Invisible or blind?

I've been reading magazines on biking and on paddling lately, and trying to write articles for 'em. Sold one to WaveLength Magazine, and hope it'll be the first of a new series of articles. How can ya tell I'm a freelance writer, eh? Well, they say write what you know.
The bicycling magazine I was reading lately had an article on invisible bikers. But by the time you get most of the way through the article, the author has realized that there really is a community of people who use bikes to commute, to work, to improve their lives and to make a difference. And it's not that these are invisible bikers. He finally realized that these people are perfectly visible, out there, working in the same real world in the same city he lives in. The reason he and his friend bikers don't see them: the rich bikers are blind. The people really using their bikes are low-income, and the author realized he just hadn't been seeing the people who were using cheap bikes all around him. And he felt like a complete shit.
Is there an answer for this reversible blindness?
Well, it wouldn't hurt to promote a local bike shop/repair centre. Bicycleitis on Bay Street (1 block west of Shelbourne Street) is a great little shop. They not only sell affordable second-hand bikes as well as new, they have a "free tree" on the boulevard. Haul those old clunkers out from under the deck and give 'em to these guys or some other repair shop like Recyclistas. Wheels on the road, eh? there is no excuse for anything else.

Out of shape

Yeah, the winter has made me feel out of shape. I haven't been biking as much as I've wanted to, nor as much as I should have. But the speed at which my fitness has declined has been ridiculous.
Even out biking with Paula--no speed demon, but very consistent-- became a chore. Riding the Goose was work--and that's dead flat and paved. Where other people have been zooming along, I've just z'd. So depressing.
Right up until a visit to Recyclistas by Switch Bridge on the Goose. Something had gone askew on the treadle (well, nuts had loosened/tightened on my rear axle), and the guys taught me how to pull the axle apart, replace the bearings, and fit the whole works back together. Now my bike, she go zoom again! Well, with a little help from me.
But let me recommend Recyclistas to everyone. These guys know their stuff, are both friendly and helpful, and do excellent work. But more importantly, they are pretty darned good at teaching you how to do the work yourself. And they are more than fair with their sliding scale of rates.

Just had to share the news: I need more gears on my trike!
Well, I have five. Not surprising that after a year of biking and walking and kayaking that my fitness has increased and I want to GO FASTER on my three-wheeler.
Yes, I'll keep it slow enough to be safe. But I am soooo going to get the front gear changed. More more more faster harder higher stronger
I'll have to put a picture of the Norco Parkland up here to show what it's like. Staid. Bland. Gets cheers wherever I go.
And now the electric bike store on Yates street has ones just like it with motors! oh baby.

Bait Bikes

Our neck of the woods is prone to bike thefts. Local police have started a "bait bike" program similar to "bait car" programs to deter bike thieves. GPS transmitters and other devices have been installed in bikes around the city waiting for the bad guys to steal them.
(There's some tips to avoid having your bike stolen at the end of the article.)

Enough

I don't feel much like a real biker, not compared to the bikemutants roaring past my three-wheeler. But hey, my trike gets me on the road and trail. And that's real enough.

Ride Like The Wind

It's been very windy out here on the We(s)t Coast for the last couple of weeks, and I've noticed something very strange about it.
Maybe it's just me, but when I ride in the wind, the wind is always blowing in my face, slowing me down and making it a much more difficult ride.
When I ride to work, it's in my face.
When I ride home, it's in my face.
Riding home, I go west, then north for a while, then turn west again, and finish up with a couple of blocks of south. Every time I change direction, the wind is in my face.
The only time the wind is not in my face is when I'm stopped at a red light. The weather gods taunt me with a moment of placid calm, before the winds whip up in a frenzy. It's like trying to ride through a solid brick wall when the light turns green.
There's some strange meteorological effect going on here, like I'm being followed by my own personal microburst.
I should be flattered that the gods take such a personal interest in me. If only they would pay the same sort of attention to my lottery ticket numbers.

Hail Hail!

Okay, here's a ride home for the books...
The morning ride to work was cool and windy. However, the weatherman promised that the afternoon should be clear and sunny.
Which it was, until naturally it was time to go home. As soon as I hide a road home, a squall came in, cold and windy. And the heavens opened up and began dumping.... hail!
I've been rained on, snowed on, but I never been hailed on!
And it hurt!
Oh well, no one said bike riding was boring!

I have this great Bizarro cartoon and I'd scan it into this blog if I could. Since I can't I'll have to explain it...imagine a psychologist with a patient lying on a couch....the good doctor is saying....

Let me put this in layman's terms--the mind is like a bicycle. You've gotten your pants leg caught in the sprocket and your chain has come off.

When you've had enough

So this motorist in toronto tosses some crap out his window. A bike courier tosses it back in. Escalation happens...

Johnson Street Bridge

Riding over the Johnson Street Bridge is an, er, interesting proposition at the best of times. Going west, it's two narrow lanes on a metal grating. Lots of fun to ride on in the winter wind and rain. The posted speed limit is 30kmh and lane changes are not allowed. Yet I'm always amazed that I can get up to the speed limit on my bike, yet every single car passes me and many of them change lanes to do it. (And most of them probably spend their driving time cursing those #$%&ing bike riders. But I digress.)
Suffice it to say, crossing the bridge is not for the faint of heart, especially when I cross during the afternoon rush hour. Traffic is tight, tempers are tighter and riders are taking their lives in their hands.
Hell of a time for my chain come off.
Which is what it did yesterday, flying off the front crank and wrapping itself around my peddles just I hit the metal bridge decking. I had just hit top speed when my chain decided to depart. (The vehicle behind me was a Victoria Police van that illegally changed lanes, then sped up over the limit to pass me. The officer driving was probably mumbling something about those #$%&ing bike riders. But I digress.)
The good news is that with nary a wobble I was able to maintain my balance and coast across the bridge to the first turn-off and with a few minutes of cursing and grease stains was on my way.

Crank Forward

Here is a Wired story on new "crank-forward" style bikes.

Gears

I've been having trouble with my gears. I ride a ten year-old 21-speed mountain bike, and despite the fact that I have a brand-new drive train on it, my gears are acting up.
When I'm in my high gear at the front, I sometimes have a devil of a time finding the low gears in the back. And it's got me thinking: do I really need 21 gears?
Honestly, I never use most of them. I rarely leave my top gear of the three in the front, and only use a few of the seven in the rear. Sure, if I was cross-country riding across lots of mountains, some low gears would come in handy, but as a commuter and trail rider, most of them are wasted.
I figure that I only need about five gears:
- go like hell;
- medium cruising;
- cruising in traffic;
- little hill;
- big hill.
Give me those five gears, and I'll be happy.

Pedestrian Rage

I ride my bike to work.
In Victoria, the weather is such that it is possible to ride your bike year-round here in the City of Gardens. Only on those very rare days when I see white on the ground in the morning do I trade my bike for the bus. (And before you scoff at the notion that Victoria could receive any snow worth mentioning, recall the Blizzard of '96, a ten-day long series of snowstorms which culminated in a blizzard during which downtown Victoria received 85cm of snow in a 24-hour period, the 3rd largest snowfall in a city in Canadian history. But I digress.)
So everday, I put on my shorts and t-shirt (or during these cool days my gloves, jacket, sweater and spandex long pants) and my helmet, of ocurse, and embark on the half-hour ride to work.
But three times in the last week, I've been the victim of "pedestrian rage," pedestrians who started yelling and swearing at me for no reason than the fact that I ride a bicycle.
As example, yesterday morning I was riding along my usual route to work through a local Mall. I was in the traffic lane. A pedistrian was walking along the sidewalk beside me. We reached the corner at the same time. We were both going straight in the same direction. He started across in the crosswalk, I started across in the traffic lane. At no time were we within three metres of each other.Suddenly, he starts swearing at me. "EXPLETIVE DELETED bicycles! Watch where you're going! Stay out of the crosswalk! EXPLETIVE DELETED jerk!"
What the EXPLETIVE DELETED? I wasn't in the crosswalk, I wasn't aiming for the crosswalk, I travelling parallel to the crosswalk!Maybe this fellow put too much beer in his Corn Flakes.
And a few nights earlier on the way home, a guy pushing his shopping cart along the trail starting swearing at me as I slowly passed him. "EXPLETIVE DELETED biker! It's not safe for pedestrians any more!"
I should have replied, "Yes, especially when the pedestrian is pushing a shopping cart along a dark trail at night in a poorly lit area while wearing black clothes! Damn right, it's not safe!"
Come to think of it, this guy might had too much beer in his Corn Flakes, too.
But clearly something is going here. Pedestrians are rising up, fighting back against slights both real and imagined.
Someone should do a study on this. I'm sure the government will pay for it.

The Driveway Test

Today's bike ride to work was called on account of weather.
It snowed a little last night, not much around me, just a sprinkle (although 10cm has fallen north of the city towards the Malahat). But the real concern was the temperature, which was hovering around the zero mark. What we had been getting was mixed snow and rain.
So before deciding if I should ride or not, I looked out my front window and perform The Scott Hooper Driveway Test (tm).
What's the condition of the driveway? If there's sparkling shiny stuff, that indicates a heavy frost or ice. No riding. If it's white, that indicates snow. No riding. If it's plaid with pink and purple polka dots, that indicates that I'm delirious with a fever. No riding.
Today there was ice. All together now -- no riding.
Turns out to be a good choice, the side roads in my area were slick with ice. I live on hill, and I would have gotten nowhere. Or I would have gotten somewhere but way too quickly and with no way to stop.
Driving was tricky. (In fact, my bus driver had trouble and slid right through a bus stop, much to the chagrin of the waiting riders who had to jump for their lives. But I digress.)
Closer to downtown, the roads were fine. No snow, no ice.
But still, I think I made the right choice. I hate putting dents in my helmet.