Disco Stu

I saw this bike parked on the train on a Friday night commute. I snapped the picture, then got ready to hop off at my station, as did most of the other passengers. This dude, however, came up to his bike and saw that, gasp, a battery cover had fallen off one of his lights and the batteries had dropped out. Someone had seen a battery roll across the floor of the train. What did he do? Bust another flashlight out of his pocket (bringing the luminaire total to something in the triple digits) and start searching for the missing battery. You know, in case he needed a light to get home.

Life in the fast and wobbly lane

This is the sort of thing you see when you commute on the bike path that goes past Google headquarters. Way to go man. It's probably easier and faster to walk, but then, where's the adventure in that?

Bike Lanes in Slovenia

Separated from cars by a curb, separated from pedestrions by pylons. Lucky European cyclists.

Nice Panniers

I was riding to work this morning and a woman in an SUV rolled down her window and said "excuse me...". I thought, oh no, driver/cyclist confrontation. But the next words out of her mouth were "nice panniers". I assumed she was talking about my bike luggage and not my saddlebags. I was flattered. She knew just what to ask next - "how much?". Well ma'am, have I got a tip for you. These Nashbar Daytrekker Panniers have seen me to and from work day in and day out, in rain sun and wind for a measly $40. Sometimes you can even find them for less on sale.

They have a plastic lining and an overlapping top to keep the contents dry and two straps to put your rolled up work clothes under in the middle. I have put a split keychain ring between the straps so as to create an X-pattern to better hold down cargo. I also know two other people who use these and are quite happy with the value. Great commuter cargo, but a little small for touring or grocery shopping. Also, not a quick and handy way to dismount them and take them with you, so they are good if you want to leave them on the bike day in and day out.

Happy commuting.

Ross-check

Friend of nippleworks, Ross-i-tron, just finished his Surly Cross Check touring / Colorado winter commuter. Hell, given how it rains many afternoons there, the full fenders make it a good year round commuter. Gonna put studs on that thing? I've asked him what's up with the rack stays that go down to his canti brake bosses, since it looks like he has seat stay rack bosses. I'll post his explanation when I get it.

Update: according to Rossitron, the rack is an Old Man Mountain model that was originally meant for his mountain bike (which didn't have seat stay bosses) and it got a new lease on life as part of the Surly.

Bike to Work Day 2009

The local train station was a great place for cyclists to meat up.

The local cyclists coalition staffed a table handing out free bagels and taking down email addresses for propaganda. Too bad Kaiser Hospital promised but failed to deliver a station at their facility between the train station and my office. Not that I needed more freebies.

The coolest thing was that all the way from the train station to my office park, I rode with a huge group from a local biotech company. They were very organized and had hard core roadies and some beginner riders. They even had their own jerseys.

See you at Bike to Work Day 2010!

Magazine for Commuters

I recently picked up a copy of Bicycle Times, put out by the people behind Dirt Rag mountain biking magazine. One of their tag lines - "We are living in bicycle times". Very true, and given the way the winds are blowing, it's becoming more true every day. Although, rabid cycling commuters are a pretty niche market, I wish them well. I wonder if there's a way to reach out to the casual cycling commuter. The kind of rider that only goes out on nice days and brings their work clothes to the office in their car the day before?

There were some great little tips of the trade in this edition. One I've already implemented - wrapping your spare inner tube in cellophane to prevent disintegrated inner tube boxes and nicked tubes.

More sociopaths

Another page I found in that bike commuting how-to brochure:

If you have night blindness, don't ride in the dark, you may confuse a friendly pedestrian for Daniel Plainview.

Earthday Warning - You will get hit by a bat

I got this handy pamphlet today.  It was a how-to guide meant to get people to take more trips by bicycle.

I'm afraid that this picture probably isn't helping the cause:

Of all the hazards I've faced while commuting by bike, baseball bat wielding sociopaths has not yet been one of them.  How about some detail on the hazards of cell phone texting while riding?  Now that I see all the time.

Women's underwear

The vendor tents at the SF Twilight Criterium offered up several interesting products, but none so interesting as chamois lined women's hot pants.  Naturally, I was intrigued, so I took a picture, then I took a brochure.  The woman who makes them sells them along with skirts, so you can bike to work in your hotpants under your skirt, then go to the ladies room and swap your drawers.  I don't think they're meant to be warn solo although I'm sure Team DFL will prove me wrong.

Then, I saw BSNYC was sporting the My Alibi logo.  

I know he blogs about commuting to work on his bike.  Perhaps he's become a fan of the easy change cycling bloomers?

Photo from  http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/, and scans of the brochure I swiped

More thoughts on Fargo

I philosophized on the Salsa Fargo and thought I'd share it with the world.  The bike industry started out making transportation machines, then added racing machines to their line ups.  In the US, cars became huge, and so the transportation aspect of bicycling mostly dissapeared.  Companies were concerned with performance (or in the case of K-Mart dual suspension mountain bikes, the appearance of performance).  With expensive gas, the concept of a bicycle as a tool is returning and if a bicycle is a tool, the Fargo is a swiss army knife.  In Europe, cars are important, but not entirely necessary because of the dense cities and mass transit.  A fashionable, heavy, comfy bike like an Oma Fiets is perfect there.   The US doesn't have those things.  We have long distances, dirt trails and a cycling environment that is more of a battlefield than a civilized affair. Xtra cycles, and used mountain bikes with slicks are the way to roll around here.  I hope the Fargo does well, I hope that mass trasit makes accomodations for bringing more bikes on board, I hope more people buy touring bikes than RV's next year but most of all, I hope you get a chance to ride your bike today.

Oooh, I bet that feels good

Northern California is on the tail end of a 100 degree plus heatwave (through which I mountain biked one day, commuter biked another day and actually drove one day it was so hot, what a lame excuse). So, as I was reading a Garmin-Chipotle rider's Tour De France blog on Velonews, I paid attention to what he calls ice socks. So, I did a little searching to figure out what that was and discovered that the soigneurs actually fill plain old bike socks with ice and the riders throw them in their jerseys on their backs. And here I thought I was going to discover some high tech medical device style cooling garment.


Photo from http://www.velonews.com/photo/77303

Energy generating elevators - Amen!

This article from Velonews is genius. Bike to work. Showers in every office. Laundry machines in the office! Business in clothes that you can stuff in a backpack. Grocery shopping with a bike and a trailer. But the true genius is the elevators. You walk up the stairs, and ride the elevators down, generating electricity.



Picture from http://www.bikernewsonline.com/labels/Photos.htm

Scene of the crime

You'll never believe what I found on my commute home tonight. I was riding through an industrial (to put it politely) section of Redwood City, CA and saw something funny against a chainlink fence as I rolled into a left hand turn. I went back to check it out and discovered a cross frame, painted silver, blending into the fence backdrop leaning there. I picked it up. It had clearly been rattle-canned and had lots of paint chips and a piece of masking tape stuck over one of the headset races. It was tig welded, and a decently built frame. The rear brake cable was routed on the top tube and it appeared that some braze ons had been ground off the seat stays before the last low tech paint job. No head badge was present, but it looked like there was a blue paint job hiding under there. I looked around and spotted a wheel under a tree and went to check that out. A steel rim with a Velox rim strip and a French looking quick release. I'm no crime scene investigator, but I suspect fowl play. I couldn't bring it home with me because I was on my bike, but I held it up to my 58cm frame and figured it was about a 56. Email me at paul -at- nippleworks.com if you want to go check it out.

Now for the low res cell phone camera shots:

Velo Origami (folding bicycles)

The folding bike. From the clunker gramps keeps in his RV to the industrial designer's canvas to the world travel touring bikes, there have got to be a ton of interesting and innovative designs for collapsing a bicycle. Why not? What you sacrifice in performance you make up for with the fact that you're riding a bike at all! I've witnessed people being left on the Caltrain platform with their bikes because the conductor wouldn't let one more person on the bike car. Imagine if they had a folding bike! A little origami, probably some grease on the hands and they would be onto the regular car, pushing that contorted heap of metal tubing down the aisle like a monkey humping a tig welded football. But, hey, they would have been on the damn train, in spite of poor public transit planning.

Why do I bring this up? Our very own Fargonaut, Dylan, has nabbed hisself a vintage Bianchi folding bike. So far, it has been a Nipple Works collaborative effort with a little haggling and some shipping and handling involved. It needs some TLC, and some new parts, and a trip through the new home made spray paint booth, but after that, this thing will be cherry! Stay tuned to this space for the details.

My Holiday - Bike to Work Day

Mothers have Mothers Day with the corresponding Hallmark cards. Secretaries have Administrative Professional's day, with fruit baskets. Leprauchans have Saint Patrick's day with green beer and closet alchoholics. All I do is work and ride bikes, so I have Bike to Work Day, and it is celebrated with schwag. This year, the good people of REI and the Silicon Valley Bicycle coalition put out a fine spread at the Redwood City Caltrain Station. A friendly REI employee took my email address and gave me lip balm and tire levers and an even more friendly bicycle coalition lady gave me a stuffed musette. I felt like a superstar. People were excited about cyclists. And, not just pro cyclists, or Mountain-Dew commercial downhillers, but all cyclists. From the old lady on the hybrid bike with her jacket tied around her waist to the kid on the BMX bike with the Sponge-Bob backpack, we were all cool today. And just for being us and doing what we were doing, someone handed us a pouch filled with the two things bicyclists need most - high calorie food and free gear. Happy holiday to all, and to all a good night.