Bike on the Right

A word about the election

2008-01-16T09:24:00.000-08:00

Commuting with my Downtube

2007-09-18T09:32:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted in a while because I've been crazy busy. But I love my Downtube bike. It's solid and it rides well. I got a seatpost mounted rack for my work bag and then I found that I couldn't find a way to solidly hook the bag onto the rack, so I had to buy a specially made bag for the rack.

Once we have the time change, I'm going to be riding home in the dark so I have to start thinking about reflectors and stuff.

One complaint about the bike is that it doesn't fold very compactly. I saw another guy on the train with a Dahon and that thing was tiny. I feel self conscious bumping into people with my big ole folder.

My folding bike

2007-08-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

So I'm going with the Downtube folding bike, a white one. It should arrive any day now. I'm excited.

I really wanted an orange one, but the white one is what I won on ebay. I'm probably not going to modify it very much other than adding a rack and something to keep it folded on the train.

RIP Corinne Crawford

2007-08-01T22:28:00.000-07:00

RIP Corinne Crawford. She sounds like a beautiful, remarkable young woman.

Test embedding video

2007-07-31T22:46:00.000-07:00

This is the same video that I posted about earlier. I want to see if I can embed it in my blog. If you haven't watched it yet, here's your chance.

Bike advocacy and conservatives

2007-07-30T15:08:00.000-07:00

I know that the vast majority of bike activists out there are left leaning and liberal. That's okay. We all want the same thing. But keep in mind that just because a politician is a liberal doesn't mean he/she is on our side.

Take for instance SF mayor Gavin Newsom. He's a liberal Democrat and he's been terrible for bicyclists. He refused to close Golden Gate Park to car traffic on Saturdays, vetoing the proposal. Compare Gavin to NYC mayor Bloomberg who closed Central Park every day of the week. Mayor Bloomberg may be an independent now, but he ran as a Republican, he closed the park as a Republican, and he is still identified as a Republican. This is especially meaningful to me because I learned how to ride a bike in Central Park on a day when they closed it to cars.

I also found this newsletter titled "The Citizen Cyclist" with the statements below.

Who are our real friends?
Whenever I come to regional or national conferences like this, I always hear about things happening for bikes in Madison because it is a "liberal" place. The reality is, we have found that the liberals in this town would rather patronize us than help us: "Your being too radical, tone it down, you'll never end the American love affair with the automobile" – all given in very fatherly tones as they vote down good bike stuff. I consider this entrenched, smug, liberal tyranny to be a major impediment to progress for biking and walking.

On the state level, the republicans have been our allies more often than the democrats (I'm not a republican by the way). Our republican governor, recognizing the value of bicycling to the state’s economy, has repeatedly reinstated bike/ped money into budgets that the democrats had eviscerated. It was a conservative Republican assemblyman who wrote & sponsored the modernization of our state’s bicycle traffic laws—laws that would make even John Forester [http://www.johnforester.com/] happy! We have a very republican Dane County Supervisor fighting for a bike path in her district; same story in the city. Meanwhile, liberal democrats can’t seem to focus on anything but raiding federal bike funds for more highway building or moronic, ineffective helmet laws. So I hope I’ve made the point that liberal places and liberalism are not the secrets to a bike happy place. Make your allies where you can; speak to whoever will listen. Get obnoxious if you have to.

I'm glad someone else noticed.

Another bicyclist dies

2007-07-30T13:51:00.000-07:00

Another San Francisco bicyclist died last week with little fanfare.

Child-in-Car tragedy prevention

2007-07-30T13:18:00.000-07:00

I can't stop thinking about the tragedy of the little boy left in the car. I'm trying to think of some solution. I know there are some high tech solutions out there but how many parents are going to take the trouble to install them and what about the people that can't afford them?

According to this article, these tragedies happen because parents go into autopilot and there isn't any trigger than helps them remember that there is a baby in back. This danger is especially heightened when there is a change in routine. The parents who think "I would never forget my child in the car" are likely to be the ones who do forget because of that certainty.

Here is my idea for a simple, cheap prevention method:

Put a hat on the child seat. This can be a baseball cap or any other kind of hat that you would never normally wear. This should be a special hat that lives in the car, on the child seat. Never wear it for any other occassion.
Whenever you put your baby in the seat, put on the hat.
When you take the baby out of the seat, put the hat back on the seat.
If you are a regular hat wearer and the feeling of a baseball cap just wouldn't register with you, use something else. It should be really outlandish, like maybe one of these plastic rings they have during Halloween with a spider on it, something that you normally wouldn't wear outside of the house.

There you have it, a cheap reminder that there's a baby in the back of your car.

Another way that cars can kill

2007-07-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

This involves children left in cars.

It is very hard for me to read these stories because I love my children so much. When they get a skinned knee, it's like a knife in my gut to see them in pain. I can't even imagine losing a child, and to lose a child directly due to your fault like that is unbearable.

What is it going to take for people to come to their senses? I feel like I'm screaming alone in the wilderness.

Thank you car culture!

2007-07-29T22:14:00.001-07:00

I love this video. Kudos to the person who created it.

Crappy bike or folder

2007-07-28T01:14:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking. All this energy I've been putting into finding a folder. Maybe I should just get a crappy bike instead, one that I wouldn't care the much about losing. But then I'd have to call my wife to pick me up at the Bart station and then she'd have to pack the kids into the car.

But wait, who would really want to steal a crappy bike? I mean, if it's like a department store bike I'd probably have to tape some money to it in order to entice a thief to steal it.

One advantage a folder would give me is the ability to take it anywhere on trips without having to strap on that awful bike rack. That thing really sucks. I swear, it's going to drop my beloved Bridgestone troll on the road one of these days and then I'd have to take a baseball bat to it. The rack, not the bike.

No, I think I'm set on a folder. Our trip to Yosemite is coming up soon. It'll be fun to bike around those trails. Maybe if my folder works out for me, I'll buy one for my wife too.

Site review: Streetfilms

2007-07-28T01:02:00.001-07:00

Okay, this is where I gush. The most amazing site I have found in a long time is Streetfilms. They feature short films about bikes and transportation. Everything that I've been talking about, boring my family with, regarding transportation these people have addressed. It's amazing.

I've watched every film on their site at least once, and some several times. I can't recommend it more highly. If I had spare time, I would make films for them.

Site review: Tree Hugger

2007-07-28T00:47:00.000-07:00

While I've been reading about bikes and alternative transportation, I occasionally get linked to articles from Tree Hugger, a site slash blog concerned with environmental issues.

Well, I finally got a chance to take a look at what they have to offer in terms of transportation and let me tell you, it isn't pretty.

As of July 27, 2007 the first several articles are about:

a car made out of biomass
how cars are beating congestion charges
ethanol
an electric scooter
Porsche's hybrid SUV
airlines' carbon offsets
smart cars

Three out of seven seemingly approving articles about alternative fuel or low emission, high mileage cars. Big deal. It's still a car tearing through neighborhoods, terrorizing children at play, running down bicyclists. If you want to talk about environmental impact, let's talk about how much raw material is going into making these alternative fuel cars.

Here's an example - in the article about cars beating congestion pricing (which I liked), they talk about how hybrids and electric cars are exempt from congestion pricing. Why? Just because they get higher mileage does not make the car not congest the streets. And then in another article, they talk approvingly of how Porsche is going hybrid but that the proposed hybrid will only get 26 miles to the gallon. I don't care if it gets 99 miles to the gallon. I don't want that thing on the streets.

I was really hoping for more. It's time to realize that this car culture, whether it runs on fossil fuel or dog poop, it devastating to our way of life.

Downtube folding bikes

2007-07-28T00:39:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a lot of good things about Downtube bikes. Their prices are really good and the company owner seems to be very responsive to customers. My only concerns are 1) as I said, I'm a big guy and apparently the only model of theirs that would fit me is the full suspension model 2) since the full suspension model does not take any kind of rack other than a seat post mounted rack, would I be able to take my laptop with me?

I don't really need to take my laptop with me for my job, it's just that the nature of my work makes the data on my laptop extremely sensitive. I was told in no uncertain terms to keep my laptop either with me at work or at home, but to never leave it at my desk. I was chewed out by our security team the other day for leaving my laptop in a conference room to go to the bathroom.

Anyhow, Downtube seems to only do online business so I would have to buy the bike sight unseen. They do offer a 30 day guarantee but I would have to pay the shipping.

Another concern is that they don't have the magnetic locking system that Dahon has on their bikes. I suppose I can fashion one. One big advantage is that they use conventional bike components so it is easy to upgrade.

I think I will test ride a few other Dahons, but I will probably end up buying a Downtube.

New Template

2007-07-26T23:30:00.001-07:00

I just realized that I was using the same template as the one used on Bikescape, so I've changed it out of respect. If you haven't heard the bikescape podcast, go right now and download some episode. It's excellent and brilliant. I'm a huge fan.

Vegetable Oil Cars on CurrentTv

2007-07-26T22:55:00.001-07:00

So I'm watching Al Gore's (inventor of the internet) CurrentTv and they have a short video on a couple of lefty looking guys who convert conventional cars into cars that run on vegetable oil. Here's the page with a description but you can only watch the video on TV.

One of the guys says he is doing this because he was so mad about the Iraq war that he had to do something, so he wanted to strike a blow against the real reason why we are fighting the war - to benefit big oil.

See, this is why I am a conservative. I'm not a huge fan of the war, nor am I a fan of our president (he's not a real conservative and he spends our tax money like a drunken fool). But I do believe there is a real terrorist threat. Now you can debate whether invading Iraq was a smart move (I think it was a bad idea) but if we really invaded to take Iraq's oil, why haven't we taken it already? We're doing a really crappy job of being the hegemonic usurper if that's what's really going on. Occam's Razor dictates that GWB is probably telling the truth, but he did a really crappy job of execution. Like I said, I don't like our president but I don't think he's worse than Hitler like some liberals.

I honestly think that the level of one's intelligence is inversely proportional to their propensity to believe conspiracy theories.

Anyway, back to our two liberal-automobile-worshiping-vegetable-oil-car-converters. They've successfully converted an old Mercedes to run on vegetable oil and they are tearing down a narrow San Francisco alley at some ridiculously unsafe speed to show how fast vegetable oil can make a car. They surely would have flattened any bicyclist riding down that alley, but who cares when you're a liberal out to change the world?

Idiots.

Please note, I don't think they're idiots because they are liberal. Most of my friends are liberals. No, these guys are idiots because they just are. They're more interested in being cool and against the war than they are about making a real difference. Usually I love CurrentTv. They have a lot of great videos. This was not one of them.

Folding bikes for tall guys

2007-07-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

Ahh, the typical blog inaugural posting flurry. You start a new blog and you write several posts a day, then once a day, then once a week. After a while, you're lucky if you post once every quarter. Hopefully, this'll be different.

Anyway, I've been biking to the Bart station and it's been going well. However, someone told me that my bike might be a target for theft. Now, I never thought my bike was anything valuable since I bought it used years ago for what seemed like pocket lint but it seems that my bike is valuable.

It's a Bridgestone MB-2 with what I consider to be a gawdawful green and yellow stock paint job. The thing is hideous but it rides like a dream. Bridgestone stopped making bikes and the head bike maker went off to start a new company which now makes super expensive lugged steel bikes. I don't really know what that means but apparently lugged steel is desirable.

So even though I paid very little for my troll of a bike, I really love to ride it and I don't want it to get stolen. It's really the perfect bike to pull my daughter along on her Trail-a-Bike. I've decided to start looking for a folding bike so I can just take it on the train and into the office with me. Also, the notion of portable personal transportation is fascinating to me. Really, we have the technology to make portable electric scooters with fantastic speed and range, but the problem is where the hell are we going to use them for transportation? On the sidewalk, and risk terrorizing pedestrians? On the street, and risk saddling my family with the expensive cost of my funeral? I swear, thinking about the whole car culture pisses me off sometimes.

Okay, here's my problem with a folding bike. I'm six foot three and a shade. I'm a big guy. I weigh anywhere from 205 to 215, depending on how much I work out. The more I workout, the heavier I get.

From what I've read, all folding bikes pose a problem for guys 6 foot and over. I'm going to want the thing to fold up pretty compactly too because Bart trains get pretty crowded. Anyway, I think I'll check out some Dahon bikes at the local shop.

Greetings

2007-07-26T08:58:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. This is my first post and I am hoping that I can keep it up this time. I've tried starting blogs before but I've found that I usually end up too busy living life to write about it. Hopefully this time things will be different because I am blogging about something that I am passionate about - the way we live.

I'll be frank about this: I hate cars. I would be ecstatic if cars were to disappear off the face of the earth. There are a lot of reasons why I hate cars, but the main reason is how cars and the streets we need to support them warp our neighborhoods and our way of living. People, like myself, are terrified that our kids will get run over playing in front of the house. We barely know the neighbors across the street from us. It's just not pleasant to hang around outside with your enighbors with cars whizzing by at 45 mph.

I don't necessarily think that bikes are the only way to go. I'm for all kinds of alternative transportation that are portable, non-deadly, and community friendly such as push/electric scooters, Segways, rollerblades, unicycles, whatever.

Imagine a city where entire streets are closed off to automobile traffic. I live in San Francisco and I bet I could get from one end of the city to the other in about 20 minutes on a bike, approximately the same amount of time it would take me to drive. However, if you figure traffic into the equation, a bike would be faster. Also, imagine how efficient public transportation would be without cars to impede their progress. The elderly or disabled, people who wouldn't be able to bike or scoot, would enjoy record commute times across the city.

Most importantly, imagine the peace of mind a quiet, car-free neighborhood would give you. Imagine knowing your neighbors so well that if they don't see you for a couple of days, they knock on your door to see if you're okay. Imagine kids playing together on the street intermingled with other members of the community rather than forming their own insular world, outside the guidance of their parents.

So as you can imagine, the fracturing of family and community is my biggest concern. I know that others are involved with bike advocacy for different reasons such as environmentalism, especially global warming. Those reasons are valid, but less compelling to me.

I should also mention that this blog is different from other bike advocacy blogs because I am a conservative Republican. More accurately, you could describe me as a libertarian or a classical liberal. And yes, I live in San Francisco. But I'll write about my political beliefs some other time. This inaugural post is getting quite long. Ciao!