Meetings

I love going to meetings in north end because I get to cut through Keney Park and then return by the dump on the along river for the return trip. It's rare that you get to roll your tires on some dirt when you're at work. I also got to see a yearling deer and a wild turkey.


Also, CCBA is looking for some volunteers for Celebrate! (the exclamation point is required) West Hartford. Here's an email I got from Ken Livingston:

Hi Brendan:

The Central Connecticut Bicycle Alliance (CCBA) is seeking volunteers to help with our bike valet service for this upcoming weekend’s Celebrate West Hartford Festival Days (June 13^th and 14^th). According to CCBA President and West Hartford resident Anne I. Hayes, “In years past, we noticed that many people rode their bikes to Celebrate!, but once they arrived, they could not find bike parking. They ended up locking their bikes to trees, parking meters, or keeping their bikes with them. We realized that we could provide a service to bicyclists and encourage more people to bike to Celebrate! Last year’s valet service parked hundreds of bicycles.”

If you are interested in volunteering for an hour or two, please contact Ken Livingston at klivingston@fhiplan.com or 860-416-4309. The bike valet service will be operating from 10 am to 6 pm on Saturday and 12 pm to 6 pm on Sunday.

Thank you for your help.

Ken Livingston

Celebrate!!! West Hartford's not really my thing and I'm going to be BioBlitzing next weekend, but don't let that stop you.

Also, rumble strips can kill you.

So, can police firing ranges.

Read more!

A Painful Case

Well, not really. It just happens to be one of my favorite stories in Dubliners, along with "Eveline". As egos are an important part of cycling, I thought maybe I'd give some words of caution.

Everybody knows that I'm mediocre on a bike. I can mostly ride without looking stupid, but I don't have an emulation-worthy style. I'm just another schlump with a beard on a bike. However, like more cyclists if I don't get beat down periodically, my ego will start to grow unchecked. I think that's probably been happening lately. So, when I took off for Case Mountain (it happened to be the first time I rode there by myself without getting lost at all!), I thought I was going to slaying and doing whatever other cool verbs there are out there for single track. I did have a good time, but I rode the yellow/blue blazed trail and got my ass kicked. It's really hard! So, I've been humbled again. I'm not awesome.

I rode this and I was all proud of myself, but there was a really sharp turn right after that I couldn't make. That's why I stopped to take a picture.

I did not have trouble riding this, but this picture illustrates how nice of a day it was.

I didn't totally understand what this posting meant, but was happy that I was riding before the 17th. Does it mean that a parking area is closing or that the trail is closing?

Read more!

A (pedal) stroke of genius, or at least a good alternative.

Pedaling positions and styles are controversial issues in cycling. I came across this interesting article the other day and it raised some issues that I have been considering lately. The gist of the piece is the idea that a large portion of the cycling community is going about the business of pedaling all wrong. They are not pedaling backwards rather than forward, or trying to accomplish the task one-legged, but they are directing the pedaling force through the balls of their feet when - allegedly - the arch is a much more efficient zone for power transmission. Taking into consideration the location of the pedal under the ball of the foot as dictated by current clipless cycling shoes, most cyclists use the largest leg muscles - the hamstrings, quads, and glutes - to power the bike and use the calf as merely a stabilizer and conduit rather than an active participant in the process. This forces the argument that much energy is being wasted and that it would be more efficient (read also: comfortable) to relocate the contact point under the arch in direct line with the major leg muscles.

I am less concerned with these arguments as related to the racing community than for recreational riders and commuters. I don't know how many new riders I've come across thinking they need clipless pedals and shoes to ride effectively or how many are battling with the introduction to their use, complete with the accompanying stress and nervousness of getting in and out of them in traffic. This all relates to what the against-the-grain folks at the Rivendell Bicycle Works refer to as the "Shoes Ruse," or the idea that you don't need special shoes to ride effectively or comfortably, hell little kids do just fine.

This issue came to my mind after I threw some platform pedals on my cruiser so that I could ride in flip flops or sandals without my toes getting shredded by my toe clips. What I found that I often found myself sliding from the familiar ball-over-the-pedal stance to the controversial arch-over-the-pedal position. And you know what? It felt better! I got more power, less strain on my calves, and felt less prone to slip off the platform. As the article notes, there is more snap resultant from the ball-over-the-pedal stance so the act of sprinting does not seem as explosive with the arch-over-the-pedal position, but lets be serious how much sprinting does one do on a daily commute or ride to the grocery store?

None of this is to suggest that I plan on hooking myself up with a pair of biomac shoes, or intend to drill out my shoes in order to move my clip back a few centimeters, however I do feel more inclined to locate my foot where it feels good and not worry that the ball of my foot is not over the pedal. Its kind of liberating, much like bicycle commuting in and of itself. Read more!

¡Hágalo Usted Mismo!

I picked up this handy book on basic car and bike maintenance in Havana. It has lots of good tips and pictures. You can look at the whole thing here. Here are some neat highlights (as always, click for a larger view):


I just think that's a tough-looking little car.


The parts inside a coaster brake hub, and sensible advice for fixing flats.


The first full paragraph here contains the following awesome advice concerning flat tires: "There is another way, somewhat rustic, of temporarily resolving this problem. It consists of tying a cord tightly around the area with the puncture." Read more!

Slow Ride

One of the things I noticed when I was in Cuba is that the people there ride their bikes slowly. Singlespeeds are prevalent, but even bikes that appear to have functioning derailers or internally geared hubs are usually left on one speed, and people just plod along. The average speed is maybe twice as fast as a leisurely walk, keeping cycling in the realm of appreciable mechanical advantage while obviating the need not only for multiple speeds but, for the most part, brakes.

It seems almost too plain to need restatement that we bicycle enthusiasts like speed. We make appreciate cruising sometimes, but we also like to open it up and fly. When we ride around town or to and from work, we go pretty fast. I like going fast too, and I find it hard not to bear down when I ride. But lately, inspired, I suppose, by my trip, I decided it might be nice to embrace leisure in my riding - at least when I am wearing a suit. The problem (if it can be called that) is that the two bike I have like to go at a healthy clip - the handlebars are pretty low, the saddles are kinda high, and somehow, they make me ride hard. Enter the Raleigh Twenty.



Some time ago, I found this fine specimen on craigslist and bought it for my dear wife. I had just acquired the much-storied Xootr and was drunk off the utilitarian joys of folding bike ownership. I thought a stylish, retro folder for Anna would be just the thing to get her to ride more, which she often says she would like to do. I figured maybe she could keep it at her office at Wesleyan and use it around the campus. Well, what actually happened is that she wasn't interested, told me I shouldn't have spent the money (which I shouldn't have), and the thing sat in the garage for some months, being not what she wanted and too short for me to ride.

So last night, I brought to bear all of my engineering know-how and created a seatpost extension that made this sturdy old rig worthy of a 6'5" rider:



And today, all spiffed up for court, I endeavored to ride slow on a bike that I judged would not go fast even if I wanted it to. The result: smashing success. Rather than be a weird, fast-riding guy with suit pants rolled up, awkwardly straddling two worlds and two speeds, I embraced my inner country lawyer and toodled along in old-school, three-speed style. It was enjoyable, and I didn't get too sweaty. Also, as much as I love the Xootr, it's kinda fancy and new-looking. A slightly rusty, heavy, thirty-year-old bike seems more appropriate for my rumpled suit-wearing style. Also, I was able to imagine this song as my soundtrack.

Also, here's a video that more or less captures my slow, stately movement:



UPDATE: Join the slow ride old folding bike revolution! Someone is selling two Raleigh Twenty folders in Southington for just $20 apiece. Read more!

Bicicletas de Cuba

During the last week, your humble correspondent was absent from the blogosphere, having undertaken a humanitarian mission to the island nation of Cuba (there was an acute rum surplus that I was helping them out with) (actually, the purpose of my trip was more interesting than that, but if I told you what it was, faithful reader, I would have to kill you). Ever cognizant of my blogging duties, I sought to bring a bicycle-y perspective to my trip by (a) riding a bicycle while in Cuba and (b) taking photographs of bicycles while in Cuba.

The first endeavor proved more difficult than the second. Despite being full of bicycles and rather bike-friendly, Havana has, as best I could determine, no outlet for the rental of bicycles. One bike shop has a sign on its window that says "ALQUILER DE BICICLETAS" (BICYCLE RENTAL), but when I asked inside, they said they don't rent them out anymore. In fact, they seemed not to have any bikes on hand, or even any parts of bikes. What they did have was a lot of tires.

Eventually, I found the solution in the same place where most solutions to vexatious problems are discovered: at a bar. After a long day of walking around Havana, photographing bicycles and engaging in top secret spy business, I repaired to my hotel's sidewalk-front bar for a few ice-cold cans of Bucanero Fuerte and some relaxation. By and by, I put down the book I was reading and got to chatting with the bartender, a bus driver, and a hotel employee charged with playing guitar for the entertainment of tourists (of whom none other than I were present). After about an hour of discursion on divers topics, I mentioned wanting to rent a bike but not having found a place to do it, and the guitarrist offered his cousin's bike, which he averred was in good condition but wanting use. We settled on the price of $10 / day for three days (a princely sum in light of Cuban wages, but a savings for me if I should need to take two cab rides a day, which I would have), and he agreed to drop off the ride the next day.



I would say that this photo, on which you may click to see a larger version, doesn't do the bicycle justice, but in fact the bicycle was not deserving of justice. It was a "Summit" brand, made in China, with the rear wheel sporting but one speed, the threads on the rear axle pretty much stripped, and the chain looped loosely around the smallest chainring. Also, like most bicycles in the world, it was too small for me. But Cuba, of long necessity, is the land of making do, and I figured I should do the same.

I took to the streets on the Summit, pedaling slowly and steadily with my heels to make up for the lack of leg extension. It was a little bit faster than walking. Havana is replete with all-purpose fix-it shops, usually outfitted with a welding rig, lots of tools, and many strange spare parts, along with the most important element of a mechanic or bike shop anywhere in the world: dudes sitting around. I quickly found on of these, and one guy adjusted the seat for me while another engaged me in a lengthy discussion about Barack Obama. After a while, I set out again, now somewhat more comfortable, since I didn't have to bring my knees up to my chest to pedal.

In this way, I roamed the city some. I fell once, when I threw the chain while pedaling up a hill. I had to get off and walk on another hill. I did not go very fast, but I did manage to blend in better than I could on foot, which was nice, because I hate being a spectacle, plus, when people in Cuba notice you and decide you must be foreign, they attempt to call out to you in what they surmise to be your native language. When people made me for American, they had the custom of saying, "Happy holidays," which was initially amusing, then irritating. Sometimes they made me for French or German, in which cases they would say things I couldn't understand, since I don't speak those languages, and I'd respond, in Spanish, "What?" And then they'd say, in Spanish, either, "Oh, I thought you were a [Frenchman or German]," or "Huh! Are you [Spanish, Colombian, Puerto Rican, or whatever country they randomly guessed I was from]?" In addition to parrying these national origin questions, I took some pictures. Here they are:



The ubiquitous Bici-Taxi, preferred short-haul public transit method of Cubans. They come in recumbent-ish versions, as above, and in more upright styles, usually with multiple handlebars welded together (see below) to provide many riding positions (or accommodate many sizes of rider). Many have radios, and some have noisy car horns or horns that sound like car alarms. They go slowly, but steadily.


A driver and his friend wait out an afternoon thunderstorm.


A more intrepid driver labors through the downpour.


Merging.


Bici-taxis are cool because when they're not in use, they are great for maxin' and relaxin'.


This one says "McQUEEN" on the front. Lightning or Steve?


Here is a typical bike: All utility, one speed, crazy, old-school rod brakes.


Integrated coat rack.




Cargo bikes.


Bike art.


Hotness, thy name is Fiat. (Yeah, it's a car, but it weighs less than a downhill bike and costs less than a road bike. And it is awesome.) Read more!

Looking for stuff

View keney stuff in a larger map

On Saturday, my job impelled me to chill in Keney Park, which is fine because I love chillin in Keney Park. When chillin disbanded around two, I headed north because of I've wondered what's north of the golf course, as in the mysterious Matianuck State Park and its dunes. There's a trail that runs along the western edge of the golf course, which I had been a little ways down before, but not very far. I figured this would be probably be the best way to access the mysterious park. It goes for a ways and then starts to branch off. It appears that these trails are seldom used except for by a few dirt bikes. Eventually, I must have entered the park, because I saw a few professional-looking white blazes on the trees (like in real state parks). And, I think I found a dune, or least it something sandy. There were also lots of stacks of tires, which led me to think that this state park must have had grand prixes in it at some point. Eventually, I ended up in that big cemetery off of Blue Hills Ave in Bloomfield.

tires

dunes?

Sunday, I found a pond on top of the mountain in Avon off of the secret communications station road at 360 (380?) Montevideo Rd. I guess it must be Hoe Pond. It looks like there's a really awesome house on the pond that goes the pond in its backyard and a view of the Farmington Valley in the front.

pond

Read more!

Another one of those "hey! check this out!" posts

So, the 5K at Keney was too hard to execute during the budget season, so it's been reimagined into a car-free day at Keney from 10 to 2. Yay!.

Also, CT-NEMBA is sponsoring a trail work day at Riverside Park on June 6 ahead of the cyclocross race. Way ahead of the cyclocross race. Read more!

Hard shell

On Friday, I rode half of the metacomet epic and met a turtle. Read more!

ATVs and Trains

I'm not going to lie: I don't like ATVs. As a mountain biker and periodic hiker, I don't see the need for a engine to get through the woods. They also ruin parks in my city, race dangerously down the street and tear up trails in the woods. Often, other people and I think that if they had their park, they wouldn't abuse and destroy trails and parks where they don't belong.

So, yesterday as I rode past the Connecticut River Motorcross Park, I was thinking to myself about how it must be nice how ATVs and dirtbikes stay out of the nearby parks because they have their own park. Then, I entered a nearby park (Quarry Park) to find that the trails had all recently grown ruts because morons on ATVs were riding through the park.

Oh, also, you may recall that El Presidente had written about some kind of weird train/bike/walk thing that he wanted to do. I don't know what ever happened with that, but I have been exploring much of what his proposed route would be along the river. Last week, Salem (lover of Sun Tour and winner of The Eel) and Dario (Trinity professor and rider of a fixed gear Fat Chance) went north and I learned that there's a trail through Windsor Meadows State Park up to Loomis. I also learned about the crazy Hockanum River Park! And yesterday, I went south towards Cromwell and discovered the very boring Bukley Park in Rocky Hill.

Here are some pictures:

Wethersfield's river mud is nasty, but fertile.

I also signed up for the D2R2 today. Read more!

1938 Hurricane Aerial Photos

The Connecticut River in Hartford is a subject in many of our posts, and we spend a lot of time down along the banks of the silty, sandy Connecticut.

Brendan is hosting a 'cross race down at Riverside Park in October, 2009. Last fall, he hosted The Eel down along the river, and this spring, he hosted The Eel 2. Ken frequently takes quick rides late at night to "kiss the river". Last year, we hit as many bridges as possible on one ride. El Presidente de China has praised the railroad bridge north of the Bulkeley Bridge. I frequently use the push-up spot between the Bulkeley and Founder's Bridges, on the East Hartford side of the river. I went swimming on the East Hartford side on a ride that was documented last year. We also occasionally met up below the Founder's Bridge before critical mass rides last year. Also, I distinctly remember Vasudeva the ferryman from Siddhartha, but that was in India.

Many of these events and experiences have happened between the dikes. At one point the dikes didn't exist. Would we have the same bicycling and bridge resources we do now if the dikes hadn't been built?

The Connecticut State Library has 132 aerial photos taken shortly after the Hurricane of 1938 had passed. These photos are incredible. I suggest you go look at them and see how different the city looked up to its neck in water and without dikes.

Read more!

Stuff afoot

Because sometimes we have to reflect on the sad things, tonight is the Ride of Silence. We're meeting at the Elizabeth Park Pond House and setting off at 7.

Also, Real Art Ways is unveiling a bunch of public art on Saturday. My friends Joel, not the beat bike blogging one, and Dave put up a lot of the art. This blog got a press release from Abby at RAW because they're doing a bike tour.

Some details:

Hi there,
Wanted to let you know that we are offering free guided bike tours of our public art exhibitions in Hartford’s Parkville and Frog Hollow neighborhoods on Saturday, May 30, at 3 and 4 PM. They leave from Real Art Ways 56 arbor street, Hartford.
There’s also a free reception for the projects from 2 – 5 PM at Real Art Ways.
I’ve attached press release, but here’s a quick run-down of what the projects will be.

The Four Projects:

• Margarida Correia’s photographs of Hartford youth embracing their Portuguese heritage will be on billboards in Parkville. Street lamps on Park Street will display album covers of famous Fado singers, with an accompanying audio component.
• Satch Hoyt is building a labyrinth in Frog Hollow’s Pope Park, out of clotheslines. The labyrinth addresses the migratory voyages of the residents who reside in the neighborhood.
• Sofia Maldonado is creating a mural on the Pelican Tattoo building in Frog Hollow. She’ll also be organizing collaborations with youth in the neighborhoods.
• Matthew Rodriguez will install 70 characters on trees in Pope Park, and one on the side of La Estrella bakery in Parkville.
  

Dave Mourad (more rad?) is leading the tours and I understand that there's a cell phone guided tour type thing that you can listen to by calling 860 760 9979.

I just called the number and it doesn't seem to have any tour guiding powers yet, hopefully it'll work by Saturday.
Read more!

Best. Bike Accessory. Ever.

Rich, chocolaty, home-made cupcakes. Placing them on the front rack makes you ride faster to try to catch up to them. Read more!

Trikezilla!

Oh. My. God. I have found the next hot thing, or at least the next thing that I really really want. Awesomeness, thy name is Trikezilla: Adult-sized, fixed-gear, chunky-tired tricycle of death. Or, as their ad on craigslist succinctly puts it, "ADULT TRIKE FOR FAT PEOPLE." Words don't do this justice, people, so feast your eyes on the hotness:



I am not playing here. I want one badly. Trikezilla people, get in touch. You send me the complementary prototype and I will be your man on the east coast. I will move merchandise, do you understand me? I will put you on the map. Your ish is where it's at, and I want in. Also, this:

Read more!

Slow Trains

As the images above show, there is a correlation between the decline in the quality of train travel in America and the decline is sartorial awesomeness of Don Cornelius, the host of Soul Train.

There is a fascinating piece in Slate today about how trains in this country have regressed since the 1920s, in the sense that they are slower now and the service is less reliable (and no barbers on board). I know that I am letting the terrorists win when I say this, but WHY, WHY ARE WE SO INTO CARS AND SUBURBS AND LEAFBLOWERS (seriously, have you ever raked leaves? It is a nice activity, especially on a crisp Fall day)?!!! Read the Slate article. It is interesting. Then come back here and read the rest of this post.

(Our loyal reader knows that I'm always on some train ish, so let me warm to the topic a little bit:)

Here is my question: What with how most airlines are not profitable and the seats are uncomfortable and flying is the least fuel-efficient way (other than actually drinking gasoline while riding a diesel-powered mule) to go anywhere and most airports are about as convenient to business districts as, say, Windsor Locks is to Hartford, and now that everything is all interconnected with computers and satellites and blackberries and laptops and space lasers, why can't train travel become the choice for business? I mean, I know that people in the northeast corridor like to take Acela, but other than that train travel is only for tourism and me. There's no reason that a business trip from Hartford to Chicago or Georgia couldn't happen by train. I mean, sure, you'd have to leave earlier, but if you carried your computer and if Amtrak could figure out how to get wi-fi to work on their trains (right now there's wi-fi but it's not connected to the internets; good work, losers), people could just be working during that time (and also seeing this great nation of ours, drinking and playing cards with rough characters in the evenings, having whirlwind romances, and solving mysteries; even a cross-country flight doesn't afford time for all that).

Train travel for business would reduce congestion at airports, it would use less fuel, and it would reintroduce romance and mystery to our lives as a society. I mean, train travel has given us some of the greatest cinematic rides of all time, like Strangers on a Train, The Lady Vanishes, The Station Agent, and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (among many many others). Commercial airlines, by contrast, have given us tawdry, explosion-saturated schlock like Air Force One, Con Air, and Passenger 57 (although that part where Wesley Snipes is on the plane phone with the terrorist who is somewhere else on the plane and he asks him if he's ever played roulette and the terrorist is like, yeah, why, and Snipes is like, "Always bet on black" is awesome, because up until that point, the fact that the terrorist was white and Snipes was black seemed sort of tangential - if anything, it seemed a lot more important that the bad guy was foreign and Snipes was American - but suddenly, BAM, there's a weird racial element in the movie, one that basically doesn't resurface at all; I always supposed that one of the screenwriters had been saving up that line and just couldn't find anywhere else to use it (I bet it was Dan Gordon - he worked on Highway to Heaven during the 80s, and you can bet Michael Landon never would have said anything like that (except maybe during the episode where Rudy Ray Moore guest-starred (quadruple parentheses!))).) (I will concede that Airplane is a spectacular movie, but that's mostly because it makes fun of airlines.) Plane travel is all bland, corporatized utility that leaves you feeling dirty and grumpy, while train travel is personal, uplifting, literary. And with all this tricknology, we wouldn't have to sacrifice our vaunted hard-working, family-ignoring, money-worshipping efficiency for the aesthetic advantages of rail. In fact, by turning a weekend-long business trip by air into a week-long rail sojourn, you give workers that much more time when they're unable to do anything but work and be apart from their loved ones, so it's a win-win. Also, it's way easier to bring your bike on a train than on a plane, and a lot easier to ride your bike to and from the train station than the airport.

Now can some rational person explain to me why no company will ever start using railroads for all its business travel? (I realize there's a chicken-and-egg problem here, in the sense that passenger rail service has become shitty because of the rise of automobiles and interstates, and now it is not cost-effective, so companies won't do it, but until companies do it, it will never be cost-effective, but I'm hoping some economic genius will tell me there's some other, soluble problem, so that we can all join together, solve that problem, and sort the rest out with oodles of federal stimulus money.) Read more!

My Plan: Make New Bike Commuters One at a Time

"Cell Phone Exchange," by Flickr user Thomas Hawk. Some rights reserved.

A long while ago, I had the idea that we could get more people to ride their bikes to work if we sort of held their hands along the way. Not literally, because holding hands while riding bikes, although romantic, is dangerous, but in the sense of helping these would-be commuters to get over the mental and spiritual inertia that makes their feet carry their bodies in to their cars when their souls are clamoring for the rushing wind, the chirping birds, and all of the other happy things that come with bike riding. Since having that idea, I have not taken any concrete steps to make it a reality, largely because I don't really have time and, as best I can tell, there's no money in it (C.R.E.A.M.). Then, two days ago, I missed the 5:15 p.m. train from New Haven to Hartford, causing me to have to wait for the 7:20 train, which didn't leave till 7:40 because it was waiting for the delayed train from New York. And you know how they say that when God closes a door, he leaves the key under the mat or something like that? Well, that proved true in the case of my two-hour delay, as it brought me into contact with someone who re-inspired me to launch my adopt-a-bike-commuter program.

(As an aside, goddamn it, Amtrak! I got to Union Station in New Haven at 5:05, which should have been plenty of time to get a ticket from the automated machine and get on the train. But of course, the machine couldn't read my credit card, and it didn't just tell me that, it had me swipe my card, go through the whole process of picking a train, then asked me to swipe again. After having this happen on two machines (which was especially annoying since my card worked fine earlier in the day and again later), I went to the actual human being at the ticket window, whom I assumed immediately would be nice, because he looked like Allen Arkin (by the way, if you do a Google image search for Allen Arking, make sure Google Safe Search is on, because if not, the second page of search results will contain an image that will (a) make you wonder whether Google has gone crazy or whether you accidentally typed "vagina" and (b) not be appropriate for work), and it turned out that he was a big pain in the ass because he kept telling me about how I can't bring my bike on the train and I'm having to tell him that I take it on the train all the time because it folds and he's asking me am I sure, and meanwhile precious time is ticking away, and when I finally get the guy to take my damn credit card, he's like, "You're not gonna catch that train," and he was right, 'cause the damn thing left two minutes early, right as he was saying that. But I digress.)

So on the 7:20 train, I ended up sitting next to a very nice lady who is a paralegal at an insurance company in Hartford, and we were talking about bicycles, and she was saying how she wants to ride her bike to work because it's only seven miles and she's a strong cyclist and they have showers at her work, but she can never quite motivate because of the traffic and the planning and all of that. And I thought, "This is the perfect case for the Beat Bike Blog Adopt-A-Bike-Commuter Program!"

It didn't seem right to tell this lady, "You know, I'll happily come to your house early in the morning and ride with you to Hartford," because, well, that's a little creepy, but later in the conversation, we discovered we have an acquaintance in common (one of my co-workers organizes a volunteer event that the lady helps to coordinate), so I know I could get in touch with her in a non-creepy way (i.e., through a professional connection), and I learned that she lives in Wethersfield, where a bike-riding pal of mine commutes from every day, and it all started to come together.

So, beat bike bloggers and fellow travelers: How shall we set this up? If you were a fifty-ish lady being approached by bike nerds, what tactic would most appeal to you and make you feel welcomed warmly into the bike-commuting community without undue pressure, weirdness, etc.? Read more!

How Best to Live the Multi-Modal Life?

Every blog post deserves a picture, even if it's not so germane to the content of the post.

As I often report in this space, I live a multi-modal life: Trains, bummed rides, bicycle, etc. Since the demise of my car, I have managed to make this work fairly well, but sometimes I have to rent a car, since one of my co-workers very selfishly had a baby and took maternity leave, forcing me to handle her Hartford cases in addition to my Bridgeport and New Haven cases. Sometimes, I just have to get from one place to another more quickly than the sporadic and frequently late Amtrak train can get me there.

Sometimes, car rental is a dream, because it can be had for $14/day on priceline. But sometimes, like today, the only cars anywhere are $40/day. That's a drag, but I do get reimbursed for mileage, so I don't end up coming out of pocket for that much, and since I only rent a car, at most, once a week, it's cheaper than insurance + maintenance + the cost of getting a car.

But here's the rub about car rental: The few rental places near me in West Hartford and Hartford only sometimes have the cheapest prices. Oftener, I must go to the airport (which is a nice bike ride, but not the most convenient) or to some other location, like today, when I rented a car from a place on the Berlin Turnpike in Newington. Also, aside from the airport locations, most car rental places open at 8:30 and close by 5:30, which makes it nearly impossible for me to get to Bridgeport by 9:00 or get the car the night before I need it.

All of which makes this nation turn its lonely eyes to Zipcar. Zipcar, you may have heard, is the service where for $50 a year, you get access to some cars in your area (provided you live near, say, Trinity, which I do) whenever they're available, at an hourly rate. On the positive side, it seems like you can pretty much pick up a zipcar whenever, 'cause you make a reservation online and then use some kind of crazy space-age technology to swipe a card and get the car, so on those occasions when I miss the train or miss my ride or suddenly find that I have to get to Middletown with a quickness to collect a vomiting child, I could just go. On the down side, it's $8 an hour or $65 a day, which is, you know, more than $40, even though gas is included.

So the question is, should I spring for the $25 application fee and $50 yearly membership? It would be nice to have access to cars on short notice, even at a slightly premium rate. But maybe if I'm dropping $65 a week, I should just bite the bullet and get a car (or move to a utopian, car-free German suburb).

What say you, beat bike blog reader? Zipcar? Rental car? Car car? I always make my most important financial and life decisions on the basis of what the internet tells me (even though investing my 401k money in penis enlargement pills didn't pay off).

P.S.: Dear Zipcar, if you want to give me some kind of sweet reduced price deal so I can sing your praises on this blog (a la Xootr), holler at me. I ain't proud. Read more!

Yelling and screaming

There's a rally today at the Capitol for bikes (don't know about the riders) from 12:15 to 1:15. It's in support of SB 735, an improving bicycle and pedestrian access. I had originally wanted to go ride my bike during lunch because the weather is so nice, but I'll probably end up going to the Capitol and yelling.

Here's a link to the flyer.

UPDATE!

I went and here are some pictures (in case you're wondering what bike activists look like):




I didn't stay for the speakers, because I had a meeting at 1. Read more!

Car Free: A blessing and a curse

In the post below this one, Brendan asks whether planned, suburban, German-engineered carlessness is everything its cracked up to be. (I know, you can't tell from the post, but follow the links - they're interesting). I don't know much about German suburbs, but I will tell you this: My own experiment in carlessness is proving alternately delightful and collossally annoying.

To begin with, I didn't sell my car for the privilege of moving to a smart-growth-designed Teutonic suburb where the swish of bicycles and the laughter of cherubic aryans drowns out the distant growl of BMWs powered by the ground-up bones of orphans. I actually abandoned happy, bike-centric, urban living in Somerville, Mass., for the cartastic burg of West Hartford, where I actually purchased a second car. Unfortunately, the first car gave up the ghost, and the third car (purchased to replace the first) turned out to be a disaster of the sort that now sits immobile on my driveway (I'm thinking of taking the wheels off and putting it up on blocks just to spite the neighbors; that might get them even more exercised than when I have black houseguests). So now I am out of car money and obliged to figure out ways to get from here to there (by which I mean Hartford to Bridgeport).

Yesterday, this situation proved craptastic: Between child's doctor's appointment, other child's having to get to daycare, and wife's having to get to work, I only worked four hours of my workday and spent the rest shuttling people around (but don't worry, boss-who-surely-isn't-reading-this: I made up for it by working from 7:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.). And today, it looked like another pain in the ass: I missed catching a ride with my neighbor to Hamden, and needed to get to New Haven with enough time to get ready for a meeting at noon and a hearing at 1:00, but ma petite wife had to be in Cromwell at 9:15, and kids had to get dropped off (and of course, once you miss the 7:55 Amtrak to New Haven, you can't go again till 11:15). So the only solution was the bike.

I got dropped off at the Middletown-Durham line and headed south on Route 17 for a solid twenty-mile jaunt, dreading the time it would take me, the sweaty mess I would become, and the foolish moment in which I plunked down $1800 for that stupid Ford Focus. But you know what? It was awesome. Know why? Because between Middletown and New Haven is a handsome little swath of real-life rural America - with cows, even. And you know who drives there at 8:30 in the morning? Nobody! So it was me, the chirping birds, the lush greenery of springtime, and even some rabbits (so it was pretty much like Bambi without the hunters, the fire, and the annoying other deer that tries to steal Bambi's girlfriend). I rode at a reasonable but not strenuous pace, got to New Haven in about an hour and twenty minutes, and felt like a health champion.

Conclusion: Carlessness works really well in cities and in carefully planned German suburbs. In Connecticut, maybe not so much. However, it's still nice to ride a bike a lot, especially in the springtime, and (unrelatedly) there is nothing better than filing a motion that is so clever, well-researched, and unexpected that it makes the other lawyer totally lose her cool and start yelling at you. Also, this is Bike Week, so hooray! Read more!

Well?

So, this is the type of article we're supposed to be really excited about. What do you think? Is car-free bliss? Does it have to be this deliberate?

What about this? Read more!

Tardiness

Once, awhile ago, I was supposed to see Belle & Sebastian in Northampton with this friend of mine. We bought tickets about a month in advance. As the concert approached, my friend was convinced (even thought I had checked the tickets and disagreed) that the concert was on Saturday. She remained convinced and was also the driver. So, we went on Saturday. After some pregaming with a bottle of Bailey's (you take what you can get when you're 20) in an empty parking lot, we walked over to the Calvin theater. To find it completely dark. Belle & Sebastian have never returned.

On Thursday, I realized that the Orchard Assault was at UMass today. I decided it'd be a good chance to finally race on my singlespeed. The online pre-reg was over, so I'd have to pay in person. Generally, the Cat 2 singlespeed open class races at 2. I decided that must be the case for this race, too. My girlfriend, Johanna the great, asked me repeatedly if I was sure of this, since I had forwarded her a link to the race flyer on Thursday which had information to the contrary. Around 10:15 this morning, I checked the website to discover that the Cat 2 singlespeed open race had started at 10:00. So, I went for a nice road ride instead. (Which didn't cost me any money!)

I also broke my brake lever yesterday, so this meant that I didn't have to take any steps to fix it today.
Read more!

Pull Up the People on Bikes

Pull Up the People is an online radio show with accompanying playlists. I found them when they linked to me (for what I don't know). But they did an all-bicycle media post.

The lists on the site is worth checking out.

They say the Triplets of Belleville is the fourth best bicycle movie of all time. I'm not sure about that.

But, I loved the part where they used the grenades to hunt frogs.


Read more!

BBB Pub Crawl III: Celebrate Good Times, C'mon!

From the BeatBikeBlog's behind the scenes department of marketing and public relations:

As Brendan mentioned, your humble beatbikeblog has turned a year old! While we have somehow just fallen short of claiming the "Best Blog" honor as a rookie in the Hartford Advocate's "Best of Hartford 2009" issue (Really?? Noted beauty pageant judge Perez Hilton got more votes than us as the best blog?? Where's the local love, Advocate voters?), the comments demanding a celebration have been nothing but overwhelming. Good news! We have listened to ourselves commenting and have decided that holding a BBB Pub Crawl is the perfect way to mark this blessed occasion. And you, our reader and savvy bicyclist, are invited to join us on Saturday night, May 9th. You don't even have to celebrate our birthday...there are lots of things you can choose to celebrate instead:

1) Nueve de Mayo: For people who took too long of a siesta and missed Cinco.
2) Mother's Day Eve: air out all your best mother jokes from the past year
3) The unofficial, irreverent kickoff to Bike Week
4) Springy-Sproing: Warm weather has returned!
5) Ghostface Killah's birthday
6) Just being alive and free on two wheels in the Beat.

So Saturday May 9th, we're hitting places with outdoor seating. We'll be meeting up at Dulce in downtown Hartford around 7pm. From there, we'll head over to Hook & Ladder on Main St. at 8 pm. Then we'll make a nice ride through the city over to Plan B on Park St. in West Hartford and aim to arrive at 9:30. The crawl will finish up at Kenny's on Capitol Ave. starting around 11:30. There are loads of good food and beverage options at each stop.

Hope to see you there.
Read more!