Electra Amsterdam impressions

Jonathan Maus over at Bikeportland.org had some interesting things to say about the Electra Amsterdam that I blogged about a few months back. His review is here, and it's rather interesting. I'm torn between the lighter weight of the sport model and the lighting and functionality of the classic.. a dilemma I hope to have in real life if I win his raffle. Who knows? I've only won one so far in my lifetime, but this would be an awesome time for #2! ;)

Changing my mind

Ok, I was convinced that most Christians were wrong, that their support for GWB (this of course being a generalization) and his policies in Iraq were going to damn them all to their own hell, and then I read this . Now I know it's not all Christians who are fooled by the big "W". I'd given up on Christianity completely, but then I realized that some Christians see through the lies of those who claim the same faith. There is hope. Bicycles and bicycling as a form of worship? Sweet! Those of you who observe Lent, please read the article!

You can't keep a good site down

I'm happy to report that the Phrontistery is back up. Check it out, it's a great site and there's lots of great words to learn!

Steam... pouring... from...ears... can't stop... rage building...

This article over at bicycle fixation got me mad mad mad. I thought I'd post one of my own jack-ass driver deterents; though I'm certainly not the only one who's got one (though I rarely see them on other people's bikes for some strange reason.) These are a valuable way of making your presence known to those who would endanger your life. I use the bell for other bicyclists and peds, and the loud-as-a-truck-horn (well, it's that loud) for cars/trucks/SUV's. I even mounted a Minoura Besso Mount on my Albatross bars so that I could get the trigger button underneath my thumb without having to take my hand off the grips... makes it easier to "act like a car", just like all the bicycle advocates tell me to do. >8P±

Seriously, everything you CAN do to make yourself safer out there, do it. This guy was an experienced cyclist. Maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, maybe his attention lapsed for a second, but that's all it takes when you ride on the street; the motor vehicle drivers prove over and over that they just don't care. Really, it only takes only one car to turn you into a statistic and leave nothing behind but sad angry people. Tragic, and a huge loss, especially for those who knew and loved him. RIP Mike Wilberding .

High speed insanity

Someone told me about this a few days ago, and by pure happenstance, I ran into it HERE. This is perhaps the craziest crash I've seen. The speed at which this guy is going is beyond belief (just under 107 mph... ON A BICYCLE!). The fastest I've ever ridden a bicycle off road is 47mph, and it felt like Mach 1 to me. I was on a trail, not a wide open cinder cone, but even given the terrain, this kind of speed sounds like suicide. Frankly, I'm amazed the guy lived through the crash. I don't speak enough Japanese to know what the heck they're saying, but I'm sure the words "insane" and "crazy" got in there somewhere.

The Nevada Killjoy

Thanks to Merritt for getting me all fired up about this.

Man, some people love to kill the joy of others, take this GUY for instance. Google Guy Farmer and it becomes immediately and painfully clear that he's an ultra conservative, which instantly puts my hackles up. As usual, this neo-con's arguments are full of hypocrisy. He claims that the previous Governor was a good one, yet the previous Governor had more important things to do than try to ban Burning Man (did he write letters to him asking him to ban Burning Man?). He refers to Burning Man as the "Burning Man naked drug festival", which is clearly a direct insult (hence my returning of the favor in this entry). As an 8 year Burning Man participant, I can honestly say that I see just as many people (if not more) in Reno who are visibly inebriated and oftentimes violent at "Hot August Nights" than at Burning Man. Worst of all, if Guy has ever had a glass of wine, a shot of whisky, a Valium, an aspirin, or ANY other drug, he has no right to say anything. Drugs are drugs period. If you've ever taken drugs, you have NO right to tell anyone else what they can or cannot do (assuming they are a consenting adult), otherwise you're just a hypocrite. Look up this article and tell me it's not the "just say no" days all over again. Particularly egregious are Guy's assertions that weed causes car accidents; in nearly all cases, the people charged were also drunk on ALCOHOL. I'm not advocating that people EVER drive when inebriated with ANY substance, I'm just pointing out that using people's poor judgement doesn't help build a case against marijuana. We tried banning alcohol, and look where that got us. Amsterdam has less marijuana usage than the U.S does, and it's legal there. Hmm.... Also, the idea that Marijuana is a "gateway" drug has long since been proven false. Also, what's so bad about being naked? Guy Farmer is naked under his clothes too!

The part that gets me most heated, enraged actually, is the claim that;

"... drugs aren't the worst of it because young children are present as naked "free spirits" cavort on the desert playa in what looks like child abuse."

I have a 2.5 year old son, and I would bring him to Black Rock city in a heartbeat if I thought he could handle the living conditions (heat, dust, dust storms, very low humidity, pervasive lack of silence within city proper). What I'm NOT worried about is him seeing naked people. Hell, the kid hardly wants to wear clothes himself. Protecting him from inappropriate sexual situations is important and my duty as a parent, which is of course why Burning Man doesn't allow people under the age of 18 to attend unless they are emancipated minors or are accompanied by an adult. In the old days of the event, this wasn't enforced, but with the current regulations placed on Burning Man by the State and Federal government w/ regards to oversight, the number of "illegal minors" is minimal. I've seen young people be turned away from bars repeatedly in BRC and even gently turned away from child inappropriate events. Burning Man is far more of a community that Carson City could ever claim to be these days. I've never once walked through Carson City and had a local resident even greet me, much less offer me cookies, milk, water, juice, beer, hugs or even hardly a smile. Black Rock City is the nicest, friendliest, generally happiest city I've ever been to, which is 50% of why I can't stop going back every year. Guy's assertions that BRC has no "family values" couldn't be farther from the mark, further reinforcing my assertion that Guy has never been to Black Rock City.

"I don't think this is what Congress had in mind when it designated the Black Rock Desert as a National Conservation Area."

Burning Man was taking place in the Black Rock Desert for 9 years before the area was designated a National Conservation Area. Burning Man is the LARGEST Leave-No-Trace event in the world, and it's continued license to operate is largely contingent on the event not adversely effecting the BRD. Burning Man 's cleanup effort is unparalleled within the event industry, leaving the area cleaner each year. Burning Man has also brought increased prosperity to the residents of Gerlach, Empire, Nixon, Wadsworth, Reno and Winnemucca. The influx of nearly 40,000 people creates it's own set of problems, yet it also brings in large amounts of capital for the state of Nevada. Burning Man participants have raised money for local schools and charities, further increasing their contribution to the communities it effects by it's presence.

Most blatantly offensive to me is that Guy claims to be a semi-retired "journalist". My idea of "journalism" doesn't include adding your own opinion to your reporting. That's what "blogging" was created for; opinions have no place in mainstream journalism. Granted, his "open letter" appears in the Nevada Appeal OPINIONS section, but I wonder if his reputation as a "journalist" influenced the opinions editor into publishing it.... would my complete obscurity be a factor if I submitted a condensed version of this blog entry as a rebuttal? Probably, but that's what blogging is for, it's here for all to see.

CURRENT MUSIC: Rush, A Show of Hands, Closer to the Heart; punctuated throughout w/ the sweet sounds of our chop saw and dust collector...

The Phrontistery is on the ropes

Well, one of my favorite obscure dictionary sites is apparently down for the count: phrontistery.info was taken down by the provider, much to the dismay of the owner. You can read some of the continuing saga here. Good web resources are awesome to find and painful to lose; the phrontistery is one of my favorites and I look forward to it's rebirth!

Lives Per Gallon

Today's entry at Kent Peterson's Blog alerted me to an interesting and pertinent book called "Lives Per Gallon" and it's author. He's speaking at Book Passage in Corte Madera on the 20th, and I'm keen to attend. Wanna meet me there? If I can get my shit together and rebuild the Novato SUB, I'll ride that there, though someone else is going to have to watch Kai, as 2 year olds aren't fond of listening to book authors speak for an hour *smirk*.

Before the Music Dies Review

My friend Ken Walden sent me an email a couple of days ago informing me about a screening of "Before the Music Dies". He's in the film, so for me, that's reason enough to see it. I've known Ken for most of my life, and if there's one thing Ken knows a LOT about, it's music. When he says "See this film, it's important", I listen. I listen because Ken isn't one to overhype something; when he says it's good you can pretty much take that to the bank.

I too have worked in the music industry either in a volunteer or paid position for nearly half my life, and I know that a lot has changed, even in my lifetime. The "change" I'm talking about is the commodification and marginalization of real musicians and their music, while the music "industry" has become bloated and top heavy. This trend has infected radio as well, and that is the avenue that this film has chosen to focus on.

I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I was surprised, amused, entertained and enlightened. A lot of the information I already know from personal experiences working in and around the music biz, but this was a really great way of summing it up and underlining it. There are a lot of great moments, but several moments come immediately to mind: Billy Preston performing with Ray Charles and dancing AND singing his ass off: I said out loud to the friend I attended with "Brittney Spears ain't got NUTHIN' on Billy".

The other memorable (though somewhat chilling) moment for me was the interview with the teen girls fresh out of a Brittney Spears/Christina Aguilera/insert-name-of-MTV-pop-star-here concert. One of the questions asked was if they were inspired by the music to do anything "No". Did they know who Bob Dylan was "No". The interviewer mentioned that his music used to inspire people to drive to Washington and protest: Blank looks. It made me sad: even though I was born in the 70's, I got enough of a dose of this 60's music history and inspiration to realize the power that music has held, and still has the potential to wield. Case in point, Immortal Technique's album "Revolutionary 2" inspired me to stop watching TV and start blogging.

On a side note, I've tried my best so far to expose my son (who's only 2.5 years old) to as much diversity in music as I can. I feel that it's one of the better gifts that I can give him: I know that I really appreciate the amount of music I was exposed to as a child, and I know it's a part of the reason I love music so much and the reason I appreciate it's breadth.

There are many phenomenal artists that I'd never heard of before in this movie, and I hope to obtain recordings of their music. These include the North Mississippi Allstars, Doyle Bramhall (who garnered thunderous praise from legendary musician Eric Clapton), Guy Forsythe (playing some of the meanest, bad-ass harmonica I've ever heard) and Calexico . Each one of their performances in the film had me scrambling for my PDA to write down their names. Incredible stuff: check it out! Also, check out the movie; it's manages to educate without being overly preachy and it's highly entertaining.

Bring Your Own

Bring Your Own: August 2006

Found this link b/c she was a poster on my most read Yahoo group, Roots Radicals. I like this blog, and it's got good ideas and info about reducing our plastics waste, which as some of you might know, is an epidemic that threatens to bury us (literally).

A long run

THESE guys are running across the african continent to raise money and awareness of the lack of clean water available in many african countries. Some might say "why don't they just move?" Easy to say from a first world perspective where most people have access to cars or public transportation, running water, indoor toilets, electricity, etc. Try moving 50-500 miles to the closest reliable water source under your own locomotive power carrying all your stuff and your family on your back... and it gets a little harder. Remember that word EMPATHY?

The feat of endurance these guys are doing is nothing short of amazing.

BTW, if it means anything to you, Matt Damon has signed on to lend his name to the cause (one.org). I'm always leery of celebrity pet causes, but I think this is a good one. I am a member of one.org as well, and hell, I'm no celebrity.

The most offensive blog I've seen so far today...

The Dick List

The guy lives up to his name as Dick. What a waste of bandwidth… and here I thought *I* was wasting my time posting my blog!

Flame on, guyyyyyyyyyy!

Bicycle dancing

I found THIS video at the Rubber Side Down blog, found through the Oil is for Sissies blog, found through the Pleasant Revolution (Xtracycle) Blog: WHEW! Not that we got the chain of links done with, check out the video. I'm so f*cking impressed. This woman is amazing.

Skynet is coming

I get a regular notification from NASA when there's a new feature article up. THIS one made me think of SkyNet (ala the Terminator movies). Of course, the same parallel could be drawn with the Matrix movies, but that's a little different. When the machines take over, it'll be from the sky. In the meantime, know that Terra and Aqua (amongst others) are watching you whenever you're outside. Fortunately, they're really looking for things that change, i.e floods, melting polar ice, volcanic eruptions, etc.

More ammo...

More ammo: Kent Peterson posted THIS, which details why most of the time it's safe to ride your bicycle, assuming you take the proper safety precautions. It was written by a friend of his named David Smith. I've had a lot of people tell me that it's dangerous to ride my bicycle at night... though the ones who say this never take into account what I wear and how I set myself up. At the bare minimum, My helmet is covered in retroreflective shapes with a headlamp pointing forward, a red blinky on the back of my helmet, I wear a retroreflective vest and also a retroreflective yield sign around my waist.

In addition to this (depending on the bicycle), I have 2-3 other rear blinkers, a handlebar mounted headlight, Down-Low-Glow (or my own version) on the frame, Elwire stranding on the frame, Hokey Spokes in the wheels, TireFlys on the wheel valve stems, and front and rear reflectors. Most people spot me well before they spot the cars around me. That's the way you have to behave if you want to be SURE that NO ONE is going to hit you because they couldn't/didn't see you. Riding predictably (LIKE A CAR) is the second most important thing you can do to keep yourself safe. Last is wearing a helmet. I put it last because a helmet only protects your head, and if you are struck by a car, there's a good chance that the fatal injuries encompass more than your skull. Don't get me wrong, I wear a helmet almost every time I ride, but I know my safety has more to do with how I behave on the road (following the rules of the road, riding predictably) than the helmet on my head.

Don't be afraid to ride at night: it's one of the most beautiful and fun times of the day to ride! I've been doing it nearly every night here in Hawaii, and it's glorius to be in the warm air and look up and see millions of stars away from the light pollution.

Portland Envy

10-27-06_1454
Originally uploaded by Nollij.

I was reading through Todd's blog, flipped over to Kent's blog and found this great article about Critical Mass, Seattle and their burgeoning bike culture, and Portland Envy. I was rather inspired by Seattle's attempts. Currently, my home county of Marin is trying to implement changes to our own transportation problems. The most hotly contested is of course Measure R which seeks to bring rail service back to Marin and Sonoma counties with the SMART train. It's detractors have several points that I agree with, but I think that the problems could be solved if we had the backbone to do what REALLY had to be done to make the train a better option to driving. The Marin County Bicycle Coalition (MCBC) has put their own weight behind measure R, as part of it's stipulation is to put an accompanying bicycle trail next to the train line. I am all for a low percentage grade trail that would go from Cloverdale to Sausalito, but the fine print says that the multi-use pathway wouldn't travel the full length of the rail. *sigh* I haven't talked to any of the folks at the MCBC about this yet, but I'm not sure why they've put so much energy behind the passing of the SMART train, since not all the problems with it seem to have been worked out, which has led many people I know (who are definitely bicycle friendly ) to cast their votes against the measure. The street crossing issue is a problem, as is the lack of a usefull train schedule. It needs to run at least twice an hour both directions in order for it to be a usefull alternative for most people. As the plans stands currently, that's not the case. I'm ALL for a train system, but it needs to be fully realized before it's brought to the voters.

On a more personal note, I'm currently spending a little over a week on Maui in celebration of my mother's 60th birthday. I rented a bicycle several days ago and have been taking Kai on rides every day. I brought along the BoBike Maxi which has again proved itself to be a superior child seat: rock solid, though the seat on the bicycle itself leaves a bit to be desired, though I'm hardly surprised b/c it's a RENTAL.I've also been rather dismayed on my past few trips to see the ever increasing number of automobiles on Maui. When I first started coming to Maui in the mid 1980's, traffic was a fraction of what it is now. Maui had an amazing opportunity to make mass transit a priority, but it has opted for the air-clogging option of more hotels, more cars, more traffic, more hassle. The thought of riding my bicycle along along Maui's 311 highway between Kahalui and Kihei is a little daunting when you have a 2.5 yr old strapped on the back. I ride regularly with Kai, and not much phases me, but 311 is a fairly narrow road, it's lined with closely spaced trees, and the shoulder isn't very wide. I'm informed that there is a new bus system in Maui, but as of this writing, I know no details. The roads have become a lot less friendly in general as well: frustrated people seem to abound, myself included. Maui remains a beautiful place to ride a bicycle, but the roads are becoming more and more congested . Perhaps Maui should take the hint from Seattle and Portland?

Drive yourself nuts

I found this several links away from Kent Peterson's bike blog, and I'm not sure how long I can stand to listen to it for... I'm currently at 363 residents and counting down as I write this and the other comments I've read could be right.. it may haunt my dreams tonight. If I were to ride a brevet (which I'm in no way in shape for right now), this might be a mantra to keep yourself going, though you could definitely be totally wacko by the time you reached the finish line.

I also found this open letter from crazy girl on a bike. Check out her blog: she's got a lot of thought provoking stuff posted, and there's a lot of people responding.

My own observations about bicyclists refusing to yield right-of-way and riding unsafely: Harrison St. between 13th and 19th (part of my usual route) in San Francisco has the highest concentration I've ever seen of bicyclists regularly disregarding the stop signs. I'm sure there are other places where this behavior is MORE prevalent, but I haven't seen them yet. There is only 1 stoplight (at 16th and Harrison) and I've seen bicyclists ignore this as well. My commute is approximately 28 miles each way (by motorcycle), so I don't ride my bicycle in SF that often, but the blatant disregard for traffic laws when it comes to stop signs never ceases to annoy and sometimes astonish me. I've seen non-helmeted riders blow stop signs when there were already cars in the intersection, without even turning their heads to look, narrowly miss being struck and not even react.. just keep riding. I was blown away. The more I ride, the more I'm inclined to be completed anal about obeying the law. That way, it'll always be the drivers fault if the sh*t goes down.

Keep the rubber side down

CURRENT MUSIC: Strawberry Pancakes (Population: 330)

DSC01295.JPG

DSC01295.JPG
Originally uploaded by ctpctp.

One of the more interesting looking bikes from Interbike 2006. I'm curious: what are those rims made of? Besides the crazy handlebar, notice the spot where the seat tube, top tube and seat stays meet: very pretty. Anyone know what this bike is called? Who made it anyways?


UPDATE 10/28/2006:

I found out what this bike is from Sheldon Brown's blog entry about Interbike:

"The Calfee booth showed a cool bike, appears to have a bamboo frame, wooden rims and genuine cowhorn handlebars!". So the answer is that it's a Calfee... a company I hadn't heard of before. Here's a link to their bamboo bicycle.

No helmet required

As I've long suspected, helmet's don't protect you from a lot of crashes. In fact, most people have a tendency (probably from years of having it drilled into their heads) that they should protect their head and face in a crash. I'm not advocating that people not wear helmets, especially those who are somewhat inexperienced cyclists. All I'm saying is, don't think a helmet will save your life. Being alert and in full possesion of your faculties is perhaps the single best thing you can do to protect yourself on a bicycle.

Please read THIS or click on the title for a cycling fatality story and the top 10 things the News gets wrong about bicycle crashes. It's a good one.

Thanks to Todd and his Elsewhere posting

Surly Xtracycle and Electra Amsterdam

THIS is just so exciting, I don't know what to say. The idea that a company that makes bikes as nice as Surly does is making a dedicated Xtracycle frame is making me crazy! I may have to dump my rig in favor of one these... oy vey!

Also, Electra is putting out a bike called an Amsterdam which looks like an ultimate city bike: if the price is right, it may become the new shop bike of ZOMADIC! Stay tuned for more updates in this arena. The scarcity of posts lately has been mainly due to my increased time at my new business, so my apologies to my scarce readership...