all da bike shops
in pdx. thanks madcat!
the bicyclist
looking forward to this: The Bicyclist
description from the site (where you can subscribe to episodes):
The Bicyclist is a new web tv series shot in one of the centers of bike culture Portland, Oregon. A wind blown and rain soaked comedy from the hipster streets of counter culture. Seen through the eyes of Conrad Miller, a transplant to Portland from Middleton, Wisconsin.
C-ATL
wow. it’s actually happening. we are taking a genuine vacation. so nice. after too many 30+ hour no-break shifts, the doc really needs this bad, and it’s the longest i’ve been away from the coop since i started. who is this amazing person i get to hang out with now? yum!
- City of Seattle Bicycle Program: Bicycle Maps and Trail Routes
- Washington State Ferries: Service to Victoria
- the Experience Music Project
- the Sci-Fi Museum and Hall of Fame
- Araya’s Vegan Thai Food
- Hillside Quickies Vegan Cafe
look ma, no batteries!
a while back, A and i put aside our bike headlights in favor of these super economical, more environmentally sound hub generators. i’d never heard of such things. amazing! the joys of them include:
- never having to replace a battery (that you’d then have to pay for electricity to recharge and eventually landfill and pay to replace again (repeat as needed, ug.))
- having a light that you don’t have to remember to put away so it doesn’t get ganked when you park
- bright bright bright!
- the Lumotec Oval Plus, which has a blue LED that lights up when you stop.
how cool is that? every ride home in the dark, i’ve just been saying Yay! over and over again. but yeah, i’m a nerd like that.
pooches in the pokey
in a recent RAID card snafu this posting got deleted, but here it is again. check out project pooch, one of the groups i raised money for in the ride.
and yes, i’ll be posting all about the ride and updating the page very soon, with photos etc, but lemme just get back to walking first <grin< after 206 miles. whew!
goin for it
got a little dough that you want to put towards some kickbutt work in the pacific northwest? i’m doing a big ride, and raising some moola along the way. thanks!
one less car bike
despite the successful events of mini-bike summer, the past week has not been a good one for cyclists in the county’s most bike-friendly town (as we’ve been named by the L.A.B. and bicycling magazine for several years running).
On the 21st, a 45 year old SE Portlander was killed while riding in a bike lane before dark, when a pickup driver hit him from behind and dragged his bike for nearly a mile. Then this past Wednesday around midnight, Lindsey Llaneza hit and killed two cyclists and severely wounded another. He was driving drunk and his license had been suspended for years. He’d been pulled over for DUI’s and other citations as recently as March, and yet, the cops and the courts saw no reason to make sure he wasn’t driving.
first, lemme just get this off my chest. don’t ever say any shit to me about bikes and cars needing to share the road. this kind of thing continues to happen, all the time, for many reasons, of course, but the chief reason is that the individuals who make our laws, and who define our culture and our political economy continue to prioritize the auto over all other methods transportation (not to mention peace, security, and a humane foreign policy agenda).
of course there have been many calls to push for Llaneza to be punished harshly. while i agree that he should be held accountable for his actions by the communities he has so deeply hurt, a prison sentence for him will do exactly nothing to deter other drivers from ignoring, neglecting, and hating cyclists. it’s not simply that i believe prisons are not the answer, indeed they are not. it’s also that bikes need to be asserted as a more important part of our cities than cars and trucks.
critical mass, of course, is a great way of making that happen. indymedia’s call for tonight’s mass asks us to come out to ensure this type of madness stops, and that we stop the cops from hassling the mass so much.
i didn’t go to the mass tonight. the indymedia call says that if we don’t come out, the cops have won. well, here’s the deal. i’m scared of the cops. by cops in 3 states, i’ve been beaten up, hospitalized, arrested, and harassed a great deal in the last 10 years. and tonight, as i read the news, and wound down from work, and considered going to critical mass, i realized i’m especially scared of the particular blend of my rage and the rage of the cops. i’m no good to any movement, and i can’t support any progressive issues if i’m locked up or injured.
so i’m taking a break from the big actions for now. we all need to recharge our batteries and take care not to burn out. instead, i’m doing some fund-raising work for the awesome new biking advocacy group, shift. and cleaning the garage and walking the dogs.
fast and fuel efficient
in his cool book The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power [publisher / review], Travis Hugh Culley lets the reader draft him through a tale of Chicago and amerimonster that is lush, searing, poingnant, and fascinating. he’s a teensy bit full of himself, but hey, he’s a pretty good writer and it’s hard to go wrong when you talk about how much bikes rule.
in one passage he refers to a study he read (no cite) on how bikes are the most energy efficient form of transportation possible. while i couldn’t find the exact study, i did find that the Exploratorium has this very cool resource on human power and biking, with a graph that shows biking to be the most efficient; and that the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives has this transportation energy fact sheet.
yay. just in time for (mini) / bikesummer!
and, very soon i’ll be posting info about STP and my efforts to raise a little dough for some good causes. yep. i’m going to ride 200 miles in 2 days. whoo hoo!
