Thanks to Jim McCracken for this piece. Now back to work, Jim. Quit wasting your time surfing the web.

Commuting in the liquid lane

By Susan Gilmore

Seattle Times staff reporter

 

KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Bob Barrett pedals two miles across Puget Sound from Ketron Island to Steilacoom. “Here, you’re part of the Sound itself,” he says.

KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES

“I don’t have a death wish. I’m not here to drown and I’m not risking my life,” says Bob Barrett, who’s been making his water-bike commute for nearly seven years.

Related

• Video | Commuting by water bike

Nat Hong and Bob Barrett commute on Puget Sound by bike — water bike, that is — to their jobs in Bremerton and Steilacoom.

“This is pretty hard to beat in terms of a pleasant commute,” said Hong, who lives on Bainbridge Island and teaches at Olympic College in Bremerton.

The drive would be 80 miles round trip. But with his water bike, the trip to work is just 12 miles — including one mile on the water.

Read More

Asotin County’s going to build it whether you show up or not. Come see what the plan is and why it is what it is. Who knows, you might even persuade them to change it.

Four routes will be on display to move pedestrians and bicyclists back and forth from the Clarkston Heights to the Fleshman Way on a15th.

The preferred route is a seoarate trauk on the south side of Scenic. Traffic issues at the top of scenic will be addressed with an intersection redesign as a separate project coming this spring. The trail will be accessible to west side bicyclists by crossing Appleside a half block up from Rolling Hills Drive. The county engineer assures me the new design will discourage crossing at the scary top of the hill.

Any effort by local authorities to recognize and provide for bicyclists and pedestrians needs our support. 4 to 7 at the Aquatic Center on Dustan Loop.

–Corrie

Here’s a site for all things bike commuter. BikeCommuters.com

I expect Doug to have this rig up and running tomorrow.–Corrie

Another Great Cargo Trick

January 19th, 2008 by Jack “Ghost Rider” Sweeney · 7 Comments

Our buddy Quinn sent in the following cool cargo trick — a detachable carrying system:

Don’t feel like carrying the extra weight of panniers and a rack when you don’t need it? Do you feel the need for streamlining and speed? Well, Quinn devised a method using a spare seatpost and saddle, an Axiom Odyssee seatpost rack and a pair of Cannondale panniers.

Read more

Here’s a maintenance and repair site with video how-to’s.–Corrie

Why WD-40 is Bad for Your Bike Chain

Using WD-40 as a chain lube will actually damage your chain.

Near the end of last week’s tutorial, I mentioned that WD-40 should never be used as a chain lubricant. Quite a few people wanted to know what I meant by that. Here’s an explanation.Watch the video

No, not Abernathy. Armstrong.

Boston Marathon is Lance Armstrong’s next challenge

by Gene Bisbee at 02:10PM (PST) on January 17, 2008 | Permanent Link | Cosmos

Lance Armstrong’s 2007 New York Marathon results

 

Lance Armstrong must be getting to like his running game. I wonder if he’s lacing up his running shoes more these days than his cycling cleats.

Armstrong is running in the high-profile Boston Marathon on April 21 to help raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. It will be his third marathon.

More

10 great winter and early spring bike swap meets

by Gene Bisbee at 05:00AM (PST) on January 20, 2008 | Permanent Link | Cosmos

Did you give yourself a new bicycle or new bike gear for Christmas and need to get rid of some old stuff, or are you just looking for bargains?

Either way, the next couple of months are popular times for bicycle swap meets where you’ll find retail dealers or your neighbors offering great prices on bicycles and equipment.

Some of the larger bicycle clubs put together these swap meets, which are sometimes paired with an overall bicycle expo or classic bike show. Here are a few of the high profile ones in St. Louis, Seattle, Baltimore, and Minneapolis-St. Paul, among others (check your local bicycle club for local listings):

For a list of swap meets including Seattle

Want to know more about the proposed routes for the new pedestrian/bike trail from Clarkston Heights to Fleshman Way? You’ll have an opportunity to study plans, ask questions, and give feedback at the Asotin County Aquatic Center on Dustan Loop from 4 to 7 pm on Jan. 22nd.

The preferred route will be along the South edge of the existing road. I know I’d rather bike and walk along the north side with a view, but that is cost prohibitive since it would require building more road bed instead of just foundation for a bike trail.

The canyon option looks attractive but has right of way issues, a poor connector option at the PUD and probably doesn’t serve the population base as well.

You can look at maps on the advocacy page.

–Corrie

Legally Speaking - with Bob Mionske: Insurance for your bike

Published January 17, 2008 by VeloNews
By Robert Mionske, JD

Dear Readers,
Two weeks ago, we received a letter to the editor from Darin Baer asking about the availability of insurance for expensive bikes. We received several letters in response, including one asking about protection for the rider. We figured all of it might be a good subject for our legal columnist to take on. - Editor

Read the rest of the story.

You wouldn’t expect me to give a hoot about style but these cyclists have panache–Corrie

New York Bikes with Style

Just click on the Bicycles link below if you want to see more stylish men and women from around the world on bikes.

See more sartorially stylish cyclists 

Well let’s hope so. The board agreed to try to make a go of the event for 2007. We were pleased to find in our emails last night an application from Aly Lamar. Aly worked with Joe last year and is a member of both Palouse Road Runners and MAMBA. It looks like we have our director.

The club will be far more involved in this year’s event but it will be nice to have a coordinator. Aly says she can do graphics and knows the bike shops.

Since we are getting started late, we chose to move the date to April 6th. Turns out the park is not available. Good thing to as Ted Chauvin pointed out there is competition in Spokane that weekend. We are moving to the 13th of April. Sean promises to revise the route–careful, Sean likes those steep cllimbs. –Corrie

Bicycle lost and found: Leaving your bike on the bus

by Gene Bisbee at 07:24AM (PST) on January 18, 2008  |  Permanent Link  |  Cosmos

In the world of bicycling, one of the biggest mysteries to me is how someone can lose a bicycle.

I can understand a person losing track of a bicycle that is stolen and ditched, but apparently people will occasionally park a bike and then not retrieve it. Do they forget it? Did they die? Were they whisked away by aliens?

For instance, the Seattle Metro transit system reported that 863 people put their bicycles on bus racks in 2007 and forgot to remove them.

Read more at Bicycle Bis

The first board meeting of 2008 met at Lance’s house in Clarkston on Jan. 17, 2008. Jim and Wanda had tickets to the Cougar game. How could we ask them to miss that? Tamara did not show up. Mike, Corrie, Linda, Lance, Sean and Caroll were present.

The treasurer’s report:

We began 2007 with $2191.92 on hand and ended it with $3,000.21.
We made no contributions in 2007 but are correcting that with $500.00 to MAMBA in January.

Devil’s Slide was our big money maker of 2007 coming in at about $680. The board was presented with information showing projected year end revenue with or without continued support of Devil’s Slide and future contributions. If we made $1000 in contributions and did not host Devil’s Slide, we would finish the year at roughly the same $2000 cash balance with which we began 2007.

Corrie presented the iPower web-hosting statement for $95.40 and reported the hosting services were now in his name.

Old Business:

Ridership: $300 dollars are authorized for pay8ing three top place finishers for men and women. Each winner will receive $50.00 cash at the Spaghetti feed in March.

Women
Holmes Helen F 24
Kole Sherri F 21
Abernathy Jan F 10

Men
Wendt Chris M 37
McCracken Jim M 21
Johnson Dan M 12

Sean expressed that he was uncomfortable with giving cash or coupons but had gone along with the program for a year to see how it worked. He felt it had failed in its purpose to increase ridership or bring in new riders.

Linda proposed that we look at public safety education in the form of billboard on FleshmanWay. Caroll suggested bumper stickers. Mike asked about a “bicycle awareness day” and we discussed the Ride of Silence and Critical Mass as well as charity events such as Cranskgiving or holding a bike rodeo. Mike expressed that this community does not attend safety instruction classes even when they are free.

We are entertaining ideas that will help promote cycling and cycling-pedestrian-driver safety education.

New Business:

The annual pot-luck and business meeting will be held Feb 21 starting at 6:30 at the Clarkston Methodist Church.

The spaghetti feed/membership meeting will be held Marth 13 starting at 6:30 perhaps at the Methodist Church.

Five members are up for re-election: Tamara, Sean, Carol, Mike, and Linda. Sean suggests he may be ready to retire after six years on the board. Jim Mcracken and Doug Goodenough were mentioned as good candidates. They have not been asked, yet.

Devil’s Slide:

This event is our biggest cash earner each year and enjoys four years of good management under John Arland and Joe Wagenbrenner. Everyone on the board felt uncomfortable about taking on the responsibility. Carol argued that the program had momentum which would be hard to regain if we took a year off. Mike suggested we could manage it be dividing up the tasks. Caroll advised us to ask Joanne Wykoff for direction and assistance with NORBA.

Corrie will contact the park to firm up a proposed date moved from March 2nd to April 6th. We felt we needed the extra time to put this together.

Lance has arranged permits with the racing organizations in the past and will continue to do so this year.

Calendar: Major rides for the season have been scheduled. Dates are set but times and logistics will be filled in later.

Huckleberry Ride: July 13th
C’da: August 31 and Sept 1
Joseph: Sept 20-21
Bite the Bullet: June 29th (No fee, just an unsupported club ride probably with an extension down Reuben/Gifford and back on Cottonwood Creek
Hiawatha: July 26-27
I Made the Grade: June 21
White Bird: June 14

These notes are unofficial minutes. Debbie Whitely has the official minutes. -Corrie

Of interest is this history of the invention of the bicycle by Scotsman Kirkpatrick Macmillan. I discovered this while looking into my ancestory. My great, great, great grandfather, James McCracken was born in Galloway Scotland, the region where the bicycle was invented. The scots also invented fly fishing. What a great bunch of lads!
–Jim McCracken

Kirkpatrick Macmillan (1812 - 1878)

Macmillan was a Scottish blacksmith who is credited with the invention of the pedal bicycle.
Kirkpatrick Macmillan was born in 1812 in Dumfriesshire, the son of a blacksmith. He did a variety of jobs as a young man, before settling into working with his father in 1824. At around that time he saw a hobbyhorse being ridden along a nearby road, and decided to make one for himself. Upon completion, he realised what a radical improvement it would be if he could propel it without putting his feet on the ground. Working at his smithy, he completed his new machine in around 1839.This first pedal bicycle was propelled by a horizontal reciprocating movement of the rider’s feet on the pedals. This movement was transmitted to cranks on the rear wheel by connecting rods; the machine was extremely heavy and the physical effort required to ride it must have been considerable. Nevertheless, Macmillan quickly mastered the art of riding it on the rough country roads, and was soon accustomed to making the fourteen-mile journey to Dumfries in less than an hour. His next exploit was to ride the 68 miles into Glasgow in June 1842. The trip took him two days and he was fined five shillings for causing a slight injury to a small girl who ran across his path.

He never thought of patenting his invention or trying to make any money out of it, but others who saw it were not slow to realize its potential, and soon copies began to appear for sale. Gavin Dalzell of Lesmahagow copied his machine in 1846 and passed on the details to so many people that for more than 50 years he was generally regarded as the inventor of the bicycle. However, Macmillan was quite unconcerned with the fuss his invention had prompted, preferring to enjoy the quiet country life to which he was accustomed. He died on 26 January 1878.

–Source

The first meeting of the year takes place at Lance’s tonight at 7 pm. You can find map information on the calendar page.

We’ll be discussing Devil’s Slide, Mamba contribution for 2007, planning for business meeting and the March spaghetti feed/membership drive. In addition we’ll look at revising the ridership program we started last year.

Yes, there are cash prizes still outstanding! You know who you are. If not, check the ridership page.

Biking and building across the US

by Gene Bisbee at 09:26AM (PST) on January 15, 2008  |  Permanent Link  |  Cosmos

If you’re interested in riding in a charity bike ride, but not this one, check you the list of Charity Bicycle Rides for 2008

 

Ride your bike. Hammer. Repeat.

No, this isn’t a crude way to maintain your bicycle. It will be the routine for bicycle riders in seven “Bike & Build” cross-country tours this summer.

Participants in the Bike and Build Program collect donations before setting out and ride in groups of about 30. The routes cross 42 states. On days that they’re not pedaling an average of 75 miles, they’re building affordable housing.

Pipe dream

Charity Bicycle Rides 2008

Want to ride for a reason this year? There are hundreds of major bike rides sponsored by big health foundations throughout the US where the top goal is fund-raising, often through a system of pledges for participating bicyclists.

While the individual bike rides are too numerous to mention — the MS150 sponsors about 100 events — here are short descriptions and links to the major sponors. The bicycle ride series include Multiple Sclerosis, Leukemia, Lung, Diabetes, and LiveStrong bike tours. Others, such as the AIDS Lifecycle and Pan Mass Challenge sponsor one event.  Here, in no particular order, are some of them:

Storm grates are a catch for Seattle bike riders

by Gene Bisbee at 10:00AM (PST) on January 14, 2008 | Permanent Link | Cosmos

The first road hazard I ever fell victim to on a bicycle was a storm drain with openings that ran parallel to the road. I picked myself up, danced around as I waited for my road-burned palms to cool off, and said to myself, “I’ll never do that again.”

That would have been in the early 1960s. Those road grates have disappeared in many places since then, although they’re still quite common on the streets of Seattle.

Replacing those storms grates is a problem in Seattle and other cities. Storm grates cost about $500 apiece, not counting labor and other drain work that might be needed.

Storm grates are a catch for Seattle bike riders

Lance Armstrong’s got a new gig. If video doesn’t show up here, visit cyclelicisous to Lance as a sporting goods store manager.–Corrie

Bike production costs going up

By Fritz I’ve been sitting on this story since September and now Bike Europe has broken the news: Bicycle production costs are going up significantly in China. The Bike Europe article notes that labor costs are increasing in China, along with other costs of doing business such as new pension requirements and new taxes.

Bike Europe mentions a six to seven percent increase in the cost of bike components, which just happens to match the seven percent drop of the value of the dollar against the Chinese yuan. Bike Europe also fails to mention the skyrocketing cost of raw materials used to build bikes, fuel shortages in China that make it increasingly difficult to manufacture product there, along with rapidly rising costs of energy and fuel. While the cost of transporting product from China to the rest of the world is still negligible, this is also increasing.

I expect more demand for bikes in the USA, Canada and Europe, especially for the low end bikes that are typically produced in mainland China. Some of these cost increases will be passed along to consumers, but the increased production cost of bikes will eat somewhat into profit margins.

Read More 

The Bike Racks of Los Angeles

The good people at Bicycle Fixation have recently posted a colorful collection of photos showing some of LA’s more interesting bike racks.

From Richard Risemberg, who edits the site and did the bike rack photography:

“Los Angeles has for a long time been a city of dreary architecture, spaces seemingly designed under an imperative towards blandness,” writes Rick. “In an effort to improve both the functioning and the appearance of our city, Los Angeles has placed a number of bike racks in the area around downtown that try to do more than just give you a place to loop a U-lock: acknowledgement not only of the bicycle’s efficacy and nobility as transport, but also of the very real and fundamental human need for beauty. . .”

See the complete photo collection and essay on the bike racks of LA