Coming Soon - BSU Bicycle Congress

I got a mailing from the folks at ACHD, about the upcoming Bicycle Congress.

It's an all-day event, that day being Friday, April 25, at the BSU Student Union Building. It's open to the public - and free!

The agenda looks ambitious and interesting - a PDF document can be seen HERE.

They intend to introduce the Roadways to Bikeways ACHD bicycle master plan. I'm assuming they mean the latest reincarnation, incorporating changes that were discussed during a series of open house / workshops held over the past 12 months or so.

Of the scheduled presentations, these look most interesting to me:
- On-Road Bicycle Facilities for Children and Other "Easy Riders" (11am)
- Rural Bicycle Accommodation Plan and Decision Aid Tool (2:55pm)
- Active Transportation - Fitness and Motivation for Everyday Cyclists (3:55pm)
(Presented by Rebecca Rusch; apparently she's a world-class endurance mountain bike racer. Which is cool... my perception is that a large percentage of competitive cyclists would never dream of riding a bike for transportation.)

I've got mixed emotions about events like the Bicycle Congress.

I've attended many such events, sat on committees, etc., etc., over the years. And although they have the most lofty motives, I tend to get frustrated because of the perception that it's just "preaching to the choir," and not making much of a difference in the diverse "real" world.

Another point... how many attendees will ride a bicycle to the event? I would hope that 100% of the participants, except for maybe the out-of-town guests, would arrive on bicycles. If not, why not?

I also ride a motorcycle, and for a while the Missus and I belonged to the local chapter of the Harley Owners Group. I quit after about a year, because I figured I had limited time, and I could spend that time either: 1) riding my motorcycle, or 2) sitting around talking about riding motorcycles. I kinda feel that same way about "talking about bike riding."

Catching On?

This is the time of year when you expect to see coverage of "bicycling" topics in the media. After all, the days are getting longer and warmer, the trails are drying up, and bicycles are coming off the hooks in the garage.

Traditionally, however, the stories are all about "bikes as toys." Places to find good mountain-bike trails, or Sunday fun on the Greenbelt, or an upcoming bike race, or the like.

But as $4 gas is forecast, "bikes as transportation" seem to be getting some well-deserved attention.

The website for our local paper has organized their bike stories into a catch-all - click HERE to check it out. You might even want to make it a "favorite" - I plan on checking back regularly to see if there's some good content.

Us dedicated, 5-days-a-week, year-round bicycle commuters tend to look down our nose at people who are more casual about their riding. But that is wrong - ANY use of bikes-as-transportation is better than dedicated single-occupant-vehicle.

There's a guy at my office who rides his HUGE recumbent bike (I call it the "lawn chair bike") maybe 5 times a year, when conditions are absolutely ideal. That's cool.

A good friend rides his bike every Tuesday and Thursday. That's WAY cool.

They just added another bike rack at my office, in anticipation of more bike traffic. That is AWESOMELY cool! (Imagine if they were deliberating about adding more BIKE lanes to deal with the heavy traffic, as opposed to slappin' down more asphalt along I-84, or "eminent domaining" 20 feet of peoples' front yards to add another CAR lane!)

Cut transportation expenses by 50%!

I keep hearing that the cost of gas is going up. Is that true?

For the last few weeks, I've been riding the bus for my local transportation needs.

If gas is so expensive, why do I see a half-dozen or so cars idling in the driveway every morning, so they'll be nice and warm for that 10-minute commute? Or the guy who pulled over because he had an icy windshield... but instead of getting out and scraping it, he sat there for 2 or 3 minutes, revving his motor to warm it up to "defrost temperature"?

My bus-riding has given me the opportunity to do an informal, unscientific traffic survey, as I've stood at the place where I catch the bus.

Over the course of 6 or 7 mornings, I've counted 292 "passenger vehicles." (I've deliberately excluded service trucks, delivery vehicles, etc., that normally wouldn't be expected to carry passengers.)

Of those 292 vehicles, 266 had only the driver on board. Over 90% were single-occupant vehicles.

If those folks would take on one passenger, the actual cost of transportation would immediately drop by 50%.

Tell me if I'm wrong.

Of course, allocating expenses fairly would be an issue. Gas is only a small part of the total expense of operating a vehicle, which is typically around 50 cents per mile, depending on who you ask.

An obvious side-benefit of doubling up would be a drastic reduction in road congestion and vehicle emissions. Win-win-win!

On a related note... I paid $32 for a 31-day bus pass. As of this writing, I've ridden 29 times, so I'm almost to the break-even point, as compared with the standard fare of $1 per trip. At 50 cents / mile, that same transportation, in SOV, would've cost me right around 50 bucks, figuring 3.5 miles per trip.

Of course, the bicycle is WAY cheaper than either SOV or bus! I'm so anxious to get back to pedalin'.

Bicycle as Marketing Tool

There are several TV commercials running on TV, that feature bicycles prominently.

A couple of 'em are yuppie-oriented "financial" commercials. In one, the lone sprinter, attired in red, is way out in front of the pack. But then, the disciplined, working-together blue team slowly reels the sprinter in and overtakes him, leaving him and the peloton in the dust. (Losers!) Of course, the blue team represents the services offered by this particuar investment firm.

In another commercial, a group of yuppie-types is riding along the coastline, and pause to enjoy the magnificent whale that's leaping out of the ocean. (It's that "whale" life insurance company. I believe the message is, if you take advantage of their services, you can join your retired yuppie friends in bike rides along the coast to see the whales, instead of being the greeter at Wal-Mart.)

At least in those two commercials, bicycles are portrayed as a positive, desirable sort of thing.

I saw another commercial - from State Farm Auto Insurance - this morning for the first time.

In the commercial, gas has become so prohibitively expensive that a suit-wearing businessman has abandoned his car for a bicycle. Of course, the fact that he rides a bike makes him the target of scorn and derision from his fellow workers. (Perhaps the ridicule is understandable, since he's dressed in a shirt, tie, jacket, and shorts.) Imagine! The pathetic loser is riding a bike! The point of the commercial seems to be - if he calls State Farm and saves $ on his car insurance, the savings will let him get back into his single-occupant vehicle, and rejoin life's winners.

Yeah, I s'pose it's understandable that a company that sells auto insurance wants everybody to drive a car. After all the businessman is saving on both gas and insurance by switching to a bicycle.

Bicycle As Art Form

Now and then I see a road-going bicycle that just looks too beautiful to actually ride. More like something you'd want to hang over your fireplace. Usually they are Italian, brightly-painted, and look fast even when they're standing still.

But there are other bikes that were designed to be looked at, rather than ridden.

I happened across some awesome "show bikes" on IowaHawk's photo-blog... check these out. They are definitely designed to be looked at, rather than ridden. (If I'm interpreting correctly, the photos were snapped by Mr. Hawk at the Detroit Auto Show. Check out his blog sometime... he writes some awesome stuff!)

Mamma Mia! Lamborghini exotica!

If you've even been an automotive enthusiast, the name Lamborghini is sure to conjure up vivid mental images. The Italian company builds high-strung ultra-performance sports cars that most of us will only dream about.

Yeah... I'd buy one, but I can't afford the tickets!!! (hahahaha)

I actually sat - for a couple minutes - behind the wheel of a Countach like the one pictured here, at a dealer in San Diego many years ago. It was no easy task to wedge myself in there. (They were pretty kind to accommodate a country hick who obviously wasn't in the market. It's not like I parked my Turbo Carrera out front... know what I mean?)

So, I was intrigued when I happened across a Lamborghini road bike - at Amazon.com, of all places. And it's painted in Italian Blood Red! Sweeeeeet!

You'd expect such a bike to show all the signs of fine Italian craftsmanship - exotic Columbus tubing, investment-cast lugs, flawless welds, maybe with a Campagnolo Record carbon gruppo. And a price tag to match.

SURPRISE! It's got Shimano components, and a kick-stand! And it can be had for $250! (Yep! I didn't leave off a zero or two! Misprint?) I imagine it's from China, and probably weighs 30+ pounds. But still... it would sure impress people on the Greenbelt, huh?

Remembering Sheldon Brown

Sheldon was a bicycle guru extraordinaire. And not in the sense of sitting on the mountain and spouting bicycle philosophy, but rather a (grease-covered) hands-on guy who knew pretty much everything about bicycles both old and new, and freely shared his knowledge and passion.

He was the parts manager at Harris Cyclery in West Newton, Massachusetts. He was also a "renaissance man," who knew a lot about a lot of different things.

His website (HERE) reflects his interests. In particular, it is a treasure-trove of articles about bicycle mechanics and physics, and also reflects a good deal of his enthusiasm and humor.

Sheldon passed away on February 3 of this year.

So why remember Sheldon today?

One of his projects was... every April Fools' Day, he would announce a new bike-related product or technique to hit the market, and you'd say to yourself, "Hey - why didn't I think of that?!!?"

Here are a few examples.
- The ShelBroCo Bicycle Chain Cleaning System
- The FasterCard Titanium - a weight-saving credit card for cyclists, with holes drilled in it for additional weight-saving
- "Product W" - The Ultimate (and legal!) Performance Enhancer (I love this one!)
- The Carrababy bicycle baby carrier
- "Real MAN" bicycle saddles - made of granite, to separate yourself from the girly-man posers.

I never met Sheldon, but I read his stuff regularly and losing him feels like I've lost a friend.