A quandry and a a strange occurance

I've had a cold this week. It's a been a particularly nasty one and it might be a flu, but I'm really hoping that it's not. I came to work late on Wednesday and then left early today. I may take the entire day off tomorrow, because in my current state, I'd just infect my coworkers.

There's something else, too: that race in Cheshire. I know that the race shouldn't factor into my decision making at all because work is more important than my pathetic racing attempts. I did pay $20 to pre-reg, though.

Also, I snapped the front brake cable on my surly today. Has that ever happened to anyone before? I've certainly never heard of it. It happened just as I was stopping in the driveway, so no catastrophic injuries. It was really weird, though. One of the individual threads had snapped a month or so ago, but you wouldn't think that could a change reaction that would break them all. That wasn't really the case at all. One broke awhile ago and then they all broke today at once. I have just recently purchased a cable cutter/crimper, but seemed to have lost it in the move. Read more!

This Just In: Cyclists Disobey Traffic Laws! In New York City!

Well, I guess all those disparaging remarks Bill O'Reilly recently made about Greenwich Village are grounded in cold hard data: A study conducted by Hunter College students and reported in the New York Times has proved, once and for all, that cyclists in New York disobey traffic laws, fail to use bike lanes when they are available, and don't always wear helmets. The article reports that a shocking (shocking!) 57% of cyclists failed to stop at red lights. (The article actually has a cool typo on that point - it says "fail to stop red lights." In my experience, 100% of cyclists fail to stop red lights, but, you know, that's just because I swore only to use my traffic-signal-mind-control powers for good, not evil.)

Now, I wouldn't know anything about disobeying traffic laws (that was some other guy with my name who picked up those two tickets for running red lights on a bike in New York way back when (one of which, I should add, was dismissed, but I digress)), but I have heard it said that sometimes, it's safer for us two-wheelers to disobey traffic laws, because these drivers can be crazy out here, feel me? I often think it would be better to run a light than risk getting t-boned by someone trying to bang a left right when the light turns green (but I never do it! because I am an officer of the court and I always respect the laws of Connecticut!). And guess what? Cold hard data are on my side! What do you think, dear readers? Read more!

Always Learning

Following up on Ben's ice-biking post, I will share with you, dear readers, an important lesson I learned today whilst riding from Bridgeport to New Haven: 35 degrees fahrenheit is a little too cold for loafers and dress socks. Read more!

We're not as manly as we think we are

From http://www.genderanalyzer.com/:

We guess http://beatbikeblog.blogspot.com is written by a man (50%), however it's quite gender neutral. Read more!

Ice Bikin

Two CCBA admin notes first:

1. Tomorrow's board meeting has been cancelled
2. No Ice Bike To Work this month. Day after T-Day!

So, as I rode in with the first really bitter breeze in my face this morning I got to thinking about Ice Bike to Work in general and getting more folks to give cold weather biking a try.

Chicago has www.bikewinter.org which has some pretty cool resources and illustrates a pretty neat setup to get people to ride through the winter. Of course for tips there is the ubiquitous icebike.com as well. We have had an Ice Bike to Work series the last few years and have had some new folks show up from time to time which is certainly a good thing. We usually get around 8-10 folks and maybe a few less when it really starts to blow and freeze. What are your thoughts on expanding and doing more events in the winter in and around the beat? An ice bike demonstration has been suggested, but no one has grabbed it yet to make it happen.

Also, we need a new sponsor for Ice Bike to Work. The contact at our old sponsor has moved on from the Beat and we have had a hard time finding someone to pick it up. We meet the last friday of every month at JoJos on Pratt Street right in the heart of the Beat (http://www.cafejojo.com/) from 7-9, October through March. Typically we don't meet in November. I think the cost runs around $50-$75 and we provide a fantastic winter bike presence. JoJo's is pretty busy in the mornings and we get a lot of questions, have had a couple newspaper interviews and have even been on TV. If you know anyone, please pass along their info quickly. We could maybe even work up a t shirt or something warmer this year to sell or giveaway to participants. Read more!

E. Hartford Screwed Me!

Bullseye!

I picked up this happy little fellow in my front tire about a half mile from the office this morning. The wheel held its air to get me the rest of the way. Of course now I'm thinking about how both my spare tube and patch kit are foolishly sitting in my other bag at home. Word to the wise: when you decide to switch bags impulsively, make sure you transfer other things. On the bright side, I get to ride the bus home tonight in luxurious warmth and comfort. Route H2 represent! Read more!

Thank you all who attended the Bike Everywhere meeting last night at Lenas. Lots of good discussion and ideas for next year. Just to give you a taste on this cruddy, dark wet night as I get ready to blast out into the rainy wet and endure the "wow, you ride in this" questions, here are the events we came up with for next year. Your input is always appreciated and your help as well. If you have another idea or want to take ownership of one of these let me know!!!

a. Hooker Brewery Tour
b. Monster Bike Pull/Cargo Challenge Picnic Event
c. Disc Golf to Wickham Park
d. Bike Polo (more than once hopefully!)
e. Geo Caching/Scavenger Hunt (Racks, Bike Lanes, Etc.)
f. Celebrate West Hartford Valet Parking
g. Snow Bike/Commuter Demonstration
h. Ice Bike to Work (if sponsor can be located)
i. Warm Weather Bike to Work (all, need point person)
j. Corporate Cup/Workplace Challenge
k. Other events??? Support for Keney Cross Race? Read more!

All Quiet on the Western Front: BBB Pub Crawl Deux-Over

Thanks to poorly timed rain last week, our first bike pub crawl was called off. So we're pushing off on Wednesday evening and marking the 90th anniversary of the Armistice that ended The Great War. Since the odds are good that we won't run into any WWI vets to honor, we'll also be remembering all the veterans of the armed forces. It's a day late for Veterans Day, Remembrance Day, and Armistice Day, but I don't think anyone will mind. You could mark the Nov. 12th expulsion of Leon Trotsky from the Communist Party, but I like my idea better.

Rather than start at the Corner Pug, we'll instead convene at the CCBA Bike Everywhere meeting at Lena's on Park St. (Bike parking in the rear parking lot). The meeting starts at 6 pm, and attending is a good way to let your voice be heard and contribute to the advancement of cycling in Hartford. We can carb up with some of Lena's good food and then head all the way across the building and officially start the crawl at Sully's Pub. The forecast is for a seasonable night for mid-November...somewhere around 40 F. Dress for it!

Here's a loose schedule:

• 6 pm - 7 pm: CCBA Bike Everywhere Committee Meeting, Lena's, 2053 Park St., Hartford, CT
  
• 7:00 - 7:45 pm: Sully's Pub, 2071 Park St., Hartford, CT
  
• 8:00 - 9:00 pm: Vaughan's Public House, 59 Pratt St., Hartford, CT
• 9:05 - 9:45 pm: McKinnon's Irish Pub, 114 Asylum St., Hartford, CT
• 10:00 - 11:00 pm: The Half Door*, 270 Sisson Ave., Hartford, CT
  

* Note: The Half Door usually has a band for their $2 pint night on Wednesdays and therefore charges a nominal cover charge (~$4).

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— Lt.-Col. John McCrae

Read more!

Hey Buddy, Can I Borrow A Bike?

So after reading this article in the New York Times, bastion of the untrustworthy liberal media elite, and was wondering if bike-sharing could work in our own city of Hartford. As the article notes,
"In increasingly green-conscious Europe, there are said to be only two kinds of mayors: those who have a bicycle-sharing program and those who want one."

What if our own mayor shared such sentiments? Numerous bike-sharing programs are enjoying tremendous success across the pond and two have already been recently established on this continent (one in Washington D.C. and one in Montreal). The entities that have established these programs note numerous difficulties but argue they are far outweighed by benefits that include reduced traffic congestion and smog, lower demands on infrastructure, and a healthier populace among others. Most importantly there is evidence that these programs are far less expensive than other forms of public transportation once the bugs are worked out (the article notes that a city fleet can be had at a cost similar to purchasing a single bus).

Similar programs are also being experimented with on college campuses where administrators are dealing with increasing difficulties accommodating the needs of our pervasive auto-centric culture.

So what think ye humble readers? Is Hartford too sedentary, too stagnant, too disinterested in bicycles to make a program work or make it even be worth the investment? Would we see the same problems that college programs note with bicycles being abandoned and poorly treated? Or is Mayor Perez far too in love with his parking lots to allow such a program be initiated?

Thoughts?
Read more!

Unadon

The Eel is done.

The weather was nasty and I'm guessing that scared off a number of competitors, despite that I thought we had a pretty good contingent. We also know who's hardcore in CT.

Big ups to Johanna, Xootr, the Elm City Scorchers, Matt from Ghostship, the Riverfront Recapture ranger, and everyone who showed up. (Sorry for the use of "big ups", I couldn't think of an appropriate substitute.)

I don't have a camera anymore, so I have no way of showing you what it actually looked like.

Results:

1. Salem 1:16
2. Russ 1:18 (with loaded front panniers!)
3. Matt 1:21 (first place out of town, too)
   
4. Doug 1:21 (he got the cool Xootr rack)
5. Josh 1:38 (on a folding bike)
6. Chauncy 1:38 (fixed)
7. Joel 1:38
8. Chris 1:44
9. Eric -
   
10. Rafael -
    
11. Drew -

As far as I could tell, people liked the course. I hope to do another one with sunny weather. Also, I may go with an earlier start time. Who knew it got dark at 4:45 these days? Read more!

slither slither

Guess what's today? The Eel is today!

Here's the cue sheet:

CUE SHEET (sorry, no mileage)

-start at Gazebo
-ride north through parking lot
-go around gate
-go on gravel path
-continue straight on dirt path toward brick building
-pass between brick building and cement wall
-run up (or ride up) stone hill at park river confluence
-stay on paved path all the way to the boat house at riverside park
you will pass under the founders and bulkley bridges
-bare right of boat house
-enter woods
-follow orange tape lined path (Xtreme scramble course) it will
loop back eventually to the boat house
-bare right of boat house; head toward I-91 pedestrian spirial
this will dump you on to pequot street
-turn left on market street
-turn left on morgan street
-get on bulkley bridge pedestrian bike (not I-84)
ENTER E HARTFORD
-turn right on bike path
-take bike path all the way to the end; passed great river park's
parking lot
-path bares left a hockanum river
-enter woods and pass under rt 2
-stay on path following spray painted arrows
-this path ends at kahoots strip club, go through parking lot
-don't get distracted
-turn left on to pitkin
-turn left on to jayce
-turn left on east river drive
-turn right on to pedestrian entrace for charter oak bridge
REENTER HARTFORD
-head back into charter oak landing park
-turn left towards gazebo as descending levee
-first lap, go through parking lot
-final lap, go to gazebo for finish Read more!

Learning Lessons in the Rain

In anticipation of The Eel, I have lately been trying to take as many opportunities as possible to go on longer rides. I usually do this in work clothes while carrying a bag with many items in it, including a laptop, so it's sort of like high-altitude marathon training: When I show up at Charter Oak Landing tomorrow with actual bike shoes, no huge basket full of crap on my bike, and comfortable, wicking clothing rather than a wool suit and leather dress shoes, I will be like a lithe bicycle panther - with wings and rocket boosters. Yesterday, I further increased the degree of difficulty of my training regimen by riding from Bridgeport to New Haven in a torrential downpour. This was, notwithstanding the strength of body and character developed. probably a bad idea.

In fairness to me, it was not raining when I set out. In fact, it was fairly pleasant - overcast, to be sure, but balmy and with a light breeze. Being an optimist, I look at weather like that as an invitation to ride 18 miles. Meteorologists, however, understand that "precipitation begins forming when warm, moist air rises. As the air cools, water vapour begins to condense on condensation nuclei, forming clouds. After the water droplets grow large enough, two processes can occur to form precipitation."

Also, in fairness to me, I didn't have much choice. I had just missed the train at Stratford, but my dear wife needed me to hasten to Middletown as quickly as possible to collect our children from her, as she had plans for the evening and our babysitter had called out sick. Since the mid-afternoon trains toward New Haven come only every hour, and it takes me just over an hour to to ride to New Haven, once I narrowly miss the train, I will reach my parked car in New Haven faster if I ride. Also, it's nice to ride, and it saves me $2.75, which sum can later be spent on booze or coffee.

Well, to make a long story longer, just as I was about a mile past the Milford station and into the long-ish gap between Milford and Union Station in New Haven, the sky opened up and Hurricane Deez Nuts passed over the area. Luckily, I had my rain coat, rain pants, and galoshes with me, and a rain cover for my bag. Unluckily, piled-up leaves in the bike lane + ceaseless downpour = large, deep rivers covering most of the road. So I plowed on east, instead of returning to the Milford station, and felt fairly confident I would remain dry, until the following indignity befell me: I was tooling along through a deep puddle when I heard a car give a little tap on the horn behind me. It was not an angry tap at all - more like, "Look out, I am coming through with a wide load and want you to be aware of my presence," or "Careful, there, my cyclist friend, as you are inadvertenly drifting toward the middle of the road." So I looked over my left shoulder to see what was up, and learned in an instant that the tap actually meant, "I am about to drive past you through a deep puddle at a high rate of speed, so I want to make sure you are facing me when I splash you with a huge amount of water."

So, yeah. I got very very wet and now my laptop screen doesn't work. I think there's a lesson here, but I'm not sure what it is. In any event, I am ready for The Eel. And if for some reason we are suddenly required to carry laptops and race in the rain, I will house all you. Read more!

Maureen Dowd is hating on mountain biking again

Argh!

She's at it once more.

This time:

How could the Lincoln Memorial — “With malice toward none; with charity for all” — be as moving if the black neighborhoods of a charming American city were left to drown while the president mountain-biked?

From what I understand, Bush was at John McCain's birthday party when Katrina hit.

Why does mountain biking have to be her go-to cliché for emphasizing Bush's puerility.

Read more!

Bike Pub Crawl I: Postponed

Late Notice:

Just like Guy Fawkes, our plot has been foiled. The forecast for tonight has gotten worse. Now we're looking at a 90% chance of rain with accumulations between a quarter and a half-inch from 8-midnight. That's not fun for all when it's cold. I'll still go to the Corner Pug for a couple, and to inform those participants who didn't get this update and show up.

We'll push it back a week, and make it a ride to honor our veterans and the WWI Armistice. So get some rest from your post-election reveling/sorrowing, and we'll see you next week.
Read more!

Continued Craiglist Thoughts

The election yesterday was pretty good. My main concern yesterday, obviously, was Urania Petit for Hartford Registrar of Voters. It ended well. She beat Sal Bramante by 104 votes. Now Hartford has 3 registrars. Suck on that, rest of the state!

Anyway, I was snooping on craigslist briefly and thinking to myself that now that the weather is getting cooler, craiglist is really improving. I saw a $500 mid 90s serotta that looked pretty awesome and some other nice things. I also saw a langster and a pista for $450, both of which were in Hartford by the same guy. Weird.

Then I saw this: http://hartford.craigslist.org/bik/881668326.html

It's a Mercier Kilo TT for $300 with no wheels. On bikesdirect, it only costs $399. It's got a purple chain, but I still can't understand how you can charge that much money for a wheel-less bikesdirect bike.

That's it. See you on Saturday. Thanks to ghostship and bike new haven for the shoutouts about THE EEL. Read more!

'Nuff Said

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BBB Bike Pub Crawl I: Bonfire Night

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I see no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

For our first bike pub crawl in the Beat, we're going to blow off the last of that election tension on Wednesday, November 5th and check out a handful of the Hartford British/Irish pubs on the traditional date for "Guy Fawkes Night" in the United Kingdom. True, the celebration normally includes the burning of effigies, but we're taking a break from the destruction and just enjoying a few fine brews here in this "New" version of England. Everyone with a bike is welcome to join the crawl. We'll start at The Corner Pug and allow some time for food while the stragglers get in. Below is a rough schedule, in case you can't make the whole shebang (very loose schedule and subject to change on a whim)

• 7 pm - 8:15 pm: The Corner Pug, 1046 New Britain Ave., West Hartford, CT
  
• 8:30 - 9:30: The Half Door*, 270 Sisson Ave., Hartford, CT
  
• 9:45 - 10:15: McKinnon's Irish Pub, 114 Asylum St., Hartford, CT
• 10:20 - 11:00: Vaughan's Public House, 59 Pratt St., Hartford, CT

* Note: The Half Door usually has a band for their $2 pint night on Wednesdays and therefore charges a nominal cover charge (~$4). It varies, but usually if you get in before 9 pm, you can beat the cover.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;

Read more!

Something Else To Look Forward To

Right about now, everyone (your humble Presidente included) seems quite preoccupied with the results of today's voting. All around Connecticut and in every city, town, village, and unincorporated exurb across this great land, Americans tonight will gather round the old transistor radio and wait with bated breath, hearts pounding with the heady rush that can only come from witnessing democracy in action, to find out, once and for all, if seventeen-year-olds who will turn eighteen by the day of the general election will be granted the right to vote in Connecticut primaries. But friends, there is another exciting contest before us, a contest in which every candidate - indeed, every American - will be a winner. I refer, of course, to The Eel, the exciting on-road/off-road race on Saturday afternoon.

Will there be prizes? You bet your electors! Our very good friends at Xootr have donated one of their Crossracks as a prize. Here's what the Crossrack looks like in action, carrying lots and lots of groceries:



There will also be a cash prize, the quantity of which will be determined by the number of entrants, the results of the election, and the prime rate. There may be other prizes too, depending on what we can rustle up. (Manhattan Portage, you sudden non-returner of e-mails, I am looking at you!)

Naturally, I will be riding the Swift Folder that they gave me, the excellent folding properties of which will facilitate my Rosie Ruiz-style competition plan: I will have a confederate meet me somewhere along the course, I will fold the Xootr up and throw it in the trunk, and my accomplice will ferry me farther along the route, ensuring that I finish third behind Brendan and that other crazy-fast dude who is a teetotaler and whose name now escapes me.

Just in case I am required actually to pilot the bicycle over any rough terrain, I have switched handlebars to ensure more control and general toughness:



Scared yet? You should be. Read more!

Early and Often!

Read more!

Vote

Im note going to belabor the point nor am I going to argue the benefits. If you bike you are probably smarter than the average American citizen and if I might dare say likewise if you are reading this blog so you already know.

So VOTE!

and

Remind your friends to VOTE!

Thanks.
Read more!

CCBA Bike Everywhere Meeting, Nov 12, Random Musings As well

Brendan was foolish enough to authorize my ability to be a contributor to the beat and I will take advantage of his trusting nature for the first time today, BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

Ok, seriously though, thank you to all the Beat writers, you guys are doing a great job and I am thankful for the ability to post when interesting stuff comes up with CCBA that is relevant to the beat and when I have thoughts to contribute.

First off, I am the chairman of the Bike Everywhere Committee for CCBA and we are having an end of the year organizational meeting on Wednesday, November 12 at Lena's on Park in Hartford. The meeting will start at 6 and we will be going over last years bike to work and bike everywhere events and talking about how we want to structure things going forward. This is an extremely open forum (just be nice and don't attack anyone, those are the only rules...) and we would appreciate all the input we can get to put a good product on the streets and advance cycling in the beat and beyond. If any of our readers from the Pacific Rim could be there that would be fantastic, your voice is, as of now, unaccounted for in our committee planning........

Second, El Presidente's comment related to increased horseless carriageness has had me thinking as well. Its really unfortunate that the gas prices have dumped right on the edge of winter.... It would have been great to see the push to ride carried on through the colder months and I fear it will be hard to motivate folks to get back on and ride in the spring....

Finally, CCBA will have a new website soon. We are moving forward out of the 70's and into the now! More on that later. Read more!

More Distracted Musing, But Bike-Related

As gas prices climbed and climbed over the summer, we bike- and alternative-transportation-advocates crowed merrily that these times they were a-changin'; that finally the moment had arrived for a real sea change in Americans' driving habits. Well, now gas prices are in sharp decline ($2.40 today at the Cumberland Farms on Park Rd. in W. Hartford) and I heard on the news the other day that just as people cling to guns and religion in times of crisis, so too are they returning to their old friend, the horseless carriage, in times of relative petro-abundance.

Another, perhaps less-noticed change that came with high gas prices was an increase in posting on New Haven's bike advocacy listserv. It's true, as the good folks at Design New Haven noted back in June: when Americans started to feel the pinch at the pump, they seemed to find solace not only in drink, but in posting on the Elm City Cycling yahoo group. Luckily, however, while the drop in prices has heralded a return to four wheels, it as not kept us from the interwebs! (Like Charlton Heston says, the only way they'll take my internet away is when they pry it from my cold, dead hands!) ECC posting volume continues it's periodically erratic but overall steady growth, with 342 posts in the month of October. And BeatBikeBlog readership is up 16.29% over the last week, with crucial increases in Australia, Japan, the Philipines, Taiwan, South Korea, and Pakistan!

What is the point of all this? I'm not really sure. It's good news, sort of (bicycles + internets = awesome!), and it is another distraction from the incessant, nerve-racking, pre-election news marathon. It distracted me to write it, anyway, and me being distracted is half the battle. Read more!

Not Bike-Related, but Oh-So-Awesome

This blog, as all six of our readers know, is about the bicycles, and also about Hartford and environs. But one of the main reasons we ride bikes, aside from to get from one place to another, is to have fun. Why do we have fun? To distract us from the more weighty problems of our lives and of the world. Personally, I have never needed such distraction more than I need it now, because I am feeling very nervous about this election. (I am concerned that Ralph Nader's encouraging poll results in Winsted will not translate into national success.) Sadly, I can't just go off on a day-long bike-capade because I am at work and when I finish work I have children to feed and bathe and such, so I must turn to other sources of distraction. Moments ago, I found the best source fo distraction ever, and not surprisingly, it was on the INTERNETS! It is a treatment for a screenplay, called, "The Lost Medallion of Palenque," and it is the most coolest thing ever, like The Mummy meets Apocalypto meets Independence Day, but possibly more awesome. You should read it right away.

When you read the story, you will probably think, "This is absurd and full of bad punctuation. Can this guy be serious? And what makes El Prez think this is a movie treatment rather than just a poorly written eighth-grade English assignment posted to a poorly designed website?" The answer is, YES HE IS SERIOUS, and I KNOW SO BECAUSE OF THIS CRAIGSLIST AD.

You're welcome. Read more!

new ride to work

I moved to Fairfield Ave and slept there for the first time last night. Thus, this morning I had my first new commute.

Yt's pretty much all downhill, so I get to work right quick. I thought that cutting through the Trinity College campus would make things easier, but people actually drive worse there. Some asshole in a minivan decided that rather than wait for the weird green golf cart thing in front of him to get out of the way, he should try to get in a head-on crash with me.

Not the same minivan from this morning, this one is much cooler.

Vernon Street. I could stop at CLIO on the way home tonight for their weird/dirty Halloween party.

Also, Vernon Street has cobblestones. The Paris-Roubaix thing is kinda cool and I do have 32 spoke wheels, so I shouldn't break a wheel. They also wake you up.

Hopefully the return trip is as much fun.

Here's another crazy minivan:

Read more!

"Riding Bikes Can Send You To Jail So Buy A Car"

Strange as it is to believe, there are other cities where bicycle riding is so common, so beloved by the populace, that government is obliged to take the activity and its practitioners into account, to create special committees to address their needs, and generally to make more than the most passing attempts at sensible, bike-friendly planning. No, I'm not talking about the distant wonderlands of Portland, Ore., or Berkeley, Cal. Friends, I'm referring to Connecticut's second largest city, New Haven. If you have ever been to New Haven, you may have noticed that a lot of people ride bikes there, to the point where it's sort of normal and you don't do like we do in the Beat and feel a little surprised if you see someone on a bike whom you haven't seen before.

New Haven's bike advocacy organization, Elm City Cycling, has apparently been pretty successful in getting the city's police department to respect bikes, ticket drivers who do wrong by bikes, etc. With this has come some more serious enforcement of traffic laws against cyclists. And with that has come the awesomest stupid craigslist post debate ever, which is reproduced below. Why is it awesome? Because some fool who got a ticket on his bike, failed to pay it, and is now facing a warrant, is angry at ECC for being so successful and bringing bikes to the cops' attention. Some other person's pithy response is also below. Take a look at the sorts of things people get to squabble over when their cities have achieved the luxury of some semblance of bicycle awareness (as always, click on the picture to see a bigger, legible version):

Read more!

Convoys, Automotive and Otherwise

Do you ever look at the photo at the top of this blog and wonder, "Who are those Reservoir Dogs-looking, bike-riding badasses, and where are they going?" I do not, because I know the answer: It's me, Brendan, Joel, Ken, and Chillwill's shoulder, going to the CCBA annual dinner. That's pretty prosaic, but one of the nice things about pictures is that while they are worth a thousand words, those thousand words might vary significantly if you don't know the back story. For example, perhaps in the photo above, Brendan is actually our prisoner and we are leading him on a long Trail of Tears-type death march/ride to some unsavory fate in Manchester. He does have the downcast look of a doomed man, and we are more or less surrounding him, making escape attempts futile (except that in real life, he is faster than any of us, but you don't know that, in keeping with my point about the back story). Why am I saying all this? Because the other day I saw a real life prisoner convoy on I-91: a Judicial Marshal truck heading up the highway at 80 mph with an unmarked state trooper car in front of it and another behind it. It was pretty tough:


(Click on the picture for a larger version with insightful annotations.) Read more!

Concerning Early Mornings

In my youth, I was unapologetically nocturnal, which predilection was well accommodated for some time by my job waiting tables. My usual routine was to work from 4:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., then ride my bike into Manhattan (work was in Brooklyn) and carouse until around 5:00. This allowed me the lyrical opportunity to stumble home just as dawn was extending her rose-red fingers across the Brooklyn sky, and was made all the more delightful (in my mind, anyway) by the fact that in the lot behind my building there was an actual rooster in residence, which would frequently be crowing as I got into bed. As far as I'm concerned, that was the life, and I think back on it fondly (except for the no money, the busted-down apartment, the dead-end job, and the frequent bouts of crushing, booze-soaked loneliness; but I digress).

There was also a time in my younger days when I worked the morning shift as a bike messenger, from 7:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Now, I should say that it wasn't a bad job, hours notwithstanding. I worked for a color printing lab, so I drew an hourly salary, had a warm office with free coffee to take refuge in between runs, and was additionally blessed because the manager who frequently ran the shop when the owner was out had a side gig as a purveyor of medicinal herbs, and was a generous man by disposition (if you catch my meaning). All of that said, I recall those early morning starts as something of an ordeal, especially in winter, when I had to start my eight-mile commute in the cold, slushy dark.

The combination of my night-loving nature and my experience at the messenger job left me with the firm conviction that people who get up before they have to for the purpose of engaging in any physical activity other than coitus are fools. But the time must come, I suppose, to put aside childish things, including rigid beliefs about how best to live one's life (I used to hate animal abuse, for example, but now that I'm married with kids, I kick puppies all the time). So today, at the tender age of 31, I fully abandoned my 21-year-old self's abhorrence for needless early rising and got up extra early so I could ride my bike from New Haven to Bridgeport instead of taking the train.

And you know what? It was great. Sure, it was cold, but I was mostly pretty comfortable (except for my toes; Christ, my toes were cold, even with the thicker socks I picked out for the occasion. I need to do a separate post like yesterday's gloves post about what to do to keep feet warm when riding in winter). And certainly, it was dark, which is a little scary on the busy-ish state highways between New Haven and Bridgeport (Rte. 162 and Rte. 1, in this case). But it wasn't that busy at 6:15 a.m., and the dark was kind of cool, because day was just breaking off to my left over the Sound, so when I rode through a wooded area or a valley, it would seem like night, and then when I crested a hill or caught a view of the water, the sky would be on fire and beautiful. And when I got to work in Bridgeport, I felt energetic and healthy, which is actually sort of a nice feeling. Also, there was this view:


(You should definitely click on this picture to see the larger version.) Read more!

Brendan's new losing pursuit

Looks like fun, huh? I don't have any pictures of the run up.

I bought a used Raleigh cyclocross bike off of ebay a few months ago to help the economy of the Pennsylvania. It's one of those 1x8 dealies with an older dura ace rear dérailleur, STIs, and older dura ace cranks. I stole Johanna's Maxxis Steve Larsen tires for some traction. It came with really terrible tires. Well, don't get me started with what I was presented with from UPS.

Since none of our local parks have cyclocross courses in them, I've gone off to the eastern part of the state for some racing. I went to Mansfield Hollow two weeks ago for my first race and Dayville last weekend. Obviously, I didn't finish anywhere near first, because I'm not very fast. I'm not too depressed with the results, though - more or less midpack results in both. Well, I was futher back in the first one, but moved up in the second. I have the same problem I do with mountain biking, in that I start pretty strong but let people pass me in the middle laps and do adequately catch up. Although, with the field being bigger. There's a lot more actual racing taking place. The Mansfield Hollow race had 50 or so and Dayville had 30 something. Midpack is nothing to complain about. Besides, riding with one of the cheapest bikes out there is definitely worth some bonus places. Read more!

Mitten Weather!

Yes, my friends, it's that time again: suddenly, it's chilly outside all the time and my tender knuckles and delicate fingertips need protection from the elements when I ride the old velocipede. At my son's school, they sing a song to remind them how to get their mittens on, which goes like this: "Thumb in the thumb place, fingers all together/ this is the song that we sing in mitten weather." (It's a catchy little number.) So my question to you, dear riders, is this: What hand-coverings do you favor for various cold-weather bike-riding situations?

Rich and I both like the work gloves sold at Home Depot, labelled "FG" (for "fixed gear," presumably). They are warm enough for non-freezing cold weather, they have some padding and grippy stuff that's nice for holding onto handlebars, they are available in muted gray or with safety-conscious day-glo colors, and they run under $20. Unfortunately, I recently lost/misplaced my pair and had to dig out my back-ups, a well-used pair of liner-weight black ski gloves. These gloves are three years old and for some reason, even though they only cost me $10, I keep patching them rather than replacing them. This morning, I continued that process by reinforcing a few fingertips with bits borrowed from even cheaper, older cotton work gloves. (The effect is super-ghettofabulous, which makes the gloves perfect for riding my super-ghetto-modified Mercier.)


(You should really click on this to see the larger version and appreciate the two generations of patchwork; the index finger was done two winters ago; the middle and thumb are from this morning.)

In colder and wetter weather I use these as liners and add a waterproof shell. Right now I have some ski gloves for that purpose, but I think I might like try pogies, which are said to be very very warm and allow the rider to wear stylish lightweight gloves. But I might get some mittens so I can sing that song. Read more!

Spoooooky goings on in the Beat!

Alright...so we messed up in joining the Hooker Day Parade on Sunday. We had a plan, we had a theme idea. I was in Vegas, Joel found himself in Wethersfield, El Prez in New Haven, Karma was most likely working, Chillwill is in Cali, Ken was confused, and I think I heard that Brendan was ready to go. Oops. Well, it sounds like the parade was a lot of fun, and it got people in Hartford excited, so that's always a good thing.

But what's on tap now that fall has fallen, you ask? Good question! Here's some things for your calendars for the next 1.5 weeks:


Friday, Oct. 31st.

Bike to Work??
Old State House, 7am - 9am
last Friday of the month
Hmmmm...this event appears on the BBB calendar over there on the right. It does not appear on the CCBA Bike Everywhere calendar. There it says that they ended in September. I know last year, they had "Icebike to work" things for the colder months. I'll look into this in the next day and report on the status, and I'm sure future scheduling will occur after the next Bike Everywhere meeting in a couple of weeks.

Critical Mass, Halloween Edition!!!
Meet at 5:30pm, Bushnell Park Carousel.
It’s the last Friday of the month! Celebrate with riders around the world for this global, grassroots celebration. Join a hundred of your newest friends on a ride around the city at a chill pace for about an hour and a half. Check old posts to see past rides. The summer’s rides were wonderful, and now we can REALLY freak out!!! It's October 31st! All Hallows' Eve! Helloween! The last ride in Daylight Savings Time! Dress up yer bike! Dress up yerself! Bring some candy! Get some candy! By the time we push off, it'll be dusk, the leaves will be flying, and it'll be extra spoooky! Seriously, feel free to ride in costume. Creativity encouraged. Anything can happen!
http://critical-mass.info/


Tuesday, Nov. 4th.

Progressive Happy Hour (PHH), Election Night Edition.
Kenny's (Red Rock), whenever to whenever.
Holy Shit. HOLY SHIT!!! Really??! The election?! We've only been exposed to this election cycle since about 1971. That's what it feels like. You know...Canadians held a national election in October. Guess how long that took from the time they announced it to the time it was over. No seriously, guess. 30 days. By law. Anyway...hell, here it is in the US of A. Obama. McCain. Nader. Barr. And the rest, with Palin & Biden popping in to provide comic relief. Polls in CT close at 7 pm, so I'm thinking of getting there early to start drinking the pain away while we watch the pundits on the teevee make big asses of themselves. I'll probably be making up the drinking game as the night goes on and others are welcome to join in. Early rules I've thought of are 1) sports metaphors, 2) calling a state before 20% of precincts have reported, 3) unnecessary and excessive use of expensive touch-screen zoomy maps, and 4) any appearance of a dry-erase whiteboard. I'm also going to bring presidential games and activities. Points to those who show up with trivia about our lesser-known presidents like Millard Filmore. Anyway...show up. And for cripes sake: VOTE. Or exercise your right not to vote. Freedom, baby.

Wednesday, Nov. 5th

BBB English/Irish Pub Bike-Crawl
7 pm - 11 pm
After the success of Beat Biketoberfest, it was suggested that we try some sort of irregularly scheduled bike-based pub crawls around the Beat. Well, my first thought was to try to do them on some sort of occasion. November 5th is known in the British empire as "Guy Fawkes Night" (aka "Bonfire Night") in commemoration of some catholic extremist dude with an unfortunate name who tried to blow up Parliament with gunpowder on that date in 1605, but was a complete douche and failed miserably. So the Brits, with no 4th of July celebration because they lost that whole silly affair in the colonies, put this as their holiday to blow shit up. Well, we aren't going to blow shit up, so I'm leading a tour of popular English/Irish drinking establishments in the area to mark the date. I think the order will probably go: Vaughan's, McKinnon's, Half Door, & ending at the Corner Pug, unless someone can come up with another viable stop. Yeah, yeah...it's a school night, so it won't be a big blow out all-night affair, but a classy traipsing affair as our first public pub bike-crawl. We'll start at 7 pm at Vaughan's on Pratt Street in downtown Hartford. All are welcome. "Remember, remember the 5th of November!"
(someone want to add this to the blog calendar, please?)

Saturday, Nov. 8th

THE EEL
Charter Oak Landing, 3 pm
A gentleman's race along the river that is both on the road and off. This is so going to rock. Any further updates and promotion will be provided by Brendan.

Read more!

Good Repair Website

I've just blown an hour at bicycletutor.com. There are a lot of good tips and tricks in videos, transcripts, and discussions here. For example, drop a little tri-flow on your spoke nipples before you adjust them and true your wheel. And here is the rest of it. Read more!

Book Review: Off the Rails

(Photos Courtesy of Tim Cope: http://www.timcopejourneys.com/)

Off The Rails, by Time Cope and Chris Flannery, is the true story of two bold young Aussies riding recumbent bikes from Petrozavodsk, in Western Russia, across Siberia, over the steppes of Mongolia, and finally into Beijing: about 10,000k.

This story is inspiring. These boys were 20 years old when they did this expedition, and their plans were far from perfect. Preparing in Petrozavodsk, as their custom-built recumbents arrived in pieces in two boxes, Tim "realizes" he's never ridden a recumbent before. As for mechanical experience with a regular bicycle, he had "patched a tube and adjusted a seat". Later on, deep in Siberia, the duo would have to canvass several villages before finding a guy who could weld a broken frame.

They also find themselves dragging their loaded recumbents through waist-deep snow for miles on end, drinking hot fermented milk and waking up to animal slaughter in Mongolian Yurts, pushing their bikes through sand in the Gobi Desert, and furtively sleeping in ditches at the edges of rice paddies before finally being arrested in lowland China.

There are two famous old thoughts of famous old wise people that rose to mind as I digested this story. The first is Goethe imploring us, "Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it." Personally, I have felt genius, power, and magic only weakly and fleetingly. Perhaps my boldest actions are still ahead of me. I have seen it though, in the boldness of people close to me, and in the heros of Off The Rails. The adventurer W.H. Murray knew it and saw it too: "The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too." Following winds magically replace stagnant airs, like a matching contribution from the universe.

The Babushkas of Siberian villages are a good example of Providence for Chris and Tim. Because of massive casualties during WWII and currently dismal life expectancy, elderly Russian men simply don't exist in a lot of remote Siberian villages. For Tim and Chris, this meant they had Babushkas fighting over the privilege of feeding them potatoes and giving them a warm place to sleep when they limped into town on muddy, icy, rutted dirt roads.

The second old chestnut is that necessity breeds invention.

A pure heart and a strong will are all we need to find the means to our end. Chris and Tim overcome hardship by making things up as they go along. No maps? Ask someone where to go. No foresight, no experience because you are green and 21? Use determination and charm instead.

This is not like reading about Sir Edmund Hillary, or Amundsen, or Lewis and Clark, or James Cook, or any other legendary adventurer. To be sure, Tim and Chris are first class adventurers (Tim Cope has turned pro). The difference is that Tim and Chris are honest about their emotions, mistakes, and ignorance. Early on, Cope describes how he crashes his bike like a novice, overwhelms himself with self-pity over tick bites, and gets childishly annoyed and frustrated with Chris. These small things, to which we can all relate, are why this book is more inspiring than most of the stories of the old classic adventurers. Many of the old dour legends don't tell us about these soft spots in their character, either because they couldn't admit it to the world, or because they couldn't even admit it to their journals.

Ditch the fear and sarcasm. Try reading this book about a couple of bold kids who make shit up as they go and become unknown legends.

Photos Courtesy of Tim Cope: http://www.timcopejourneys.com/
Read more!

Buffalo, Bikes, and Beer

A lot of you know that I'm originally from Western/Central NY State. Buffalo, despite being the butt of many a joke is the city that I often use to describe where I'm from geographically to elitist west coast types who only think about NYC when you say "New York." Buffalo, like Hartford, is a pretty gritty town. The population of the city is quite a bit larger than the city of Hartford (300,000 to 125,000) but when you compare the greater metro areas of each city, Hartford and Buffalo have very similar populations at over 1.1 million people (#45 and #46 nationally)

Perhaps this is more of a job for the CCBA, but I thought I'd point out an effort that has been established in the aforementioned Buffalo, NY that may be of interest:

Blue Bicycle has partnered with Flying Bison Brewery to launch a specialty brew; the “Rusty Chain”. This new amber ale will help to promote bicycle infrastructure in Buffalo. With over twenty restaurants and bars around the city on board, every time you purchase a Rusty Chain partial proceeds will go towards bicycle racks, signs, lanes, etc. Rusty Chain will quickly become the beer of choice for cyclists and beer aficionados alike.

And they had a fundraiser this week which went for the installation of bike racks and bike rings around the city. I honestly don't know if such an similar suds-spoke synergy effort is possible here in the 'Beat, but given our bike community's proclivity for the enjoyment of beer, I can't think of any better situation for bike advocacy than the purchase of beer going to help fund bike infrastructure improvements. It's just a thought.

I can't believe I'm saying it, but I'm jealous of Buffalo. Read more!

KAPOW! Car accidents

Monday evening, I got out of work a little after 6 pm and was riding my usual route on Tolland St. in East Hartford. I was thinking about how I should replace my blinkie batteries soon for the upcoming time change, and also how in the twilight it was difficult to see since it was still too light for the street lights to be very effective. All of a sudden, about 50 feet or so behind me, I heard some really startling sounds:

*CRACK!*
Crunch.
Scrrrraaaaaaape.

I quickly put on the brakes and spun around just in time to see the end result of a pretty substantial rear-ending of two cars. As far as I could tell, I think someone merged onto Tolland from the weird S-curve on Burnside and just didn't see the car in front of him. My first reaction was that oncoming traffic might not see the lead car resting in their lane, so I immediately used my corking skills and started signaling for those cars to slow down and use caution.

Being pretty mobile on my bike, I also realized I was the closest person on the scene to check on the condition of both drivers, so I turned back to do just that. The lead car's entire rear bumper was lying in the street. That driver was on her phone, and had a passenger who was also talking. Both people were wearing seat belts and signaled to me that they were OK. The striking car was about 30 feet or so in the other lane, and had a really smashed up hood. About this time, a woman in a 3rd floor apartment (corner of Tolland and Ann) started shouting out to me asking if everyone was OK. I shouted back that I was checking and that I had a phone to call the police. She responded by saying she had already called 911 and just wanted to let them know if anyone was seriously hurt. As I approached the 2nd car, I noticed that a tow truck had come up from behind and had parked (probably seeing a business opportunity) with its flashers going right behind, thus alerting oncoming traffic to the accident. The driver of the 2nd car was just getting out of the vehicle, and verbally told me he was OK. I stuck around until the police arrived on the scene...probably another minute or two. The officer asked me what I saw and I told him that I didn't see the impact because it was behind me, and he thanked me and told me it was OK for me to go.

So it wasn't a serious accident or anything, but a couple of things went through my mind: 1) being mobile on a bike is a pretty quick way to negotiate the scene of an accident and 2) wow, that was close. If those cars were 50 feet behind me, a little different timing or whatever could have had that sliding car completely taking me out. Being aware of cars which are in control of some strangers is one thing...cars coming at us when they are not in control of the driver is something else.

At first, the thought occurred that maybe the first car was reacting to seeing me and my reflectors/lights on the road, and the 2nd car didn't expect that reaction. Seeing where the cars ended up, I determined that this wasn't the case. I've never actually seen an accident happen in real life, but now I've heard one at close proximity, and it's pretty unsettling. Read more!

Attention Tables

This a funny, cryptic sign I saw in a deli window in New Haven. It has nothing to do with Hartford or bikes, but it is amusing (and I do ride my bike in New Haven often, and also in Hartford, so, you know, there's that to consider). Read more!

Concerning Bike Shops

Something I often bemoan is the lack of a gritty, old-parts-bin-having, evil-genius-mechanic-employing, old school bike shop in the Hartford area. When I lived in Boston, I was a frequent patron of Broadway Bicycle School, where you could rummage through old parts bins to your heart's content and, with some patience, find pretty much anything you might need to cobble together or repair whatever old bike tickled your fancy. They also had work stands and tools that you could rent for $9 an hour, which was extra-specially nice. And they seemed to look at every weird bike problem or repair as a happy challenge.

The shops around Hartford, though, are very much in a different mold. Now don't get me wrong, I like a lot of the folks who work at the shops - for example, I often stop into Pedal Power in Middletown for this or that, and the guys there are unfailingly nice and helpful. But their focus, as is the case with most area shops, is fancy road bikes, and my focus is ghetto-fabulous hacksaw-based engineering (see the previous post), so a fertile supply of fancy road bikes is about as useful to me as a reduction in capital gains taxes.

The result of all this is that I lately tend to turn to the internets for my bike part needs, which, while emotionally unsatisfying, usually gets the job done. But when I inherited the Special Tour de France, I found myself with a problem that even a system of tubes as vest as the internet could not solve: Will's bike came with a seatpost that was about five inches long, which may have been good enough for Will's short self, but was entirely inadequate for my 6'5" self. Unfortunately, the post did not have any markings on it to tell me its diameter, and I don't own calipers or even (as I discovered) anything with metric measurements on it. Could I measure in inches and then convert? Sure. I did. But it felt a little imprecise, and I was reluctant to order a new, longer seatpost from the web on the basis of my questionable measurements. (Strangely, despite being emotionally empty, e-commerce seems to require a lot of commitment.)

If I lived near a good old-fashioned bike shop, I would just head there and try lots of different seat posts until I found one that fit. But I live in West Hartford, so I did something else: I took the old seatpost, cut it on either end and down the length of it on one side, and made it into a shim. Lacking a post that fit neatly inside the shim, I took an extra straight handlebar with a slight rise and jammed that inside the shim, then cut it to size at the top. To keep the whole thing from turning all the time, I had to tighten the seatpost bolt on the Special Tour de France to the point where the housing got all mashed up, then use an extra seatpost collar around the protruding part of the shim and tighten that down with a spare quick-release lever. Not an elegant solution:





So inelegant, in fact, that on my Monday morning ride to work, it strted to come loose. It can't get lower, because the middle part of the handlebar-cum-seatpost is wider than the shim, and it won't come out of the frame because there is a 200-pound person sitting on it, but it rotates, and that is annoying. So on my lunch break, I zipped over to the REI in West Hartford to see if they had a seatpost that would fit, or at least if they could measure the thing properly.

I didn't know what to expect going into the bike area at REI. On the one hand, they don't sell used bikes there (obviously), so I couldn't hope for the greasy relic-repository of my dreams. On the other hand, they don't sell any stratospherically priced road machines made from the ground up hopes of orphans, either, so maybe they would have a middling, semi-utilitarian approach.

The mechanic was a nice guy and helpful, and he busted out the digital calipers and sundry other tools necessary for me to extract my monstrous post and shim so he could get a good measurement. But all the while, he seemed to be choking back disdain (or vomit), like a med student who wanted to become a cosmetic surgeon in Greenwich but was forced to do a rotation in the pustulent syphillis ward at apublic hospital. I had the feeling he knew in his heart of hearts he was meant to be diagnosing the tiny squeaks and frictions of carbon-fiber rigs, not helping some numbskull jury-rig an old road frame into a poor semblance of roadworthiness.

I suppose I shouldn't complain, because at the end, the mechanic guessed at the right post diameter (I had crushed the seat tube to the point where it was no longer round, so we couldn't be sure) and ordered a post for me. But somehow, the whole thing left me a little cold. And he didn't even compliment me on my incredibly awesome 26" wheel dropout adapters! Read more!

A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever: My New Bike

So, upon the departure of our dear Chillwill, who has repaired to the welcoming climes of Northern California to work in the agricultural sector, many of us were graced with cast-offs from his large stuff collection. I was lucky enough to get his Mercier "Special Tour de France" road frame. How awesomely beautiful is this frame? Just click on the photo above for a larger view of its orangey goodness. Plus, "Special Tour de France" sounds like a multi-stage bike race for people with cognitive disabilities (like the Special Olympics), and I like that.

Will gave me the frame with a five-speed rear wheel and matching front wheel, but no saddle or handlebars. Clearly, this elegant beauty needed to be spruced up and put on the road stat. I had some three-speed coaster brake wheels in the garage and really wanted to used those (because derailers are lame but internally geared hubs + coaster brake = bringing the ruckus). However, I long ago learned from hard experience that when you put 26" wheels on a frame that is accustomed to 27" wheels, everything is lower and your pedals will hit the ground when you make turns, and this phenomenon, known as pedal strike, can lead to events such as spectacular wipeouts on crowded downtown Boston streets at lunchtime, which suck. Now, a reasonable person might cut the three-speed hub out from the 26" rims, cut the five-speed hub out from the 27" rims and lace the one to the other. But three factors militated against that approach:

1. I wanted to get this business done and get to riding;
2. I didn't want to spend any money, even on new spokes; and
3. I don't know how to build bicycle wheels and didn't want to pay someone else to do it for me (see # 2, above).

Instead, I devised what is, I humbly submit, a really neat solution. I bought a piece of steel at Home Depot ($6.99) and used my trusty hacksaw to fashion the adapter you see below (two of them, actually), which bolts into the bike's dropouts and lowers the rear axle by about an inch.



I am absurdly proud of myself for this feat, and you should be proud of me too. It really works.

Why am I telling you all this? Because after you take time to congratulate me on my engineering acumen in devising the adapters, you should reflect on how nice it is that this lovely old frame has been passed along from one member of our beat bike crew to another to continue bringing joy to me and (hopefully) to anyone who sees it plying the streets of the capital area. Good friends, old bikes, and sharing are all things this world needs more of (along with love, sweet love, of course). Read more!

To Broad Brook!

Before Sunday, I had never heard of Broad Brook, let alone ridden my bicycle there. But thanks to Rich's strong desire for Grandpa Tony's unpasteurized apple cider, his ability to print a map from Google, and his kind invitation, all that has changed.

On Sunday at around 12:30, Rich, Julia, and I set out from Rich's swingin' Hartford bachelor pad on our bikes, full of vim and visions of cider, donuts, and New Englandy, autumnal goodness. We took Windsor Street north into (wait for it . . .) Windsor, and after a few wrong turns that led us to strange, quasi-agrarian backroads teeming with disaffected local youths, we found our way onto the bike path of the Bissel Bridge. Once we'd crossed the river, the industry/farm/suburban mishmash of Windsor gave way to the stone-walled, birthplace-of-historic-people charm of East Windsor. We thought it was beautiful, but based on what was written on the pavement, some people were nonplussed (click for a bigger view):



Honestly, I don't know how anyone could be bored by a stretch of road with the Porch Horse, the Pumpkin-Butt Gardener, and the birthplace of the "first American theologian and philosopher."







(We liked that the only notable thing about Aaron Burr, as far as the people who made this plaque were concerned, was his having been the third vice president.)

After consuming much cider, and many cookies and donuts (and yummy pumpkin fudge), we took a longer way back, via the I-91 bridge, and I shortly realized I was running late and had to ride at full speed from Windsor Locks home (and when I say "realized," I mean "received a phone cal from my justifiably angry wife, wondering where the hell I was to take the kids so she could go to a 4:00 engagement"). As a result, I only took one more picture on the way from the farm:



So who's coming with me next Sunday? Read more!

What you need to be doing on Nov. 8

Don't confuse this with November 4, that's when you need to be voting.

The Eel! November 8! 3pm!

It's gonna be awesome!

Maybe prizes beyond the cash sort!

Come race!



Also, they opened that South Branch Greenway last week. Read more!

Sharrows Explained

Karma's recent post along with his excellent photos of the new road markings in West Hartford got me wasting a perfectly good Monday evening scouring the intrawebz looking for some information on that pattern that I remember seeing sometime before. Rather than bury the results of my research in the comments section of his post, I thought this information would better serve the community as a separate post.

I've never seen such a thing actually implemented in person until they appeared in West Hartford, but the new markings aren't just a result of someone in the WH government smoking crack. They're called "Sharrows" (which I'm guessing is the result of some fan of mashing words together got when they looked at "shared" and "arrows") and they have become implemented in just the manner that we've seen in West Hartford in an increasing number of bike savvy cities: San Francisco, Portland, and Boulder, for example.

The brief history is that this particular design and use was started in Denver in the mid-90s. Generally, they were ignored elsewhere, until a 2004 study released by the city of San Francisco recommended sharrows be implemented to mark shared-use roads. Caltrans (the CA state DOT) adopted the markings that same year and use has expanded. In 2007, the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices unanimously voted to endorse the marking in federal manuals of traffic control devices.

The two main purposes of these markings are: 1) to alert motorized traffic that the road is to be shared and 2) to correctly position cyclists outside of the "door zone" of parked cars. This also serves to correct the bad habit of bikes traveling on the wrong side of the road, as well as encourage not-so-experienced cyclists that it's OK to take the lane. We'd probably see fewer a-hole drivers screaming at us to get out of the road, too. It's important to point out that in general, they aren't preferred to a dedicated bike lane, but rather recommended in areas where the streets are too narrow or dangerous to have such a lane.

The only problems I see with the markings in West Hartford is the previous designation of the side stripes as being a "bike lane," and the absolute lack of communication about these markings. We've all seen how cars are often in that side lane, and we've complained about it a lot on this blog. I think someone somewhere made a mistake at calling those things on the sides of Boulevard "bike lanes" and it was decided to make these routes "shared roads," and the sharrows were eventually laid down. The sharrows are even defined in the West Hartford Master Bike Plan. (see page 19). However, the fact remains that there has been NO COMMUNICATION by the town or state government about these markings and how to use them. When some of the most experienced cyclists I know in the region seem confused by these markings, you would think that some form of public announcement, or press release, or some mention in the newspaper would be in order. At the MINIMUM, a mention on the town's website. Nothing. When SF implemented them, they put PSA signs on city buses as part of their educational campaign.

There's some great reading on the sharrow movement, and I'll throw a list of links down in order of usefulness:

• Christian Science Monitor 2005 article (interviews advocates and critics)
  
• Bike Pittsburgh Shared Lane Markings FAQ (brief & informative)
  
• Bike Commute Tips Blog
  
• SF's 2004 Shared Lane Markings Study (very interesting) - .pdf
  
• SF-MTA presentation on Sharrows (Sept. 2008) - .pdf
  
• Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams (mmmm, beer)
  
• Proposal for shared markings in Ithaca, NY (my college town! ITH represent!)
  

After consuming all this, I'll say I'm in favor of sharrows, as long as cyclists and drivers get educated about them, what they mean, and how to properly use them. Read more!