Late season cyclocross

So, the Tim Johnson thing roles into town tomorrow. If you're interested in riding with Tim, you can start in Boston tomorrow at 8am. Or, if you want to stay in the Hartford area, you can head out to meet him tomorrow.

We're leaving from the back of City Hall (550 Main Street, Hartford) at 1:00pm and meeting Tim, et al in Rockville around 3:00pm and then riding him into Hartford. It should be fun.

There's a reception for everybody at Kenny's Red Rock (369 Capitol Ave) at 7:00pm.

Here are more details:

You are Invited

to the Hartford “Hometown of Bicycles” Welcome of

Tim Johnson’s Ride on Washington

Nine States; Six Capitals; Five Days; One Cause

For more information, contact Bike Walk Connecticut at: 860-904-2420

Six-time national champion and cyclo-cross superstar Tim Johnson has thrown his leg over his bike for some serious training this winter. But Massachusetts native Johnson is not riding to improve his cycling or claim another medal; Tim is riding this winter to improve everyone else’s cycling.

On a mission to encourage other cycling athletes to become cycling advocates, Tim and friends are setting off from Boston on March 4, 2011 with 530 miles separating them from their Washington D.C. destination, with arrival scheduled to coincide with the start of the annual National Bike Summit commencing March 8, 2011.

“We want to engage governors, mayors, bloggers, reporters, schools, and most of all other cyclists along the way,” said Johnson.

And Bike Walk Connecticut wants to engage you in encouraging Tim and crew to “ride on” and complete their mission by extending them a uniquely special welcome to Hartford, the renowned birthplace of the American Bicycle Industry. How perfect that we can do so through cooperation with Red Rock Tavern, located in the hub of the former Colonel Albert A. Pope Columbia Bicycle manufacture empire!

A brief media program shall commence at 7:30, including opportunity for welcoming remarks from invited guests. The bar is cash and the food is free!

Tim’s Ride is being presented by Bikes Belong. Bikes Belong is sponsored by the U.S. bicycle industry, including nearly 400 bicycle supplier and retail members committed to increasing bicycling in communities throughout the country. Based in Boulder, Colorado, Bikes Belong has 21 professional staff, 20 volunteer directors, and a $2.5 million annual operating budget.

Bike Walk Connecticut is a statewide membership based organization committed to ensuring that bicycling and walking are attractive, safe, and reliable modes of everyday transportation in Connecticut. We have one professional staff, 15 volunteer directors, and when we have a $2.5 million annual operating budget we will welcome that ride, too!

Read more!

White Castle Bicycle Drama

I am starting to suspect that fast food and bicycles should not be mixed, though, most likely, the the problem is just the fast food! After a good night of drinking, it was decided I would be forced to try White Castle for the first time. Never had it before, and was kinda excited to finally have one of them damn shooters!


We spied Issac pedaling by and he soon joined us and brought his bicycle inside as he did not have the key to his lock. As we entered, the register person and the cook noticed the bike and shouted angrily, “Get that thing outta here!” Issac again tried to explain that he didn’t have his lock and he was only waiting for us to order food.


The cook then broke into a frenzy of angry yelling and gestures, “That guy is NOT getting served. Nope!” Then more to himself as he took the order from the two people ahead of us in line, “I ain’t serving them, bringing that bike in here, don’t know what they was thinking, crazy-ass, I AINT’T serving them.” Then to us as the cook hooted and hollered in agreement, “Excuse me sir, we are not going to serve you with that bicycle in here, please take it outside. Issac relented and went outside, he smartly was nor ordering any food.

We got back to the apartment and I suffered through one of those “burgers”. Shit that was bad! The “meat” was like 3 sheets of construction paper slapped together. BLAAHHHH! Never ever again. But, those round chicken ring things…

And how do you burn off bad food or get ready for the Monday Night Ride…


Pollard, pedi-cab driver with skills, about to get some air at Mikey and Jason’s crib, errr..make that ballroom!



And here is the rest of it.

Read more!

thank you Ted White for Return of the Scorcher

Return of the Scorcher is one of the movies on a Ted White DVD, which also contains the more talked about, We Are Traffic. WAT is a great documentary about the Critical Mass movement and its creation in San Francisco in the early 1990’s. It gave me the inspiration to begin making flyers for the Hartford ride and try and get people to come out and enjoy the city. I love this movie. It certainly changed my life and helped grow the ride in Hartford.

My smoldering romance with Return of the Scorcher has suddenly erupted with fireworks! I watched a borrowed copy of the DVD for the longest time, which my friend Steve had bought to use at a CCBA event. At some point last year I finally returned the movie to him and haven’t seen it since. A few days ago I received my own copy from this link and have watched it a few times. I cannot get enough of Return of the Scorcher and all the amazing vingettes of bicycle culture from Guangzho (Canton), China back in 1991. Most of the citizens use bicycles and tricycles for commuting and business as well as dating. The whole part about riding women sidesaddle is wonderful! There’s also a scene in which George Bliss describes giant intersections with no traffic signals and bicycles competeing with cars, trucks, busses and motorcycles to cross lanes of traffic. He described the bikes leading the charge across the street as a critical mass; which gave the founders of CM the idea for the name!

There’s also quite a bit of footage from Amsterdam showing bicycles as daily transportation and showcasing all the infrastructure built to support a lifestyle on two wheels. The use of the bicycle in the Women's rights movement is also really interesting. Dang, the whole DVD is super interesting and super inspirational. I am not sure how many people have seen or heard of this movie, but I felt a need to thank Ted White for making it and encourage y’all to enjoy it.






And here is the rest of it.


Read more!

too many bicycles for the bus?!

(i haven't been able to get a good photo of a bus with bicycles in it. so here's a sign on Southard Street and Flemming Street. good to see!)

There are buses that run up and down the Keys along Rt. 1, and, like Hartford, they can carry two bicycles in a rack on the front. But, due to overwhelming popularity and many people being stranded or not allowed to bring thier bike due to lack of space; no bicycles are allowed at all. A recent article in the Key West Citizen highlighted this problem. Please check out the story.

I really appreciate and respect the Key West Transportation Director's offer to hear any new ideas or suggestions to fix the situation. Hopefully the bus will carry bicycles again soon; and lots of them.

It seems like things like this are becoming more and more common; which is good and bad. I never thought I'd have trouble fining bicycle parking. I hope Obama and our local politicians can expand bicycle infrastructure fast enough and smart enough to keep up with the demand. Its a great direction to be going as long as we don't all get stuck in a bottleneck! Read more!

The Sandpit of Deathpart Saga Continues

The Sandpit of Death before last week's gorilla clean-up! I will replace with an up-to-date photo manana.

The first BBB post about The Sandpit of Death on the pathway between Bushnell Park and the LOB/Armory area was mostly about the clean-up done by Hanna, Maureen and I. This was last week. I ended the post with the beginnings of an attempt to have the city via it’s 311 program handle the rest of the work needed on the entire sidewalk including the very dirty bridge. The soft sand was dangerous to ride over and muddy to walk through after rain. Many, many people use this pathway every day.

Brendan recently reported the sand was returning. It certainly has! We scraped, shoveled and swept that sidewalk to bare concrete last week. I passed through it Monday night on a ride with Krash. Its baaaack! All this rain has caused a shitload of sand and dirt to once again cover the sidewalk. AARRGG!!!!

A culvert and minor construction is needed to fix this problem permanently. My neighbor, David Corrigan, is on the North Frog Hollow NRZ committee and told me there were plans to fix up the whole pathway including lighting! Nice! That will be great...when it happens. But what about now?!?!

Something has to be done. But what? Perhaps some hay bales to prevent the sand from flowing onto the sidewalk in heavy rain?

At a minimum, the city needs to send a street sweeper over that area after every rainstorm to keep it safe. Let’s make that happen. We can do this.

Please help us help ourselves by calling and/or emailing 311 and asking the city to fix this dangerous situation. If enough of us call, something has got to happen! Please leave a comment below about your own call!


Landline - 311
Cel phone - 860-522-4888
Website 311

there's no more to read! Read more!

We don't need no...

There was some discussion on this blog last month about the overall driver/biker viewpoint-rift that exists which is demonstrated specifically in the comments section of the Courant. We also talk a lot about the need for better bicycle infrastructure around this region as well as more education for rude drivers and noob cyclists. I found this post about bike education over at Bike Commute Tips Blog to fit in pretty well with some of the topics that were raised here and on the Courant discussion forums (minus the ignorant haters).

That blog, run by a dude named Paul Dorn, is a pretty excellent site that's worth a read if you're into community bicycle advocacy. Paul does a really good job at aggregating stories from newspapers around the country (he's picked up Hartford Courant articles often) that pertain to urban commuting, infrastructure, and advocacy, without including every little "Area Man bikes to work" article. He also makes insightful and forward-thinking commentary on each.

Anyway, as far as education goes, it's pretty difficult to get the bicyclists who really need it any type of bicycle education. All that can be done on our level is to continue shouting at people riding on the wrong side of the road and publicize the CCBA and classes such as the ones at REI. Including more bicycle awareness education for DOT drivers licensing tests is an option that probably won't get looked at very seriously.

For my part, before I started commuting by bike every day, I got my hands on a copy of Bicycling Street Smarts by John S. Allen and read it. Just doing that, I became much more confident about my role and responsibilities are as well as more aware of common hazards and dangerous situations that I would encounter. It's brief and basic, and I recommend it to anyone who is either starting out commuting or feels hesitant about biking around the streets of greater Hartford.

http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/usa/index.htm

Read more!

The Sandpit of Death Clean-up

before the clean-up!


after the clean-up!

This is the Sandpit of Death if you are riding a bicycle on the pedestrian sidewalk and bridge connecting Bushnell Park to the LOB/Armory area. Well, pedestrian except for the all the various police cars that drive across the narrow bridge! The soft sand has been threatening many a riders’ balance for years now, but it’s gotten much worse in the past few weeks. Many of us have almost busted our asses here lately, especially with skinny tires! I made a spur of the moment plea via texts and emails Sunday afternoon to friends while eating lunch at JoJo’s on Pratt Street. As fate would have it, Maureen had ridden through the sand only minutes earlier and thought someone was gonna bite it soon there. She and Hanna volunteered to help out at 6pm! Good on ya, mates!


We met up at my house for a beer and some delicious homegrown salad. We happily packed up my bike with a snow shovel, a heavy metal rake, one spade shovel, 2 brooms and a pickaxe garden hand tool thingee.


Here’s me, Hanna and Maureen taking a break as a Statey watches us from his cruiser in front of the LOB parking garage. We were certainly not looking for attention, but figured, due to the location between Amtrak and the National Guard, we’d be getting harassed. But up to this point, no one had paid us any attention and he soon drove off without a word.

There was a whole lot more dirt and sand than we had realized. Most of it was at least a few inches thick and the middle half was all 3-4 inches thick with a very solid bottom layer. We had a bit of an assembly line going for the thicker parts. First the heavy metal rake or spade shovel was used to loosen it up. Next was the snow shovel to move the stuff to the edge of the sidewalk. Most often the above was repeated, as the dirt was quite stubborn. Finally the broom whisked away the remaining dust. And it was quite dusty indeed.

Hanna and Maureen helped with most of the job before leaving due to dinner plans. Helder of Mira Hartford passed by with his doggy minutes later as I was continuing with the work. Soon after that we were joined by the Statey who pulled up to us in his cruiser, got out and walked over to us.

Click Read More for the rest of the story and more pics!




The officer walked up politely and asked what I was doing. I explained that the dirt and soft sand had made the sidewalk super dangerous for bicycles and a few calls to 311 had not gotten the walkway cleaned (311 is a city services phone line). I mentioned the situation had gotten considerably worse in the last few weeks. He agreed that skinny tires were super sketchy on that type of service and asked, “ And so y’all just decided to clean it up yourselves?”
“Yeah, pretty much” I answered, “We’re sick of almost bustin’ our asses here!”
He laughed and explained he had seen us and needed to check it out and left with a smile. No worries, no problems! I had also worn my 2007 CCBA Discover Hartford Tour t-shirt…perhaps that gave me the bicycle cred I needed!


I pretty much finished it up except for some very damp, sticky dirt that wouldn’t move easily. It’ll dry up in the sun manana and then be easy to scrape and sweep away.


This kid passed by Hanna, Maureen and I on a scooter. This would not have been possible an hour earlier due to all the sand! Great job guys!


Here’s the next mission. I will call 311 again on Tuesday and see what happens. There is quite a bit of sand on the lower right side of the bridge where water tends to pool up due to drainage issues. Also, both sides of the bridge sorely need a sweeping. The whole bridge would benefit from a sweepin’ actually. Hopefully the city can send over that sweet street sweeper gator thing and make it happen.

Mad thanks to Hanna and Maureen for all their help with the hardest, thickest and most brutal part of the battle with the sand monster. Helder pushed a broom for a bit until his doggy protested with much vocal vigor. My landlord, Mary Lee unknowingly helped as I used a broom from the garage and Joey Babaganoush unknowingly hooked us up with a snow shovel.

UPDATE TUESDAY, SEPT 2ed.

here is the email i sent to 311:
Good morning,

The sidewalk and bridge connecting Bushnell Park with the Armory and LOB is in need of a very good sweeping. There is much dirt, sand and broken glass along the walkway.

There are also two spots with drainage issues, that will continue to cause a sand problem after it rains, the southwest end of the bridge and the sidewalk along the armory.

If possible, could the larger cracks in the sidewalk also be repaired. It is easy to trip on them while walking and can damage bicycle wheels.

Thank you for making the city cleaner and safer for cyclists.

William


Read more!

Cyclists must realize that the road belongs to the driver and they are merely borrowing it..... A Retort

Another letter in today's Courant offers a retort to yesterday's letter to the editor which minimized cyclists' rights to the roads in favor of the free rein of motorists. The comment section of the original publication sparked some good conversation (minimally ignorant and threatening) and I can guarantee this retort will do the same.

Let us know you think the argument yesterday shaped up. Fair and even or pure lunacy?

Warning: Gun-toting conservatives at play. Read more!