An Answer to Mike

A while ago Mike posted about the dearth of bike parking in Aukland. A few days ago the Bike Snob posted about an article in Slate Magazine about bike parking being a way to coax people into commuting by bike. As usual witty criticisms followed.

Because I am a dork, and I am not repulsed by the terms "zoning" and "regulation," I read the article. I was expecting dork talk, but instead I found this awesome video. I seriously can't get over how cool this is. I'm sure it costs some moola, but with $2 billion of the stimulus packing going to over 5,000 bike and pedestrian projects, there has to some money kicking around for an undergound, automatic bike rack. I would like to see it shaped like a dragon, you put the bike up against it's lips and a big, mechanical tongue comes out and it swallows your bike whole. Now that would get people riding more often.

Anyway, enjoy.

"training"

Rode out to a little town called Tamaki the other day. Wasn't a massive ride but my ass got sore enough for me to want to take a train home. I need to get some kind of butt pad that isn't paired by destiny to spandex. After riding around an unfamiliar town for a while I stepped up to the platform and waited for the train back to Auckland. The train pulled up and a ticket taker waved me over to the front of the train. Apparently there are only two of these to accommodate any and all bikers. Here in Auckland biker khotspa (yitish) isn't really feverish. The design of the bike stands are pretty cool even though the ticket taker asked a few middle aged women to move so I could collapse the seat they were on for my bike to rest.


The seat-belt was a nice touch and sat with piece of mind.



On separate note, the kids I teach at church need to complete a bunch of biking requirements from the physical preparedness section of their Duty to God Award. So I'm planning a 20 miler and a bike safety course. Any readers or contributors out their that could send some materials my way for bike safety are thanked in advance.

Haters suck these balls.

18 baby!

Every year the League of American Bicyclists (I don't know who they are) ranks states on their bicycle friendliness. This year Utah was ranked 18th. They have a breakdown of how the ranking works, but I don't know if they count mountain bike trails as part of infrastructure, or if they only look at the major population centers, or anything more than what that spreadsheet says. Regardless, given the size of the state and the indifferent nature of our legislature, 18th isn't bad.

I would, of course, like to see more bike lanes, safer intersections, and above all, more aware drivers. However, I am confident enough with my bike handling skills that I feel comfortable in any traffic situation. My tummy and love of sleep are better at discouraging me from riding than lack of infrastructure or jerk drivers. But I am am devoid of any real out of Utah experience.

So here is my question to any of you Rollers (or visitors, if we have any of those) who have experience in states that aren't Utah (I'm looking at Greg, Kai, and Marc in particular); How do the rankings stack up? Is Utah really 23 places better than New York? Is Wisconsin really that much better than than the our great state?

Summer clean up

Ok, as some of you may know I have two old cruisers that i picked up at a garage sale a few summers back and I am finally going to clean em up. There is some rust on the handle bars and I dont know of the best way to get it off. Anyone have any ideas?


Let me know

lolo

racks are an issue

not in a two block radius did I see any available "official" place to lock up. This was the closest spot to Katie's work.

First Long Ride of 2009

My friend Derek and I set out to spend some much needed time in the saddle, mostly as a butt workout than a leg and cardio (translate climbing) workout, but we ended up getting both.

Route: Out and Back from my house to Olema.


View Larger Map

Seriously guys, if you ever drive to SF, bring your road bikes (or MTB) and let me show you around. This ride was very nice, including the GGB, several redwoods, rolling meadows, a state park, lots o' little towns, a sea breeze and right around 60 degrees F the whole time.