The Wheels on the Bike Go Round and Round

I've gotten a few requests to have a conversation about tires.  I agree.  It's time.  The wheels of a bike are what carry you on down the road and there's a lot to 'em that has a really big influence on not only how strong they are, but how fast they roll and what you can carry.  So, as usual, let's break it down.

There's two pieces at play here - the actual wheel and the tire.  We'll start with the more expensive piece, the wheels.

Wheels

On a bike wheel there are three pieces anyone cares about, and if you care to invest in custom-built wheels you can choose each individual component to your personal specifications.  The wheels are the second most expensive piece of a bike after the frame, and your perception of how a bike rolls is heavily influenced by what's called "rotating weight".  The idea here is that because the wheels are actually in motion, extra weight in them will slow you down more than an equivalent amount of extra weight in the frame (or drivetrain, or on you).

The hub at the center is a lot of what determines how easy your wheels spin.  Cheaper wheels have cheaper hubs, which have cheaper bearings on the inside.  You can do a lot to speed your ride up by using wheels with nice hubs.  The hubs and the rim have to match on one very important factor - the spoke count.  On road, mountain, commuter, and touring bikes there are vastly different preferences for an idea number of spokes to achieve the right balance of rotating weight and strength.  For the purposes of the Bike Month series, we're sticking with commuters.

To take two of my favorite bikes, the Surly Long Haul Trucker versus it's close relative the Surly Cross Check, this is one of the most defining differences between the standard builds.  The LHT is intended to carry heavy loads for long distances and comes specced with 36 spoke wheels.  The Cross Check is lighter, sportier, and not intended to carry incredibly heavy loads for incredibly long distances and comes specced with 32 spoke wheels.  They're lighter, so they're faster but there's a slight compromise in strength that comes into play depending on how much heavy-load carrying you intend to do with your bike.  I don't tend to worry about weight too much, but I put insanely heavy stuff on my bike so I like the extra spokes.

The rims are the last component of the wheel and come in a couple options - "single" or "double" walled.  Again, the double-walled rims are stronger but heavier and create greater rotating mass, so they're slower.  It's physics, they just are.  Rim choice is also dictated by the type of brakes installed on the bike - rim brakes need wheels intended for use as a braking surface.  Disc, roller, and drum brakes don't!

When these items are all sensibly chosen you should end up with a wheel that's strong enough to hold up.  Now, let's talk about size.

There are 4 wheel sizes generally in use today, only 2 of which you'll find on the majority of bikes.  They are:

• 26 inch - found on mountain bikes, some touring bikes, and some hybrids.
• 29 inch - found on awesome mountain bikes
• 700c - found on road bikes, the majority of touring bikes, cyclocross bikes, hybrids, and city bikes.
• 650b - this wheel size is pretty much exclusively used by bike nerds.  Don't worry about it too much.

26 inch and 700c are pretty much the only two you'll see when looking around for a commuter.  In my own case, I'm short as hell and as a result I chose a bike with 26 inch wheels.  Additionally a smaller wheel is stronger than a 700c, helpful for my needs as a heavy-duty commuter who occasionally throws a 40 lb bag of grilling charcoal on the back.  700c is the faster choice and for anyone taller than I am is a really, really great wheel.  They roll quick and the strength penalty for choosing a bigger wheel is so slight that for most folks it doesn't really matter.  I've had bikes with both size and liked both.  As always, my recommendation is to try some bikes in your size with each type and go from there.

Tires

So you've got a bike and it's got some wheels on it.  Now we need some tires.

While I spent an insane amount of text talking about wheels up there, once you've picked out some wheels or bought a stock-specification bike, you're probably not going to swap the wheels out too much unless you have pretty specific needs (training wheels versus racing wheels).  Tires though, are a consumable.  They wear out from use, abuse.  They get nails punched through them, slam over potholes, roll over gravel.....it goes on.

Tires are like handlebars - there's a few basic types but the permutations are nearly endless.  For commuting, there are quite a few city-specific tires, but here's the criteria you're looking for.

Size

Whether you have an aluminum bike, a steel bike, a rigid or suspension fork, as a commuter the best thing you can do for yourself is get yourself some proper size tires.  For 26" wheels I tend to prefer between 1.5"-1.75," and for 700c I really like 28-36 mm widths.  For me personally, these tire sizes provide a sweet spot of narrow enough to get around quickly, but wide enough to provide some cushion and stability.

One limitation to "how big can you go" is a metric of a bike frame called "Clearance."  This is basically how much room you have before things start to rub, and different styles of bike "make room" for different tire widths.  In the case of my Surly LHT, the maximum tire width the bike can accept with fenders mounted is 2.1" wide.  Check with whoever made your bike - this is a number they will have available.

Puncture Resistance

Welcome to the bike lane - the land that road cleaners forgot.  As a commuter you will run over train tracks, nails, glass, huge bits of wire, and every other piece of godforsaken road debris that ever bounced out of the bed of a pickup truck and swept to the side.  Puncture resistance is the ability of your tires to run over all of that nonsense and keep on trucking.  For puncture resistance the usual recommendations are Schwalbe Marathons, Continental Gatorskins, and other tires with names that indicate their toughness.  I personally use a Continental Touring Plus, a tire marketed as a direct competitor to the Schwalbes for slightly less money and so far I have run over all kinds of nonsense without issue.  Tires that don't go flat are like air conditioning - you never think about it until something goes wrong.

Rolling Resistance

A tire with low rolling resistance glides over pavement seemingly effortlessly.  However, a total lack of tread can lead to unreliability in anything but perfect conditions.  So it's important to strike a good balance between easy-rolling and surefootedness.  Rolling resistance is partially a function of tire size - the skinnier the tire, the faster it is.  

In the end, tires are another balancing act.  You need to balance weight, puncture resistance, and speed with your own personal needs. 

As a final note - tire pressure.  The skinnier the tire, the higher amount of pressure is necessary for it to support your weight.  There's a recommended PSI range on the side of every tire sold in the USA.  For best performance including puncture resistance, rolling resistance, and general lifespan keeping your tires in that range is a total necessity.

Happy bike month, folks!  Wheel on.

Ever-Rising Interest - A Commuter Bike Buying Guide

The longer I live in Austin, the more cyclists I see on the road every year as the weather gets warm.  Year on year, more people.  It's awesome, even if it's more difficult to find good bike parking.  So once again, as with every year I become the walking, talking "Guide on how to pick out an affordable commuter bike."  It's a bit of a re-hash, but if you're new to this blog and don't feel like digging through the Posts of Summers Past, here's Annie's Guide to Basic Commuter Bikery.

First figure out your needs.

I mean in every dimension.  How big is the city where you live?  Does it have bike lanes, and how prevalent are they?  What are the terrain and conditions (examples: hilly, flat, rains a lot, windy, freezes in winter, insanely hot in summer)?  How far away is the average commute, and how far are the majority of your errands?  Are you going to be taking recreational rides with this bike as well as utility cycling?  How far/often?

This stuff matters.  The REASON it matters is the type of bike that will work best for your needs changes based on all these factors and if you walk into a bike shop without a decent idea what you'll actually use the bike for, you're less likely to walk out with the right bike for you.

So here are the basic things to know about bikes before you buy them, and how those things relate to commuting!

Frame

There's three basic things to know about bike frames.  What it's made out of, what the frame style is, and is it the right size for you.  For utility cycling, there are really only two frame materials you should be looking at, steel or aluminum.  They have some different properties that could throw your preference one way or another.

For my money, I'm buying steel every single time.  It's sturdier, and comfier.  It has a lot of ability to absorb vibration, reducing fatigue.  It has a bit of flex to it, which is easier to handle over things like potholes.  And if you load your bike up with groceries, steel has better strength to ensure the ride is comfortably stable on your way home.

That being said, aluminum has a lot going for it.  For one thing, it's way lighter.  However, it has none of the vibration absorbing properties of steel and many manufacturers compensate for this on commuter bikes by a adding steel, suspension, or carbon fiber fork.  Additionally, aluminum is less durable and the frame will wear out more quickly than a steel frame (for an example, look at how many old-ass steel clunker bikes are still in service, and compare it to the relative age of the aluminum frames you see chained up).

Once you've figured out "Steel vs Aluminum," it's time to pick a frame style!  In the US you pretty much get three choices, and from there it's all permutations.  Diamond frame, Mixte, or Stepthrough.

A diamond frame is the classic bike that the majority of people ride.  My Surly is a diamond frame bike, as are all bikes marketed directly at men.  Many women's frames are also a diamond frame, with more slopey top tube (this slope, however, has basically nothing about it that makes it better for women).  Here are some diamond frame bikes I've personally owned, all of which were used to commute at one time or another.

A mixte (French for "mixed," unsurprisingly) has a top tube....sort of.  It joins near the headtube and runs in a straight line to the rear dropouts, creating a lower stepover frame while retaining many of the ride properties of a diamond frame bike.  These can be quite sporty, while still extremely practical bikes.  Some companies, including Linus, Public, and even Trek are once again offering this versatile frame style, making it way easier to get your hands on than even a few years ago.

A step-through frame encompasses quite a few separate frame styles, but we won't get into that here.  All it means is that the frame's top tube has been shaped to provide the shortest height to step over to mount the bike.  These are incredibly useful if you often have a lot of stuff on the rear rack (example: a kid).  If you have hip or back problems, these easy-mount bikes may be for you as well.  They have a very elegant look to them, and are also more compatible with somewhat more formal clothing since you don't have to hike a leg up to get on.  The Electra Townie and Kona AfricaBike I've reviewed are both examples of step-through frames.

Once you've figured out what you want in a material and frame style, figure out what size you need.  A local bike shop should be able to help with this, and of course take lots of test rides to figure out what feels good for you.

Okay, so we've gotten this far.  Awesome!  Next up, the mechanicals.

Gearing and Brakes

Gearing

The stuff that makes you stop and go.  We'll start with gearing.  You can have one gear, or many.  If you're going with a singlespeed setup, you can stop here!  I myself am a "more than 1 gear" kind of gal, as I encounter varied terrain everywhere I go and have a few knee issues, I'm not comfortable with a single speed bike.  If it's flat everywhere you go, single speeds are great!  But most of us are going to need some choices.

If you need more than one gear, you can choose between "Internally Geared Hubs" or "Derailleur Gearing."  Internally geared hubs, in my opinion, are AWESOME.  You will not find this attitude shared at any bike shop that primarily sells bikes for sporting purposes.  Internally geared hubs tend to come in increments of 3-speed, 7-speed, and 8-speed. Internal hub gearing is basically what it sounds like - all the stuff that lets you shift is packed into the hub of the rear wheel.    This keeps it all out of the weather so that rain, snow, road grime, and so on do not interfere with your shifting.  Additionally, you can shift the bike while it's sitting still, a huge bonus in stop-and-go situations.  However, if you want to take speedier long-distance recreational rides this setup can be heavier.  Additionally, hub gearing is not DIY-friendly for the average at-home mechanic and does need to be professionally serviced if something goes awry.  The Electra Townie pictured above has 8-speed internally geared hubs.

The other choice is derailleur gearing, far and away the most common type of gearing system in the USA.  ALL of my bikes have derailleur gearing - that's just how they came.  This is the choice of all sport cyclists, and offers gearing ranges far above what is possible with internally hubbed gears, excellent if you have extremely varied terrain, or just like having a lot of choices.  My Surly has 27 gears - 3 chainrings in the front and 9 cogs in the back.  

However, because all the working parts are exposed, derailleur gearing gets dirty QUICKLY.  Every puddle splash, pollution-filled wind gust, and dusty bike trail are going to leave sediment on your drivetrain. Additionally, derailleur gearing does not appreciate being kept out in the weather.  As such the drivetrain does need to be cleaned regularly to be kept in proper working order.  And believe me, the cleaning is a messy job if not regularly kept up with.  

Brakes

For brakes, you pretty much have the choice between hand brakes and coaster brakes (the kind you pedal backwards to stop).

Coaster brakes are convenient for hands-free stopping, however there is no freewheel action.  So basically, if you stop and the pedals are in the wrong position it is going to be awkward to get going again.  The learning curve, however, is fairly short and most coaster brake users don't have any issues once they adjust.  These brakes are most ideal for flat terrain and I certainly recommend having a single hand brake on the front wheel as a backup.  The OV Fiets I rode in the Netherlands and the Africa Bike reviewed above both featured coaster brakes.

Hand brakes cover a huge range of mechanical choices - V-brakes, Sidepull, Centerpull, Cantilever, Disc, Roller, and Drum.  The first four are all rim brakes that actuate by brake pads clamping down on the rim of the wheel.  Mechanically, they vary, but they'll all stop you when they need to.  Rim brakes, however, lose a significant amount of stopping power when they get wet, and the mechanics of then can stop working in freezing weather.  That being said, I've been riding rim brakes my entire commuting career and with a little extra caution you should be fine.

Rim Brakes.  These are Center-Pulls.

The Surly has Cantilever, another style of rim brake.

The last three in my list up there are pretty much all centered around the hub.  Roller and hub brakes are found on many European city bikes and are extremely uncommon in brands commonly found in the USA.  Disc brakes are the typical style on mountain bikes, many cyclocross bikes, and high-end commuters.  They have a rotor, which is squeezed by brake pads exactly the same as disc brakes on a car.  They can be more high maintenance and are less DIY-friendly, but they will stop ANYTHING in ANY weather.  Just be careful not to send yourself over the handlebars.

Alright cool.  So you want a steel, diamond frame bike with derailleur gearing and rim brakes?  You have just narrowed your choices down to a whole style of bike, congratulations!

Ride Position

This one is EXTREME personal preference, but here's the basics.  There's a lot of complicated math in the frame geometry design of a bike that determines rider position.  But what it all comes out to is where your feet are in relation to the saddle, and the handlebars in relation to the saddle, both horizontally for reach, and vertically for height. 

Road and performance bikes typically place your feet pretty vertically under the saddle (the fancy phrase for this is a "Steep seat tube angle"), and the handlebars level or below the saddle by a couple inches.  This creates a very powerful, aerodynamic position that can be used to create great speed for both distance and bursts of power.  However, bikes with this positioning are usually not very good with any sort of formal clothing - particularly skirts.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are "Upright" or "Dutch" style bikes. On these bikes your feet are well in front of you, and the handlebars are fairly high, which results in a position that's been nicknamed "Sit Up and Beg."  You sit bolt upright.  These bikes do not usually require specialized cycling clothing for weather beyond what you normally own because the position of the bike doesn't necessitate features like longer sleeves.

In between these two extremes, there is a bike for literally every angle a rider and their back could want.  The most important thing is to determine what's most appropriate and comfortable for you as a rider and the best way to do THAT is to test ride a bunch of bikes that are properly measured to your dimensions.  Once you've ridden several bikes, you'll have an idea of what you like and can make a decision from there.

Extras

Also called Accessories.  The stuff that makes a house a home.  For commuters, the biggies are lights, a rack, and fenders, in that order. 

Lights

Let me be straightforward - 95% of the bikes available to you do not come with lights.  That doesn't mean you should walk out of the store without them.  These are an absolutely ESSENTIAL piece of your kit.  The 5% of bikes that do come with lights will typically be Dynamo lights, which are powered by the rotation of the wheels rather than batteries.  They're totally sweet, but the wheels have to be built around the fact they're there and can be expensive to add if the bike didn't come with them in the first place.  Battery powered lights are pretty much the standard in the USA, but there are some really cool ones available (check THIS out).

Rack

This is where you put your stuff.  It can be a front rack or a rear rack - either's cool for different reasons!  They can have baskets strapped to them, panniers draped over them.  In one case, I tied together two re-useable grocery bags and made some homemade panniers on an impromptu shopping trip.  You can put a kid seat on a rear rack.  Or a friend.  You need one.

Fenders

I've carried on about these before.  If you ever plan to run through a puddle or get caught in a rainstorm, these are a good idea.  Clothing protection is a highly underrated thing and fenders will keep you (and your bike!) clean from road spray.  I've even seen rocks come flying out of my fenders that would otherwise have rocketed up into my face - not comfy!  Many commuters come with the rack/fender combo and all the buyer needs to add are lights.  Lots don't though, and these essentials are aftermarket additions.  When looking at the price of a bike, do consider what the price is versus what it might cost to add these things one bit at a time.

More than anything else though - when you ride your bike you should love it.  It should be comfortable, and give you a song in your heart.  If you get on a bike at the shop and feel a like a big 5 year old on a sunny day, that's the bike.

The Timbuk2 Classic Messenger

I dunno about everyone else on this planet, but I've got stuff, and sometimes I move it by bike.  The thing is, there's only so much stuff you can carry in a plastic bag hanging off the handlebars or bungeed to the top of the rear rack.  I, like many women, am rather fond of bags.  But my fondness tends along the lines of backpacks, messenger bags, and panniers.  I use quite the array of bags, and will be doing a series on products I've used to move stuff by bike.  Today we focus on the one thing I never leave home without - my messenger bag.

I've had one of these bags with me constantly for about 4 years now, though I'm on my second one.  Note that the only reason I replaced the original is it needed some cleanup - I emailed Timbuk2 about it and rather than having me send in my old bag for repair, they gave me store credit for a brand new one - that's what I've been rocking for about a year now.  Since there was a design change between the older version of the bag and the one I have now, I'll be reviewing the newer one.

This bag comes in sizes from XS to XL - I have the extra small size.  Back when I was selling outdoors equipment there was a saying - "If you have the room, you'll fill it".  Deliberately carrying a smaller bag to limit your carrying capacity forces you to consider what you carry, and pack light.  That being said, while not an enormous bag I still run around with Stuff and it carries everything I need it to.  Here it is, with all the stuff I usually keep in it, minus the phone I used to take the picture:

For the record - that is a wallet, pair of sunglasses, 2 sets of headphones, bag of dog treats, 2 bike tail lights, a multi-tool, dog clicker, poop bags, tire levers, some hand lotion, chapstick, keys, gym lock, & an array of pens.

The interior of the bag is laid out with a nice array of pockets, with spaces for a phone, a key-leash, and the flash pocket (the flat one along the back where my hand is).  The flash pocket, which I hated when I first saw it, has turned out to be awesome.  I use it for whatever paper I need to carry around, whether that be my car insurance or a map printed off the internet.

This is the inside completely empty.  It's waterproof enough that I've never had a problem in the rain.

This is it with all my stuff added back in - even the XS size swallows everything

The exterior has a couple pockets for quick convenience, including one you can actually reach WHILE riding.  I like using them for my phone, train tickets, and the very front one is my change pocket.  It's also a great place to stash my keys by attaching them to the read key-leash.

As for how it does on the bike - despite the popularity of Timbuk2 for general use, they stick to their bikey roots.  The bag features a loop for my tail light, as far as my usage goes it's totally waterproof (don't dunk it underwater, it's not a drybag).  The tails of the buckle straps are reflective.  Additionally, the cam adjustment on the side means that I can wear it long in "purse" configuration, then with the click of a buckle have it riding high on my bag to cycle.  Sizes S - XL also come with a "Commuter strap" - a strap that goes around your body from the bag to the main strap, which keeps the bag from moving while you're cycling.  The XS doesn't come with one (mine is pirated from my mom's bag, which she uses to haul her Kindle, etc).  Both of these straps are highly adjustable to go over coats and sweaters.

In 4 years of usage, I've never even had a stitch come loose one one of these bags.  They're tanks - they just keep going.  It gets dirty, throw it in the sink with a little bit of Dr. Bronner's or some dishsoap and scrub it.  I'm thinking about changing over to a backpack, but literally the only reason is for 2 straps instead of 1.  But, as messenger bags go, I love my Timbuk2, and the black color makes me feel like a ninja.

Full of my stuff and ready to rock.

Moments in Bike Commuting

There hasn't been much to post about lately, but we've had a really mild January, and bike commuting has been awesome lately. So here's a few moments.

What to Wear: Winter edition

A happy (and belated) Thanksgiving to you all! Due to a beautiful combination of seasonal change, allergies, and a head cold, the last couple weeks I've found myself off my bike, as acts like climbing a staircase were making my lungs hurt.

Today was the first time I've hopped back on my bike in a hot minute, and it's gone and gotten wintery on me! Today was my coldest commute since the heat's let up, a brisk 40 F with a north wind. Among the most powerful challenges facing any vehicular cyclist is clothing - hitting the exactly correct number of layers, fabrics, weights, and accessories. This is especially relevant at the extreme times of year - high summer and deep winter.

We've discussed the challenges of hot weather cycling - trying to strike a balance between coverage (sunburns), breathability, quick-drying, and good looking. Winter's challenges are completely different. There's a rule of thumb I've always personally followed but only recently heard articulated - "If you're not cold for the first mile or two, you're overdressed." The biggest reason - sweat becomes the enemy for totally new reasons. See, when it's hot out, sweat is this sticky constant companion. In winter, if you sweat, it can freeze and sap your warmth. So the goal is to be comfortably warm but never hot.

To those who know me, my winter cycling material of choice isn't remotely surprising. Wool. Wool does so many things - it breathes. It insulates, even when wet. It resists bacterial growth (meaning it doesn't smell). It also looks damn good. I like wool. Failing wool, I tend towards technical fabrics, and then blends. My fabric of last resort in all but the most perfect weather is cotton. As opposed to my preferred options, cotton doesn't dry quickly, smells, and provides very little insulation. And if it's wet, you might as well be wearing a wet dishrag for all the protection it offers. These properties do, however, make it ideal for wet t-shirt contests.

Next, there's the accessories - they can make or break both your outfit and your comfort. The standards for cold weather cycling (and I suppose cold weather outdoors activities in general) are wool socks, a scarf, gloves, and earmuffs or a hat. Your core and your legs will typically warm up - in a set of thermals and regular pants your legs will be comfortable in 20 degree weather, but without some help all your extremities will make you miserable in the wind.


REI soft-shell gloves and lightweight full zip fleece, Smartwool Lolligag Scarf, and a hat I found in my closet


Wool overcoats become a must in 30 degrees or below

All this being said, cycling in the winter is one of my favorite times of year. Those of us who ride through the winter always suffer from Spring Smugness - when people start pulling their bikes out of their garages in the spring weather, there's always some schmuck like me telling them all about what it was like a month back when it was freezing. You have the bike lanes and paths to yourself, and you get to watch the change of the seasons. Happy winter cycling!


Made it to work!

A whole new commute

I am in the process of transitioning jobs, which brings with it a whole new commute. My new one is a little under 6 miles each, which is longer than my previous one by a couple miles. After my first (admittedly non-rush hour) try with it today, I am begobsmacked at how much of a pleasant ride it is. It's a bit hilly, but barring a total of about half a mile, all neighborhood roads. I pass houses, apartments, elementary schools and the occasional taco place.

This commute is interesting, though, because the more direct, car-friendly route also has a gigantic bike lane. There's a grocery store, banks, and everything else I could possibly need to swing by on my way home, all on bike-friendly routes.

Compare this to my previous commute, which had basically no bike lanes whatsoever, no conveniences in a direct line to my house, and an extremely busy freeway crossing. To boot, the bike before the freeway crossing vanishes exactly right before the turnoff for the service road - i.e. one of the places I'm most likely to be cut off by a car.

Sometimes, it turns out, longer is easier. Who knew?

Australia Sounds Like The Worst Place to Bike Commute Ever

To wit, police are cracking down on cyclists to reduce incidents of dooring. The combination of things in the first photograph on that page blow my mind - there's a helmet wearing fellow in a neon yellow reflective jacket - that man could not be more of a safety minded commuter. Yet nonetheless, if cyclists are typically involved in a certain type of accident, the blame immediately comes on us for having the audacity to exist (as far as I can tell).

Additionally, Australia has a helmet law which involves a potential fine of up to $146 AU. Now don't get me wrong, if you want to wear a helmet while riding your bike, that's up to you. But helmet laws to me smack of legislating personal choice, which I disagree with. I'm a grown adult and I can decide whether I would like to wear a helmet or not. Honestly, I feel the same way about seatbelt laws (except in the case of children). It's nanny-state bullshit.

In all of this, the quote that really jumped out at me comes from the end of the article; "Motorists find it hard to see bike riders at the best of times, so when you're not wearing those reflective vests, not wearing a helmet or not wearing the lights, you're riding around invisible to other road users."

I agree lights should be an integral part of any commuter bike - that is the primary method by which you are easily seen by motorists. But here's the thing: the cycling mode share will never increase past a certain very limited population if you by law mandate everyone look like a twat made of 3M reflective tape while they do so.

Additionally, at what point is a motorist responsible for not smacking their car into other road users? If I am riding a bike with a set of good lights, in good working condition, in accordance with the road laws of the place I live, whether I'm wearing a helmet or not, you're NOT SUPPOSED TO HIT ME. Get off the phone, stop arguing with your wife/kids, pay attention to what you're doing, and drive like other people exist.

Or on the other hand, we could fine cyclists for getting doored and give them tickets for not wearing a plastic hat. We could do that.

It's all about Image

It's become a bit of a personal crusade for me to bring real vehicular cycling to America. Not that vehicular cycling as an act is anything particularly difficult or spectacular, but in the U.S. it is a very polarizing form of transportation. It seems that people either love or hate the bicycle, and I'm not sure why a more integrative method isn't taken.

I spent this past weekend at my family's house in the almost-rural northeastern outskirts of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, a city where the car is absolutely king. As they say in Los Angeles, everything is 20 minutes. A place where no less than three of my own family members looked at me a little baffled; where upon being sent to the store, the first thing I did was grab my bike. With me I took the TARDIS and a bike I'd gotten for my mom, an Electra Townie 8i.


Here it is parked with the TARDIS

Look at it. Fenders. Pants guard. Stepthrough frame. Comfy saddle. It's a European bike done with west coast cool. And yet everyone who sees it is baffled by it for a while, even up to and after they ride it. It gets so many reactions, most of which are mixed. "It rides like a Grandma bike." "I'd get one of these, but only if I lived in Key West." "I feel like such a hipster on this thing."

The interesting thing about those comments is they all came from men. The women who've ridden it have commented, "This is so much fun!" "I feel like I have excellent posture." "I can ride it in a skirt!" In short, putting the average woman on a comfortable, upright bike they can ride in any type of clothing seems to win rave reviews. Because here's the thing I've only ever seen brought up on Cycle Chic blogs - most people want to dress for their destination, not the journey. Gone are the days of driving coats and gloves, and I've never seen anyone in a car wearing a helmet. Because whether they admit it or not, most people are concerned with their image. Appearance. Call it vanity, call it whatever you like, but it's real and it's not going anywhere. Which brings me around to my initial point.

If we're going to make cycling a popular, viable form of transportation in this country, an alternative, if you will, then it has to be possible to get where you're going, looking good. I personally, for instance, hate wearing a helmet. I have a lot of hair and hate eternally arriving at my destination looking a bit like a wet dog. All the helmets and knee pads in the wide world are no substitute for good bicycle infrastructure. It has to be easy, practical, and safe. Popularity brings social acceptance, not the other way around (for instance, consider the evolution of the mini-skirt).

So in my crusade for vehicular cycling, I don't find it to be terribly revolutionary. It's just good common sense to integrate all the available options into our transportation infrastructure, and whether people like it or not, the bicycle is here to stay.

Severe Heat Advisory: I'm melting!

I know I've said it before, but it is hot out. Unseasonably warm, if you can believe that from June in Texas. We've been hitting the triple digits every day for well over a week now, which usually waits til around the 3rd week of July.

Yesterday when I got home from work and errand running, I was a dripping ball of sweat. While I'm used to heat, yesterday was soemthing special. I unpacked my panniers, poured myself a glass of water and got on the Weather Channel's website to see what the actual temperature was. 104 F, with an advisory attached to it stating "Severe weather advisory - avoid prolonged exposure."

With the weather being as hot as it already is, I find myself a tad concerned about my ability to continue regularly bike commuting through the summer. I've had a few illuminating experiences with heat exhaustion and have no desire to pass out in a 7-Eleven. Again.


Look Ma, a Cold Front!

Yesterday was illustrative. It was 104 F once you accounted for heat index, and at those temperatures, you are miserably uncomfortable, and not in a fixable way. You walk into a building and your glasses immediately fog up. You sweat buckets just standing around, let alone doing what I was doing, which was dragging 20 pounds of groceries home in panniers in a crosswind. It was slow going, and the heat seems to have fried the brains of drivers. No really - people seem to drive more angrily when the weather demands they roll their windows up.

Got any tips for severe-heat cycling?

Going the Distance

I find my sense of scale with regards has become a tad warped in the last couple years. With the distances I regularly travel on a bike, I've developed a really good idea how long it will hypothetically take me to get somewhere, but conversely, my idea of how long it takes to get somewhere in a car is now all over the place. I have no clue which traffic patterns to account for, what gas costs until I am unpleasantly surprised at the gas station, and am generally awful at finding parking because I never have the need.

This came to light for me today at school, where our relative commute times were under discussion. One guy, an exchange student from India, mentioned that he takes a bus home and mentioned it takes about 45 minutes to go 8 miles. My immediate reaction was "Hey, that's once you account for stop lights and all, that is MOVING." And then everyone else looked at me funny. Then I remembered that most people's sense of distance is from a car, and 8 miles in 45 minutes is actually quite slow.

It's so much easier to become a fully immersed local as a cyclist, partially because you tend to figure out where EVERYTHING close to you is located. Hardware stores, liquor stores, groceries, dry cleaners, library, and for the ultimate irony, I've even biked to Auto Zone. If it's far away and over a barrier (a hill, across a freeway, more than a couple miles away), it becomes an event to go unless you are en route elsewhere at the time.

So to be able to cycle on a vehicular level in America, you have to be able to go the distance. How do you deal with our cities' sense of scale?

Mixed Media Part II

As an avid reader of BikeSnobNYC, one of my favorite recurring themes of his is the "Indignity of commuting by bicycle." The last couple days have sort of thrown the indignity into sharp relief.

Last time around I wrote a post basically saying that for the sake of convenience, vanity, and timeliness, I often like to go the "Bike-N-Ride" route, blending public transport, catching rides from friends, and cycling. The last couple of days, Planet Earth apparently decided I was not going to be getting around in any other such fashion than by bike. My plan for yesterday evening was to take the MetroRail downtown to hang out with Sunshine McHappyFlowers, eat some pasta salad, and get a margarita.

I arrived at the train station and walk up to the ticket machine, which is surrounded by disgruntled looking people holding bicycles. Apparently the train south was cancelled. The rather stressed-out looking dispatcher said they would be sending along a bus shortly that would stop along the MetroRail's normal route, and that the travel-time would not be significantly different. The bus did indeed arrive, the problem became obvious. Austin's buses only hold 2 bikes a piece, on a front rack. Not only were the two spots on that bus already filled, but there were 5 of us standing there holding our 2-wheeled contrivances. So it was decided with two other people that we would simply ride the distance.

As I've mentioned, Texas is fairly hot in the summer. Yesterday it was 100 F out for the duration of the ride there and in those temperatures, it's almost impossible to stay cool and hydrated. I got to Sunshine's place about an hour later, and went upstairs to have pasta salad and get ready to go out. I spent a good amount of time drying off, cleaning up the raccoon effect I always get from the combination of heavy sweating and makeup, and nervously texting a lad I met at the park. Onto our bikes we hopped and off to the bar we pedaled, where we met DogParkGuy for drinks. Another friend of mine ended up meeting us out and being a bit inebriated, threw our bikes in the back of his truck and he drove all of us back to Sunshine's apartment to keep the party rolling and crash out. Theoretically, my friend was giving me a ride home in the morning so I could take care of my dogs, maybe get a little more sleep, and still make it to work on time.

Fate wasn't having it. Despite the relatively short amount of time we were there, and the late hours, my friend's truck was towed this morning. So at 6:45 this morning, it was time to get creative with getting home. I rode to the train station, only to discover that the MetroRail doesn't even run on the weekends. This left me two options. Take the bus, which takes forever, or ride. I think you all know which choice I went with.

An hour later, I pulled up to my house, in quite the state. A shower was what was called for, however, one of my dogs kicks up an incredibly racket if put outside and left alone (housepets do not understand banishment). Since I still had on the bathing suit I'd put on the night before under my dress, I turned on the garden hose, set the sprayer to the "Shower" setting, and took a quick shower in my backyard. I still made it to work on time.

Mixed Media

In terms of legitimately using a bike for transportation, the same challenges come up for everyone. The biggest obstacle, particularly in the U.S. has to do with the sheer scale of urban sprawl. I originate in Dallas, one of the largest metroplexes nationwide. It takes 2 hours to cross, in good traffic, on the freeway. Austin, while substantially smaller, suffers from the same syndrome. As did the Bay Area during my tenure as a resident of Silicon Valley.

So the solution for many (myself included) as one who is alternatively transported, is to mix my modes of transportation. My favorite combination is the MetroRail/Bike combo, which I have used in the last 3 cities I've lived in. A few examples:


Here's Grey Bike a couple years ago, loaded down and waiting for the train to transport me and my stuff home. In those bags are lots, and lots of brewing supplies which sort of destabilized the bike, so I elected to let CalTrain do the work for me.



More recently, this is the Surly waiting at a CapMetro Rail station for the train to come and ferry us to downtown to watch a movie. The ability to put my bike on a train has a powerful influence on where I will go, when, and probably most importantly with destination-oriented cycling, how I will look and feel upon my arrival. Maybe it's vain, but it's important to me. I hate drinking and driving, but I also hate looking like a sweaty ragamuffin.

So a hybrid approach is called for. Train accommodations for bikes vary from negligible to quite nice, depending on who designed the train you're riding. Having taken a bike on 3 rail systems in 3 separate cities at this point, I feel I can say CalTrain had the best accommodations - an entire car that was nothing but racks for bikes, with a capacity of 16 bikes (4 racks per car, 4 bikes per rack). And they filled it, every day. They turned people away some mornings because the trains were at or over bike capacity.

The issue in this country with making public transportation comes back to urban sprawl. The issue, as it's known among cycling advocates, is of "last mile" transportation. See, the thing about public transport is unless you're very lucky, or live somewhere very dense with a very comprehensive system, public transport rarely puts you precisely at your final destination - sometimes you have as much as an additional mile or two to go. So how to surmount the last stretch? The bike is basically ideal - light enough to be portable, quick enough to be practical. But without good facilities, that last mile become a substantial barrier to making rail systems jive in a country that's cities are defined by their sheer scale.

Ever tried the mixed method? Thoughts?

Rollin' on the River

Despite my recent bicycle-related run-in with The Man, I am normally an extremely law abiding cyclist. This is all part of my own personal crusade to represent everyday cycling as I see it: normal, comfortable, safe, practical, with a certain cool factor. I typically accomplish this by cycling in a fairly relaxed fashion, while wearing my regular clothing, riding my "normal" bike, and following all the rules. So my own legal faux pas aside, I am consistently irritated (infuriated, if you prefer) by the legions of cyclists I see wildly flouting the rules of the road.

Occasionally, however, this is harder than not. While Austin is a very cyclist friendly city, let's face it, this is America. Out infrastructure accomodates drivers, pedestrians, public transport, and bikes. More or less in that order, bikes coming in dead last. This morning my previously mentioned friend Sunshine McHappypants took a morning ride from my place in North Austin to her new apartment in downtown, utilizing the mostly-awesome Shoal Creek Blvd and further south, its counterpart the Shoal Creek Trail. It's nearly a freeway for bikes - the bike lane is shared-use for parked cars, so its a full lane-width wide, mostly perfect pavement, low traffic, and is a direct artery until about 31st Street or so.

However, for chunks of it, it is a completely unpaved, rocky "hike and bike" trail, emphasis on the hike. As pretty as it is, I find the design of it a bit disappointing. You hop off the beautifully appointed bike lane onto a smooth paved trail framed in oaks, wind rustling through the trees. There is no traffic, just you and your bike headed out for the day together. Then bam! Pavement ends. If you ride a mountain bike, cool. Run over it. But I ride a city bike with no suspension, and street tires. I'm getting off and walking.

As the trail heads further south into downtown, it continues to alternate between pavement and natural surface, and past a point it just became easier to jump onto Lamar, which is a major road. I hate riding on bike lane-less major roads. That's there the cars live. But the best infrastructure in the area is painfully impractical in a transportation sense. What if I'd had panniers on? Or non-athletic shoes?

If you could change anything (or several things) about our bike infrastructure, where would you start? Where would you go with that start?

Social Cycling

Yesterday I rode almost 30 miles, all destination oriented cycling (which is a fancy way of saying I was running errands and then decided to go out in the evening). The first 14 or so miles were by myself, and the second 14 were with my biking buddy and all around awesome friend Sunshine McHappyflowers (not her real name).

On our way to our event we passed a rather large groupride, on many different kinds of bike, all out to have a nice evening together. It got me to thinking about cycling not only as a sport or a form of transportation, but a vehicle for socializing. Sunshine and I are basically our own private little groupride and we regularly go frolic together on bikes. I'm realizing that cycling is one of my favorite ways to socialize partly because I most feel like myself on my bike.

Cycling, particularly of the errand-running variety, is most often a solitary activity (at least for me). You sit in traffic, wait at lights, change lanes, and so on. All of which is very practical when getting around town, but isn't doing a lot for my "Bike high" factor. But, the joy of doing my favorite thing with other people who love it as much as I go amps the Happy factor by a thousand times.

Sharing climbing up the hills, even the not-so-awesome experiences like getting cut off by buses, and that feeling of total freedom when you get to coast down a long slope.

It's also a great way to meet new people. Via organizations such as Social Cycling ATX and the Austin Cycling Events Calendar, there is no shortage venues for letting out your inner social butterfly on a bike in Austin, TX. And there are organizations like this in just about every major city I've had the privilege to cycle in.

Do you like to social cycle?

Sport vs Transport Part Deaux

My criteria for what constitutes an awesome bike is highly variable. This is largely because I take a "Tool for the Job" approach to cycling, where no one bike is ideal for all tasks, though certainly some bikes are more ideal for most tasks than other bikes which are excellent at one thing, but suck at anything else.

There are no better examples of the two sides of the coin than a cyclocross bike and the downhill full-suspension mountain bike. For reference, I will choose two bikes I consider to be fairly representative of each type of bike. I'm going to go ahead and admit a huge personal bias towards smaller, quirkier manufacturers whose work is primarily in steel.

So check it. This is the Soma Double Cross:



This picture comes from the website for Soma Fabrications. However, when I googled this bike, most of the pictures of it came up tricked out as a commuter. For those not totally immersed in bike dorkdom, cyclocross is a sport that is basically centered around taking roadbikes off-road. This has created bikes which are fairly fast, handle very well in a variety of conditions, and tend to be tough as nails. They are versatile by their very nature, and as such, it's a bike you can ride for road rides, can do some trail on, and does just as well getting you to work. A lot of manufacturers have noticed this and include a lot of commute friendly features like braze-ons for racks and fenders and all the other goodies people like to put on their rides.

To contrast, this is a full suspension mountain bike, the Cannondale Claymore:



This bike is an amazing over-mountain bike. It will roll over just about anything going down a hill and you can do some incredible rides on it. But here's the thing - even going uphill on this bike is a bear of a task, due to the weight of the suspensions which make hillbombing at questionably intelligent speeds possible. If you tried to ride it on a normal trail with some people riding hardtail 29ers or god forbid, on the street with a few people riding hybrids, it would feel about like dragging a ball and chain up a hill. A squishy ball and chain.

The point I'm getting at here, is when someone asks me what constitutes a "good bike" or "the best bike", the first thing to ask is, "Well, what are you going to use it for?" because there is no one right answer. A good transport bike has a very different criteria from a road racing bike or a full suspension downhill bike.

For my money, versatility and practicality always win. Maybe I'm insufferably boring (not to mention preachy and arrogant), but if I'm blowing the equivalent of a month's worth of life on a bicycle, I like to be able to use it for more than just buzzing around looking cool. I also like using it for buzzing around looking cool while crossing things off my to-do list. Even if all that's on there is "Go to the pub for beerskis".

Sport vs Transport

There is a powerful distinction to me between riding for sport/recreation, and riding a bike as a way to get from A to B. Not least in the bikes best suited for the activities. I ride for both, and enjoy both uses of my bikes very much.

For transport I ride a fairly heavy touring bike and most days put anywhere between 7 to 30 miles on it, depending on how much I have to do. I am often contrary, and for transportation, I like my bike to be a tad heavy. Obviously not excessively so - that's a waste of energy. But.....sturdy. Solid. Not going anywhere. I often carry large amounts of stuff on my bike, and having a heavy bike capable of getting a load home gives me a certain amount of security that no matter what I have to get done, it's not outside the realm of possibility. Behold a fairly sizeable grocery haul I brought home on the bike.



However, that's not to say I'm not all about sport riding. Last summer I was training for a century (which I admittedly never got to ride). I was doing large amounts of mileage every week, anywhere between 70-150 miles, with individual rides as long as 50 miles. My roadbike and I fused to become one creature with a fluid sense of cadence, shifting, and where turns felt more like instinct than a conscious movement of my handlebars. I also commuted on this bike 1-2 times a week, 15 miles in each direction. Earth's best commuter, it is not, but for those distances speed was the order of the day.

But this year for me has been the year of the commuter. I have the bike I've always wanted for it, set up exactly how I've wanted it. On my heavy bike I often feel like I can do anything (albeit at a slightly slower pace than on my roadbike). Ride any distance, go anywhere, and bring back almost anything I please. So they represent two totally different types of freedom to me. One of the freedom from my car, which I more or less regard as a gigantic four-wheeled ball and chain. The other is the freedom of the open road, the wind in my hair, and the feeling of invincibility of conquering a ride that once defeated me.

I don't know if sport or transport, if one is better than the other. I obviously on a personal level lean towards transport cycling for every day, but who am I to make that call for someone else. At least they ride a bike.

Loosey Goosey

One of my favorite things in the whole universe combines beautifully with one of my other favorite things. Namely, I love riding my bike to the pub for a couple beers with my friends.

Before I get the inevitable, "It's dangerous!"-es and "Enjoy your funeral"-s, I'll go ahead and say, I have enough experience on both a personal and professional level to understand the inherent risks of my actions. That being said, the same people that call me crazy for cycling to the pub will gladly drive to the same place for the same drinks, then drive home. Because let's face it, the way things around here are set up, drinking and driving is almost a necessity. We are left responsible for ourselves, including how we transport ourselves from A to B.

Because here's the thing - how are you gonna get home? Cab? Sure, if you wanna be out $40 additional dollars, plus whatever the potential consequences are of leaving your car overnight (towing, fees....the list goes on). Public transportation? Hah. This is America. Public transportation doesn't work like that. Call a friend? At 3 in the morning? I'm sure they'll be glad to hear about your night.

So for me that leaves cycling. Today a colleague and I met up at our local for a couple post-work pints, me "con bicicleta" as usual. I chained up to something that was either an artful bike rack, or a sign that worked amazingly well as a rack, and went in for my pints. After a solid discussion of European imperial history, the Texas Rangers, and our upcoming schedules, my friend and I parted ways to mosey onwards to our respective abodes.

Whether its Earth's best idea or not, I sort of love cycling with a bit of a buzz on. You sit up, take it easy on the speed, and just sort of leisurely pedal in a straight line until it's either time to turn, or you're home. Alcohol adds the best "Before you know it!" syndrome - I've ridden 8 miles in what felt like the equivalent time of 3 after a well-fought battle with $2.75 pint night. It's relaxation in a way rarely afforded to citizens of a modern society. Freedom to feel the wind on your face and enough of a buzz to really FEEL THE WIND ON YOUR FACE, MAN. No cell phones. No computers. Just a good old fashioned good-ass time.

National Bike to Work Day

A few years back I moved to California, where I acquired a crappy Free Spirit mixte from Craigslist. I weebled. I wobbled. Once or twice, I fell down. Over time, I bought a commuter bike. A road bike. A touring bike. I rode beach cruisers and racing bikes, things that didn't fit me at all and things that did.

In the interim, I've since moved home to Texas, specifically to Austin, where I am a daily bike commuter, general bike enthusiast (code-word for "fantastic dork") and spend as much of my free time as possible on a bicycle, pedaling through town to wherever the winds take me.

So welcome. I hope you like bikes as much as I do, which is a holy-shit level of "a lot". Which brings me to today.

Today was National Bike to Work Day, which inspires my perverse nature as few other things do. Given my perversity and the forecast of thunderstorms, I considered driving to work. I stood and looked at my bike, and said (as I often do to myself in quiet moments), "You know, I could just drive." But as almost always happens, I found myself going through the motions of shoving my lock into my bag, putting my helmet on, and making sure I remembered a rain jacket.

Bike commuting for me is a very zen experience. Yes, it's fraught with people honking at me, people passing just a bit too close for comfort, and bike lanes which appear and disappear with annoying frequency. I was hoping to see some of my fellow bike commuters out on our big day, but my commute passed as it usually does - with the bike lane to myself.

On the way home was another story. I was pulling out of the parking lot when I heard a big fat drop smack me square in the helmet. Then another. This is Texas in the spring. It quite frequently changes from bone dry to a deluge in a matter of minutes, and I'm enough of a Texan to panic at sudden rain. I got into my rain jacket, pulled the cover over my rack-trunk, hit the lights, and "BOOM". The ground shook and by the time I made it to the stoplight, the skies had opened.

As I rode, I had a couple moments of "OH NO," primarily related to the significant drop in braking power that comes with being hosed down. I cross a freeway on the way home and the thought of careening down the road unable to control my speed flashed across my mind.

After the initial panic wears off, the same thing always happens: I turn into a 5 year old girl splashing through puddles. I felt like I was pedaling through a lake at the bottom of the big hill, got back up the other side, headed down the slope to my house, and walked me and my poor, sad bicycle into the house. I looked in a mirror. From the waist up, in JacketLand, I was groovin, but the bottom half of me looked like I'd been dunked in a swimming pool. All in all, it was a pretty awesome commute.

So to all those who bravely headed off into the new today on National Bike to Work Day: welcome to bike commuting! I hope you like it here.