Coffee, Ride, Coffee, Ride, Beer, Repeat

There is an undeniable connection between cycling, drinking coffee, and drinking beer.  But why?

Cycling Inquisition delves into this subject in some detail.  But I’ve got a slightly different take on it.

There was an article sometime ago in Bicycling magazine that first alerted me to this idea, and I’ve seen references a couple of times since then.  Basically, the idea is that endurance sports – like cycling and marathon running – release certain chemicals in the brain.  This will come as no surprise to many, as frequently cyclists will cite occasions of becoming grumpy, lethargic or downright hostile if they are not able to get out and ride regularly.  Sound like the same things that happen to regular beef aficionados when they don’t get a night at the pub?  Not a coincidence, says some research.  Some of the same chemicals released by endurance athletics are also released into the brain by alcohol consumption.  Of course, the cyclists and runners get it without fear of hangovers and DUIs!

So maybe there is good science behind the beer drinking connection.  But what about coffee?  My answer – logistics.

First off, caffeine has some very obvious and noticeable effects on athletic performance.  Enough so that it was once banned and tested for as an illegal substance when used during athletic competitions.  In fact, WADA, or the World Anti-Doping Agency, are considering adding it back onto the banned substances list.  And who doesn’t want a little extra kick that is both social acceptable and doesn’t involve a blood bag?

That doesn’t feel like the whole story, though.  I believe the crux of the caffeine connection comes from the dynamics of group rides.  Groups need places to meet and the two most common meeting places for random groups of folks: pubs and cafes.  While drunken and hung over cyclists may explain Mr. Attack-at-weird-places-and-blow-up, or Mrs. Don’t-talk-to-me-when-I’m-pedaling that sometimes show up for the group rides, alcohol consumption is generally frowned upon by the serious group ride leaders.  That leaves coffee shops as the next most reasonable alternative as meeting places for group rides.

Get enough cyclists with their lycra kits showing up at your cafe repeatedly, and eventually sponsorship deals will be discusses.  And – given that cyclists are often compelled to talk about the amazing products and services of their sponsors, it stands to reason that sipping the java would become an integral part of cycling as a whole.

Stories of great cycling in unexpected places

http://www.guardian.co.uk

The story is – at least to my mind – unexpected.  It is unexpected in what the story tells, and it is an unexpected website where I first found the story.

I’m referring to the article “Cycling lessons from Mexico City” by Tom Wainwright, and I found the article not on the Guardian where it originated, but rather copied to a publication called Online Stock TradingWho’d have guessed?

But what makes the content of the story unexpected as well?  Perhaps it is my Americanized perspective, but to me Mexico City as always been a crowded, polluted city full of crazy drivers darting around honking horns like mad.  Admittedly I’ve never been to Mexico City, cut clearly the worlds most populous metropolis must be a terrible place to ride a bike.

Not so according to Tom Wainwright.  In fact, he claims that London should learn from Mexico City:

Well, Mexico City is nearly twice as big and faces social problems graver than anything Tower Hamlets has seen in a few decades. But its inhabitants are much, much more easygoing. Last week I saw a cyclist almost taken out by a thoughtlessly opened car door – he and the driver ended up having a joke about it. Would that happen in London or Leeds?

Like I said before, who’d have guessed?

The article really is an interesting read, and provides a perspective on what can be accomplished.  Check it out.

Random Tips for the Cyclist

This collection of tips came as a result of a tweet that I sent recommending using cycling equipment in a non-cycling way.  A couple of folks asked me to throw together a list of tips.

While there are 101 different tips lists for cycling – training tips, racing tips, whole lists of tire changing tips – I decided on a slightly different focus.  All of the tips on this list are cycling related but not specific to any particular cycling endeavor.  That is why I’ve called them “Random Tips for the Cyclist” instead of, say “Cycling Tips” or “Racing Tips.”

See and be seen

If you ever find yourself caught without a flashlight but needing one – say, when camping, or in your house during a power outage – the headlight of your bike will make a damn fine flashlight in a pinch.  Just unclip if from your bars and carry it around with you illuminating what you need, when you need.

Paper, or plastic?

Need to pick up a couple of items at the grocery store on your way home, but don’t have a backpack or panniers to carry them in?  No worries.  First, choose a plastic bag instead of paper (although some areas are starting to outlaw these!)  After your bag is full, ask them for two extra plastic bags.  These extra plastic bags can be tied together and form a strap that you can then tie directly to the handles of the bag with your groceries.  Tie them nice and tight, and you’ve basically crafted a temporary messenger bag for yourself that you can throw over your head and allow your groceries to hang on your back.

Is it hot in here?

Unless you are someone that likes to do the wrenching on your own bike, it is better to store your bike outside, but protected from the elements – than inside.  A shed, garage, or even locked to a fire escape – somewhere protected from the rain and moisture – are all great options. When you store your bike indoors, you are storing it at indoor temperatures.  Then, when you take it outside you are moving it to an environment that could potentially be significantly colder in the winter, or hotter in the summer.  While not particularly harmful to the materials used to make your bike, it can cause the different parts to expand or contract at different rates – as all things do when they heat and cool.  This will ultimately result in your fasteners (nuts and bolts) loosening up faster than normal.  If you like to take your bike in to the shop for a tuneup once or twice a year and that’s it, you can find your self with critical equipment failures if your bike goes through frequent hot/cold transitions.

Machine Wash Separately

Don’t wash your cycling gloves – or anything else with velcro – along with your jerseys, shorts and bibs.  Those little hooks are terrible when rubbed up against the sometimes delicate lycra, resulting in snags, pulls and wear.  Throw the gloves in with a load of denim jeans where they can do no harm.  While you’re at it – turn your jerseys and shorts inside out when you wash them.  Let’s face it – it is the inside that really needs to be clean to prevent bacteria and other saddle-sore-inducing badness.

Too much junk in the trunk

Bike panniers can often have very tight clearance with your heel as you are pedaling – especially if they’ve been fitted to a non-touring specific frame.  If you have a rear rack with two bars – one above the other – you can sometimes get away with dropping the front hook of the bag down to the lower railing.  This will result in the bag rotating and providing slightly more heel clearance.  If you have the means, you may be able to permanently modify your panniers to accomplish the same goal.

That’s all for now.  I’ll keep adding them to the site as people pass them on to me.  Until then, the final tip:  Keep your helmet above your saddle above the tires.  Cheers!

Cycling to work when work is soccer

Now all of you footballers (aka soccer players) can have a role model to inspire you to join the 15mpd movement!  According to ghanasoccernet.com, Chelsea FC midfielder Michael Essian has decided to make his 10 mile round trip to the training grounds via bike – instead of sporting the Lamborghini.

Shocked Premier League buddies have even nicknamed the £120,000-a-week Ghana midfielder “Lance”, after Tour de France legend Lance Armstrong.

While the rest park up their Bentleys and Porsches, Michael, 27, cuts a cool figure in helmet and wraparound shades as he gets off his £1,300 two-wheeled racer.

— From “Michael Essian goes into cycling

But watch out Essian!  I just happen to know of another footballer that may just be nipping on your heels – both on the pitch and the bike!

Hey soccer mom – meet cycling family!

I’m sure many of you have seen the collection of stickers on the back of an SUV that depict the entire family – including the cat and the dog – in various poses indicating their respective interests.  So boy was I excited when I spotted the following stickers on a mini van traveling down Market St in San Francisco.

I gotta get one of those!

My only question is – did Dad just drop the family?  Not cool, dad.  Not cool.

Tell a cyclist to “Break an Elbow”

Pretty much everyone is familiar with the tradition in theater of wishing well to actors before a performance by stating “Break a leg.”  Well, now cyclists can have their own silly superstition.  Next time someone is heading out for a ride, yell at them “Break an elbow!”

We can thank Mayor Villaraigosa of Los Angeles for setting us up for this.  He recently found himself involved in a right-hook incident with a taxi cab while he was riding his bike on Venice Blvd, which ultimately resulted in a broken elbow for the mayor.

As a result of this incident, the mayor has declared his desire to put together a bike summit.  According to an LA Weekly post:

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa recently reached out to the bicycle community via YouTube and announced — more than a week after he broke an elbow in a bike accident on Venice Boulevard — that he would help organize a summit about the future of pedal power in L.A..’We’re going to work with the bicycle safety community to put together a bike summit,” he said.

It is unfortunate that someone in a position of power has to be injured to drive the point home about the need for more understanding and protection of cyclists.  However, it is totally understandable why, as a human, the mayor would be more sensitive to cycling issues after an incident such as this.  “Have a good ride mayor!  Break an elbow!”

The time seems ripe in LA for a change in culture.  The LAPD was already making strides to improve bicycle safety.  From the LA Times blog post:

Police Chief Charlie Beck has made overtures to bicyclists, promising to make their safety a bigger priority and sending some of his officers to ride in the monthly Critical Mass bicycle ride in June. The LAPD issued a directive instructing officers that a motorist can be held responsible for causing a bicycle accident even if he or she did not make direct contact with the rider — and can be arrested for fleeing the scene, Box said.

The LAPD involvement in the critical mass ride, while reported as wildly successful by both sides, unfortunately also only arose in response to an unfortunate circumstance.  A previous ride in LA staged to protest the BP oil spill was met with what was perceived by many as unwarranted aggressive behavior towards cyclists.

I fully applaud the actions of both the mayor and LAPD, acknowledge that all folks make mistakes, and give kudos to LAPD for recognizing a poorly handled situation and taking actions to correct the damage. However, I can’t help but find it frustrating that so many times it requires a tragedy in the cycling community to bring about any real, positive change.

Be safe, keep your helmet above your saddle above your pedals, and by all means “Break an Elbow!”

You’ve gotta be “nuts”

Treehugger.com recently posted and article about a collaboration between various fashion designers and Peugeot for a charity / fundraiser event.  This event gave 12 designers a Peugeot frame to customize, which would eventually be auctioned off.

Twelve Peugeot fixed-gear bikes and 12 top fashion designers recently came together for one goal: Raise funds for Act-Responsible, a non profit organization that promotes responsible communication on sustainability, equitable development and social responsibility.

I was browsing through the photos of the completed creations.  Most were what one might expect for art bikes – interesting and even beautiful designs, but often at the expense of ridability or practicality.  But then I stumbled across this gem created by “Husband and wife François and Marithé Girbaud” [treehugger.com]:

Treehugger.com describe this bike by saying “Their bike has a custom frame with irregular geometric figures to die for.”  I suspect that may have been an error though, and what they perhaps meant to say was “irregular geometric figures that will make you wish for death should you try to ride it.”

Don’t get me wrong – I’ve got absolutely nothing against art bikes.   However, art bikes are like haiku – there is a specific framework for the form to follow.  It is the expression of creativity within that framework that truly allows the genius of the artist to shine through.

Maybe in the future an additional requirement for these contests would be to require the designer to actually sit on and pedal their creation when they are done.  That might help illustrate pesky details that slipped through the cracks, like not being able to reach the pedals, or the handlebars for that matter.

The #15mpd – 15 miles per day, every day, for a year!

August 1, 2010.  That is when I start(ed) my commitment to ride a minimum of 15 miles a day, every day, no exceptions, no excuses.  OK – so significant muscle injuries or broken bones might be valid excuses.  But everything else is out.  Even the flu will be frowned upon as an excuse.  Let’s do it America – 15 miles a day, every day, for a year!

Consider what the average American suburban dweller does:   Keep reading →

Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen rocks Second Saturday

Tall bikes on display

Midtown Sacramento was packed on July 10th for the monthly Second Saturday Art Walk, and bikes were everywhere.  For some, the bikes themselves were the artwork.  Custom tall bikes adorned with streamers and flowers were displayed in at least one location.  Symbols of creativity and individual craftsmanship to some, mere curiosities to others.  Either way, they seemed right at home amidst the predominately urban and utilitarian bicycle presence throughout the entire event.

For others, the bikes were a convinient workhorse, a mobile art gallery or shop.  And for a great many more, the bike was the only reasonable way to navigate to, from or through the Midtown Sacramento streets that become completely full of art lovers, party-goers and those just out to mingle.

Few other places in Sacramento embody the practical and community aspects of the bicycle lifestyle like the Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen.  This fusion of ideas was demonstrated even more as the Bike Kitchen hosted a music-and-beer event right in the shop.  Bands like the country-rock group The Alkali Flats kicked out the jams to a backdrop of shelves of donated and repaired bikes and benches adorned with wheel truing stands.

Doug - Sacramento Bike Kitchen

According to Doug (Hear the full interview here), one of the volunteers working at the event, the Bike Kitchen is “…non-profit, volunteer run…tool co-op.”  The tools and parts that are present all over the shop all come from donations.  Anyone can come in off the street and for a “five dollar suggested donation” get help getting their bike back on the road.  The entire shop is staffed with volunteers, and will not only help you fix whatever is broken on your ride, but probably also teach you how to do it for yourself in the process.

If you can afford it,  if you can afford the 5 bucks to come out and donate and learn how to work on your bike what you’re doing is helping someone that can’t afford that.  You’re going to help a college student that wants to travel, or your going to help a homeless person that’s wanting to try to find a job.  You’re going to donate into the community that’s Sacramento – the bike community – and get someone on a bike that wouldn’t otherwise get there.

Audio segment of interview with Doug at the Bicycle Kitchen

All proceeds from the sale of refreshments at the show go to support the Sacramento Bike Kitchen.  The scene of folks sporting polka-dot cycling caps talking to women in evening gowns was fantastic.  Add in the accompaniment of music by The Alkali Flats and it made for a great evening all around.

For more on the Sacramento Bike Kitchen, listen to the entire interview with Doug (QuickTime format)[local /wp-content/uploads/2010/07/DougFullInterview.mov]

Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen is located at 1915 I Street in downtown Sacramento, on the alley adjacent to the rail road tracks between H and I streets.

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Additional Photos

Peugeot securely locked to pole

Interior of Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen

Zombies!!!!

You know an event is a big deal when it has its own custom-branded porta potties…

Funky Monkey Family survives LA traffic

Funky Monkey Family

In a previous post I introduced and interviewed Antonio and Jessica as they left San Francisco heading towards South America.  In a recent update to their blog, they comment on the experience of cycling the streets of Los Angeles.  It is interesting to get the perspective of someone who has both spent the last several month traveling vastly different roads and areas, yet now skewed by a lifetime of cycling/motorist interaction baggage.