Our own Ben Bare and some other jokers were prominently displayed in the Courant's story with video accompaniment today about Ride Your Bike To Work Day, which is today (and, you know, every day, but all the other days there's no free bagels and coffee at the Old State House). Columnist Rick Green even shouted out the Beat Bike Blog on his blog, which covered RYBTW Day a little bit more. (Props to Ben for telling Green that "the place to learn about cycling is the local Beat Bike Blog." Word up!) With that kind of slow-news-day synergy, I would have expected an accompanying editorial about how worthwhile it is to ride bikes but alas, there's just some dumb stuff about planting trees (the Courant is in favor) and the dangers of killers who use craigslist to stalk their victims (the Courant wants you to be careful out there, OK?). (For a moment, I also got excited that there may have been another cycling-related story in today's paper, but it turned out that the article headlined "Lawyer in Messenger Case Files Complaint Against Another Lawyer" has to do with some guy named Messenger, not a bicycle courier.)
Anyway, now that we've received the imprimatur of the city's paper of record, I expect a massive increase in traffic to this website. So to our new readers, I say, "Welcome! This bike-riding in Hartford, it's a good thing, and we Beat Bike Bloggers are here to facilitate your two-wheeled exploration of our city in any way we can. So please, if you have any questions concerning bicycles and Hartford, ask them in the comments, and we will endeavor to answer them. And don't forget Critical Mass this afternoon at 5:30 by the Bushnell Park carousel!"
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Friday, April 24, 2009
Bike to Work Day in the Courant: BBB Gets Love!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Some pictures from recent rides
When I returned from the airport the other night after returning my awesome rented Toyota Yaris, it was dark and pouring rain. But I'm an artiste, see, so that didn't stop me from taking pictures. Also, I had just finished crafting a new tripod from an old music stand, a cork, a piece of a reflector bracket, and some nuts and bolts, so I was eager to take some low-light shots. I managed only two that were remotely worth keeping. Here they are (as always, click for a larger version):
It's a package store in Windsor. That is all.
For some reason, a lot of apartment buildings in West Hartford have names. (There is another one called, inexplicably, "Asia.") I would like to think that the apartment numbering system in this building goes [floor number] - [apartment number], so, like, if you lived on the fourth floor, your apartment number might be 4-4, and then, instead of telling people where you lived by saying the address and the apartment number, you could say, "man does not live by bread alone," because that's Luke 4:4. (Or if you were on the fourth floor in apartment 8, you could just always blast that one White Stripes album, because Luke 4:8 contains the phrase, "Get thee behind me, Satan.")
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Terrorist or Monster Attack???
As you know, people in the Hartford area cannot drink tap water right now without injesting rotifers and copepods. Boiling water, as prescribed by The MDC, is cumbersome and bottled water is enviro-unfriendly. What are you doing to cope?
Strangely, when this news broke, I was at the reservoir mountain biking (WH reservoir, not Bloomfield). I also had a camelback filled with MDC water.
Remember when it looked like this?
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Earth Day
So today is Earth Day, and even though for folks like your beat bike bloggers, who love bikes, nature, public transportation, and all that good stuff, every day is Earth Day, still, the date should be recognized. But how?
Truth be told, I don't really get Earth Day. When I was in high school, we made an awesome mural, where each student made some small painting with a particular color or something, then somehow we put them all together like pixels and they made a picture of the earth, and we felt like that was good. Of course, in the process, we used a ton of paper and the paint was probably distilled from whale blood (so lustrous!), and basically our whole endeavor made sea levels rise and cows fart. Just so, the Bike Snob today points out that biking maybe isn't super envirolicious, given the carbon footprint of bike manufacturing and shipping and all that. So really, every time we try to do stuff that's earthy, we're just making Bambi and Thumper cry.
What we need are some real, innovative solutions for reducing emissions and wasste and all that good stuff. Here's my suggestion: COP CARS NEED TO EASE UP ON THE IDLING. Seriously. The other night I made one of my periodic rides to the airport to rent a car (environmentally friendly? not especially, but better than owning a car and driving it all the time, right? right? right) and was accompanied by Rich, another blogger affiliated with this very blog. On our way there, we had many interesting conversations (and interestingly, on the way back from dropping the car off the next day, I noticed that whenever I passed a particular spot on our route, I would suddenly recall what Rich and I had been discussing there, which was, given the high quality of our conversation, a particularly pleasant way to have a solo ride), one of which concerned a Windsor cop car we saw sitting in a gas station idling. The cop was drinking coffee, keeping his keen eyes on the lookout for ne'erdowells, but emphatically not going anywhere in a hurry. The night was warm and he had a window open. SO WHY HAVE THE CAR RUNNING, WINDSOR'S FINEST? DON'T YOU LOVE THE EARTH?!! DON'T YOU?!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously, I see cop cars idling all the time, and that must surely hurt the environment, to say nothing of the waste of money. Do they really think that having the engine running is going to make the difference when they're suddenly required to engage in a high-speed pursuit? Do they not know about the halfway turn you can do with the car key to listen to the radio with the engine off? Also, while I am asking questions about cops that no one will answer, why do all unmarked state troopers' license plates end with UTZ? (They really do. Look, I took a picture of one:)
Is this post aimless enough yet? Well, let me add this: I really need a nap.
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Cherry cherry
We're not DC, but we've got some pretty blossoms of our own in Bushnell Park:
Also, never buy anything from wheelworld.com. I tried buying a bottom bracket and jersey from them, but they screwed up my address. I tried numerous times to resolve the problem to no avail. They even went so far to say mendaciously that they refunded my credit card. I disputed the charges and still haven't got the full amount back. Argh!
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Bike to Work
The weather is finally breaking and the infernal wind seems to actually be cooperating this week. I know the event is mentioned on our side rolling board, but I figured a special upfront reminder was a good idea.
This Friday, 7-9 am, on the lawn at the Old State House. Bagels, bananas, coffee and oj provided by CCBA. Would love to see you all there.
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Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Still waiting for Hans Rey's response
Everyone everywhere has been talking about this, so in case you haven't seen it yet:
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Monday, April 20, 2009
The most unrelated yet
As an avowed Northeast liberal, I subscribe to Harper's Magazine. Generally, the stories are about places far away from here, because central Connecticut is boring. Thus, you can imagine my surprise when I turned to page 26 to see that the transcript of Judge E. Curtissa Cofield's bizarre October arrest graced the pages. Looks like Glastonbury has ignominiously made the intellectual big time.
Unrelated, but now bike related, I have seen with my own eyes that the Salmon Brook bridge on the Farmington Valley Greenway is almost complete, save for the railings. You can now ride from Unionville to Congamond and barely touch a road.
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Friday, April 17, 2009
A year
It slipped right by us and we didn't even notice (or have a party): the beat bike blog turned 1 year old last Friday. I could say that we've come a long way, but we're pretty much same the same as when we started.
Also check this from dead eye dave in New Haven:
The Valley
Kitten Race - May 2nd - New Haven CT
The Valley Kitten is 40+ miles of city and rural roads, hills and dirty
valley riding. A race to remind you how out of shape you let yourself
get this winter(fatty), a race to raise the bar for all other races
this season. Bloody knuckles , bruises and traffic violations are just the beginning, this race will give you bragging right for years to come . . .
Meet time is Noon/noon:30 at that big flag pole/water fouantain on the New Haven green (Elm st at Church st)
!!!!!THE RACE STARTS AT 1PM SHARP!!!!!! $5 entry fee**
PRIZES INCLUDE: $200 gift certificate and t-shirts from Lucky Soul Tattoo, a "small" size backpack and Hipsters from A.Able Bags(see website for images), shirts and water bottles from Viva La Bici and a bunch more awesomely random stuff. . .
sponsors include :
Lucky Soul Tattoo - luckysoultattoo.com
A.Able Bags - a-able.blogspot.com
Devils Gear Bikes - thedevilsgear.com
Viva La Bici Clothing - vivalabici.com
Piece By Piece Documentary - piecebypiecemovie.com
XOXO,
Dead Eye Dave
**All riders welcomed!!**
A Ride to Honor Train Travel, Past and Future
Here's a picture of some old train cars on a track. You can click on the picture and see a larger version.
If you read the newspapers, you know that my American counterpart, El Presidente de los Estados Unidos, has lately stated his intention to hasten the nation's conversion to a European socialist welfare state via the construction of high-speed rail lines all over the place (including "northern New England," which might mean New Haven to Springfield rather than Boston to Bangor (not that I have anything but love for Bangor, 'cause, truly love is what I have for that fine burg and for Bath, Portland, and all those other nice spots; I'm just saying, I want good rail service from New Haven to Springfield)). If you read random posters at the Meriden Amtrak station, you also know that May 9 is National Train Day, an event invented, as best I can tell, by Amtrak (which may explain why it's on a Saturday: Amtrak has proved totally useless when it comes to commuter train service).
As both of our loyal readers know, I frequently take the train in commuting to Bridgeport, and am a train enthusiast. Something I've noticed about train tracks, at least here in the Nutmeg State, is that there are many interesting things to be seen alongside them - things you don't see beside roads. These range from odd, inexplicable pieces of abandoned machinery to sweeping vistas ("vista" is Spanish for "view of something other than crisscrossing highways and strip malls") to weathered old buildings that hearken to Connecticut's proud industrial past (and proud graffiti-writing present). I catch glimpses of all this from the train, but I don't get to savor it and take pictures of it the way I could if I were on foot. Therefore, in recognition of National Train Day and in support of our President's pro-train statements, I would like to remedy this problem and travel along the rails at a more stately pace. One way would be to get one of those awesome rail-bikes or the kind of train car that goes by having two people pump up and down on the see-saw thing. Unfortunately, I don't have the resources for either of those. Another option would be to take a walk along some tracks.
Now, not only have I seen the Stand By Me train bridge scene (above, in which the kids walk across a train bridge to save time in their trip, only to have the train come, forcing them to run and jump and be scared and almost get hit by the train), I've also been on an actual train that actually hit and killed someone (in Washington state about 20 years ago), so I'm cognizant of the key problem with walks along train tracks: trains. (Although, truth be told, I don't quite understand how people walking on train tracks in locations other than narrow bridges get hit; it's not like the train swerves to hit them.) So if I'm going to live out this dream, it has to be on tracks where trains don't go. Luckily, Connecticut is replete with unused tracks!
So here's my idea: Ride bikes from Hartford to Middletown. Middletown has train tracks running parallel to the Connecticut river that get little or no use. Walk north along these tracks, back to Hartford (while walking bikes). Take pictures. Pack a lunch and have a picnic along the way. Generally enjoy springtime. I'm thinking May 16 or 17 would be good for this. (Why not May 9? Because I have a friend in town from Seattle that weekend and I don't know if he's up for 30+ miles of biking and walking.) Is anyone out there interested?
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Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Many waters
Remember how I was talking about the river being flooded? It isn't any more, but I don't even have to go near it anymore to find out. Check this thing out on the USGS website that friend of the blog, Jason, showed me.
Also, check out this email (with cool clip art) I got from some guy named Brendan:
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Wednseday
I am house/baby sitting this week for my parents, so I'm riding from Avon to Hartford. 10 miles is a nice length.
Also, your favorite Cat 3 (it's not called beginner anymore, which i think is great) racer won some socks last weekend at Hopbrook Dam. Check out the hot action and my tights:
I also finally met Mark, from cyclesnack. He was doing some damage with his singlespeed. I needed my gears.
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Friday, April 10, 2009
Mad
We, as bike people, are supposed to get mad about this.
Michigan State may have beaten my alma mater at men's basketball, but it appears they're really churning out some idiot students these days.
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Flood
In case you were wondering if the Connecticut was still flooded, it is. It crested and is receding now.
See?
I suppose picture number 1 is the only real clue of flooding.
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Thursday, April 9, 2009
beatbikeblog critical infrastructure and key facilities
Behind the scenes at the beatbikeblog, we have been collaborating on a custom map. It is a work-in-progress, so if you have any suggestions for features to be included, post a comment or email us over in the sidebar at whatwhat? get at us!
Here is the map: beatbikeblog critical infrastructure and key facilities
View BeatBikeBlog Critical Infrastructure and Key Facilites in a larger map
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Monday, April 6, 2009
What happened?
Dear reader, it's been some time since that nonsensical post about fish and parties last week, so you're probably assuming that one of those things claimed my life or caused me to quit this blog. Nope. In fact, I was doing lots of cool things and now I'm going to tell you about them.
Thursday was this:
People were drinking & dancing at City Hall!
On Friday, nothing really happened besides eating some Vietnamese food at the Vietnam Restaurant. Best bún around!
I also walked home from work in the rain on Friday and considered the necessity of Green Infrastructure in Hartford.
On Saturday, I went to Penwood with my newly rigid Stumpjumper and I found this (which I did not drink, because Mike's Hard Lemonade is nasty, not because I found it in the woods):
And, it caused my rear tire to go flat shortly after I took this picture.
The evening led to some more dancing courtesy of that Bacchanalian HartBeat Ensemble.
On Sunday, I went to Cockaponset and it wasn't all I hope it would be. Most of the trails were kind of overgrown. This description was a little hyperbolic if you ask me.
This above trail was kickass, but I'm not altogether sure if I was allowed to ride on it. There were bike tire tracks, but that's often a meaningless measure of the rules. I apologize if I screwed up and rode on a "no bike" trail. I know you aren't allowed on the blue blaze here, but this was blue & red and I know you were allowed on the red. There weren't any of those CT Forest & Park Association "NO BIKES" diamonds on it, though.
There was also this weird moonscpaed fireroad where it looked like they had done some logging.
I ate this bowl of soup, too:
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Concerning School Buses, and the Rules Particular to Them
When I lived in Somerville, Mass., I commuted by bicycle fifteen minutes to Cambridge (technically, a Somerville-to-Cambridge commute could be accomplished in under a second, but from my house to my work was fifteen minutes). Along this route, almost without fail, I got stuck behind a school bus discharging its precious cargo (kids). Why was I stuck when I was on a bike, you ask, and thus able to maneuver in traffic as agilely as a koi navigates a putrescent pond? Because when school buses discharge kids, a stop sign extends from the left side of them, forbidding cars from passing in either direction. I assume this is a hedge against children's propensity to dart into traffic, and it is sensible, but I always felt it wouldn't be so bad if I just inched forward while astride my bike until I had passed the youths and could resume my usual high rate of speed. Unfortunately, the spot where this always happened (in front of the King Open School in Cambridge, if you must know) was presided over by one of those neighborhood-mayor-type crossing guards, and she once scolded me when I tried to creep past, so I made a habit of waiting and chatting with her. I have always been unclear, though, on precisely the extent of the no-movement-around-school-buses-discharging-kids rule. To wit, I was driving a car in the North End not long ago, on Capen Street, I think, and I came to a four-way stop, where I brought my vehicle to a complete stop and checked for pedestrians and crossing traffic. Stopped about fifteen feet before the stop sign to my left was a school bus, with special bus-side stop sign extended and lights flashing. The children exiting this bus were entering some building right in front of the bus, not crossing the street in front of me, so after checking again, I proceeded across the intersection. This occasioned strenuous honking and angry gesturing from the school bus driver. Did I do wrong? Does it matter that I was driving and not on a bike? Will stiumulus package money fix this problem?
This diagram makes me think I did right, but I never count out the possibility that I have failed to notice something that proves I am in the wrong.
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Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Koi update
In case you were worried, the koi in the Bushnell Park pond survived the winter and are just as large as ever.
Also... don't forget this Thursday!!!
Pause for a Cause with HartBeat THIS Thursday
On April 2nd, Councilman Luis Cotto (WFP), the council’s arts champion, will turn City Hall into a dance hall. The evening’s festivities will benefit HartBeat Ensemble.
“City Hall is such a beautiful building. I can’t wait to see DJ 45 (Jon Eastman) turn the place out,” says Councilman Cotto, “If it's fun and people like it...we'll do it again, and again, and again.”
Cotto is a first term member of Hartford’s Court of Common. Chairing the Public Works, Park and Environment committee, he has sought to reinvigorate the arts through successfully pressing for the full-time staffing the Office of Cultural Affairs and the restarting of the City’s Cultural Affairs commission. Cotto’s “Pause for a Cause” is a collaborative initiative aimed at benefitting various Hartford community based organizations via no-cost or low-cost fun events throughout the City.
April 2, City Hall @ 7pm
Admission: $10 / $5 Lets Go Arts members - But don't let that stop you. Feel free to pay
what you can.
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Monday, March 30, 2009
Tax dollars at work
Obviously, we here at the beat bike blog are far too skilled and extreme to ever ride on rail trails. We're not so skilled and extreme that we don't pay income tax, however. In some news that makes me glad, it appears that some Federal DOT stimulus money is going to central Connecticut rail trail improvement and expansion. Here's the article in today's Courant.
ps. We actually do use rail trails and bike paths. I'm kidding!
pps. Photo credit goes to our friend Heather Brandon at urbancompass.net. I hope she doesn't get mad that I stole her picture.
ppps. Johanna and I went to DC this weekend. No scuba diving in the Potomac:
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Sunday, March 29, 2009
Being the photographic highlights of two recent bicycle sojourns
As mentioned below, I recently had the singular pleasure of an early-morning jaunt to the storied, airport-dominated burgh of Windsor Locks (rap name: Windzor Loc), which I followed a day later with the return trip. Upon both occasions, I snapped some photographs, four of which I offer below for your perusal, dear reader. As always, if you click directly upon a photo, you will be rewarded with a larger, more sumptuous view.
Best. Street name. Ever. (Windsor Locks)
I like the simple, old-timey look of this place on Poquonnock Ave.
Something else old-timey-looking. (Windsor)
At the right hour of the morning, Bloomfield can look way more romantic and mysterious than it really is.
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Friday, March 27, 2009
Adventures in carlessness
As those who know me know, car ownership has of late become my bete noir. First, my beloved old Corolla gave up the ghost. Then I shopped forever trying to replace it cheaply. Then, when I finally pulled the trigger on an '01 Ford Focus, it proved to be a lemon, except not in the sense of being covered by Connecticut's Lemon Law (which wouldn't cover any car I would buy 'cause I'm not spending enough money), but in the sense of spending more time in the shop than out. I got it out of the shop in Middletown and drove to Stratford, where it had issues. So I pushed it across Route 1 to a shop in Stratford, and got it out a few days later. From there, it got as far as Meriden before the engine died (there it is in the picture above, about to be winched onto a flatbed tow truck). So now I have a useless, non-running Focus and have spent enough money that I can't afford to get another car until such time as I get the guy who sold it to me to buy it back (probably with the assistance of small claims court). Which brings me to today's topic: carlessness.
In many places and for many people, carlessness is not a big deal. Shoot, I didn't even get my license till I was 24, so I know as well as anyone. But when you live in the nutmeg state, and especially when you live in W. Hartford but work in Bridgeport, the car becomes an issue. Now, I love taking the train as much as anyone, maybe more, but that ish is spendy, especially if my schedule forces me to take one of the more expensive Amtrak trains (inexplicably, the same trip between Hartford and New Haven can range in cost from $11 to $19, and it's not based on rush hours or anything so logical). Like today, I had to be in New Haven at 9:00, then down to the Bridge, then back to New Haven from 5:00 to 7:30. Naturally, once you're in New Haven past 5:15 p.m., there's no train until 8:30, and that train costs $19. Add the $11 to take the train down in the morning and the $6 round trip from Elm City to Park City on Metro-North, and you're up to $36. That's a lot of cheddar for a debt-saddled public interest lawyer to fork out.
So I headed over to priceline.com and secured a car for $24 for the day. The only problem? There are only two places in Conn. where priceline can get you rental cars: Bradley and Tweed. So for the convenience and savings of a car today, I had to ride my bike fifteen miles to the airport in the morning. And you know what? It was pretty awesome!
It was just about 50 degrees when I hit the road at 6:30, which is a fabulous temperature for riding. Dawn was stretching rosy fingers across the sky, there was awesome, spooky mist everywhere, and Windsor is actually a lovely place to ride. AND, I am now pushing a pimpin' (by my standards) red Subaru Impreza four-door (with the coveted Rhode Island plates!) for the rest of the day.
I just might start renting cars on the regular. (I'll have to see how low of a per-day price I can swing on priceline. $8, maybe?) A car and a brisk 15-mile-ride for less than the cost of a round trip on Amtrak? Yes, please. (Also, why is Amtrak so expensive? Why? They should do a sliding scale or name-your-price like priceline does. I mean, the trains are never full, so they may as well sell those seats for a cut rate, right? Right?! Right.)
(Or, here's an even better idea: You know how there's lately been a little to-do about how white collar workers at GM get free cars and free gas, which are, you know, paid for by the taxpayers and all that? GM has responded by saying that the employees provide valuable feedback, to which I say the following: Let me use the car, I will give you lots of feedback, and you won't have this problem because I am not the recipient of federal bailout money. Seriously, GM, are you hearing me? I will drive any car you give me with a full gas tank. I will drive carefully. I will review every feature. Do you want me to try out the cruise control? I do not generally like cruise control, but for you, I will do it. Do you want me to drive the speed limit? I will even do that for you. SUVs; compacts; station wagons; it ain't no thing. I live to serve. Because you know what? In the immortal words of Phife from A Tribe Called Quest, "riding on the train with no dough sucks.")
(You know what doesn't suck, though? Parenthetical digressions.)
(Oh, one last thing: Xootr should bill their Swift Folder as the best bike to buy if you have an unreliable car or no car at all. Mine has been a huge help in all this: it goes on the train, it carried me to the airport, it carried me back from Middletown after I had the Focus towed there from Meriden. God bless that sturdy little bike.)
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Summer Employment
This is recreation in another state.This is barely related to riding a bike in Hartford, but...
The City of Hartford is hiring part-time recreation assistants for the summer. You have to live in Hartford and apply soon. Hanging out in a park all summer sounds a lot better than being parked at my desk. Read more!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The Space Shuttle is in town! and other weirdness
Last Friday I caught a glimpse of what seemed to be the Space Shuttle driving down Duval Street. The spacecraft was a little smaller than expected; but the tailfin and color scheme is pretty dang recognizable. It must have been it, but I couldn’t get my camera out fast enough; that thing is a freakin’ rocket ya know. A few hours later I took the above picture, catching the ship moments after it safely sopped at a stop sign and continued along down South Street. I did see the Space Shuttle…I did! I did!
Houston, we have contact! I saw the Space Shuttle again, at 12:00, heading straight for me with nothing more than a mere double yellow line separating us from a deadly head-on collision! I quickly pulled over and parked my pedicab and snapped a few photos as the ship slowed and stopped next to me. The pilot said he saw me snapping photos earlier and asked if I wanted a postcard. Hells yeah! Nice people.
I learned that the Shuttlevan hangers in Texas and was built to celebrate 25 years of flight. There’s even a 1,700 watt fog production machine! Check the website!
Six or Seven years ago I was riding my bicycle down Greene Street and strangely heard a piano approaching me from behind. I turned to see a man in the middle of the street alternately pushing a piano on wheels from behind and then playing it from the side as it rolled. I took a quick photo and have never forgotten the sight. I have no idea of the what and the why. A few days ago I saw what must be the same guy and the same piano on Duval! He wasn’t playing it this time, only pushing it down the street. I love this town.
I saw these two Konas with crazy camo tires one night after sloppyhour. Pretty sweet.
Another wonderful night at the parrot. John’s singlespeed and my fixie. Let the revolution begin!
Want more photos? More bicycles? Want to see the newest fixie on the island, built just days ago? And welcome a new Surly to the neighborhood, a sweet Traveler’s Check? Click on read more and enjoy more bikeporn my dear blog reader(s).
Eddie, dayshift manager of Perfect Pedicab, just finished building his first fixie. Its got some aggressive geometry and begs to be ridden fast. Great job dude! Get some straps already!
And Eddie’s the very proud new owner of a Surly Traveler’s Check. He travels a lot and enjoys bringing a bike along for transportation and adventure. I think he's also doing some kind of hypnotism shit with his eyes too.
Another sexy shot of the frame in detachment action. 
This man rides around town on his trike pulling a trailer and sells mangos, coconuts, avacados and other yummies. Roy stopped him the other night infront of our apartments for a few tomatoes.
The funny thing is that the tongue weight of the trailer causes the trike to do a wheelie whenever he dismounts. Pretty funny scene every time I see him.
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Bikes and the ladies
It's a shortcoming of our blog that none of the writers are women. I don't think this is so much because we've actively tried to exclude anyone, but more because our blog isn't very good so no women have any interest. Maybe I'm wrong. Who knows? If you're a bike riding woman and want to write about it, sent us an email. It would definitely make things better.
Anyway, that's not what is actively vexing me. It's women trying to buy bikes. I'm going to relate some anecdotes and keep things strictly anonymous.
Some women I know have tried to buy bikes in bike shops. Instead of wandering around the the bike shop in peace and staring at bikes, the bike salesmen walk with them and ask them vague and strange misleading questions about what kind of riding they want to do and talk about the length of their arms and legs and torsos and hair and other unrelated things. This seems to invariably lead the salesmen to think that these women I know need to purchase nerdy hybrids.
When I go into a bike shop, none of these questions are asked and nobody comments about the length of my body parts. I wander around and sometimes take a bike of my choosing out into the parking lot. Nothing about me suggests that I'm a guy that knows anything about bicycles.
These weird disparities and general weirdness lead the women I know to be fearful bicycles and think that there are all these weird restrictions. They're also uncomfortable in bike shops. This doesn't have to be.
I am all for bikes fitting people correctly, but that should be something that happens towards the end of a sale- not first. Let everyone browse and let people gravitate towards whatever they want. Just because some says they might ride on the road and might ride off of it in no way means they want to ride a hybrid. Riding a hybrid is no fun anywhere. That's why the world's garages are filled with hybrids that no one rides. Further, if you posed the question of where I want to ride to me, I'd answer that I want to ride on the road sometimes and not other times. I certainly don't want to buy a hybrid. Why oh why do the world's salespeople think it's a great idea to sell women weird things that they don't want?
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Monday, March 23, 2009
New Parking
I'll admit it's not the most fascinating news, but the parking lot at the West Hartford reservoir has changed. The big dirt parking lot is closed. Instead, when entering through the main entrance, parking is off to the left in a nice new paved lot. It has plantings and benches- the whole nine yards. I'm not sure what effects this has had on our water bills, but I don't mind spending a little bit more on nice benches. The trails, including the paved loop, haven't changed at all. Anyone else have an experience with the new lot? What do you think? Pretty nice, huh?
I discovered this when I decided to do a late afternoon loop of the reservoir. I'm uncertain as to why I decided to do this after the mini-epic of Glastonbury, Portland, and East Hampton with Salem (Eel #1 winner) and the 2009 Biking Vikings. Cool dirt roads over there.
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Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Wheel Truing: Broken Spokes and Broken Hearts
This is not my wheel as Webshots currently won't allow my pictures to load into the blog!!So I picked up a new road bike recently. Due to its low price I overruled many of its mechanical shortfalls figuring I could fix, swap, or modify its existing parts to get it back on the road. These maladies include a broken front brake lever/shifter, a slightly bent crankarm, and two wheels way out of true. The Campy shifter I intend to swap out for either equivalent Shimano parts or convert to downtube shifters (its 8spd Chorus which I hear is difficult to come by or outrageously expensive on Ebay). The crankarm I bent right back into line with an adjustable wrench. The wheels, however, required both skills and equipment that I yet possess.
Despite the poor condition of the wheels (being out of true is a bit of an understatement, perhaps absolutely false would be a more sufficient term, particularly for the rear wheel) they did not deter my enthusiasm to remedy the situation on my own accord. Regardless of the fact that I simply do not have the funds to have the job done professionally, I gain a certain amount of pride from maintaining and fixing my bicycles myself. I have a friend who owns a truing stand, and armed with a bit of internet-gained knowledge and a basic knack for the mechanical I set out last week to straighten up the new rims. A little overexcited about taking a hack at this new skill I foolishly brought just the wheels over to said friend's place and left the bike at home. After about a half hour of tinkering I had the front wheel spinning straight and true, success! I felt confident about the whole process and enthusiastically set the rear wheel in the stand to straighten it up. It was clear that this next step would be nothing like fixing the front wheel! The wheel looked more like a pretzel than something you'd place on your bike and the rim deviated left to right as much as a centimeter in each direction! After about an hour of cursing, sweating, twisting, and turning, I got the wheel spinning reasonably straight (good enough for my purposes at least). I took my wheels home feeling confident that I would have the bike rolling in no time.
Wrong. Turns out that while the wheels where true they were not dished correctly. The front wheel rubbed on the brake pads, slowing as they passed, while the rear wheel wouldn't even set into the dropouts due to its rubbing against the chainstays. I would have to attempt the whole process again.
Today was the day for my reattempt and I set out wheels in hand and (this time) bike on shoulder as I walked the several blocks to my buddy's place. This time I started with the troublesome rear wheel working on it for about an hour to bring the dish into line and re-true it. I set it in the frame which it dropped into cleanly and I felt I had done it! A slight wobble concerned me so I took the wheel back out and set it back in the stand to clean up my work a bit. Twisting and turning I worked through the spokes tightening and loosening to bring the wheel into line. One spot, however, alluded the perfection I was looking for. I kept alternating between loosening and tightening without success, I was beginning to get frustrated. Ready to leave well enough alone I turned one more spoke to finish up when... POP!!
I froze.
I couldn't believe it. It wasn't really happening. I looked down and indeed it had. I had broken one of the troublesome spokes that I could not leave alone. Perhaps I had bottomed out the spoke and was beginning to spin it rather than tighten it, perhaps it was just too tight or the pressure not balanced well enough. Regardless, my hours of work are wasted, and the wheel was in far worse shape than before.
Not to be defeated I picked up the front wheel and set to fixing it. No more than two minutes had it dished and spinning clean, no problems.
So now what? Part of me doesn't want to be defeated while another just wants the thing fixed. A part wants to finish what I started while another doubts I possess the skill to get this wheel (I like to think maybe just this particularly disheveled wheel) back into true. Do I simply fix the spoke or start from scratch and rebuilt it with new parts, do I have a shop do this for me? Oh tortuous decisions!! What shame and disappointment! How dramatic that I feel this about a bike, though im sure im not alone here. Regardless, there will be no riding of that bike for some time to come. Very sad. Read more!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Unexpected Dryness
This is more of a question out to those who read this and mountain bike.
I know that you're not supposed to ride during the spring thaw because it makes huge ruts and ruins the trails. I respect that and in years past have stayed out of the woods for weeks this time of year. Strangely, this year it doesn't seem to be the case, though. At least in this area, we had one "thaw" day two days before the last storm when everything was really gross. The weather was nice, so some people went out and their ruts are still there. Apart from that day, though, the trails have been fine, super-solid except where there's always mud. Am I the only one noticing this? Am I going to be crucified by NEMBA for suggesting this?
Update!
I went for a ride after I wrote this post and took a picture to prove the solidity of the trail:
Second update:
I didn't go on the ride to take the picture. It's more, I went for a ride and took a picture.
Read more!
