Serendipity Sunday... I dream of roll-on bike service on Amtrak everywhere.

via flickr.com

Serendipity Sunday... yes, it may be Monday, but this week I have monday off, so for me, Monday is the new Sunday and now is the point where I randomly post photos stuff I love, regarless of how it all connects together. Enjoy.

Found a touring bike taller then my Fargo

Breakfast ride

Some Tour Divide Questions & Answers with Justin Simoni

via kentsbike.blogspot.com

Kent Petersen aka. Mountain Turtle's interview with Justin Simoni is absolutely the best single interview I've read on the tour divide. Justin attempted to do the whole 2700 mile divide route this year without taking any reroutes / alternates despite record snowfalls and nearly succeeded succombing to a taco'd wheel and shoulder injury only 120 miles from his goal. He was one of the many colorful characters that made the tour divide such an exceptionally great race to follow this year.

One small excerpt: "Q: Did you have any exciting animal encounters?

A: The most exciting animal encounters were the bear prints on the road up Flathead Pass - the first really snowed in pass. There wasn't one part of the track that wasn't covered in them. The forest is so dense up there, that all the animals take to the road to travel themselves. If there wasn't bear prints, there was bear scat, if there wasn't bear scat, there was the scattered plume of some animals fur or feathers from a successful kill. The pattern was sustained through the entire snowed in part. I didn't even have bear mace."

Bikerafting Alaska's Lost Coast: Yakutat to Glacier Bay.

via vimeo.com

Mike Curiak's video shakedown of their trip.

"Late June, 2011, I went on a little trip with Eric Parsons, Dylan Kentch, Doom Fishfinder, and Roman Dial.

We beach biked out of Yakutat and bear trail bumbled along Alaska's outer coast, then trailless stumbling and ocean paddling brought us into Glacier Bay.

We carried all gear and food from the start, drinking from fresh and glacial streams, cooking in driftwood fires, sleeping just above high tide."

Yakutat to Gustavus Coast‬‏

via youtube.com

Screw trying to summarize this up, just watch the video, preferably in full screen full 720p. One 20 second clip that will just blow your mind with its magnificence.

You can view more pics and read part one of the trip report here:
http://epiceric.blogspot.com/2011/07/yakutat-to-gustavus-coast-trip-part-1.html

Eric has been blowing my mind with his adventures since I discovered the videos from his "lost coast" trip: http://lostcoastbike.blogspot.com/

Trans Wisconsin! 550 miles of ultra-endurance mountain biking goodness

It's official! The 550 mile Trans Wisonsin has been announced, registration is open, and I've already emailed my registration! See you there!

The midwest's first multi-day, self-supported mountain bike race! These types of events have been popular for several years in the west. It's time we begin to develop this form of mountain bike racing here.

Registration is open! Race day start is June 18th, 2010. To enter you need only to send an e-mail with your name, age, and address as the only information needed.

For more specific information on the race, check out the race details page.

TransWisconsin will follow the 550 mile Trans Wisconsin Adventure Trail from Wisconsin's southern border with Illinois to the northern most tip of the Bayfield Penninsula, finishing on the shores of Lake Superior.

Along the route riders will travel through the distinct geographical regions of Wisconsin and towns settled by trappers, farmers, and fisherman. The trail will vary between gravel road, two-track, ATV trail, singletrack, and an unfortunate bit of pavement.

If you've been dreaming of an Ultra Race here in the Midwest, look no further!

TransWisconsin

Disclaimer: this event has been organized by my brother Joe!! Thanks Joe! You rock!

A six minute view Trans American bike route

The possibilities of ultralight touring are affecting me in strange ways since I finished putting together my new frame bag system.



I can only describe it as an itch that I haven't been able to scratch due a nasty cold made all that much worse by the fact that it's snowing heavily out today and I soooo love to ride in the snow.

In fact there's a little voice in my head saying, "to hell with it you're almost over it anyway, it's time to go out and play!" I shall not be able to resist this voice much longer and I suspect I will find myself on deserted back roads riding my Surly Cross Check in gently falling snow by the moonlight (or LED) sometime this evening.

Is it so wrong that I was watching this video by Bret Taylor composited from photos taken every five minutes of his entire TransAm ride (via Bike Bits) and all I can think is "look at how beautiful those roads are... you could definitely ride that entire route with some 25mm skinnies, a composite frame and ten pounds of base gear".



A million thanks to Bret. I can think of absolutely no better or faster way to get a complete overview of the road conditions along the entire TransAm route then Bret's video. Scratch that... without Brett's video there's absolutely no other way to get a sense of road conditions.

Other then Bret's video there's only instinctual "map sense" based off of years of reading maps, planning and riding routes in different areas of the country and perhaps google maps.

I can't imagine how long it'd take to overview the entire route in Google's "street view", even if the entire route were entirely covered by street view. Google Earth is cool for a terrain overview but not road conditions. The only thing that can give you a sense of road conditions is to see the actual road.

4000 miles of road condensed to just over six minutes and set to some good music. Good stuff.

2009 fall colors touring

Had a few days in a row, decided to take a spur of the moment trip. I call these short one and two night tours "crimes of convenience" and I fit them in wherever possible.

Below are some randomish photos.







2009 fall colors touring - a set on Flickr

Trailer for Anima D'Acciaio (Soul of Steel)

Anima D'Acciaio Trailer Ver5.1 from Cinecycle on Vimeo.

I was immediately drawn to this trailer because of the great connection it makes between a long tradition of frame building and today's modern fixie culture.

Via Urban Velo:
Anima D’Acciaio (Soul of Steel) is a film by Daniel Leeb of Cinecycle Productions. You can see the whole film this summer at the Bicycle Film Festival."

The Bicycle Film Festival is in Detroit July 31 to August 1st.

ANIMA D'ACCIAIO
(SOUL OF STEEL)
LANGUAGE: ITALIAN (SUBTITLED IN ENGLISH)
A film by Daniel Leeb of Cinecycle Productions

A Portrait of the legendary Italian Frame Builder Giovanni Pelizzoli aka "Ciocc" . Ciocc shares his wisdom and life story while handbuilding a revolutionary new frame for urban fixed gear cycling. Ciocc demonstrates that the tradition and craft of framebuilding's Golden age can be re-born and push the technical frontier of Cycling's future. . also Feaures Ed "Wonka" La Forte and Antonio Colombo with an original soundtrack composed by Amedeo & Simone Pace of BlondeRedhead.

Yvon Le Caer, a different kind of endurance cycling

After a career in traditional cycle racing in the 1980's Yvon Le Caer turned to new goals on the open seas.

Sadly after his successes crossing the Florida Straight (Florida to the Bahamas, 1981) and the English Channel (1985) he was hit by a hit and run driver in Florida in 1986 permanently halting his cycling pursuits.

A great overview with some impressive press clippings here are on his site here. Yvon Le Caer

BTW, a great quote from his website.

"The world is a better place to live in because it
contains people who will give up ease and security
to do what they themselves believe worth doing.
They do the useless, brave, noble, the divinely foolish
and the very wisest things that are done by man.
And what they prove to themselves and to others is that man
is no mere creature of his habits, no mere automaton in his routine,
but that in the dust in which he is made, there is also fire
lighted now and then by great winds from the sky."

Quote [Author unknown] sent to Yvon by an American enthusiast
in the context of "Operation Gulf Stream."

ghost bikes

Via ghost bikes dot org

Pulse jet bike

From: BikeHacks

From Oregonlive comes this article on oregonian Robert Maddox, the worlds top pulse jet engine builder/designer. The engine is currently selling on ebay for a cool $1200 (+ $95 for shipping/handling), however if you really want to splurge you can throw down $8500 for a fully assembled jet bike from Bob. The engine pumps out 100lbs of thrust and there is a ‘warning’ on the ebay post that states ‘jet engines are dangerous, buy at your own risk, and that the engine runs at 140 decibles’…so you may want to think twice before firing it up in the suburbs. Bob has been working on pulse jet engines for about 10yrs, and now his handiwork brings the possibility of becoming the Rocketeer to your fingertips (if you can afford it). Here’s a video which shows the bike in action, but averaging 1.5 gallons of fuel per mile this is probably not the best way to commute to the office. If you commute by bicycle regularly, riding on this thing will probably put you there in record time.

...

When wide open, it will top out at around 75mph so before you hop on you may want to up the payout on your life insurance policy.

Penny Farthing Racing

Via: AllYearGear.com

Singlespeed mountain bike racing was fun until the fast guys figured it out. We need a new racing fad and this could be it. Who’s in?

I’d love to see some penny farthings on a car bike rack with a race number on the bike.

I second these sentiments. :)

Bicycle Dreams Trailer

"Bicycle Dreams is the true story of the Race Across America, a 3000-mile bike race that challenges riders to pedal across the country in just ten days."

Nough' said.

Via Urban Velo

Bad motorist, thy name is Zack Colman

Meet Zack Colman.


Zack Colman
criminally bad motorist

Black 2001 Saturn SC2. That's the car I drive — and if you're a bicyclist on the road but not in a bike path and you see my car, I hope you're wearing a helmet, because I might run you over.

Maybe not intentionally.

But you see, with all these things I can do in my car nowadays, such as choose a different song on my iPod, send a text message while driving or fall asleep at the wheel because I had to wake up for a worthless 8 a.m. biology lab, I might not notice you.

No this is not an article from The Onion, (America's finest [satirical] news source) though it would be a dead ringer. (possible future employer Zack??)

I hope to god Zack's article is merely a brilliant parody of Zack's alter ego. If so it is very fine piece of satire and appears to nail with certainty the attitude and criminally ignorance of the bad driver. However his publication is not known for its fine satire.

Zack is the poster boy of every bad driver.

The majority of all drivers are in fact courteous to cyclists but as much riding as I do I still run into the proverbial "Zack" about once a week.

Usually the Zack's of the world are anonymous cowards. They just proclaim their ignorance loudly out the car window as they drive by at high speed often putting the foot down on the accelerator, engine racing, perhaps even letting loose with a long blaring horn to let you know that you have inconvenienced them.

This anonymity and attempt to escape any response causes me to wonder if they subconsciously know of their ignorance and want to escape any possible enlightenment as to the law or otherwise. Fiercely protected ignorance.

I respect bicyclists who use bicycles as a form of exercise, since people certainly can never get enough fitness in their everyday routines.

But for as much as I respect and appreciate bicyclists, I will not hesitate to honk at them when they are interfering with the roads.

My concern is not merely about inconvenience.

Heh it's your fault as a cyclist for daring to inconvenience Zack.

At least, that's how Zack sees it.

While Zack cannot be inconvenienced with your life, nay even be bothered to stop text message while driving to prevent you physical harm, he sincerely claims to write this editorial out of an altruistic concern for the safety of all cyclists.

The truth is the Zacks of the world have no clue as to the law but are always certain of their superior knowledge on the subject of bicycling a subject which they've clearly never endeavored to try or educate themselves on.

As State News commenter "Dumb as D. Bobby" states:

Uh .. Z .. there are things called "facts" that journalists are supposed to be concerned about .. so —

Biking Regulations on Campus

http://www.bikes.msu.edu/msu_regulations/index.html

" .. Since bicycles aren't legally allowed to ride sidewalks on campus .."

[...]

Facts. They're hard.

Zack Colman has gone a step above and beyond the usual brood of bad drivers by proclaim his ignorance of cycling law in an editorial in the The State News, a Michigan State associated newspaper.

As State News commenter "Michael" (no relation to myself) also states:

Here's the law:

MICHIGAN VEHICLE CODE (EXCERPTS)
OPERATION OF BICYCLES

Michigan Vehicle Code
257.657

Each person riding a bicycle, electric personal assistive mobility device, or moped or operating a low-speed vehicle upon a roadway has all of the rights and is subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle by this chapter

There are in fact over 250 responses to Zack's editorial. All of which seem to grapple with the same general question... is Zack for real?

A very impressive number of responses indeed.

In summary.

Zack is a bad driver, Zack knows he's a bad driver. Zack even appears to be proud of it. He's constantly distracted by his gadgets. He cannot be bothered not to be distracted. He feels entitled to drive distracted or half asleep because through some unfair stroke of fate he is required to go to "a worthless 8 a.m. biology lab".

Zack feels this inconvenience entitles him to put not only every cyclists life at risk but any pedestrian, even other drivers that may be on the road.

Furthermore Zack feels this inconvenience entitles him not merely to put you at accidentally risk, but even willful and deliberately harm.

I'm left with the following questions.

What kind of idiot proclaims his deliberate ignorance of the law in print?

What kind of idiot declares not only his disregard for law, but human life in print?

Most of all what kind of idiot puts in print his deliberate intention to not only break the law but to deliberately harm people?

Zack does.

Hence Zack is the poster boy of bad drivers.

My only advice to all cyclists, pedestrians and other drivers is:

Yes, the Zacks of the world do exist, but you can't set foot out the door in the morning without taking that risk. This is why helmets and laws were invented. There is little else that can be done unless you choose never to venturing out the front door. You aren't any safer walking or even driving, hence carry on as you are.

My only advice to Zack: consult a lawyer.

Not only may a lawyer be able to explain to you basic laws regarding cycling, but they may also be able to advise you as to the legal liabilities / ramifications of putting such nonsense in print.

I pray you never get into an altercation with a cyclist as your editorial may come back to haunt you (nevermind the poor cyclist).

Review: the Planet Bike SuperFlash

The best kind of review is the one you don't have to give. I 100% agree with the below quoted review. (I even use the exact same technique with a zip tie, but I use a reusable zip tie.) The Planet bike Superflash (Serfas also makes an identical version) is the single most important piece of saftey equipment money can buy for cycling besides a helmet, and it's only $20. The brightness of it's primary LED makes all the difference in the world, the price tag makes it a given. If you commute, this is a must have.

The bottom line is cars will behave differently when you use it.

1) cars will actually slow down

2) cars will actually give you the 3 feet entitled to you by law

I think it's simply because the light is so bright they actualy register you. No more brain dead drivers flying buy at 55+ mph inches away. Or maybe they even think you're a cop or construction workers or something. I don't know what they think, but it works.

Do you have one of these? If not, you need to go straight out and get one - they're about 20-bucks US and are unequaled in the battery operated arena of rear lights. This thing uses a single 1/2 watt LED, backed up with 2 smaller LED's that more than adequately keep you visible to passing cars - not just at night but during daylight hours as well.

Cons to this light? Well, a few times I've had this light fall off my bag, usually with the light arranging itself into its white back, clear red lens, and its 2-AAA batteries rolling around underneath a dumpster or another undesirable location. Fix you say? Simple, take a zip-tie and wrap it around the light such that it grabs onto the back clip - two benefits to this; 1) light doesn't fall apart and 2) light is 'locked' to your bag or quick-attach mount. If you don't use this zip-tie method, people may possibly ridicule you and laugh when you roll by - don't take that chance.

Recharge the batteries when the light fades - this light will continue to function under a reduced battery level but at a much lower light output. Put fresh batteries in this gal and you'll notice the difference immediately.

[...]

My advice - go get at least one of these lights. Even better, put one on your bag and one on your seatpost or seatstay. A few close friends have received this light as a gift from me - I believe it to be the best out there.

One last point. In winter lithium ion batteries last infinitely longer then regular batteries or rechargeables. Rechargeables are particularly suseptible to cold. In the summer any battery will last virtually forever.

Original post: IBIKEMPLS.com, The Planet Bike SuperFlash

David Byrne's Bike Racks

Just stumbled on this Wall Street Journal interview from David Byrne from July 2008. Mostly filmed as they ride 6 miles across town from his studio to his fabricator and poweder coater.



I always find it interesting that David does commute regularly by bike, even when on tour.

Youtube link: David Byrne's Bike Racks

bike tour as real estate tool

From the Atlanta Journal - Constitution Real estate agent tries new sales technique: bike tour | ajc.com

A real estate agent who was told in 2004 he would never bicycle again after a terrible accident, proved the doctors wrong. And now Ryan Castleberry of Keller Williams Realty wants to prove something else: Two wheels work better than four when it comes to showing homes in a sluggish market.

Castleberry, 32, plans to lead a dozen bike tours of homes from April 18 to Sept. 19 in Decatur and Avondale Estates. The first one begins at Glenlake Park in Decatur.

“Now you can experience everything that probably would have been overlooked while looking at homes in the traditional car way,” he said. “You get the chance to see parks, meet neighbors or experience the roads that your children may be playing very close to.” Castleberry mass-mailed 4,000 announcements and hopes 10 to 12 people sign up per tour. Each tour will cover five to six nearby homes.

Living in Chicago for ten years I found the bike not only the best way to get around but also the most superb way to find apartments.

1) Newspapers don't have everything... indeed newspapers don't have the best places... the brownstones owned by local people... just the real-estate agent ones who are in it for their commission.

2) Viewing by car makes it REALLY easy to overlook places and parking is IMPOSSIBLE in inner cities.

3) Finally, walking simply takes too long.

Biking works because it offers a nice fluid pace both within neighborhoods and from neighborhood to neighborhood. It's actually the fastest way to find and look at a lot of places quickly. You simply pick your neighborhood, pre-ride it when you have a chance... not a bunch of places, make some calls and ride back by on a Saturday or Sunday morning.

What's more bicycles as an extension of public transport mean virtually NO area of the city is off limits. Everywhere in a city like Chicago is within five minutes of public transit by bike... if not within 25 minutes ride of downtown. It opens up huge possibilities otherwise overlooked.

As for suburban real estate... I cannot speak on the subject... but I can say that looking at real estate from the perspective of a bike changes EVERYTHING. From one suburban area to the next attention to pedestrian traffic is fickle. Some suburbs have SUPERB pedestrian access... others you can't even cross the street without first getting in a car. I've seen it all.... but you would never know it if you don't get out of your car and move around a bit on bike or foot.

Great Allegheny Passage

I just got back from riding the Great Alleghney Passage. Amazing ride. (Pics and more info will soon follow.) Thought this was a relevant piece of news.

From: Pennsylvania Environmental Award to Present Lifetime Achievement Award to Linda McKenna Boxx, Reuters

Linda McKenna Boxx, the president of the Allegheny Trail Alliance and the
driving force behind the creation of the Great Allegheny Passage, a 150-mile
trail connecting Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Maryland, will receive a lifetime
achievement award, announced today by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council.

[...]

In 1993, she saw an opportunity to work with a number of regional trail groups
in Western Pennsylvania and coordinate their local efforts into one large
continuous trail connecting with the C&O Canal Towpath trail in Cumberland,
Maryland, effectively creating a 335-mile continuous hiking and biking trail
from downtown Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C.

The success of that work resulted in the Great Allegheny Passage, which is now
nearly complete. All that remains is to finish a few miles of trail between
McKeesport and downtown.

Every year thousands of people complete the Washington to Pittsburgh trail ride,
including the hundreds of cyclists who last year participated in the week-long
sojourn or the 24-hour relay ride as part of the "Pittsburgh 250" celebration.

Ms. Boxx also serves on a number of boards, including the Fallingwater Advisory
Committee, the Regional Industrial Development Corporation of Southwestern
Pennsylvania, and the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau.

A little more background info on Linda.

Ms. Boxx`s distinguished career includes public service positions in state
government in both Pennsylvania and Arkansas. Her experience included a wide
variety of positions in conservation, land use planning and the infancy of the
rails-to-trails movement in Pennsylvania.

She has also served as the chairman of the Katherine Mabis McKenna Foundation,
based in Latrobe, since 1982. In this capacity, Ms. Boxx has worked to provide
support for a wide range of innovative programs including the remediation and
protection of land and waterways, development of community and recreational
facilities, rehabilitation of landmark buildings and a broad range of
educational opportunities.