Did you guys know that I still had a blog? I certainly didn't. Sorry for not keeping to my kind of promise to sometimes writing, but school has been a bit more time consuming than I would've hoped for (but it's good, because I'm learnding). Anyway, not much is new in bike stuff. It's still pretty great to commute by bike. There are still some things that aren't the best about it and some of those things are controllable and some aren't. That's life, I guess.
They've let me keep writing Gear Prudence, so there's a bunch new of those if you haven't been reading. If you have been reading, thank you. If you'd like to write in with questions, you can either do so through gearprudence@washingtoncitypaper.com or through my address (found in the contact tab above). The column really depends on reader questions, so if you find yourselves with a few free moments, I'd really, really appreciate it. They don't have to be anything profound or even that vexing. Even a few words like 'me get belt drive?' is really helpful. There's a lot of topics that are out there that I'm probably not covering, so anything you think would make for an interesting question, send in. As people who ride bikes (at least, I assume that if you're reading this, you're probably that) you probably get a ton of questions from people who don't. So pass those along! "How come bicyclists _____?" is a totally valid format if you don't have any "What should I do when bicycling and _____ happens?" Writing the column has been a complete gas and I need your help to keep up the volume. Thanks in advance- you're all the best.
I've also written some things in Greater Greater Washington. This is about a meeting and why we can't have nice things. This is about a 1928 traffic report and how things haven't really changed that much.
So, that's that. Class ends in a few weeks and then I have a quick respite to Beantown and then it'll be July. Things graphomaniacal should resume by then, at least around here. I'll try to do better.
6/9/15
5/19/15
Not Rides 5/19: Not This Again
Hello.
The vicissitudes of life foiled my plans to try to write some posts last week, but this week's vicissitudes, so far as they've revealed themselves thus far, have presented me with an opportunity to write one tonight. Lucky us.
I'm beginning to come to the realization that everyone else might not enjoy my atonal mumble singing of contemporary pop hits as I do. So long as I've bike commuted, I've mumble sung and I'm not going to give it up just because "people" think it's "awful" and when they turn around and look at me, it's "mortifying." SO WHAT? You like Tay Tay? WHY DON'T YOU LIKE ATONAL MUMBLE SUNG TAY TAY? She's deliberately not on Spotify because she wants her music to be atonally mumle sung to the world by dorky 30 something bike commuters. It's her preferred delivery method! I promise. And if it you don't like the musical styling of Tay Tay, that's on you, dude. I can't be held responsible for your bad taste. I can only be responsible for mine.
There's a lot to like about atonal mumble singing and I would heartily encourage you to adopt the practice if it's not part of your repertoire already. Because:
1) it's fun
2) bicycling is a sort of rhythmic and repetitive activity and it's kind of amazing to see where your brain takes you when you let it. I'm quite confident that some rhythm of the road prompts whatever bad pop song I feel compelled to sing and who am I to reject the rhythm of the road. That would make Walt Whitman cry. DO YOU WANT TO MAKE WALT WHITMAN CRY?
3) drivers get to sing encased in their glass and metal boxes and bicyclists are required by law and custom to do everything that drivers to out of spite and to prove a point
4) how else are you going to get people to not ask you for directions? (I wasn't atonally mumble singing this afternoon and a woman on H Street asked me where K Street was and I was like 'two letters thataway, man')
5) other reasons
In conclusion, if you want to continue to be a totally lame self-serious, unfun bike commuter, by all means, continue to not atonally mumble sing contemporary pop hits, the lyrics of which with you are only vaguely acquainted and the melody of which proves elusive beyond the ten to twelve seconds you can somewhat recall. That's fine. Whatever. But if you'd like the opposite of those things, consider atonally mumble singing. You might even like it.
As for the bike commuting, Bike to Work Day was fun. Good job everyone.
The vicissitudes of life foiled my plans to try to write some posts last week, but this week's vicissitudes, so far as they've revealed themselves thus far, have presented me with an opportunity to write one tonight. Lucky us.
I'm beginning to come to the realization that everyone else might not enjoy my atonal mumble singing of contemporary pop hits as I do. So long as I've bike commuted, I've mumble sung and I'm not going to give it up just because "people" think it's "awful" and when they turn around and look at me, it's "mortifying." SO WHAT? You like Tay Tay? WHY DON'T YOU LIKE ATONAL MUMBLE SUNG TAY TAY? She's deliberately not on Spotify because she wants her music to be atonally mumle sung to the world by dorky 30 something bike commuters. It's her preferred delivery method! I promise. And if it you don't like the musical styling of Tay Tay, that's on you, dude. I can't be held responsible for your bad taste. I can only be responsible for mine.
There's a lot to like about atonal mumble singing and I would heartily encourage you to adopt the practice if it's not part of your repertoire already. Because:
1) it's fun
2) bicycling is a sort of rhythmic and repetitive activity and it's kind of amazing to see where your brain takes you when you let it. I'm quite confident that some rhythm of the road prompts whatever bad pop song I feel compelled to sing and who am I to reject the rhythm of the road. That would make Walt Whitman cry. DO YOU WANT TO MAKE WALT WHITMAN CRY?
3) drivers get to sing encased in their glass and metal boxes and bicyclists are required by law and custom to do everything that drivers to out of spite and to prove a point
4) how else are you going to get people to not ask you for directions? (I wasn't atonally mumble singing this afternoon and a woman on H Street asked me where K Street was and I was like 'two letters thataway, man')
5) other reasons
In conclusion, if you want to continue to be a totally lame self-serious, unfun bike commuter, by all means, continue to not atonally mumble sing contemporary pop hits, the lyrics of which with you are only vaguely acquainted and the melody of which proves elusive beyond the ten to twelve seconds you can somewhat recall. That's fine. Whatever. But if you'd like the opposite of those things, consider atonally mumble singing. You might even like it.
As for the bike commuting, Bike to Work Day was fun. Good job everyone.
5/8/15
Rides 5/6, 5/7 and 5/8: a summary
Does it ever happen to you, the you of you who have the luxury of owning more than one bicycle, that one when picks up a flat (even after you fix it), you just put that bike aside for a some time, quarantining it to prevent the bad mojo of repeat flats from getting you? I did this with the Ogre and for the past few days I've been riding the Brompton.
My commute is about 8 miles each way and it's not flat. The Brompton has two speeds. It's not exactly speedy, but I don't mind. I really love this bike and I really love commuting on it, even though there are bikes far better suited to that purpose. Two winters ago, that is to say, the winter before this past winter, I commute solely on the Brompton for about two months. I did this because we had moved into an apartment while the house was being fixed up and I didn't want to drag the Cross Check up the flight of stairs and I also didn't want to further begrime the was-whiteish-once carpet that covered the living room floors with a bike exposed to the ravages of winter weather. Prior to those months, I had ridden the Brompton to work a few times, but it very much wasn't my preferred whip. I faintly remembering struggling on the climbs up the hill and thinking 'well, this is silly and this is far more laborious than it needs to be. I'll use this bike for other things, but not this.' But then I used it only for commuting for two months and that's when things changed.
You do something enough and you get used it. I think that time made me a much stronger bicycle rider, literally and figuratively. And I think more importantly, it made me a much better bicycle rider. Not like technically or anything, but temperamentally. Patience and perseverance, I've found, to be of much greater benefit to a bike commuter than power or agility, especially in a place that's a real mixed bag as far as cycling is concerned. It's better than a lot of places, but worse than a lot of places and the set-up puts you in a lot of situations where there's potential conflict and the transportation culture here is, how would you say, not always the most convivial. I think bike commuting teaches you a lot of things about yourself (if you want to learn them) and I think bike commuting on the Brompton taught me more than I would have learned otherwise. Maybe that's a silly thing to say, but I think it's a silly thing that I believe.
Some other things:
-Gear Prudence on training for a century (and Chasing Mailboxes with even more because MG is the best)
-Me in Greater Greater Washington begging college students not to abandon their bikes. As a longtime university employee, I can aver that this does in fact happen (I would estimate that a good 30% of the bikes parked outside at any time are in some phase of being abandoned. Maybe this is why I was so harsh about cutting locks on bikes left unmoved for a week in an earlier GP.)
-Some advice in Washingtonian on how not to be an obnoxious cyclist. I'm unclear why they asked me. “Odds are you’ve done something dickish, too.” is meant to be read in a karmic sense, not as an immediate response to “People aren’t there specifically to antagonize you” in case you were wondering.
Those are pretty much all of the things. Except for this other thing:
I'm probably going to be scaling back the postings over summer. I don't know how many times I'm going to be able to write during the week (I have decided to occupy my time with attempt 4 or 5 at grad school because they don't make gum that I can chew to stave off what is clearly some time of weird chemical dependency), but I'll try. Or at least I'll try to try. Maybe two posts a week? I think I might be able to do that.
And as always, thank you for even wasting a scintilla of your time reading this. That you ever do makes me ever so grateful.
My commute is about 8 miles each way and it's not flat. The Brompton has two speeds. It's not exactly speedy, but I don't mind. I really love this bike and I really love commuting on it, even though there are bikes far better suited to that purpose. Two winters ago, that is to say, the winter before this past winter, I commute solely on the Brompton for about two months. I did this because we had moved into an apartment while the house was being fixed up and I didn't want to drag the Cross Check up the flight of stairs and I also didn't want to further begrime the was-whiteish-once carpet that covered the living room floors with a bike exposed to the ravages of winter weather. Prior to those months, I had ridden the Brompton to work a few times, but it very much wasn't my preferred whip. I faintly remembering struggling on the climbs up the hill and thinking 'well, this is silly and this is far more laborious than it needs to be. I'll use this bike for other things, but not this.' But then I used it only for commuting for two months and that's when things changed.
You do something enough and you get used it. I think that time made me a much stronger bicycle rider, literally and figuratively. And I think more importantly, it made me a much better bicycle rider. Not like technically or anything, but temperamentally. Patience and perseverance, I've found, to be of much greater benefit to a bike commuter than power or agility, especially in a place that's a real mixed bag as far as cycling is concerned. It's better than a lot of places, but worse than a lot of places and the set-up puts you in a lot of situations where there's potential conflict and the transportation culture here is, how would you say, not always the most convivial. I think bike commuting teaches you a lot of things about yourself (if you want to learn them) and I think bike commuting on the Brompton taught me more than I would have learned otherwise. Maybe that's a silly thing to say, but I think it's a silly thing that I believe.
Some other things:
-Gear Prudence on training for a century (and Chasing Mailboxes with even more because MG is the best)
-Me in Greater Greater Washington begging college students not to abandon their bikes. As a longtime university employee, I can aver that this does in fact happen (I would estimate that a good 30% of the bikes parked outside at any time are in some phase of being abandoned. Maybe this is why I was so harsh about cutting locks on bikes left unmoved for a week in an earlier GP.)
-Some advice in Washingtonian on how not to be an obnoxious cyclist. I'm unclear why they asked me. “Odds are you’ve done something dickish, too.” is meant to be read in a karmic sense, not as an immediate response to “People aren’t there specifically to antagonize you” in case you were wondering.
Those are pretty much all of the things. Except for this other thing:
I'm probably going to be scaling back the postings over summer. I don't know how many times I'm going to be able to write during the week (I have decided to occupy my time with attempt 4 or 5 at grad school because they don't make gum that I can chew to stave off what is clearly some time of weird chemical dependency), but I'll try. Or at least I'll try to try. Maybe two posts a week? I think I might be able to do that.
And as always, thank you for even wasting a scintilla of your time reading this. That you ever do makes me ever so grateful.
5/5/15
Rides 5/5: what's that hissing sound
It was bound to happen eventually because it hasn't happened in a while, but now it has, so maybe that means it won't happen again, but maybe not. I caught a flat.
I'm not sure when it happened other than on the way into work. It might've happened right before the guy who shoaled me turned around at the red light at North Capitol and R to warn about the broken glass on the road. Occam's Razor suggests that would be the case. Occam's Razor, when run over, would also likely cause a flat. I guess I noticed it before I got to work, but I didn't really put it together. The front tire, from which the air seeped, felt a little weird when turning. "weird," I thought. Then I put the bike away from 8 something hours. Then I came back and bounced the front wheel and that's when I noticed.
At first I thought I could just ride it home, but then I decided that I'd just change the tube. So, outside of work I flipped the bike over, removed the wheel and set about removing the tube. The tires are 2.35 inch Schwalbe Big Apples, so they come off pretty easily. I thought about a patch, but eh. Patches are for tweed jackets. Before putting in the new tube, I decided to spend some time looking for the puncture. I didn't find an obvious culprit, but I did find a goodly amount of glass and other sharp things wedged into the tire. I picked it out from the rubber using the small key that unlocks the padlock to my backyard fence. I'm not sure if that's an officially approved method, but it seemed to work. The size of the glass shards/other sharpish things varied, but I think I got them all out. I guess we'll find out.
New tube in, I did the best I could to inflate it with my hand pump. My best wasn't very much. Admittedly, I could've tried harder, but I figured that I should get the tire inflated far enough to ride to somewhere I could properly inflate it and I did, after riding down the hill and away from work to The Bike Rack at 14th and Q. They have a nice pump outside and the pump even comes with instructions. [Instruction 1: put air in tire. Instruction 2: See Instruction 1 are not the actual instructions]
From there on, the ride was fine. Now I get to worry if I actually got out whatever caused the puncture. It's best not to worry too much. Que sera, sera. Flats happen when they happen. It's all very mystical and mysterious. I actually believe this.
I'm not sure when it happened other than on the way into work. It might've happened right before the guy who shoaled me turned around at the red light at North Capitol and R to warn about the broken glass on the road. Occam's Razor suggests that would be the case. Occam's Razor, when run over, would also likely cause a flat. I guess I noticed it before I got to work, but I didn't really put it together. The front tire, from which the air seeped, felt a little weird when turning. "weird," I thought. Then I put the bike away from 8 something hours. Then I came back and bounced the front wheel and that's when I noticed.
At first I thought I could just ride it home, but then I decided that I'd just change the tube. So, outside of work I flipped the bike over, removed the wheel and set about removing the tube. The tires are 2.35 inch Schwalbe Big Apples, so they come off pretty easily. I thought about a patch, but eh. Patches are for tweed jackets. Before putting in the new tube, I decided to spend some time looking for the puncture. I didn't find an obvious culprit, but I did find a goodly amount of glass and other sharp things wedged into the tire. I picked it out from the rubber using the small key that unlocks the padlock to my backyard fence. I'm not sure if that's an officially approved method, but it seemed to work. The size of the glass shards/other sharpish things varied, but I think I got them all out. I guess we'll find out.
New tube in, I did the best I could to inflate it with my hand pump. My best wasn't very much. Admittedly, I could've tried harder, but I figured that I should get the tire inflated far enough to ride to somewhere I could properly inflate it and I did, after riding down the hill and away from work to The Bike Rack at 14th and Q. They have a nice pump outside and the pump even comes with instructions. [Instruction 1: put air in tire. Instruction 2: See Instruction 1 are not the actual instructions]
From there on, the ride was fine. Now I get to worry if I actually got out whatever caused the puncture. It's best not to worry too much. Que sera, sera. Flats happen when they happen. It's all very mystical and mysterious. I actually believe this.
5/4/15
Rides 5/4: dastardly deeds
This afternoon was the weather we all asked for a month ago when it was too cold to comfortably bike commute. And now it's too warm to bike commute. Great.
This morning was quite temperate. Morning's will stay nice for some time, but then they'll get that much warmer and then it'll be warm all the time. All the time.
That's fine for me. It's hot, you sweat. This shouldn't be too surprising. It's summer and you're outside. What do you expect? This is the way it is. Summer is hot, winter is cold. The months in between are sometimes bearable. Anyway, this makes me think of vegetables. Sometimes they're in season, sometimes they're not. I think we get ourselves screwy when we expect good tomatoes in winter or good water chestnuts ever (I don't like water chestnuts). Seasonality, such as it is anymore, is one of the winning things about being outside, even when being outside sorta stinks.
The other thing about warm weather is how it attracts the kinds of bicyclists who think that RACING is a great idea. There is a different between going fast and racing and the difference is in how you see your fellow bike commuters. If you happen to view them as people worthy of respect and consideration though they might happen to be traveling at a pace slower than your preferred one, then you're just going fast. But if you see them as obstacles and fellow competitors who YOU MUST GET PAST NO MATTER WHAT AND AT WHATEVER COST NECESSARY, then you're racing and it's wrong, so stop. The dignity of other bicyclists doesn't end because you want to get home faster than they do.
This morning was quite temperate. Morning's will stay nice for some time, but then they'll get that much warmer and then it'll be warm all the time. All the time.
That's fine for me. It's hot, you sweat. This shouldn't be too surprising. It's summer and you're outside. What do you expect? This is the way it is. Summer is hot, winter is cold. The months in between are sometimes bearable. Anyway, this makes me think of vegetables. Sometimes they're in season, sometimes they're not. I think we get ourselves screwy when we expect good tomatoes in winter or good water chestnuts ever (I don't like water chestnuts). Seasonality, such as it is anymore, is one of the winning things about being outside, even when being outside sorta stinks.
The other thing about warm weather is how it attracts the kinds of bicyclists who think that RACING is a great idea. There is a different between going fast and racing and the difference is in how you see your fellow bike commuters. If you happen to view them as people worthy of respect and consideration though they might happen to be traveling at a pace slower than your preferred one, then you're just going fast. But if you see them as obstacles and fellow competitors who YOU MUST GET PAST NO MATTER WHAT AND AT WHATEVER COST NECESSARY, then you're racing and it's wrong, so stop. The dignity of other bicyclists doesn't end because you want to get home faster than they do.
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