Thursday, February 24, 2011

here's a troubling question...


So, a friend and I were out the other day for a nice morning bike ride. Since it was pretty early in the morning, we hadn't really had a solid breakfast yet, and so, as the ride neared its end, our attention began shifting to our surly stomaches – now muttering unhappy threats at us. We were both simultaneously seized upon by an overwhelming desire for donuts. What an amazing food! As we discussed the incredible world of donuts, we were awestruck at our discovery that apparently every culture has at some point discovered the joy of deep-frying some sort of delicious dough: sopapillas, beignets, and even fry bread (to name only a few) all seem to share with the donut some grand heritage of fried goodness.

Anyway, after all this donut talk, our ride ended and we scrambled to the computer to look up the best donut shop in town. We were shocked! Google only produced two locations for donut shops in Boulder, and they were both out of business. The nearest donut shops were either McCaslin Boulevard in Superior, or out in Longmont. Well, this would have worked if we could have based our bike ride around getting to the donut shop and back, but since we were already worn out, we couldn't pedal all that way. We had to settle for Safeway, and don't get me wrong, a donut is still a donut, and they really hit the spot, but sometimes you want a specialist – a place so devoted to donuts that's all they make. These are donuts that can truly be trusted.

The troubling question we are all now forced to confront is: are there really no donut shops in Boulder? Sometimes, a hungry cyclist craves the donut, and we've got to have somebody somewhere who can help in these situations!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Bicycle Touring

Forget flying cars and hover crafts - long distance bicycle touring is the transportation wave of the future (not that it's by any means new, it's just the most stable, the most beautiful). Touring by bike is a combination of so many of life's greatest things: road trips, sightseeing, pedaling a bicycle, meeting new people, the great outdoors, sun, rain, lightning, and greasy diners. In general, bicycle touring is one of the most solid ways to enjoy and appreciate the beauty of the bicycle.

Perhaps nowhere is the old addage about the real enjoyment being in the journey and not the destination as true as it is in the long distance bicycle tour. With that in mind, taking a look at the basic gear for touring is important: pedaling hundreds – if not thousands – of miles will definitely be more enjoyable with some solid and fundamental gear.

First off, although it's definitely not a requirement, a bicycle built and designed for touring is a nice option. Here's a website with some good information and what appears to be a solid ranking of some of the most popular touring-specific machines out there.

Whether or not you go with a specific touring bike, hauling around gear is obviously a necessary concern. There seems to be two primary schools of thought in bicycle touring: the school of the panniers, and the school of the trailer. Here's a brief pros and cons list of each (this list is extremely cursory -- it demands further research by each individual rider):


1. Panniers
Pros:
- bicycle is a self-contained unit, i.e. no extra units like a trailer
- there is always additional space on racks to strap-down additional gear (old inner tubes work best as tie-downs!)
- more options for organizing gear according to needs
- relatively cheaper than trailers

Cons:
- balancing weight is a constant issue
- sometimes feet may clip panniers while pedaling
- slight risk of damaging spokes/wheels
- difficult to stand bike up or set down when not riding



2. Trailers
Pros:
- leaves bike itself unhindered
- easy to pack/store large things
- storage is all in one place
- relative ease to connect/disconnect trailer (and all gear) from bike

Cons:
- additional machine with parts = more risk of break-downs needing parts and repairs
- expensive
- squirrelly steering in poor conditions
- makes entire touring rig too big and cumbersome

Regardless of anything that comes about through all this talk of gear and logistics, the most important thing is always to go pedal and enjoy the ride!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

The Wave

Not too long ago, I was reminded of a particularly special rite of the cycling world: the cyclist-to-cyclist wave. In our fast-paced, frenzied, commercial, high-tech world, sometimes things can seem a little impersonal, a little unfriendly. Once again, cycling comes to our cultural rescue!

I'm sure we've all felt the heartwarming glow that results from the brief interaction that is the cyclist-to-cyclist wave: two cyclists pedal down their respective bike lanes heading in opposite directions, brief eye contact is made, the distance separating the two is bridged with a quick smile of recognition, a friendly wave, and the two have passed each other by, each going their separate ways but now much happier for having participated in the hallowed ritual.

Sadly, this tradition has begun to disintegrate. All too often, I notice cyclists performing the cyclist-to-cyclist wave discriminatorily. Fixie-riding hipsters only give super-hip waves of acknowledgment to their like-minded counterparts, spandex-clad roadies turn the cold shoulder to those lacking the form-fitting fabric, hardcore downhillers stoke only on other bombers, and so on. Fortunately, there are still a solid core of cyclists of all styles who gladly and cheerfully wave to any and all bicycle-riders, and it is precisely this equal-opportunity waving that needs to again find its way to roads, trails, and bike lanes around the bike-pedaling world!

Just recently, the decreasing frequency of the cyclist-to-cyclist wave was brought home to me in a particularly harsh manner as I found myself the guilty perpetrator failing to wave. While pedaling north on Folsom, another biker passed me heading south. We spotted each other, he waved, and before I knew what was going on, we had passed each other forever. I had failed to reciprocate his bikerly kindness. Struck by my own complicity in the deterioration of the cyclist-to-cyclist wave, I vowed to never again fail in my duties of pedal-driven positivity!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Car Culture: Toward a Definition

In today's bicycle vernacular, it's fairly common to hear talk of "bike culture" and "car culture," yet these terms are never really defined or explained. In light of this, it seems appropriate to conduct an exploration into what these "cultures" are all about. Since most of the Unofficial Guide's blogs are fundamentally focused on creating a broad and general sense of bike culture, let's start with car culture.

It seems that the underlying principle of automobiles and the car culture they create is that of alienation. The use of an automobile is a multi-layered system of alienation and separation between the driver and the transportation being achieved.

The operator of an automobile is immediately separated from the actual environment through which he or she is traveling – the temperature, the air, wind, precipitation, and even the texture and condition of the road are all external and unperceived by the driver. One may, of course, roll down the window and allow the wind or the sunshine or the rain to enter into the car, but ultimately, the automobile is designed to keep one separated from the environment being travelled through. In fact, cars are designed to create unnatural and false environments: driving through Baker, California in the middle of July and the car's interior is a drafty 68 degrees.

Viewed at a larger scale, the environmental alienation inherent in the automobile leads to an unnatural form of parasitic exploitation. With the car, no longer are human beings required to provide for and nourish themselves, to fuel their own activities and movements. Instead, it has become possible to leach material from the earth, entirely unusable by humans, burn it in a manufactured machine, and catch a cheap ride ourselves. Nowhere in this entire process is the human living within natural laws, but is instead trapped in a system of creating new objects requiring new materials and consuming new fuels. These objects are the things actually working, actually moving, and the human beings are the chiggers riding in the leg hairs of the machine, biting the calves of the earth.

Driving a car, therefore, is a separation from the effort needed to move and travel. Gingerly pressing on a pedal should not in any natural way propel one for miles and miles at inhuman speeds. The ability to do so creates a scenario of false motion. The effort and labor required for movement are cheated.

Driving a car represents an alienation from other travelers. Of course, it is possible to yell pick-up lines or cuss words from a car window, but for the most part, when people are in cars, they are packed away in compact individual units, perhaps glancing at one another when passing, but without the time or the ability to really interact in any meaningful way.

In the end, the use of an automobile is an alienation from what could otherwise be a dynamic and interactive experience of transportation. While in a car, there is no interaction with the environment, there is no interaction with effort or personal and physical movement, and there is no significant interaction between travelers.

Here I should interject that I like a good road-trip as much as anybody else, and while I recognize how nice it is to be able to travel hundreds of miles in a day before sleeping in the backseat of a station wagon, I also think it's good to remain aware of the actual process involved in driving an automobile. There are also real and positive uses for the automobile, such as ambulances, fire trucks, and school buses, but in all of this, the real question is, how regularly do we want to alienate ourselves from our environments and the processes of movement? Even though there may be times when a car is helpful, or even necessary, is this something we want to make a habit of? A daily lifestyle of? What other attitudes or forms of alienation might the automobile create?

Given this basic functioning of the automobile, it becomes apparent how thoroughly the bicycle presents itself as a natural solution and positive alternative to car culture.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

winter-cycle

We dodged winter for a few extra months this year, but now it has finally arrived. Cold, snow, ice, and cold. Since winter happens every year, figuring out how to ensure our personal survival as well as the survival of our bikes becomes a regular task.

With this in mind, below are some very basic tips and strategies for winter bicycling:

- dress warm and in layers (a bit obvious, but depending on how long the ride is, increasing body temperatures and decreasing air temperatures can often be awkward to balance)
- be prepared to stay dry
- always carry bike lights (with early winter sunsets, even a brief glitch in your day's plans can lead to pedaling home in the ice and the dark)
- fenders will definitely come in handy
- use fatter, knobbier tires
- if possible, keep bikes out of the weather and under cover (or best of all, indoors)
- do not leave bikes near roadways or walkways overnight (or it may soon look like this:)

Finally, since this is only a basic list of ideas, check out these websites for more in-depth winter biking intelligence:

REI - this is a good, solid, and thorough article on biking during the winter
Winter Bicycling - provides some good ideas and recommendations, especially regarding clothing
Ice Bike - if nothing else, some must-see winter bicycling photos!
Bicycling Magazine - focus on bicycle gear with a particular eye to maintenance; some good ideas, but the products featured may be a bit pricy
Winter Riding Tips - a true, blue DIY-type site with plenty of ideas and suggestions
Bicycling Life - a solid article with some encouraging statistics

Ultimately, it's good to be in Colorado during the winter - it's always good to be in Colorado. Even if it snows hard in the morning, a dry and pleasant ride home is most likely not too far off in the future.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The Hypocrisy of Bicycle Racing

The most efficient race bikes are able to correlate 90% of the power exerted through the pedals to forward motion. A statistic that is unparalleled when compared to other forms of transportation. The lack of fuels used as a direct result of this design is clearly evident in the amount of bikes seen on CU campus every day. Every bike on campus may not be 90% efficient, expressed by the incessant cry for help most chains yell while passing me to class. Yet most are still more than able to justify bicycling to class instead of walking. However, the individual passing me on the way to school has an entirely different viewpoint of the bicycle then the bike race culture of Boulder. Individuals spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to decrease mechanical resistance and increase the aerodynamics of their steed(s).Purchases include aero carbon deep dish tubulars, aero helmets, airfoil carbon super light frames, slipstream pedals, and in extreme cases, hours will be spent in a low speed wind tunnels perfecting race stance on the bike. Add this paraphernalia to 15+ hours of training on the bike per week and the result is a very fast and efficient human-powered mechanism. While training for a bicycle race, it can be argued that road riders are just as environmentally innocent as commuters for the temporary period of October through March. Come March, a sudden shift in bike racer mentality occurs where they temporarily put their efficient machines on top of a four wheeled contraption and head of to socialize with others of their kind. The shift surprises many how these people (like me) can invert their feelings of efficiency into plain hypocrisy. I.E. strive for the pinnacle of economic power transfer then jump into a car that is only 13% efficient. To make matters worse, bike races are rarely located in the near proximity. Driving distance can be up to six hours each way and in some cases a plane is needed to get to the start area. This finally brings me to the point of this post. The competitive bike industry has both the ability and mentality to be an efficient sport. So far I have not seen this come to reality in any way or form but if the opportunity does arise, I feel the racing community can turn a new leaf on efficient hypocrisy.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

A Frozen Thumbs-Up

A frozen thumbs-up and a frigid smile goes out to the city of Boulder for managing to somehow keep the bike paths clear of snow and very bikeable! Just over 24 hours following the most recent snow and freezing temperatures, here's what bike paths throughout the city looked like:





These photos were taken on the Boulder Creek Path between Folsom and 17th, and as can be seen, the city has done an incredible job of clearing the snow, minimizing the ice, and helping our paths remain a great way to get around by bicycle.

One of the best things about biking in Colorado is that even if it's freezing, stormy, snowing, and blizzarding one day, it will most likely be clear and sunny the next, if not later that same afternoon. Here in Colorado, we know that biking is good to go pretty much any day. With that said, it's great to have a city that works to make biking – even in the winter – more accessible and more enjoyable. Bike paths, cleared of snow and weaving throughout the entire city of Boulder, along with Colorado's always-around-the-corner sunshine make for some great winter cycling.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

what is this -- bicycle humor?!

After being introduced to fantastically funny French film prankster Remi Gaillard, I was thrilled to the point of hiccuping to discover his hilarious Tour de Farce! Check it out, and enjoy:






For me, some of the highlights from this incredible performance are: 1) every "racer" is Richard, 2) the people splashing water on the "racers'" faces, 3) the whitey-tighty fans, and best of all, 4) the sheer joyous positivity of the whole thing: it's hilarious, harmless, and to be perfectly honest, I would love some sort of welcoming party like this every time I reach the top of 17th or Folsom!



And for dessert, here's some funny and/or amazing bike pictures: