The Beauty of the Bicycle Wheel
Women liberated by the creation of the safety bike. .–Corrie
Women’s lib arrived on bicycles
Published May 20, 2008 by CNN
By Christopher ConnollySusan B. Anthony once said, “Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.” A woman on a bicycle, the equal rights champion observed, presents “the picture of free and untrammeled womanhood.”
How long is a ride? Might only be 4 or 5 miles as it was when I took my first few rides with a friend around the bridges. He was recovering from back surgery and we had switched from running to biking.
Soon we were doing 10 miles a day, maybe 15 or 20 on a Saturday. But we had been marathoners, so we figured we could do anything. We took our bikes, a mountain bike and a cross, to Spokane to try a century using a book he had found. Of course we picked the hottest day of the year, got lost and did just about everything wrong. Back at our rig at onlly 96 miles, my buddy insisted we add on the last 4 miles. So, I come by this century obsession honestly. –Corrie
Train for a Century Ride
A century ride (100 miles) is a major accomplishment for a cyclist. Maybe a century ride or a metric century (100 km/62 miles) is a goal you’re considering for this year. If so, use these resources to train up to ride a century in just ten weeks, and to make sure you survive and thrive when you’re on the big ride so that it’s an enjoyable experience, and doesn’t turn into a death march instead.
Twenty-three thousand commuters chose their bicycles on Friday in the Puget Sound region, making this the most popular Bike to Work Day ever.
Discontent with higher gasoline prices and happiness over the nice weather are credited with the 20-plus percent increase in participation this year. Maybe some of them will keep riding.
Okay, I couldn’t resist following yesterday’s post 10 Quick Tips with this one from Bike Commuting. Let’s get real–Corrie
This article isn’t for the detail oriented bike commuters. It’s also not for the hardcore, race-to-work riders either.
This one is for those of us that don’t like to plan ahead. Bike maintenance isn’t our thing. We consider rain showers wash-day for our bikes. And we certainly aren’t using our daily commute as training for a race.
Commuting by bike is first and foremost supposed to be fun. Gas prices, ‘going green’ and health reasons can get people into bike commuting, but it’s the daily enjoyment that keeps us in the saddle day after day. And let’s face it, planning ahead and wearing lycra doesn’t sound much like fun to a good many of us.
Linda sent this letter to the Tribune after riding her bike to work last week.–Corrie
Today I rode my bike to work.
May is National Bike Month and I’m going to try and commute as often as I can. I followed all the suggestions for safe bike commuting including; always wear a helmet, be alert and visible, wear a mirror, follow all the rules of the road, use hand signals, stay to the right as much as possible and found the route with the least traffic.
It was a little scary turning left onto the bike path, but I signaled and turned without much trouble. I have to thank the drivers who where courteous and realized I had as much right to be traveling on the road as cars do. You might encounter more bikes on the road this month because of National Bike month and May 16 has been designated National Bike to Work day, so please be alert for bicycles on the roads and for heavens sake don’t honk..
If anyone wants to learn more about commuting by bicycle, National Bike Month or National Bike to Work day go to our local bike club web page: twinriverscyclists.org or join us for a bike ride. We have regular rides each Sunday afternoon leaving from the Snake River Ave. boat launch parking lot at 1 pm.
If you’re a bike commuter always be careful and WEAR A HELMET and if you’re driving watch out for bikers on the road.
Linda Rosetti
The Twin Rivers Cyclists have moved toward greater advocacy of cycling in general and commuting in particular.
We’re still a recreational club–not racers nor particularly commuters, but folks who enjoy cycling and want to increase awareness of cycling for own safety. If that means encouraging others to join us on bikes, that’s great. If that means our efforts have a small impact on the amount of carbon in the atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest, that’s great too.
So we advocate safe cycling for a very selfish reason–please don’t run over us in your cars. Better still, climb on out and experience the Palouse and the Valley without your personal mobile cabinet.
As a club we have joined the League of American Cyclists and some of us are individual memebers as well. The League sponsors Bike Month activities all around the nation. This year we are stirring up a bit of activity ourselves.
Wonder if winter is late down there like summer is here?–Corrie
From the looks of Daniel Lang’s Project VELAIA website, this is an ideal season to be bicycle touring in New Zealand’s autumn. Not too hot. Not too cold.
Lang is a 22-year-old, self-described “velosopher, environmentalist, and often minimalistic outdoor adventurer” who is nearly 16,000 miles into an around the world bike tour.
His website is worth a look for the wonderful pictures, like the one above, as well as the stories the German traveler is spinning from the road.
On July 6-11 LCSC will be hosting a national “Life on Wheels” Conference which will draw hundreds of RV’s from all over the country and up to a million $ for the local economy. What does this have to do with cycling, you may ask?I was thinking this may be a great opportunity for cycling advocacy if we could set up a little kiosk titled “Life on Two Wheels” and provide our information. If I had a bike shop I’d want to have some cruisers, folding bikes & recumbants on hand so those folks with the marble inlayed diesel land yachts can buy a bike and get some exercise.
Chandler chimes in with this RV story.
BikePortland.org reader Bob Crispin sent in these photos after seeing this wayward pedaler on the streets of Northeast Portland.
Chandler says the bike has been destroyed.
Jim asks, “Your Death Valley Tour included BOB & Nomad trailers and panniers. What is your take on the great touring debate about the best form of conveyance for self-contained touring gear”
I’m hardly qualified to render a judgment on panniers vs. trailers but I was very pleased with the Nomad’s performance.
Actually we had a third type of trailer. Doug had an extra wheel. The Bobs and the Extra wheel both use large yellow waterproof bags which I like. The Bobs have just one large bag, but it is convenient to pick up and carry into a motel room. This one large bag opens like a satchel. The extra-wheel uses two such yellow bags configured like panniers on the extra wheel. They are more like duffels and open at one end. Convenient for carrying into a motel but not so convenient when trying to find something unless you are far more organized than seems possible on a tour.
The Nomad does have waterproof covering, but is by no means waterproof. Corners are open and the bottom actually has eyelets. The instructions tell you to line it with plastic. In practice, none of this is a problem if you prepackage your gear in plastic zip locks. I bought the gallon size which worked just fine for a t-shirt, socks, and pair of underwear. Or a jersey, riding shorts, and socks. This makes things easier to find and provides waterproofing. Since everything I had was in a bag of some type, water proofing wasn’t an issue. But it would have been nice to be able to take the whole thing into the motel which wasn’t practical. I could have brought a bag, but that would have been more weight.
The inline single wheel trailers seemed to have more issues with stability than the Nomad. The two Bobs reported some fishtailing as the trailer tried to do its own thing.
Doug didn’t say much about the Extrawheel but he probably had the same experience. You’d need something like this if you expected to do much single-track, though.
That being said, the nomad was almost unnoticeable. I did manage to turn a wheel on the high side of a bank. Doug said it ran along for about 10 feet on one wheel before falling over.
I had Steve ride behind as I followed the fog line. He said the outside wheel was about 3 to 4 inches to the left of the line. I was surprised at the number of times I expected an issue as I road closer than 3 inches to some rock or bump. I can’t remember a single other time when I ever noticed the trailer either going up or down. It was just there.
On the pavement, I usually had to check my mirror just to make sure it was there. It tracked beautifully. It is rated to carry 100 pounds so could theoretically come to 114.5 pounds of extra weight. You do notice the extra weight especially when you stop pedaling. Stopping distances are much shorter on the flat and up hill.
I was worried about stopping going downhill but that never seemed to be a problem. I think the nomad actually gave me more stability in the soft sand going down hill. I’d just lay completely off the brakes and let the bike roll through. Those 29ers are good for that kind of thing too.
On pavement with a rumble strip, you might have a problem. It could be difficult to straddle the rumble strip and keep your bike off it at the same time. This might force you more into the traffic lane. We didn’t see much traffic but I’ve read that the presence of a trailer actually encourages motorists to pass with greater clearance.
Steve argues that he has never met a serious road tourist who preferred the trailer to panniers. He’s probably right. But other than the rumble strip issue, I don’t see a problem. He also claimed his panniers distributed weight (he had a front rack installed) that acutally gave him an advantage going up those steep climbs in soft gravel. Given that he is usuallly slowest and was certainly undertrained, I’d say there might be something to his story.
I preferred the trailer because I am not a tourist. I might want to occasionally tour or make a trip to the market, but I don’t see myself as a tourist. To me mounting racks for panniers mars the appearance of the bike, adds weight when you don’t need the racks, and spoils the aesthetic of the ride. I can slip in the skewer hitch and attach the trailer in about 5 minutes. I’m unlikely to do much road touring or off-road touring. We’ll probably give it a try on the Galloping Goose.
If pulling a trailer marks me as an eternal novice tourist, so be it.
PS: I suspect Steve will won’t to chime in on this and since I don’t allow comments (too much spanm) on this blog, I’d like to see the comments at twinriverscyclists@googlegroups.com. Yes you have to be a subscriber. Hurry on over to the sidebar on the left and hit subscribe.
-Corrie
