Tag: Bike Blogging

OK, so I ride my bike to work … when the stupid place calls me in (but enough about me) … so what else can I do to human-power my life?

This is the topic of the “Innovate or Die” pedalpower contest. (h/t to Sarah van Schagen at Grist)

And boy-o-boy do they have a slick announcement video …

(its even better full-screen, if you click through the link, and I suppose if you have all the modern Web 2.0 whiz bang stuff … I doubt it would have the same impact using Lynx over a text terminal link)

… of course, some of the applications seem to exist primarily as a reminder of how efficient a bicycle is as a transport solution … I’ll take a look, after the fold.

OK, so I juggled funds and went to buy a new, slightly better, garbage department store bike on Thursday. I did that in case I was called in on Friday, and then I was not called in, so I got all weekend to get the gear off the shoddy department store bike that just was not designed for 1,000 miles in five months, and onto the new one.

But what I really want is an electric bike. Let me tell you the electric bike I am probably going to end up with, and the electric bike I wish I could have, after the fold.

And of course, as always, this is also a cycling open thread.

Uhhh … how do you do it? Anyone know?

I started this cycle commuting in Newcastle, Australia, where there is no winter, in the Northeast Ohio sense of the word … and restarted it at the end of May here.

So I have some vague ideas, but no firm knowledge.

Waddya reckon?

As always, this is also a cycling open thread.

After a fortnight hiatus, I’m back with another Saturday Night Bike Blog … as always, this is a cycling open thread as well as a place to talk about whatever issue leaps into my head as I recover from a hard week of cycle commuting.

And a hard week of cycle commuting it was … I was called each day this week, and on Thursday evening I hit a pothole and bent my rear wheel and one of the stays for the rear wheel, so I struggled getting to work on the old 3-Speed Schwinn … with the bottom gear not working until I fixed it up before heading home, and having to stop and adjust the rear tire which worked its way off true (and I had a frission of fear that it was my second bent wheel in as many trips).

So the topic today, obviously, is the legalities of cycling. In response to ???, once I have everything fixed up, maybe I’ll talk about equipment, but I don’t want to jinx nothing.

Where can you ride legally, and on roads that you can ride on legally, how do you ride legally? This is a state by state issue, but, fortunately, there are online resources to work out the situation in your state. A major compendium is made available courtesy of MassBike: The Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, with their State Bike Laws link page. However, be aware that the list of links was put together some time ago, and some State Department’s of Transportation, etc., have reorganized their sites since then, leaving a number of bad links.

The votes are in. Commuting issues beat coast to coast cycling by a massive Two to One margin … that is, two votes for commuting issues, versus one votes for coast to coast cycling.

And this week I got some more gear for my cycle commute, so my mind seemed to turn to the topic of gearing up for the commute.

Of course, any SNBB essay is also … probably primarily … a cycling open thread … so whatever your cycling thought, observation, or recollection, drop on in.

Just a quick query.

I’m heading into work tomorrow, which probably means I’ll have work the balance of the week. So, of course, with a full work day and almost two hour cycle commute each way (Jesus H. Christ, would you stop whinging already, McF?), I likely won’t have time to blog again until the weekend.

Which gives plenty of time to collect info. What do you want in the next Saturday Night Bike Blogging? Take the poll and/or add a comment. I’ll check it out on Friday evening, and get cogitating.

Well, there you go … just when I was saying how most motorists in this area seem to be reasonably well behaved, at least by the low level that the bar that is set for motorists, I was shouted at.

But it was the exception that “proves” (that is, tests) the rule. On reflection, it was not really misbehavior as a motorist, but merely ignorance on the part of a fellow citizen. And in any case, it wasn’t really my town, so before I reflect on it, at least I could say, “boy, these here folk in this here town shor are ignoramuses”.

But did get me back to thinking about sidewalk cycling and other cycling behavior where we are expected to buy a ticket in the suicide lottery in order to stay out of the way of motorists.

Ok, so the quick of it is, my cycle commute is about 14 miles each way, when I happen to get called into the warehouse … I “ought” to be beginning to recover about this time on Saturday, but as it happens deep into Q3 things are very slow (recession chill goes up the spine), so I only got called in once this last week.

Anyway, a funny thing happened on the way to work on Thursday …