want to be hunched over like a racer but still wants to go reasonably fast.

A typical Speed Cruiser starts out as a ten or twenty year old mountain bike. The bike probably got donated to us because it lacks a suspension fork or disk brakes or something other feature that may be handy for technical off-road riding. Maybe the bike has blown out or gummed up shifters. We go through the bike mechanically, fixing what we can and replacing broken parts with either good used parts from doner bikes or inexpensive reliable new parts. If an indexed shifter is totally busted, we may opt to replace is with something simple and tough like a Falcon Friction Thumb Shifter.

Most of the "Speed" in a Speed Cruiser comes from swapping out the tires. Going from 40 PSI knobby tires to an 80 PSI slick tire is a pretty easy way to make the bike go faster with the same effort. My personal commute bike, an old Specialized M2, picked up a couple of mph when I slapped a set of slicks on it.

The "Cruiser" part of a Speed Cruiser is the result of a handlebar swap. Many of these old mountain bikes have flat bars which were probably fine for mountain biking, but for cruising around in an urban environment a more upright position might be better . As I've gotten older, I've found myself raising my bars up a bit. And that's a common request from shop customers, so we often equip the Speed Cruisers with bars with either a three or five inch rise. We've also set up some bikes with bars that sweep back or stems with additional rise. Of course, the higher handlebars do translate to more air drag, so "cruiser" and "speed" are somewhat in opposition, but every customer finds his or her own "just right" spot in that comfort/speed trade off.

Other modifications may involve selecting a saddle from one of our many parts bins, maybe adding a rack, fenders and lights. Refurbed bikes wind up going out the door at Bike Works in the range of $200 to $400 depending on what all went into the bike in terms of parts and labor. And as fast as we can build them, they fly out the door. We also sell road bikes and old classics and some mountain bikes as mountain bikes, but by far the most popular bikes these days are the Speed Cruisers. At least a couple of times a day someone comes in looking for "I don't know, something I can ride around on. I'm not looking to race or anything, but I don't want anything really slow either. Maybe I'll ride to work or ride around the lake. What do you have like that?"

We've got bikes like that. We call 'em Speed Cruisers.

"Let me explain, no, there is no time, let me sum up"

The title of this post comes from The Princess Bride, but I think it works here. Of course I do have time. As Sinclair Lewis pointed out, I get twenty-four hours each day, just like you do. I just happen to spending those hours doing a bunch of things other than writing posts for this blog. If you've gotten hooked on my witty prose and are undergoing withdrawal, I'm sorry about that, but given the alternatives of:

a) Throwing a Jim Thill-style hissy-fit of nuking the blog with a comment of "this blog doesn't exist anymore. The reasons for this are not interesting."

b) Ignoring the blog, figuring folks will work out that I'm busy and occasionally posting little bits that happen to interest me.

c) Writing a post like this, which I hate, which is one of those "I'm too busy to write" posts that take way too long to write.

You're smart people (well judging by the comments and notes I get at least a good percentage of you are). You can figure out which way I've gone on this.

Here's the scoop. Since April 21st, I've been working at a job that I absolutely LOVE. I've had many great jobs before, working with all kinds of great people, but Bike Works is such a terrific group and such a great cause and it happens to have some of the kind of problems I know how to fix. The hardest part of my new job are the days off.

Here are some snippets from this past week. On Tuesday, three of us (Dan, Donald and me) rang up just under $2,000 worth of business through the shop in six hours. Given that this is a used bike shop where, the basic tune-up rate is $55, an inner tube is $3.00 (yeah, too cheap, I know!) and our bikes are selling in the $200 to $400 range, that's a busy day. Add to that an extra half dozen miles on top of my regular 36 miles of bike commuting because I'd promised Chris Cameron I'd help him and Serena riff on Bicycle Commuting at REI in the evening. So I blast out of the shop at seven, bomb through the evening traffic on Rainier, make it to REI with three minutes to spare. The three of us spend an hour and half telling tales of bike commuting, talking about gear and safe riding and answering questions. I'd fueled up with a taco truck burrito earlier in the day, but Serena is about to black out from hunger by the time we're done, so we retire to some pub for a beverage and grub. I'm home by midnight.

The "normal" days aren't quite so tight and I actually manage to spend about half my life at home but May is Bike to Work month and Friday was Bike to Work day. So I'm out the door a bit after 4:00 AM so I can get to Beacon Hill by 6:00 AM to help Dara set up the Bike to Work station there. Last year there were 66 bike commuters who went through that station. This year there were 117. Maybe it's the price of gas. Maybe it's the gorgeous day. Maybe the velorution is at hand. Then it's down to the shop to work a full day.

Saturday is 87 degrees and sunny in a bike shop in Seattle. You can do the math. I'm the last one out of the shop and I mess up setting the alarm. Whoop, Whoop, Whoop. I get that settled down and then my cell phone rings. "No we're not being burglarized, I'm just a moron."

It's time for another dash up to downtown, this time to see Cory Doctorow read from Little Brother at Elliot Bay Books. But my rear tire's flat. Don't I change enough of these at work? I'm not going to go back into the shop, disarming and resetting the alarm, but I've got everything I need on my bike. I find a suspicious looking shard in my tire, replace the tube, pump up, and head north. I get there with a minute to spare but the place is already packed. My buddies Wayne and Davey are already there.

Cory is an awesome dude. His book, Little Brother, has nothing to do with bikes, but consider this part of this post part of the "Kent's" portion of "Kent's Bike Blog." One of my kinder commenters suggested I should write about what interests me, while it seems like some of you anon guys seem to get peeved if I stray too far from what you like. As Cory has noted "if you give away free ice cream, there will always be folks who complain that they want a different flavor." There's lots of free ice cream on the Internet, this is the flavor we're serving here today.

So Cory's book, Little Brother, is a ripping good read. Don't take my word for it. Go here:

http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/

and grab you own free etext copy. If you want a dead-tree version, I've included an Amazon link at the bottom of this post.

So can you make money giving the text of your work away? Cory thinks so. I think so. I bought two dead-tree copies of Little Brother and one of Overclocked. Elliot Bay sold out all their copies right at the reading.

Cory is "an alien of extraordinary abilities." Really. That's what his visa says. You see if you're a Canadian, living in London and you need to travel to the USA for a book and lecture tour it seems that the USA will want to make sure that you're not coming here to take some job away from an American and so you wind up filling out a 650-page form and paying about ten grand in legal fees to get your passport stamped with that magical visa. But it is very cool to be "an alien of extraordinary abilities." I do wish I'd asked Cory how he got his steampunk wristwatch past the TSA. I can't imagine they'd let him on a plane with a watch that features a built-in cockroach launcher.

After the reading signing, Davey and I spent a few hours chatting about the bikeish world, about the open-source idea as it applies to bike repair and many other things. I get to see Davey's Bikery lab and it's the small hours of the morning before I'm home.

And that's a bit of what my life is like now. In general, from Tuesdays through Saturdays you'll find me at Bike Works. I'll be the guy with the grease under his fingernails and a big dumb grin on his face, probably explaining to somebody how a barrel adjuster works or how one of these days I'm going to get around to raising the price we charge for inner tubes.

Other times you may find me on my bike somewhere or in a tea shop with my wife or prowling around a book store. Or you may see me pounding out some text on a laptop. Next month Christine and I will be giving a talk at the Towards Carfree Cities Conference in Portland. By then we'll probably have figured out what we're going to say. We know what the title is: We’re Not Supermen: How Mild Mannered People Demotorize Metropolis.

And now and then, I'll post stuff here.

Keep 'em rolling.

Barack Obama Spoke Card

As I mentioned previously on this blog, I'm supporting Senator Obama in the current presidential race. The recent proposals by Senators McCain and Clinton for a summer gas tax holiday, which Senator Obama opposes, are just more evidence to me that I'm backing the candidate most aligned with my personal values. And, as near as I know, he's the only candidate with his own spoke card. I went to:

http://obamaspoke.com/?

and sent them a buck. A few days later I got this spoke card in the mail.


I certainly understand that not everyone shares my political views and I hunted around the web looking for Clinton or McCain spoke cards, but I came up empty. So if you support one of those candidates (or Ron Paul or whomever) and you come up with a spoke card, post a link to it in the comment section here. There are a lot of cyclists out there. We don't have bumpers, but we do have spokes. And a lot of us vote.

Keep 'em rolling.

Bikes to Ghana -- Pictures from 4-26-08

I've been busy as heck with my new job managing the Bike Works shop but better late than never, here are some pictures from the Bikes to Ghana loading on 4-26-08. We had a great crew of volunteers and working from 9:00 AM to 4:40 PM we managed to pack 476 bikes plus a bunch of parts into the shipping container.

Why I wear a helmet (and don't support helmet laws)

I generally stay clear of bicycle helmet discussions. I explained a bit about my views on helmets and helmet discussions in the first few paragraphs of this talk on cycling safety, and I mostly left things at that. However an unusually civil discussion of the helmet wars over on the iBOB list led one the fellows there to email me asking for a bit more info as to why I choose to wear a helmet. This blog post is in response to his query. And I did find it odd, wonderful and somehow typical of the iBOB list that the helmet war thread there morphed into a battle of dueling haiku.

I wear a bicycle helmet when I'm riding my bicycle not because I've been swayed by statistics or compelled by law. I recently was looking at a nearly 20 year old photograph of my son and I. Peter's helmet is too far back on his head and my helmet wouldn't pass today's impact tests but we both wore helmets then and wear them now when we ride.

Most of the people I know who choose to ride without a helmet have some complaint about the comfort or fashion of the helmet and then say they are not swayed by the statistics regarding their efficacy. I guess I don't have the comfort or fashion issues and in fact I find helmets useful. I'm not swayed by reasons not to wear a helmet.

One argument against wearing a helmet that I've heard is "you don't wear a helmet while walking or driving a car, why wear one when you ride?" Here's what I see as the difference. I walk at 3 miles per hour and I'm a pretty stable biped. I usually walk in environments where I'm not surrounded by large objects moving at high speed. There are not a large number of potential interchanges of energy when I'm walking. If I do trip and fall, I'm wired by years of evolution (or if you prefer, some sort of intelligent design) to react accordingly (at least I hope so). And the ground I walk on is usually softer than the street.

When I'm on a bike, I've already opted for one mechanised enhancement, the bicycle itself. This changes my average speed from 3 miles per hour to 12. I've upped the potential energy I myself bring to any potential collisions. My the contact patch of bike tires are smaller than my footprints. And I'm often in an environment I share automobiles that are bigger, faster and bringing more of that potential energy to any sudden interactions we might have.

So why not wear a helmet in a car? Because a car pretty much is a helmet. It has crumple zones and airbags, things designed to absorb impact. Like a bike helmet is designed to do in a crash.

But we never wore helmets as kids and we survived our youth, some folks say. Yep, lots of people live doing all kinds of things. As a youth I had a classmate who lost control of his bike, crashed and died. I have no idea if he would have lived if he'd been wearing a helmet, but I do know he's not now a person who can say that he survived his youth.

I do know that I've found my helmets to be handy on a couple of occasions. I documented one of those crashes here. The other incident was a bicycle crash involving no cars or drivers. I was young and in too much of a hurry, racing home on a bike path with poor sight lines. Another fellow was doing the same thing coming the other way and we both tried to course correct to the same side of the path and went down. My helmet cracked on the pavement, my skull did not. I found that worthwhile.

Will a helmet save you in every crash? Of course not. Can it be handy in some situations? I've found it so. Should you wear a helmet? I think that's your choice. Just because I wear a helmet doesn't give me the right to tell you what to do. If you're endangering others by doing something like driving 200 miles per hour down the public streets, then I'll probably vote for a law saying that you shouldn't do that. But if you are taking a bit more risk than I would, by paragliding off Tiger Mountain or eating week-old sushi for example, I think you are the best person to decide that. I like being able to choose my risks and make my choices. I'd hate for someone else to decide it's too dangerous for me to bicycle to work.

As parents Christine and I learned that kids don't always pay much attention to what you say, but they sure as heck notice what you do. If you're a parent and you want your kids to wear a helmet, wear one yourself. But don't ask me to vote for a law telling you how to raise your kid.

I still think there are many more things you can do to make cycling safer than just wearing a helmet. But I don't favor laws stating that you have to read "How Not To Get Hit By Cars" or take a LAB course or use a rear-view mirror. And I don't favor mandatory helmet laws.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent

Pictures from the commute

My new commute to Bike Works features some nice switchbacks in Colman Park, a run along the tree-lined banks of Lake Washington and those wonderful views of the mountains which just never get old. Here are a few pics.

Bikes to Ghana – THIS Saturday, April 26th

I'm busy as heck with my new job at Bike Works. This Saturday I'll be helping load bikes to Ghana here in Seattle. If you'd like to pitch in and help out my pals in the outreach group wrote up all the info you need to join in the fun.

----------

Thanks to those who already volunteered to come down-- we look forward to seeing you. And if you haven't already said you're coming, it's not too late. Email outreach@bikeworks.org or give us a ring and let us know that you plan on joining us. We'll start bright and early at 9am on Saturday morning, and would love to have a good size crowd. We will provide breakfast snacks and lunch to keep you energized throughout the day. Let us know if you plan on coming and we hope to see you there!

People are needed to help with all parts involved in loading hundreds of bikes into a shipping container bound for Ghana. This is a fun experience, a great way to spend the day, and an amazing sight to behold once finished. This will be the thirteenth container that Bike Works has partnered with the Village Bicycle Project to send to Ghana. Loading starts on Saturday, April 26th at 9am until we finish!

ADDRESS:

Loading will be at 1915 S. Corgiat Drive near Georgetown and Boeing Field, in a warehouse owned by Total Reclaim, a regional recycler of high tech trash. The bicycles will help people in Ghana facing scarce public transit and rising costs to meet their basic transportation needs. The project is part of an on-going partnership between Bike Works and Village Bicycle Project a nonprofit organization based in Moscow, Idaho. Check them out at: www.pcei.org/vbp

DIRECTIONS:

By bike from Beacon Hill, go south on 15th Street and cross the freeway at Albro Pl. then take the first left. You'll be on Corgiat, go about half-mile, the road curves sharply to the right, then you'll see the warehouse, 1915 on the left. If you keep going you'll be on the railroad tracks.

Driving from downtown Seattle, take I-5 south about four miles to Albro Pl. Swift Dr. exit 161. Go straight at the off-ramp traffic light, you'll be on Corgiat, go about half-mile, the road curves sharply to the right, then you'll see the warehouse 1915 on the left. Keep going and you'll be on the railroad tracks.

From Tacoma on I-5 take Albro Pl. Swift Dr. exit 161 turn left, cross over the freeway then take the first left you'll be on Corgiat, go about half-mile, the road curves sharply to the right, then you'll see the warehouse 1915 on the left.

Thanks for all your continued support!

Bike Works
3709 S. Ferdinand St.
Seattle, WA. 98118
206-725-9408
www.bikeworks.org

Picasso Did It First

Pablo Picasso made his classic sculpture in 1943 but I'm partial to this whimsical homage that hangs over the classroom door at Bike Works in Seattle.

Folding Bike Jedi Mind Tricks

The folks at Bike Friday say this about the stealth capabilities of their commuter-oriented folding bike the Tikit:

"The bus driver or office building manager will never know it's not a French horn."

While I don't own a Tikit, I do have a similarly compact folding bike, the Dahon D3. Like my Tikit owning friends, I've learned the value of a bit of strategic misdirection. Once the proper techniques are mastered, a folding bike does not have to be left outside, prey to the scum and villainy of the street with only a u-lock for protection. Your bike can stay with you, handy as a general purpose droid, ready for the next adventure. The folder can go with you into the cantina, cloaked to wait patiently under the table. A folding bike can speed with you in the big transport units of the city, provided of course, that you can get past the storm troopers at the door.

Folding bikes exist in two worlds. Fully deployed as a bicycle, this small machine is bright, quick and clever. It is often the object of comment and question. But in its folded state, the machine endeavors to be ignored or at least misconstrued. Some buildings and transportation systems are prejudiced against bicycles and they have rules made by bureaucrats who fear grease or tracked in dirt or maybe just machines they do not understand. The gatekeepers at the doorways did not make the rules and have no power to change them. The doorway is not the place to debate the fairness of the world. Doorways exist to be passed through quickly, with a minimum of fuss.

This is where a bit of nylon and Jedi skills come in handy. You don't have to make the gatekeeper think your bike is a French horn, you only have to make him not think about it or at least not think that your bundle is a bike.

A thin bag of nylon weighs only a few ounces and folds into a perfectly portable package. Unfurled it can cloak the entire machine in a layer of ambiguity. The bike is no longer a bike, it's a sack of something. Cloak your machine before the encounter and if you have a helmet for gosh sakes have the sense to hide it.

Step boldly through the door. Your bundle is so minor, so incidental you can't imagine why it would be questioned. You don't have to say anything about the bundle. Let the storm trooper work out his own scenario. It's often handy to ask your would-be interrogator some minor question about the bus route or the nearest coffee shop while thinking, "Move along, please. There's nothing to see here. These aren't the droids you're looking for..."

Nineteen times out of twenty you'll pass by without incident. If you get an unusually persistent inquisitor the phrase "folding exercise machine" may prove handy.

Conspicuity and Crashes

A study of bicycle crashes here:

http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/14/1/11

and one of motorcycle crashes here:

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/328/7444/857

both show that riders who wear high visibility clothing have much lower crash rates than their more subtly-dressed peers. One problem with such studies is that human beings are complicated creatures. For example, the cycling study states:

Risk-taking behavior is a potential confounder in all observational studies of injury and is difficult to measure reliably because of the likelihood that participants will provide socially desirable responses. "Reverse causation" can also complicate cross-sectional analyses, if outcomes influence exposures. In this study, such a mechanism would be expected to reduce associations rather than inflate them—for example, a bicycle crash may prompt a participant to use fluorescent clothing.

In other words, if you're prone to be a risky rider you probably won't identify yourself as such and if you've had an accident you might load up on safety gear. And I personally think one huge confounder might be this: folks who think a lot about safe riding will probably be far more prone to be swayed by safety considerations in the purchase the fluorescent gear. Riders may not be safer because they are wearing the bright colors, they may be wearing bright colors because they are more safety conscious riders.

While it is very hard to allow for all the confounding factors, both studies suggest that brightly dressed riders have lower crash rates. In any case, I figure my habbit of wearing a bright yellow vest while riding can't hurt.

Why Elvis had to stop commuting by bike

It's hard to build up any speed when you have to keep stopping to sign autographs.

Bike Noob: Smoked By An Old Guy

I certainly enjoy a good, well-told cycling story. Just today I had the pleasure of stumbling onto a site called Bike Noob where I found this lovely bit of prose:

http://bikenoob.wordpress.com/2008/04/16/smoked-by-an-old-guy/

Old Wheels Rolling In New Ways

Starting Monday I'm going to be the Shop Manager at Bike Works down in Columbia City. I don't claim to be psychic, but this is what I wrote back on December 1st on my blog:

If I wasn't so darn well suited for my job at the Bicycle Alliance of Washington, it's a pretty safe bet that I'd be working at Bike Works. Dara and her crew not only do terrific work, they consistently demonstrate just how much fun it can be to change people's lives through bicycles. Every time I volunteer at Bike Works or work with them on a project, I'm reminded that the velorution is happening right now. Whether it's teaching kids to fix stuff or getting people rolling on rigs that cost less than what most folks spend on a monthly car payment, the lessons are the same: this is what's possible, this is what's practical and this is how you do it.

Well folks, that velorution is still rolling on and my place in it is now at:

Bike Works 3709 S. Ferdinand Seattle, WA 98118 206 - 725 - 9408

Stop on by if you're in the neighborhood. By the way, next Friday and Saturday we'll be loading another container with bikes for the Village Bicycle Project. Details are here:

http://www.bikeworks.org/btg.htm

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent

Still More Dahon D3 Musings

First off, if I was really smart, I'd figure out some way to get a kickback from Dahon. I'm not that smart.

My friends have figured out that I really like my Dahon D3. I think the fact that I ride so many places on this bike tips them off. Now you have to understand, I have bikey friends and they are used to seeing me show up at places on a bike, but somehow they are still surprised when I show up on the Dahon instead of one of my bigger bikes. Especially when the places I show up at are miles from my home. "You rode here? On that?" they say. It's like they think I'm making some kind of sacrifice. Surely my bigger bikes are better?

I think my ongoing interest in the sufficient, as opposed to the optimal, is part of what explains my preference for the Dahon, but the simpler answer is that the bike is fun. The little wheels are zippy; they spin up to speed quickly but by the same token, they don't tend to hold speed as well. The bike feels quick, it is quick, but it doesn't seem fast like a racing bike. It just seems fun.

It is impossible to have Lance Armstrong fantasies on a Dahon D3. You are sitting more upright and you look too big for the bike. On some forum I read that riders on folding bikes look like they "rode out of a Dr. Seuss book." That writer has a point, but it's a point I gladly embrace. Dr. Seuss would understand.

I ride my red bike here and there,
I ride my red bike everywhere.

I take my red bike on a bus,
On the street folks question us.

"How fast does that red bike go?"
"As fast as I pedal, don't you know."

"Does it have the gears you need?"
"I've found three give needed speed.

"One for up and one for down,
One for riding in the town."

"Can you ride it in the night?"
"Yes, I have a little light."

"Do you ride it near and far?"
"Yes, every place you'd take a car."

"Can you take things on your bike?"
"A rack and sack hold all I like."

"My bike goes with me on the train,
I ride in sun, I ride in rain."

"I ride to the store and to the bank,
I never put gas in a tank."

"I fuel at the grocery store,
I ride and eat then ride some more."

"I have a red bike that I like,
I'm glad I have this folding bike."

Tour de Donut

Wow is this a great idea! I can't quite convince my wife that it's worth a trip to Utah to do this ride (and besides The Fat Cyclist is probably right that he will win it) but by golly we have donut shops in the Pacific Northwest too. Maybe we could talk the Black Diamond Bakery into sponsorship for a Puget Sound version of this race?

The Rights and Duties of Cyclists

Dan Gutierrez recently put this video up on YouTube. I think this video does a very good job of presenting a lot of key concepts of safe cycling in under five minutes. The League of American Bicyclists has been doing some very good, multi-day safe cycling courses for years, but short bits like this one can wind up reaching a lot more people.

Pictures from the 4/1/08 Seattle Sheldon Brown Ride

We had a great group of riders, great weather and a great time on the Sheldon Brown Memorial ride in Seattle last night. Thanks so much to everyone for showing up.

April 1st 2008 is Energy Wasting Day!

Too, too often I get asked, "gee Kent, what can I do to change the planet?" This video gives plenty of handy tips:

It Seemed Like a Bright Idea...

Here in the US, we count on the Onion or the Fat Cyclist for stories like this. In the UK, they have NewsBisuit. Check this out:

http://tinyurl.com/3aj786

Sheldon Brown Memorial Ride - April 1, 2008

To celebrate the life, spirit and enduring wisdom of Sheldon Brown, a bunch of us are gathering in Seattle for a ride on Tuesday April 1st, 2008. We will meet at 6:00 PM at the Seattle Bikestation at 311 3rd Avenue South. From the Bikestation we'll ride through the International District, up Dearborn to Hiawatha, connect to the trail for the climb up the hill and ride a cool, twisty descent through Coleman Park to Lake Washington Blvd. From there we'll ride over on Genese, etc to Bike Works. Tuesday nights are volunteer repair nights at Bike Works and they are busy prepping bikes for the annual Kids Bike Swap in May, so there will be opportunities for those mechanically inclined individuals to work on getting kids bikes into safe shape after the ride. Bring yourself, your bike, your helmet decorated in whatever way you like and your enthusiasm. This ride will be socially paced and if we manage to get slightly organized between now and next Tuesday, we have some kind of refreshments and munchies at the end. We'll definitely have fun.

A Lightweight Helmet With Lights

I use my bikes for transportation and that often involves riding around in the hours of darkness. I find it handy to have lights not just on my bike, but on my helmet as well. A helmet light shines where I'm looking so it can be handy for making eye-contact with drivers, spotting street signs, illuminating maps and generally putting a bit of light just where I need it. I don't need a super-powerful light on my helmet and I like to keep the weight low. Over the years, my system of helmet lights has evolved. The helmet shown here is the lightest configuration I've worked out to date. Other systems can be set-up that are brighter or that use more environmentally friendly batteries, but this set-up works pretty well.

The Lazer Magma Helmet is one I got a great deal on a few weeks ago. It's light weight and has a lot of well-placed vents. I added a few bits of reflective tape and removed the helmet's visor.

The front light is a Petzl E+Lite. The E+Lite only weighs an ounce and has a couple of different brightness and blink settings. The downside is that it uses a couple of non-rechargeable CR2032 batteries. I've been using the light for weeks and pretty much just use the low setting and I have yet to change the batteries. It would easily work as a cue-sheet & sign-spotting light for an entire 1200K brevet and would probably work for an entire year's worth of brevets without a battery change. And CR2032 batteries are lightweight and fairly commonly available.

The Planet Bike Blinky 3H Tail Light runs off a single AAA cell and it is fairly bright, although not as blinding as the 2AA Superflash. The 3H comes with a little helmet pivot mount, but I found a single zip-tie lets me attach the light without the pivot.

Jan Heine on the Virtues of Friction Shifting

Over on the Randon list a discussion of some upcoming electronic shifters has spawned some interesting posts. I personally am not one of those people waiting for electronic shifting nirvana. I happily run friction shifters on all my derailler bikes, while my hub-geared Dahon has rock-solid Sturmey-Archer indexed hub 3-speed shifting. Indexed shifting for derailler systems, which is now the industry norm, has never been very useful for me. Actually, that isn't quite true, it served up a steady stream of customers for tune-ups back when I worked as a bicycle mechanic. For reasons I don't understand, people who normally seem quite intelligent are baffled by a simple barrel-adjuster or cable housings that compress over time. I know how to work on indexed shifters but like Jan Heine, I prefer the simplicity, elegance and reliability of friction shifting.

Note that in this thread Jim and Jan use the common term "cable stretch" for the phenomena that really should be more accurately identified as "cable housing compression." You can read the full thread here but I've quoted Jan Heine as he makes the case thusly:

From: Jan Heine
Date: Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 7:45 AM
To: randon@googlegroups.com

From: "Jim Bronson"

What you fail to mention is that the electronic system has the capability to eliminate the need for mecanical cables, which would be an increase in reliability from my standpoint. If it wasn't for cable stretch, we'd never have to fiddle with our derailleurs.

The problem you describe is not inherent with cables, but inherent with indexing in the shift levers. Moving the indexing to the derailleurs would solve the problem. The cables could stretch all they want, but the indexing adjustment would not change. However, indexing in the derailleur also would mean that you could use any shift lever. And Shimano invented indexed shifting specifically to make you buy a group, including their shift levers (and freewheel). Then they combined freewheel and hub into a cassette hub, so you had to buy their hub, too. Then they combined their brake and shift levers, so you had to buy their brakes, too. Then they combined their cranks and BB, so you had to buy the set as well.

The obvious solution is to forego indexed shifting altogether and use friction shifting. I employ it on my bikes, and I don't ever worry about cable stretch, nor do I fiddle with my derailleurs. And I can combine any components I want (Maxi-Car hubs with Shimano freewheel, Huret derailleur, Simplex shift levers, Mafac brakes - no problem at all on my PBP bike).

In addition, downtube shift levers give you a warning when the cable frays at the shift lever (where it usually frays) - the sharp ends poke your hands. (In case you ignore the warning, or the cable fails elsewhere, replacing a shifter cable in the field is easy with downtube shifters, too.)

Finally, downtube shifters let you move your hands around every time you shift, thus preventing hand pain and numbness on long rides.

Maybe, once all the problems with electronic shifting have been worked out, and the system works off my generator hub (I think Shimano is working on that, their latest generator hubs provide more power at low speeds to make this possible), I will consider it. Then I'd want voice activation, too. Just like I say on a tandem to warn my stoker: "Shift" and the new gear comes in. Based on my cadence, the system will know whether I want an upshift or downshift.

In the mean time, the old Alex Singer will have to do.

Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
140 Lakeside Ave #C
Seattle WA 98122
www.bikequarterly.com

---------------------------

From: Russ Loomis
Date: Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 8:23 AM
To: randon@googlegroups.com, Jan Heine

Bravo!!! Jan Heine! I could not have said it better myself. I also use down tube friction shifters on all my bikes ( after having tried STI for over 5 years ) and thus eliminated all the shifting problems of index shifting. They are cheap, reliable, and last a lifetime but the best feature is that I can use any cassette or freewheel combination from 5 spd - 10 spd. It also puts the riding experience back into riding. Like driving a stick instead of an automatic. Fun.

I have become so put off with the bike industry pushing "newer and better" down our throats when they are the only benefactors. Put friction back on your bike; you could even save almost a pound in weight ( for all you weight weenies ) and ride worry free of having a bike fail during an event.

Russ

Tell Olympic National Park to remove the proposed ban on bicyclists

(This is from my pals at the Bicycle Alliance of Washington)

Hurricane Ridge Road inside Olympic National Park is a popular summer destination for bicyclists who like the challenge of a 17-mile road rising from virtually sea level to 5420-feet. Park managers have been planning to repave the road for several years and Congress has provided $12.7 Million to repave and repair 12 miles. The road recently sustained storm damage.

Citing “safety,” the park is planning to ban bicyclists for the entire two year duration of the road repairs. The road will remain open to all other vehicle traffic, including motorcycles.

We believe that this is an unnecessary exclusion of bicyclists on what is a federally funded road open to all other forms of traffic. Write to your members of Congress and interim park superintendent Sue McGill and let them know that the proposed ban is totally unacceptable. Request that McGill meet directly with the Bicycle Alliance and other bicycle groups to reach an improved solution.

Key points to raise:

• Hurricane Ridge Road is a popular destination for bicyclists
• Bicyclists who ride this road tend to be very experienced, fit riders
• The road will remain open to all other vehicle traffic
• State, county and city governments in Washington manage to accommodate bicyclists during reconstruction projects without any problems
• No construction work will take place at weekends, but the ban is to remain in place then too
• Olympic National Park did not contact a single bicycle group in its out-reach efforts, even though bicyclists are the most affected users
• Contractors routinely deal with bicyclists on other road projects – this project is no more a safety issue than other road works.

Enter your zip code to obtain the name of your member of Congress: http://www.house.gov/htbin/zipfind

Washington’s two senators can be reached by email or by calling a local office:

Senator Patty Murray: http://murray.senate.gov/contact/

Senator Maria Cantwell: http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/office_locations.cfm

Olympic National Park
Sue McGill, Superintendent
Olympic National Park
600 E. Park Avenue
Port Angeles, WA 98362
sue_mcgill@nps.gov

Background on the issue is available at: http://peninsuladailynews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080216/NEWS/802160303&template=printart

Information on recent storm damage to Hurricane Ridge Road:
http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/current-closures.htm

Veloquent

I'm starting a new venture with some of my pals. It's a multi-authored blog called Veloquent and you can see it here:

http://veloquent.blogspot.com/

Awareness Test

My pal Rob sent me the link to this. Check it out, it's amazing:

http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

Space Monkey = Me

Just over a week ago, I wrote about people zoning out. Among other things I wrote:

Be careful out there. Pay attention. You can be certain that somebody isn't. They may be jogging, they may be driving, they may be riding a bike.

All I can do is try to remember to be here now.

I really should take my own advice.

Maybe the time change had a bit to do with it but this morning as I was riding to work my mind was elsewhere. I was the space monkey I warn other folks to watch out for.

I prefer riding on the road instead of the trail, so once I cross the bridge onto Mercer Island, I turn onto North Mercer Way. And as I ride along instead of being here now, I was thinking too far ahead about a project waiting for me at work.

Just how spaced out can one person be? So spaced out that I didn't see the GIANT YELLOW SCHOOL BUS with the FLASHING STOP ARM parked and loading up kids. The bus was parked pointed eastbound, ready to make the right turn up Shorewood Drive. I was headed westbound on North Mercer Way.

I'm a guy who stops for stop signs. I sure would have stopped for this one if I'd seen it but I didn't see it because I was totally zoned out.

I was so zoned out I not only didn't see the bus and the stop arm, I hadn't been checking my rear view mirror either. So I didn't see the police car that was right behind me either.

I don't think the bus driver could quite believe how zoned out I was, but he hit his horn as he saw that I wasn't slowing down. That snapped me out of my stupor just in time for me to be aware that I blew past the stop sign.

And of course the police officer hit his lights and pulled me over.

The bus driver and the police officer were totally right. I was totally wrong.

The officer was very professional and nice about things. I deservedly felt like an idiot. The officer was a bit surprised when I explained that I don't have a driver's license but he was perfectly happy to run my passport through the system. He also explained my options with the ticket. I can either pay the fine, schedule a mitigation hearing or contest the ticket. I'd only contest the ticket if I felt the officer was wrong for issuing me the ticket. He wasn't wrong, I was.

The fine is a hefty one, designed to impress on one the importance of driving safely around school children. It's a $394 ticket.

I'm going for a mitigation hearing. The hearing will at least give me more than fifteen days to come up with 394 dollars. And both the police officer and my lawyer friends tell me the judge may reduce the fine if I'm truly sorry and keep a clean record going forward.

I really do try to be here now but sometimes I forget. I feel I got off easy. If I was zoned out enough to space out on both a school bus and a police car, I could just as easily have been in an accident that would keep me from learning this or any other lessons.

With luck we get to live and learn.

I'm still learning.

Be careful out there.

Kent

Bike Folks at the Seattle Bike Expo

Val Kleitz summed it up best when asked if he minded being "stuck" in the SBS booth at the Seattle Bike Expo, "spending all day chatting about bikes with folks? That's not stuck! Where else would I want to be?"

While wandering around the Expo yesterday I was struck by the fact that while it's fun to see all the shiny new bikes, the lovely old bikes and the various bits of clever innovation, a show like this is at least as much about bike folks as it is about bikes.

My camera was still flaking out and I'm sure other people have great shots of shiny bikes. I spent most of my time chatting with my buddies, plotting some new adventures and mostly taking pictures of people. I'm a little bummed my shot of Leo didn't turn out and that I just plain spaced out on getting a photo of the lovely editorial staff of Momentum Magazine. The good news is that this will give me an excuse to head up to Vancouver sometime soon.


Jacquie Phelan and I finally managed to be in the same place at the same time. My pal Matt Newlin took the photo documenting this happy event.


Matt checks out some of the wonderful old bikes in Bob Freeman's amazing vintage collection.

Jacquie Phelan, the Queen Wombat.

Coach Tammy almost convinced me to weight train until pal Matt pointed out that our entire lives are spent basically in the "base" and "taper" phases. "Go out easy, then back off" that's our motto. Tammy had all kinds of great advice for those of you who actually want to compete and do things like run and swim as well as bike and maybe do these things with something like speed and grace. Her main advice is that the advantage of weight training isn't strength, it's that it's a great tool to train the opposing muscle groups to prevent injury. Many of Tammy's clients have the problem of working too hard. Matt pointed out that I don't seem to have that problem.


Val really looks like he's coping quite well with being "trapped" at the SBS booth. In addition to being a top notch mechanic and a super nice guy, Val won the award for "best facial hair" at last month's Handmade Bicycle Show.


Mark Vande Kamp, famous writer for Bicycle Quarterly, contemplates the reasonable price tag on the lovely wool Seattle Bicycle Club jerseys.


If Joe "Metal Cowboy" Kurmaskie could write half as well as he talks, he'd be a best-selling author. In fact, he writes about twice as well as he talks, so he is a best-selling author. If you haven't read any of Joe's books, stop reading this blog now and go buy one of his books.


Jan Heine explains the advantages of the classic French-designed randonneuring bicycles. Jan is not a person who blindly believes that the old ways were better but he is very interested in what works. He learns things on the roads of today and from the riders and builders who have gone before us. Every issue of his magazine, Bicycle Quarterly, is packed with interesting,useful and beautiful stuff. Of course, I may be somewhat biased since everyone working on that magazine is a pal of mine and my words sometimes show up on Jan's pages, but the man does know what he's talking about. He can write and talk and RIDE. This year Jan was the first American across the finish line at Paris-Brest-Paris. He seemed a bit embarrassed when asked about that at the end of his talk and sounded almost like Yogi Berra when he explained "I wasn't really that fast, it's just that the others were slower."




I mostly resisted geeking out on the equipment side of the Expo, but I love my Ergon grips, so I had to stop by to see Jeff Kerkove at the Ergon booth. Last year Jeff hooked me up with a free set of grips for my green bike and I liked those so much that I actually went out and paid full retail for a second set for my M2 Stumpjumper. This year Jeff is showing off Ergon's new backpack which has an astounding harness system that really changes the way you think about weight on your back. Matt, John and I all had to try the pack, which Jeff loaded up with Ergon brochures. The dang thing feels lighter on your back than it does when you lift it and because the pack pivots in the harness as you move, it almost feels like you're not wearing a pack. My wife will tell you I'm a sucker for a neat pack and only my thin wallet and the thought of explaining to her why I bought yet another pack kept me from walking out of the Expo with one of these babies.

This year's Expo was a lot of fun. I could have spent much more time talking to folks and easily could have spent a ton of cash on some very cool things. The Expo is still going on today and if you're in Seattle and haven't been to the Expo yet, it's worth the trip.

Mindfulness In Motion

I ride up to Redmond to chat with my friend Mark Thomas. We meet up at Victor's Coffee, discuss weighty matters of the world and then each go our separate ways on the various errands that will fill our day.

Redmond is north of Issaquah and I usually traverse the dozen miles which separate the two towns on via the eastern side of Lake Sammamish. On this side of the lake I have the option of either taking the paved, mostly well-shouldered Sammamish River Parkway or the more scenic, unpaved Lake Sammamish Trail. I'd taken the Parkway on my trip north, so I opt to take in the slower scenery of the trail for my southbound journey.

I ride down the trail which runs along an old rail corridor. Over the past few decades almost every bit of land that either overlooks the lake or has direct waterfront access has sprouted a multi-million dollar home. Despite the fears of some local residents that the creation of this public trail on public land would create a corridor of crime allowing roving pedestrian and biker gangs to spend their free time bashing Bentleys and lobbing Molotovs at Mercedes, no such crime-wave has been forthcoming. Instead the trail crimes tend to be more aesthetic in nature, tiny dogs whose tiny running suits match their owner's perfect Polarfleece, software executives jogging while under the influence of Bluetooth, middle-aged men riding bicycles while wearing clothing far too fluorescent for decent decorum...

That last character, of course, would be me.

So I'm riding down the trail minding not only my own business but the business of others, because I've learned, over the years, that fortune favors the vigilant. I go slow. I click my brake levers, ding my bell, clear my voice whenever I get even remotely close to other trail users. I look for the telltale white earbuds that warn me that their wearer may be paying more attention to Britney or Bono than anything as mundane and dangerous as the actual real world.

And even so, for all my vigilance, my attention isn't always perfect and sometimes I can be surprised.

I'm surprised today, but not by my inattention. Today I'm surprised by how far a person's mind can be from their body.

I see them jogging towards me. This is a straight section of trail and they came into my field of vision at a distance of at least 200 yards. I'm rolling towards them, they are running towards me. They are two young women, running side by side. As the distance between us closes, I can see them clearly. No earphones are visible, they are not conversing. They are jogging, looking straight ahead.

Straight at me. The guy on the red bike, with the bright yellow vest. In what I believe is called "broad daylight."

My spidey-sense is tingling. I slow way down. I click my levers and ring my bell.

I'm now going at just about walking speed. Neither woman seems to have the slightest awareness of my existence. And one of them is in my lane, running straight for me.

"Hey!" I shout as we are about 15 feet from each other and I basically track-stand on the trail. The woman's eyes flip into focus and go wide. She slows, slips in behind her companion and says, "sorry, I didn't see you" as she jogs past me.

I don't have a response.

There is little I can do but tell this story and note that I've kicked the paranoia level on my clue-less meter up one more notch.

We all have distractions in our lives. My friend David Smith pointed out to me the other night that even something like a rear-view mirror, which generally increases your safety and situational awareness, can be detrimental if you are looking back at the particular moment you need to be looking forward.

The best advice I ever got on this subject came from a zen master: "Be here now."

Be careful out there. Pay attention. You can be certain that somebody isn't. They may be jogging, they may be driving, they may be riding a bike.

All I can do is try to remember to be here now.

Cleaning Up This Town

We've had some of those warm, clear days we seem to get every February in Issaquah, the days that sucker you into thinking spring is just around the corner and then the cold rain returns for many more weeks. But for now, it's wonderful. I'm out running a bunch of small errands on my bike when I see her. She's walking her dog, but stopping every few feet to pick up trash and shove it in a big plastic bag. She's got one yellow plastic glove on her garbage hand. This is obviously not some random action. This is pre-meditated.

I'm the kind of guy who talks to strangers and I guess a forty-eight year old dude on a tiny bright red Dahon folding bike isn't too threatening a figure to a woman walking a large, friendly dog. At least she doesn't pull out any mace or anything when I ride up and say "Hey, are you picking up garbage because you're a cool person or...?" I kind of let the thought fizzle out as I realize I don't quite know how to end that sentence. I said I'm a guy who talks to strangers, I didn't say I was any good at it.

The woman laughs and says she has to walk the dog anyway, she might as well pick up some trash as long as she's out. "That's awesome," I gush. I introduce myself and she introduces herself and the dog. I have a mind like a steel sieve and manage to forget both names while I rummage through my pockets for the pen that is usually there but today is back home on the kitchen table. "Can I take your picture?" I ask while doing a bad job of explaining about GAIT and my blog. Somehow she decides that this penless blogger on the funny little bike is probably mostly harmless and agrees. I give her my card and if she emails me, I'll point her to this blog entry.

It doesn't matter what her name is, what matters is that she's doing something to make her town a little nicer. And if she can do it, heck I can do it too. Not every day perhaps but maybe a bit now and then.

The next day is another sunny day and I have to run some more errands. I grab a bag on my way out the door. It doesn't take long to fill it up.

Gandhi said we should be the change we want to see in the world. I'm glad the lady with the garbage bag and the yellow glove and the big black dog reminded me of that.

Why Don't You Commute By Bicycle?

Over the years I've learned some interesting things from the comments folks leave on this blog, so I figured I might as well ask a couple of questions here and see what answers you come up with.

In this post the question is:

Why Don't You Commute By Bicycle?

Use the comment section to post as much or as little as you'd like about why you don't commute by bicycle. If you do commute by bike, please go to the companion post Why Do You Commute By Bicycle? and comment there. If you sometimes commute by bicycle and sometimes don't, feel free to comment on both posts.

Thanks.

Why Do You Commute By Bicycle?

Over the years I've learned some interesting things from the comments folks leave on this blog, so I figured I might as well ask a couple of questions here and see what answers you come up with.

In this post the question is:

Why Do You Commute By Bicycle?

Use the comment section to post as much or as little as you'd like about why you commute by bicycle. If you don't commute by bike, please go to the companion post Why Don't You Commute By Bicycle? and comment there. If you sometimes commute by bicycle and sometimes don't, feel free to comment on both posts.

Thanks.

Ernesto Bike Lube

What a cyclist uses for chain lubrication is one topic that can lead to lively debate. You'll find folks who swear by (or swear at) White Lightning, Boeshield, ProLink, TriFlow, Pedro's, etc. Ultra-distance legend Lon Haldeman is more casual about such things, lubing his bike's chain with whatever leftover oil he finds in discarded gas station oil cans. My own preference is for a lube that holds up well in the wet, isn't excessively messy and ideally isn't adding to Exxon's morbidly obese bottom line.

A couple of months ago I noticed that some guy called Ernesto is sponsoring nice guy Dave Nice. Ernesto and a couple of his buddies have a little company that makes chain lube from soybeans. I needed some lube, so I took a chance and ordered a four ounce bottle of the stuff.

It works. I've been using the stuff for the past couple of months (about 2,000 miles) of commuting and other on-road and off-road adventures in the Pacific Northwest. I've used less than an ounce of the lube in those two months. I use just enough lube to keep the squeaks away and wipe off the excess with a rag. That seems to be the recipe for keeping things reasonably clean and reasonably quiet.

And I like supporting Ernesto and his buddies instead of the guys whose business is built on sucking the remains of dead dinosaurs from the every corner of the globe. It makes me feel like I'm doing my bit to live up to the slogan on my t-shirt.

DNA trail led cops to unlikely bike theft suspect

The Seattle Times has a fascinating story today about a guy who would test ride high-end bicycles and then never return. The guy managed to steal a lot of bikes this way. Read all about it here:

http://tinyurl.com/2oge7s

The big break in the case came from DNA the police extracted from the disposable coffee cup the suspect left behind at one of the bike shops.

Two Motivational Videos

I really like both of these short videos because they both stress the same basic message, ordinary people can make a difference. The first video, produced by the CTC, does feature a very attractive young model on a bike but I think the real power of the message comes from all the ordinary and not so ordinary people who join her. The guy in the suit on the folding bike, the speedy old lady and the fun jumping BMX bloke all add to the "we can do this" feeling. My favorite has to be the snaggle-toothed fellow on the recumbent with the peace sign on his army helmet. I totally relate to that dopey grin of his.



The second video is maybe even better than the CTC video. It wasn't even made to sell bicycling, Miller made it to sell beer. This is a such a beautiful image.



Those of us who love cycling have all the motivation we need. We know life is better outside the box. Videos like these two do a great job of getting that message out to a wider audience.

Do I Contradict Myself?

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

The words are Walt Whitman's from Song of Myself, but they could just as well apply to a Humvee with a Share The Road License Plate. Note, this picture is real. It was sent to us at the Bicycle Alliance by one of our members who snapped the picture while driving on one of the local roads. The only image manipulation I did was to obscure the plate number to protect the Humvee owner's privacy.


And I'm not posting this to mock the Humvee owner. The Humvee owner is probably also a member of the Bicycle Alliance of Washington and even if they aren't, a portion of that license plate money goes to the Bicycle Alliance. And it has always struck me as ironic that my work, which is basically helping people figure out ways to get around without using a motor vehicle, is funded, in part, by license plates on motor vehicles. Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself.

Now I have often said that I am not anti-car, I'm pro-bike. That said, I have been known to go into a good, foaming "SUVs suck" rant now and then. And they do suck, you know. I mean, really, look at the safety stats. But what they really suck is resources. Don't kid yourself. SUVs take a lot of energy to build and run and they spew a lot of stuff into the atmosphere.

But if you need one for, whatever the heck you need one for, there is something you can do. Drive it less. Drive is less by yourself. Maybe you can ride your bike to the store. Maybe you can carpool. Or walk. Or take the bus.

The folks over at the Sightline Institute think about things like this a lot and they published this handy chart:


We're not just sharing the road, we're sharing a planet. My big beef with SUVs is that, as my wife observed "they share the way Eric (our son) shares donuts." Eric makes sure he's got all the donuts he wants and if any are left over, he shares those.

I like bikes because they're fun, but also because they are a very efficient way to get around. These days there is a lot of talk about bio-fuel but a lot of that seems to come down to making choices of growing food or growing fuel. When you bicycle, food is your fuel.

We all make choices every day and those choices add up. My friend Chris commented, "We're not saving the planet, the planet will get along fine with or without us. We're saving ourselves." And while he's right in one way, geologically the planet will do fine, in terms of the biosphere we have a damn big impact. And that big impact is as the result of a lot us doing a lot of little things, over and over again.

Is this trip necessary? Do I need that widget? Can we keep doing this? I think these are questions that are worth asking.

And often times I find I contradict myself but I continue to try to do what I can. Little things can add up. A few more bikes on the road. A few trips not taken. A few more filled passenger seats.

We do what we can.

Bike More. Drive Less. Share the Road. Share the Planet.

Wisconsin College to Give Bikes to Freshmen

A nice Associated Press story here:

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_8259646