Prepare for the Playa

As some of you may know, I've been going to Burning Man for a long time. Actually, this will be year 9 for me (9 in a row to be specific). This year I will be riding my bicycle to the event. Yes, you read that correctly. I'm riding my bicycle TO the event. From Novato. This has been in planning for several months now, but I realized that I hadn't disclosed it to the greater blogosphere… so now the seceret is out. Whoops... just realized I mentioned the ride at the bottom of the Pink Lemonade entry, but some probably didn't catch that little bombshell *smirk*

I'll be riding the Adventure Cycling Association's Western Express from Vallejo to Carson City, following Ridgetop's Route from Carson City to Pyramid Lake and then making my way from the north end of Pyramid Lake to Gerlach on the local dirt roads.

The final leg is still in question: I'm plotting maps on Bikely and will be posting them for review as I haven't had a chance to travel the back roads from Pyramid Lake northbound, and don't know much about them except what I can see on bikely/google. There are several likely routes, but I only know one person who's passed this way before, and I happened to meet him on my birthday outside Cafe Gratitude in San Rafael. It was trippy. My wife and I rolled up (in her car... *grimace*) and got out and started to go inside. Outside is an bike w/ an older Xtracycle FreeRadical on it and there's this dude putting something in his Freeloaders. I of course roll up to him and strike up a conversation, excitement clearly in my voice. We ended up mentioning that I'm riding mine to Burning Man this year and his face lights up: he did it 2 years ago from Auburn, CA. We ended up talking for another 30 minutes or so, we exchanged cards and I told him I'd be contacting him. Evidently he returned from the event on the local dirt roads and didn't see another vehicle the whole time: that sounds GREAT to me! His name is Mike, and man did he make my birthday a cool one. Some believe in Synchronicity, some think it's nothing other than Abductive Reasoning or simple coincidence (or merely magical thinking), but fü©-q people, I BELIEVE! >8P±

WARNING: Shameless plug for my friends/campmates to follow. *blush*
Several of my campmates have put together 3 part series of events called Prepare For The Playa to bring together Burners Who Have Businesses to sell to Burners. DOH... that's a mouthful. Basically, the playa selects what works and doesn't work. All the vendors at this event are playa vets and most of the things they sell are highly "playable". Some may offer a "Burner Discount" on the wares. There's going to be music, performance artists, a bar (sweet!), a raffle for a Burning Man ticket (BONUS!) and some How-To clinics and demonstrations. It promises to be pretty cool. I'll be there... I might be teaching a "How-To", but I'm not sure yet. If you're at all interested, check out the Prepare For The Playa site.

Bicycle Lifts & CFL Misdirection

Bicycle Lift. It's a 9 MB file: for those of you on dialup, here's the smaller 1 MB version.

This is too damn cool... if America's so "innovative", why the hell did Europe come up with this first? Where the fü©k's all that American ingenuity? Hey, you could even run it off solar power in certain places (what a concept!)

If Marin county REALLY wanted to get more people out of their cars, they could install a few of these (since the Alto Tunnel and Cal Park Hill Tunnels may never get rebuilt). My vote? Going from Corte Madera to Mill Valley on Casa Buena Drive (the steepest parts) and headed up the steep sections of Merrydale road to where it meets Los Ranchitos Rd. These two hills are the sweatiest ones for me, but I think they're a big deterrent for a lot of people. I have a feeling that installing these isn't that cheap, but it's likely cheaper (and easier) than rebuilding the tunnels... just an idea.

BTW, I realized that Compact Fluorescent's aka CFL's are full of Hg aka Mercury.. which is super toxic and bad for the environment (and YOU!) in this form. Hmmm... LED's are a better option: they last longer, are solid state and don't have lead in them. I don't know about their manufacturing, so if someone knows if the manufacturing of LED's requires mercury, speak UP!

CCrane is a good source for Household LED Bulbs. Read the data at the bottom of the page: the numbers are a bit staggering. Savings of over $300 over the lifetime of the bulb... pretty impressive. Even more impressive is the power plant reduction stat. Wow. No more CFL's for us... Solar on the roof and now the upgrade to LED's... like they said in "What About Bob?"; "Baby steps bob, baby steps". Take some baby steps with me, will ya?

Car-head

While over reading the latest entry at Todd's Blog, I found my way to this link about Car-Head. I've suffered from Car-head for many many many years, even when I was biking the most. It's funny; you take the way things ARE for granted: it's the "normal" way, the way it's always been done... but it's none of those things. My wife and I struggled this evening with her desire to trade in her current car for a newer one and my dogged taurean resistance to putting more money into car society. There's this war going on in my head, and it all started when I bought an Xtracycle FreeRadical Conversion Kit. My aversion to cars has been growing as my eyes have been further and further opened to the damage we've done and are continuing to inflict upon our little blue ball. While I try and remain hopeful, the recent car acquisition is causing me considerable angst. I guess you can call it growing pains, but man is it a bitch. What I can take from this experience is a stronger commitment to drive less. My hat's off to folks who are car-free: it's not easy given the pervasive and ubiquitous nature or Car-Head mentality.

No left turns

I wish I could say I found THIS one myself, but I found it at Kent Peterson's Blog. It's about a life well lived, and the danger of turning left. Like Kent said, it's not about bikes specifically, but it makes a good point that any cyclist can take to heart.

Pink Lemonade

This evening, for the second time in several days, I started crying. The first time was May 3rd. May 3rd was my uncle's birthday. He died in October 2006 from Pulmonary Fibrosis. He was not a man of many words, but he had a heart of gold and he was a wonderful listener. I spent about 4 days with him back in 2000 when my wife and I took a road trip through the southwest and for me, it was one of the highlights of the trip. I'm very thankful that I got to know him, even if it was just a little bit. My cousin's email is what set me off. She wrote a very beautiful thing about her dad on his birthday and sent it to me, and I was sobbing by the time I finished it. Somehow I wasn't surprised, because she and I simultaneously fell apart at the funeral and ended up sobbing in each others arms for several minutes. It didn't seem strange that we hadn't seen each other in at least 20 years.

Tonight I got caught up with Fatty's Blog, and the ordeal that he and his wife are going through is excruciating to read. In particular, the reaction of his 11 year old son put me in tears for the second time in 5 days; DAMN! I can only imagine the pain that Susan is going through, but to see your children in that kind of fear and pain is intolerable. The folks at Twin Six approached Fatty about making a limited edition pink version of his totally awesome jersey in a show of solidarity for his wife. If you can do it, please go to the Pink Lemonade entry and vote for the size that you would want. Most of the funds go to support breast cancer research and little goes to Susan. Twin Six won't be making a dime, and I think that's pretty damn cool of them. If they do indeed make the jersey and I can get one, I'll wear it with pride as I suffer over Carson Pass on my trip to Burning Man by bicycle. In fact, I'm dedicating my suffering first ascent of Carson Pass to Susan Nelson.

The Insanity of Vanity

Charity is my... well, I don't know how we're really related anymore. Technically we're not, but it doesn't matter.

She lives in LaLa land (aka Los Angeles) and works in the entertainment industry. She's also writing a book. Her writing is very good.. I'm very impressed. My writing feels awkward when I read her blog… DOH!

Check out her article about the Insanity of Vanity.

CURRENT MUSIC: Rush, Exit... Stage Left, Tom Sawyer

Stupid monkeys...

The Archdruid Report: Faustus and the Monkey Trap

I found the link over at Mauricio's Blog. Mauricio is a fellow Xtracyclist, and a regular poster over at Todd Fahrner's Blog. It's a great article and at the risk of repeating this point, for the third time, it points out that Biofuels are not the answer to our energy problems. Look, I'm all for using WVO (waste vegetable oil) to create biodiesel: this is giving it a second life. Cultivating crops for fuel only? Stupid stupid stupid. A line from Rush's "Territories" (released in 1987 on the Hold Your Fire album) song rings particularly true here;

The whole wide world
An endless universe
Yet we keep looking through
The eyeglass in reverse
Don't feed the people
But we feed the machines
Can't really feel
What international means
In different circles, we keep holding our ground
In different circles, we keep spinning round and round

Hard to believe that I used to quote Rush on a daily basis.. back in highschool. I can still do it once in a while. I'll be seeing them in Concord in August; already got my tickets.

Yeah, this post is all over the map... just like me.

Oh.. and a teaser: the Stokemonkey is completed. I fired it up for the first time today and it runs. There's some other details to finish (battery box placement to accomodate PeaPod, front derailer hookup, shellacing of the new cork grips, readjusting the handlebar accountrements, cable tying off loose ends), but after 8 long months of procrastination and excuses, the end is nigh. Just in time: I did my first ride to the shop in many months on my wife's bike and I was pining the whole time for SuperVato. It didn't help that the seat on her bike is NO substitue for my B17, the handlebar position on her bike (for me at least) is several inches below the seat and I was carrying a 30+ pound pack on my back. It all added up to a less than comfortable ride. None-the-less it was a beautiful day, perfect temperatures and the ride was glorius. I kept thinking to myself "why haven't I been doing this all then time?". It finally lit another fire under my ass and I finished the Stokemonkey install and started on the other finishing details. I'm waiting for the shellac to dry so I can sand and put on another coat tomorrow evening. Monday morning may find me riding to the citay.. though as Todd said, I should really take it easy on the battery the first few rides. Oh... and I weighed the entire rig (w/ battery). Sit down if you're standing (wait who stands to read this blog anyways?).. a whopping 95 lbs! I was thinking all along that somehow I was going to come out around 80 lbs, but ... no. Then add me (currently around 190), my son (I'm guessing, but probably around 35lbs) and a load of groceries (20-60 pounds) and I'm up between 320-380lbs. Does that exceed the rating of the FreeRadical? It's rather unclear. I'm guessing that I'm nearing capacity, but it's probably more about my wheels than anything else.

Just a matter of time

One of the general axioms of riding a motorcycle is "it's not of matter of if, it's a matter of when you crash your bike". I've heard this for years and dutifully repeated it, though without much conviction. Until today.

I've been riding motorcycles for nearly 13 years and I've never crashed a bike. I've dropped 2 different bikes a combined total of 3 times, but I wasn't REALLY riding when it happened. The first time was on my 1990/1992 (don't ask) Suzuki GSXR 1100. I was out at Rodeo Beach (aka Fort Kronkite) and being as the bike was still fairly new (to me) and feeling paranoid of thieves, I decided to put my new disc lock on while I walked the beach. On returning to the bike, I mounted up, fired the engine and attempted to back out of my parking spot… only to come to a jarring halt when the lock hit the forks. I was not ready for this and the bike tilted to the left and my left foot slipped while I was trying to get it down.. needless to say, the next few minutes found me feeling rather stupid and abashedly struggling to set the rubber side down again. I had not learned yet THIS technique, so I picked the bike up using my arms and back muscles... the wrong way. I didn't notice right away because of the adrenaline, but later that afternoon my back was very sore. This little mistake cost me a sizeable chunk of pride and a set of bent rotors that a resurfacing job didn't fix. A constant pulse in the front brake whenever applied was a constant reminder to think about the bike lock. I ended up getting a coiled cable that ran from the lock to the handlebar as a reminder so that it wouldn't happen again, but not before...

... the second dropped bike. After I sold my GSXR, I purchased a used 1995 BMW R1100 GS. It was (and is) a tall bike; even with the seat in the lowest position, I could never get more than the balls of my feet on the ground. This made stopping on any crowned or sloping road a real challenge. I always had to slide my hips over when coming to stop so I could get more of my foot on the ground. I got used to it but it was dicey in the beginning. One day while in SF I stopped at my favorite Mission St. Taqueria, El Farolitos at 24th & Misson. Seeing as I was in the heart of SF's Mission Distrct, I put my disc lock on. I parked with the ass end of the bike in to the curb between 2 cars. I was in a hurry when I got back to the bike as I was running late (at this point I don't remember where I had to be) and I forgot to remove the disc lock. I was turning right out of my spot heading north on Mission when the lock hit the forks and I overbalanced on the right side. As the bike went down and I hopped off and managed to slow the bike's pavement bound topple, but I was unable to halt it. The physical damange was limited to minor scratching and a slightly scratched cylinder head guard, but there was massive damage to my ego as there were tons of people (nothing unusual for Mission St. in the middle of the day) walking down the sidewalk. Somehow adrenaline pumping through my veins managed to get the bike back up on it's wheels, but I lifted the bike the wrong way again and I was panting by the time I got the kickstand down and the lock off. I took off as fast as I could, with my proverbial tail between my legs. It was shortly after this incident that I got the "reminder" cable for the lock.

The third time I dropped the bike and the second time I dropped the beamer was in Mendocino on a gravel road. I had been visiting my brother-in-law; At the time he was living way up a mountainside on a gravel road with a deep gravel driveway. You can guess where this is going. A little too much throttle combined with some sloppy clutch work kicked the rear wheel out to the right as I was departing and the bike ended up on it's left side with me standing next to it saying "wow, that sucks". Actually what I said was a lot worse than that, but let's leave it at that. I was a much better rider by this point, but I had zero experience riding a motorcycle in gravel and I didn't realize how unforgiving it can be. Minor scratching to the cylinder guards and none to me and thankfully this time no one witnessed my ineptitude. I had learned another valuable lesson.

So that covers my previous experience with dropping motorcycles. Speed was always less than 3 mph and it was always from a stop that I dropped the bike... until today.

I was heading home from work after a rather frustrating day at work. My ride was going well with several nicely connected green lights that usually don't link up. Riding usually makes me feel better when other things aren't going well. The way I become one with the bike and the way my mind clears and I focus completely on the here and now is a wonderful way to put your troubles aside. This focus was the reason that today's wreck didn't badly damage my bike and I escaped physically unscathed.

I was headed westbound down Fulton Street. Somewhere between 11th & 12th St. I got into the right hand lane in anticipation for turning right on Park Presidio. There was a green Toyota Corolla or Camry in front of me with a bunch of bumper stickers on it. As we approached Park Presidio the traffic stacked up right to Funston in the right lane. The corolla/camry was braking in a straight line, no right hand signal, all indication were that they were going straight past Park Presidio and heading for points further west. I began to move right into the curb lane/right hand turn lane that directs you onto Park Presidio. Map HERE. At this point the corolla/camry driver is nearly past the northbound lane of Funston as I begin to enter the widening turn lane. I've slowed to maybe 15-20mph. Can you guess what happened next? Yeah.. this asshat decides he doesn't want to wait for the cars at the light and decides he wants to shortcut them by going down Funston, so without signal or any indication he turns right onto Funston right in front of me. I locked up the brakes and managed to turn the bars enough to miss creaming his passenger door... I rode it to the end pulling my leg free as the bike dumped over on the right side. I realized afterward that I was howling in anger the whole time the panic braking was happening and I was standing in the entrance to Funston in the northbound lane double arm flipping the bird and screaming obscenities before the driver was even halfway down the block. He never even slowed down. I don't know if he even saw or heard me. A nice irishman by the name of Carl helped me pick up the bike and chatted with me for a few minutes. He told me about how his brother rides a motorcycle over in Ireland and also about another bad motorcycle accident he'd seen a few weeks ago. Somehow I managed to get over the whole thing and regain my composure within a couple of minutes. This is HIGHLY unusual for me and in retrospect I've come to realize that it was Carl's smile, unflappable positivity and his helping hand that turned a potential week long funk into something I was able to basically brush off like a bothersome mosquito. Somehow I was just happy to be unhurt and my bike damage to be relatively minor. Thanks again Carl, wherever you are out there.


Damage Assesment: Slightly scratched mirror casing, slightly bent front brake lever, dislodged right front turn signal and some ugly scratching on my right givi hardbag. The front turn signal still works even and the plastic didn't even break. I was amazed. I tried picking up the bike the way described in the video above, but I'm sure I was doing it wrong as I tried it twice and couldn't get a good grip. I ended up picking it up the wrong way. I don't seem to have hurt my back, but then again I did have some help from Carl. The rest of the ride home was mostly uneventful with the exception of a marin soccer mom in a white Range Rover Defender veering into my lane heading down the waldo grade; I was far enough back that I slowed down AND gave her the horn which sent her cell-phone-to-the-ear ass swerving back into her own lane. I gunned it past after that and didn't see her again.

WHAT I LEARNED (again):

• Always assume they don't see or hear you
  
• When you really need the horn, you won't have time to use it
  
• Watch out for last second non-signaling turners
  
• Don't get into a place where you can get "Right Hooked"
  

I can now say "It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when" with conviction. Thankfully I don't have to do it from a hospital bed.

Keep your wits about you out there; watch out for asshats, and as always, keep the rubber side down.

BTW: Happy 420 folks! I didn't partake today but I did try to get drunk when I got home. Emphasis on the "try". The adrenaline left floating round my system must be supressing the alcohol.

CURRENT MUSIC: Jimi Hendrix, Band of Gypsies, Changes

Horsing Around

THIS just cracked me up. I found it at FatCyclist and it gave me a good laugh. Can you imagine? I wonder what possessed this horse to do this? I don't ride (horses) but I've known a fair number and I've never seen behavior anything like this. Maybe it was a race horse?

Most thoroughbreds are freaked by bicycles/bicyclists, but this one seems to fit right in...

Bush Parody

Gosh, THIS really tells it like it is. Funny, yet painful and scary.. because it's true. Man, I can't WAIT till his bungling neo fascist regime is through with their turn. Let's just hope the Dems don't mess it up worse.

Arrrrgghhh.... Avast ye scum ridden bug pluggers! Black Sam Rackham's gonna keel haul ye and stow ye in davey jones' locker if yer not savvy!!!

A kind soul

Just read this. I've admired LFOAB since the day I started reading his blog, but my respect and admiration for him just got ratcheted up a few notches. Good on ya mate! (I'm not australian, but that phrase just fits).

Hybrid Car? No thanks

THIS article that I found through Oil Is For Sissies summed up the fuel efficient car thing pretty well. In fact, it put down in writing the thoughts that had been running round my head when I vetoed buying a hybrid. See, Hybrids aren't cheap. There are cheaper cars whose milage isn't that much lower. Wait, I'll just shut up now, because I'm just going to confuse you; go read the article. You'll see what I mean.

Oh, and you can safely exclude the bicycle or human/electric hybrid from this equation. It's on a whole different level.

Yeah for raffle wins and YEAH for Dave Nice

If you haven't heard of Dave Nice and his misfortune on the Great Divide Race in 2006, then read Fatty's entry here.

I was incensed when I learned of Dave's misfortune in the 2006 GDR, so much so that I immediately went on the offensive and contacted everyone I knew in Montana and told them to be on the lookout for Dave's bike. It didn't help Dave get back in the race or get his bike back, but I felt like I'd done... something. Then after reading fatty's entry above, I really could do something to help Dave, so I dropped $100 on Fatty's raffle for Dave. I'm stoked that Dave will be able to race the GDR this year: losing one's whole rig like that has got to be bone-crushingly devastating. I know I would be tempted to enter a bad spiral of depression if I were him.

The selfish part of me was stoked to win a prize in the raffle, but I would have put in that money even if there wasn't a chance of winning anything. See, I used to enter every damn raffle that I came across, and I never won a thing. I'd enter to win raffles for things I could give a shit about. I never won. This was for something momentous. The GDR is an amazing race. Forget those asshats on "the amazing race". This is the real deal.

I dropped more than I should have, but I think Dave deserved another chance at the GDR, and I'm honored to help make it happen. The selfish part of me feverently hoped to win something cool and bike related. Fatty emailed me and informed me of my win.. WHEE. Ergon grips. I checked them out on his site (they're a sponser) and have been intrigued.

Travel by couch

I found this travelogue tonight while reading a thread about touring/long distance bicycling on bikeforums.. A great great story and laugh-out-loud funny at several parts. If you've ever felt like getting some exercise, but didn't feel like getting off the couch, this is the way to do it for sure. You Burners out there will appreciate the applications of the vehicle design towards the 2007 "Green Man" theme... no polluting generators here!

NAHMBS

So I ended up going to the North American Hand Made Bicycle Show after all. I didn't think I was going to be able to go, as the wife was out of town visiting her brother and I had the boy, and as much as I would like to hope that he would do fine at the show, I knew that it wouldn't be much fun for me, and I would have no chance of having any kind of conversations with any of the builders about custom longtails, nor would I get to drool over particularly beautiful lugged bikes, plus if there was anyone in need of custom CNC Woodwork, there was little chance I could peddle OUR services. Some close friends of ours came to the resuce & agreed to hold down the fort with the boy for a few hours so after dropping him off, I pulled a high speed burn down to San Jose (78 miles in 67 minutes... you do the math) to arrive at 2:05pm. It was just barely enough time; I could have spent 2-3 more hours there checking out bikes and talking to builders and staffers, but the show ended at 5:00, and it was enough.

I took some photos, but no doubt if you look around the web, you'll find better photos than mine. Really, mine were all snapshots; nothing was composed particularly well. I'll post them anyways for fun. Like an idiot, there were several builders and people I talked to extensively that I go no pictures of their stuff (Vanilla, Fraser and Old Man Mountain in particular). DOH!

I'm particularly torn between Vanilla & Fraser. They both make BEAUTIFUL longtails and are EXCEPTIONALLY nice people. At this point I can't justify another bicycle, so I'll have to sell a bunch of bikes before I can buy a custom longtail, but if you're ready for one now, I highly highly recommend Vanilla Cycles (Portland, OR), Fraser Cycles (So Cal), Sycip (Santa Rosa, CA) and Inglis Bikes (Napa, CA). Speaking of Inglis: I tried several times to talk to Curtis at the show, but he was always swamped so I never got the chance. He comes highly recommended by another Stokemonkey user Dave who has pictures of his Inglis made Xtrabike HERE. If the show is around here again next year, I'll definitely be going, as it's a blast and the bikes are just so heartbreakingly beautiful. One final note: A Rohloff hubbed mountain bike is being made by the guys @ Old Man Mountain, and if I had my drothers, I'd sell the Heckler and buy one in a heartbeat. Anyone want to buy a 2000 Santa Cruz Heckler (Medium) in Orange with a Polished Swingarm?

Holy Wow

I started reading the Fat Cyclist Blog this evening, and there's a lot of great articles there. The one that pinged the tuning fork in me though is this one. Holy wow. Very sobering, and very heavy as the final thing I read before I go to sleep. I'd say "Enjoy", but that doesn't fit. Epic ordeal indeed, this one is heavy, but definitely worth the read.

An argument with my wife this evening over a money issue weighs heavily on my mind as I read this, and my over-reaction seems so very stupid now. Time is short folks; enjoy your small joys and triumphs. Crippling disability or illness can strike us at anytime and take away our ability to do the things that bring us joy. This article will make you want to hug the people you love, and if you're a bicyclist, it'll put the riding jones on you somethin' fierce. You've been warned.

Tooting my own horn

A few months back a guy named Rick Polito got a hold of me (in a roundabout way). He's a reporter from the Marin IJ (Independant Journal), and he was doing an article about electric vehicles, and he had heard about my X/SM bike from either Todd at Cleverchimp or Bill Manewal, I'm still not quite sure... wait... yeah, it was Todd. ANYWAYS... where was I? Oh yes... so we play phone tag a couple of times, and then we finally have a long conversation, roughly an hour and he interviews me about bicycling, commuting, EV's, being a dad, etc. etc. He was going to try and get a pic of me riding with my son on the bike with the Stokemonkey in action, but I didn't get it done in time (there's this chain drag issue that I still haven't resolved.) Anyways, it's a nice article, and though I can't speak for the other people that he interviewed, he pretty much quoted me word for word, which I found to be refreshing and restored my faith in reporters a little bit. See, for the most part I know that many many things are taken out of context when they're reported in the news. I know that much is left out. I've known at least 3 people who've been interviewed for different newspapers, and in every instance they were either misquoted or there was information wrong.

Rick also happens to be a bicycle commuter (one of the only ones at the IJ by his own admission), so I applaud him for his commitment to health AND accuracy in reporting.

Kipchoge suggested months ago in his Pleasant Revolution Blog (Kipchoge is one of the two guys who started Xtracycle) that all the Xtracyclists call and/or write their newspapers to get them talking about our Xtracycle exploits and how we're contributing to the solution of obesity/global warming/traffic congestion relief/road rage, etc. So I guess this means I've had my 15 minutes...

Speaking of xtracycles... last week I saw another Xtracycle; YEAH! I was hauling some sheets of plywood to SF to my shop (sorry guys, hauling multiple sheets of 4 x 8 x 3/4" plywood and the finished products made from them over 70 miles is a job better done by a truck, one of the few things I think IS better done in a truck) and I was driving past San Quentin towards 101 south when I saw an Xtracyclist headed the other direction. My first reaction was one of joy at seeing another xtracyclist, and I had to forcibly resist the urge to slam on the brakes, swerve to the side of the road, get out, run across and hug the other biker. This no doubt would have freaked them out to no end as they would have had no idea why a strange person was running up to them trying to hug them. Thankfully, I resisted my first inclination.
My second reaction was that of guilt... why wasn't I riding mine? Well, there was the plywood thing... and the fact that the Stokemonkey conversion still isn't finished... DOH!

Flash Flags: Now you see them!

IMGP0003web.jpg
Originally uploaded by Nollij.
Ok.. so as promised, Here are some photos of the Flash Flags. Come back to the Flickr set soon and I'll have some photos of them attached to bicycles (even better!). I have 15 of them to sell, and they're $9 plus a couple of bucks for shipping (inside the continental U.S). 2007-11-02 NOTE: Shipping is a flat $5 via USPS Priority Mail , unless you want more than 2 of them with the modification. My quantity on hand varies so check with me at the email address at the bottom of this entry.

I put one on the Bike E RX and went for a ride on Saturday. I did about 18 miles between Novato and Kentfield. It wags around in the breeze and generally draws lots of attention to itself, which is good. I bumped it on a few things (pylons, bushes and myself) and it sustained no damage (which is what it's supposed to do). I'm a little disappointed with how small the stock clamp is, but an easy solution was at hand: I ran the closure screw through a metal hose clamp and attached that to one of the seat verticals on the RX. I tried the clamp out on 2 of my other bikes. It was too small to be able to close around the seat stays on the Marin Novato and of course it was too small for the big tubes on the RX. It did fit on my Burning Man Bike (Steel Univega circa mid 1980's) near the bottom of the seat stays, near the dropouts, but if I were to mount one on that bike, I would want it mounted closer to the brake bosses, in which case I might have to use a small hose clamp. It's not a big deal, but I'm a little disappointed that the stock clamp won't accommodate anything other than super skinny tubes. Which I guess means that I should give folks the option of having me add one for them. So add $3 if you want me to add a hose clamp for you. if you have a steel touring frame you're probably set with the stock clamp.

Oh yeah, I have no idea what the black plastic hook is supposed to do. If you figure it out, let me know!

Yes, the American Flag comes with it, and yes, the white stripes in it are retroreflective too. Whether you like the flag or not is beyond my control: throw it away if you don't like it. 2007-11-02 NOTE: The American Flag stickers didn't come with my second batch, so don't be surprised when you don't see them!

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UPDATE: 2007-03-17
Well, I figured out what the hook is for. Depending on placement of the flag, you can use the hook to keep the flag tucked in to the bike. It's useful for when you're walking the bike and don't want to get hit by the flag or when trying to maneuver through small spaces and not touch the items around you (like parking it in a bike rack next to a 7k Litespeed). Someone commented on it today, and I figured it out several hours before reading the comment. Figures.

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UPDATE: 2007-05-15
Thanks to Steven Sharf of bicyclelighting.com for linking to me after I startled him by tracking down his phone number. His site is brilliant (pun intended) and my favorite point of reference when building home brew lighting systems. His site is awesome, and you should peruse it thoroughly. He's not trying to sell you anything, he's just sharing information and personal experience. Many bike shops don't want you to know that there's an alternative to their expensive rechargeable systems, but the best ones will admit it.

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UPDATE: 2014-03-28
I've gotten a number of emails over the last couple of years asking if I'm still selling Flash Flags: I am NOT. It doesn't make sense to: the manufacturer now sells them directly. You can order them by clicking HERE! Stay safe out there!

The Real Reason You're Broke!

Kent Peterson posted THIS LINK on his blog, and I just can't say it any better, so I'll shut up. Well, one last thing... I have been known once in a while to get holier-than-thou about unlit cyclists at night, but only when they manage to almost kill me. Shutting up to commence... NOW.

The Flash Flags have landed...

They are here! I will post good pictures soon (as well as in the bag, I'll have some mounted photos as well). If you want one, they're $9. Shipping to most places (standard, not express) should be about $1-@2, but I'll have to put on in a package and weigh it to know for sure.

They look a little different than they used to.. they now have reflective striping across the flags, and they should be equally visible at night as well as day. What's funny is, I recently bought a flag and mast for my Bike E RX, and I did the EXACT same thing to my flag with some reflective tape I bought at the hardware store. I had no idea that they'd changed the design on the Flash Flags to do this as well... but I guess bike minds think alike. If I can figure out some way to mount it, I'll put a flash flag on my 'bent (but the seatstays (as far as they can be called this) won't accomodate it, so I'll either mount it to the seat, or drill and tap a hole in the body near the tail. Pictures to come as projects get completed.

Speaking of which, NO the stokemonkey isn't done. I'm waiting on a part I need to fabricate (custom chain guide) in order to run the bike safely, otherwise the chain will rub on the frame AND new Val Kleiss centerstand. Fortunately, the design phase is nearly finished, preliminary .dxf files have been created and the bearings are the only things holding up the chain roller process now.

The rubbing issue is due in large to the swapout of the cranks and rings(previously a Truvativ 5D 48,38,28, Now a Sugino X3 44, 34, 22) and BB (went to a UNB-53 from the Truvativ Splined Power cartidge), all in all lowering my high gear ratio from 103 to 94.4 and my low end from 27.7 to 21.8. The next upgrade I do to this bike in the transmission (and only once this one wears out) will be to go to fewer gears, either 7 or 8 cog cassette (if I can find a new one!) or the Deore XT 9 speed CS-M760.

Flash Flags are almost here!

The Flash Flags I ordered are almost here. I've been checking daily on their status via the UPS site and they are slowly making their way from Canada to my doorstep in Novato. These are a nifty little item that bolts on to your bike and increases your visibility to drivers of the vehicular variety. You can see them on here, but I'll have better pictures up as soon as I get them. They should be about $9 plus shipping. Drop me a comment if you're interested. I'll have 16 of them to sell and depending on how fast they go, I may get more.

Doing good things

Two of my favorite bloggers (and bicycle people) posted inspiring entries recently.
Large Fella On A Bike has a great article about his run-in with an extremely rude driver who nearly killed him. His reaction is a fabulous example of an evolved response to a stressful situation. He thanks his daughter for the insight she provided into people's motivations for doing bad things. Awesome!

Kent Peterson's entry titled Get A Light! made me think twice about my own reaction to unlit cyclist encounters. I've been guilty of the same reaction he had more than once. My yearly Burning Man attendance creates the highest number of "Hey, Get a light darkwad!" comments. It's not very helpful, as it only serves as an outlet for my own frustration, and the people receiving the comments are no doubt not listening to the message behind the comment/insult.

I guess this means it's time to start carrying some spare cheapo blinkers around with me when I'm night riding to give away. Obviously more effective that yelling "Get A Light Darkwad!"

For the record, "Darkwad" is a term that started (as far as I know) at Burning Man to describe people who are traveling around Black Rock City sans lighting. In a city with nearly 40k bicyclists, riding unlit at night creates enormous potential for collision.

Most bicycle related fatalities occur at or after sunset, and of those, most involve unlit cyclists. Get two light sets: one for yourself and one for a friend or stranger.

12 Steps to Climate Change

Reposted from an email I received from Co-Op America, an organization I got turned on to by the folks over at Xtracycle.

Each of these steps would reduce carbon emissions by at least 1 billion tons per year by 2054. Implementing at least seven of them brings us to the scale necessary to meet the climate challenge, but we have to start now, and move quickly. We have a ten-year window in which we need to be well on the way to achieving these steps.

The good news is that we have the technology and know-how to accomplish all of these steps right now. The best news is that we don't just save the climate with these steps. They bring us real energy security, more jobs, a cleaner environment, real progress on the war against poverty, and a safer world. Let's get started today.
1. Increase fuel economy for the world's 2 billion cars from an average of 30 mpg to 60 mpg. (Current US averages are a woeful 22 mpg.)

2. Cut back on driving. Decrease car travel for 2 billion 30-mpg cars from 10,000 to 5,000 miles per year, through increased use of mass transit, telecommuting, and walking and biking.

3. Increase energy efficiency by one-quarter in existing buildings and appliances. Move to zero-emissions plans for new buildings.

4. Decrease tropical deforestation to zero, and double the rate of new tree plantings.

5. Stop soil erosion. Apply "conservation tillage" techniques to cropland at 10 times the current usage. Encourage local, organic agriculture.

6. Increase wind power. Add 3 million 1-megawatt windmills, 75 times the current capacity.

7. Push hard for solar power. Add 3,000 gigawatt-peak solar photovoltaic units, 1,000 times current capacity.

8. Increase efficiency of coal plants from an average of 32 percent efficiency to 60 percent, and shut down plants that don't meet the standard. No net new coal plants; for new plants built, an equal number should close.

9. Replace 1,400 gigawatts of coal with natural gas, a four-fold increase in natural gas usage over current levels — a short-term step until zero-emissions renewable technologies can replace natural gas.

10. Sequester carbon dioxide at existing coal plants. Sequestration involves storing carbon dioxide underground, an unproven technology that may, nonetheless, be better than nothing.

11. Develop zero-emissions vehicles, including plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles powered by renewable energy.

12. Develop biomass as a short-term replacement for fossil fuel until better carbon-free technologies are developed — but only biofuels made from waste, and made without displacing farmland and rainforests.

Co-Op America Email, 1/23/2007

You can visit the Co-Op America site HERE.

"Ride it to believe"

Todd over at Cleverchimp posted this old video of Kipchoge and Ross talking about and trying to sell the world on the Xtracycle in the very beginning, way back in 2000. A very inspiring video, to say the least. Check it out, and if you interested in riding one to see how it might apply to your life drop me comment. I live in Novato, California, but if you're within 50 miles, I'll come meet ya!

I feel bad not having posted in so long, but life has this insistent habit of getting in the way of regular blogging. 'Course, if I didn't have a life my blog might be fuller, but it would no doubt be less based on experience.

Raffle loser & NYE Resolutions

Well, I didn't win the Electra Amsterdam from the Bikeportland.org raffle, much to my dismay. I guess I needed to buy more raffle tickets: I bought 10! Still, I like the site, so I'm glad to support it. Did I really need another bike? No, but it's just so pretty, I couldn't help but enter the raffle...

In other news, I've survived the holidaze (obviously) and the new years was uneventful other than the fact that I had some sort of stomach bug and we didn't go out, which was a bummer, but was probably safer in the long run. Happy New Years to all of you!

Did you make any New Years Resolutions? I did!

1. Be more patient and forgiving and less snappy and critical of my wife and son.
2. Get back to 2005's commitment to travel 50% of my travel miles by bicycle, which leads to #3
3. Get down to 180 lbs again (shouldn't be a problem if #2 is being done!)
4. Immerse my self further in Zomadic so that I can make a greater contribution to the company and feel more satisfaction at the end of each work day.
5. Simplify my life by removing much of the "stuff" I have hanging around and completing the multitude of projects that I have already lying around uncompleted.

Feel free to check up on me and my resolutions... sometimes it's nice to have that kind of jolt ;)

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

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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...

A long time dragon ass...

Well, it's been a LONG time since I've posted, and for that I am sorry. The video above is one I shot of the Dancing Dragon at Burning Man this year. It was a cool project though we came nowhere near the worlds record (nearly 2 miles long). According to Jim Bowers (clueless leader), we were 1247 ft long, which made us the longest piece of mobile art ever done at Burning Man, so we set at least one record. It was quite a challenge to get nearly 500 people working in lockstep; sections kept breaking due to hasty construction. All in all a success and I was glad to be part of it.

You can check out more of my Burning Man 2006 Photos HERE

Toothpaste up my ass

Thought I'd check my own favorite blogs, and made another inter-jump to the Oil is for Sissies blog. Scroll down to the August 11th posting, or just click HERE. Got a good LOL out of this one, though I had to stifle it to avoid waking the wife and child. It's my sentiments exactly.

CURRENT MUSIC: Peter Gabriel, Hit, Blood of Eden (Radio Edit)

Serendipity Strikes

After a failed attempt to send Kai to school (he looked like he was sick, but was in a fine mood) and some failed attempts at a park visit (he wouldn't let me change into appropriate clothes, and then there was the dirt-in-the-eye fiasco while playing with his trucks), we ended up cleaning out my wife's car. It was the last thing I felt like getting done today, but it was absolutely necessary, as the car stunk of something rotting (diaper? food?). While O.C vacuuming the car, I found a little something that I lost months ago and have been lamenting ever since. I FOUND the "D" scrabble tile that Stevie's parents gave me at Burning Man 2005.

Here is something I wrote about my experiences in meeting Stevie's parents at Burning Man 2005. I wrote this in an email and ended up copying it to several friends, so if you've read this before, please bear with me a moment:

Partial Email, c. October 2005

Burning Man was incredible as always. I performed a total of 9 marriages (I got ordained a few months ago so I could marry Merritt and Nikki in BRC) and served 2 3-hour shifts as Head Guardian Angel (aka "The Voice of the Temple") for the Temple of Dreams. I had an amazing time as Temple Guardian. Most memorable would have to be my meeting with Stevie's parents. Stevie's was a woman who worked for the BRC DPW (Black Rock City Department of Public Works), who was killed shortly after the event last year. She was 22. I never did meet her, but our paths seem to have crossed at least once. She had befriended one of my burning man friends by the name of Blue (Paul). I remember meeting up with him during last years event and we talked about this and that. He mentioned her and how awesome he thought she was. I found out from him later that she'd been killed in a freak car accident not too many miles away from the event. She had stayed several weeks after the event had ended to assist with clean-up. In fact, she was one of the last people off the playa. Her truck and trailer jacknifed from a freak wind and rolled 5 times. In talking to her parents, I came to learn that when her body was returned to them, there wasn't a scratch on her. Trippy. Going back to meeting her parents: 2 hours into my second shift and I was talking to my friend Judy (also my roomate at BM). She had come out to the temple with me at the beginning of my shift to write in her journal and work through some things. I felt a tap on my shoulder and this man and woman asked me if I was Sparky, the Voice. "I am". "We're Stevie's parents. I'm Paula and this is Tim". My mouth dropped open. Literally. That NEVER happens to me... it takes a lot to take me completely by surprise. Then the tears came... like a rain squall in Hana. It was immediate, and I couldn't stop it. The both embraced me immediately and we were all crying within seconds. Now mind you, I had just performed Merritt and Nikki's wedding not 3 hours before (which was a real tear jerker), so I was walking the rougher edges of my emotions. Never-the-less, what I felt for them was totally honest, totally real. It was surreal to be having this connection to these people I'd never met. I should explain though, that ever since I'd learned about Stevie, I'd felt like I'd lost a sister or best friend from a former life. It was weird that I'd never met her. When they told me who they were, my brain put it all together at once, kind of like a switch opening and the tears and emotions were like the electricity flowing through the conduit.

I talked with Paula and Tim for nearly an hour... they are amazing people and I was so honored that they had come and found me. I found out (much to my own chagrin) that my favorite piece of the temple was actually a shrine to Stevie. On one side was a beautiful carved dragonfly and on the other was a phoenix. Paula and Tim were trying to find all the guardian angels and thank them for protecting Stevie's shrine/effigy. They gave me two gifts that I've been carrying with me at all times ever since. The first was a ceramic or femo (not sure which) dragonfly pendant. The second was a scrabble tile with "Miss Stevious" and a tiny Burning Man on the back. More on those in a moment. I learned much more about Stevie that night. She was a bit like Neo in the Matrix movies in that nearly everyone she came in contact with was changed by her; somehow she had this unearthly charisma that just sucked you in. Nearly everyone I've ever talked to that knew her well said that she was like a force of nature. Shortly before Burning Man, she had gone to South Carolina to learn to work with tigers... I guess it turned out that the place was a CULT and they wanted the girls to sleep in the cages with the tigers. Stevie stuck it out for almost 3 days before she said "I'm outta here..." Such a tenacious one. Anyways... they told me all these trippy stories about dragonflies; They were Stevie's favorite creature. I guess one came and sat on Paula's shoulder during Stevie's memorial for nearly 2 hours. Another one came to sit in Stevie's grandmother's chair (right next to paula) at the wake when she got up to go in the kitchen. Also, they had been seeing dragonflies all over the playa... and the next morning I had two buzz RIGHT past me when I was sitting in the shade talking about my experiences with Paula and Tim the night before; it tripped ME out. So the dragonfly pendant has become far more significant to me; I see it as a connection to those gone and a good luck charm. The other gift they gave me was the scrabble tile. "D" is the letter on it... worth 2 points in scrabble. In talking to Paula and Tim, they told me how she was the best scrabble player they'd ever seen. She had like 4 or 5 scrabble sets, and was virtually unbeatable. She also had 5 dictionaries (a woman after my own heart). I wish I could have known her when she was alive.

While re-reading this I realized that the positive intention was there, but that my own writing tends to be a bit sophomoric when I don't self-edit, at least to my own ears. I'm leaving my previous blunders to stand, as that was how I wrote it and to clean it up now seems dishonest.

Finding the tile changed my whole day. My schedule had been hijacked (not an unusual occurrence when you have a 2 year old child), and there were 5 other projects I would rather have been doing. Truth be told, it would rather have been a lot of other places; I was feeling impatient, tired and irritable. I saw the tile and my heart leapt into my throat. I had almost vacuumed it up, and if I'd been looking just a little less carefully, I might have never found it. I was convinced that it had been thrown away or lost somewhere where I'd never find it. I was able to slow down mentally after finding it and the day has been better ever since.

I feel like Stevie's watching me,and it's a reminder to pay attention to what's important in my life. It always ends without notice, ever notice that? *smirk* I know she's going to be there at Burning Man 2006, if not in her corporeal form, then pervasively in her etherial form.

Here are some beautiful sites dedicated to Stevie.
By Dai Andrews
By [unknown?]
By Taz

A big thanks to Paula and Tim for finding me and giving me so many gifts, the best of which being a small feeling of having known an amazing woman I never met in person.

CURRENT MUSIC: The Pharcyde, Labcabincalifornia, Devil Music

A Fathers call for Mother Solidarity

As featured in the Jack Rabbit Speaks, the Fire in the Belly folks are trying to make this incredible piece of art happen. For all of you who have children, for all of you have had a miscarriage and for all of you who hope to someday have children, please consider a small donation. Even 5 bucks helps. This is a beautiful thing they're trying to do, and they're running out of time to do it. I know of several women who've had miscarriages before or during the event in years past, and this installation will no doubt see a lot of carthasis surrounding it's burn.

Just had to share

Just had to share that today Todd at Cleverchimp.com was able to ship out my STOKEMONKEY kit! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you don't know what a stokemonkey is, click HERE and see what it's all about. As soon as I get the rig and get it set up, I'll be posting photos and blog entries about it. In fact faithfull reader (all 2 of you), you'll probably be SICK of hearing about the stokemonkey very shortly and will discontinue reading my blog until I start talking about something else. Never fear! I only drone on for a few hundred entries before finding new things to carry on about. *smirk*

Tangled Webs

You know, every time I link to something I found somewhere, I realize that the world wide web, really is just that. A web. Though I may wax pedantic, stay with me here for a second.

I went to a lecture hosted by the Long Now Institute on March 10th at Fort Mason in San Francisco. Kevin Kelly spoke about recursion (among other things). Listen to the MP3 of the lecture HERE. I've been thinking about it ever since. Take this post for instance: I found today's link at the cleverchimp blog, who in turn found it ( I assume ) on the Letter from Hen Waller site, who was linking to an article entitled "Supermarkets and Service Stations Now Competing for Grain" written by Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute. That article can be found HERE.

More ammo for a push towards bicycling. As Holly at Letter from Hen Waller says, the soft pedaling approach to the hard truth (the increasing and insatiable need for internal combustion engine fuels in America) is a cop out. Yes, the efficiency of all personal vehicles needs to rise at least 20%, but we also MUST reduce demand, and fast. So as I like to say, RIDE A BIKE, WALK, TAKE A BUS/TRAIN, or maybe just STAY HOME!

As for my own car usage, it's mostly centered around my business in SF. It sucks for a commute. It's about 35 miles each way by bicycle, about 28-29 by car/motorcycle. Hopefully in the next week, Todd at Cleverchimp will send me my stokemonkey! Within a week of THAT, I should be commuting to work by BICYCLE! YAAAAAYYYY! Currently, I only drive when I can't ride, and every week I'm managing to make fewer trips by car. It's the best feeling I've had in years (well, since my son was born anyways).

Damn Birds

Well, this is the first time I've ever posted a link to an online game. First time I've really played one! On a trackpad, Damn Birds is pretty damn challenging, but I think if I had my turbo mouse, I could kick some a$$. A lot of fun, especially if you've just been $hit on by a bird recently. You are a pissed-off statue with a gun and it's time to let the birds HAVE IT!

Having a dad with a sense of humor…

Wow. Not one for the kiddies, but you adults should get a good laugh or perhaps cringe out of this one. For full disclosure, I found this at webegeeky.com which of course belongs to the highly esteemed Chris Gleason.

I never saw this ad on TV, but then again I don't watch much (significantly less than an hour a week), and I have a feeling this got banned rather quickly.

*Smirk, Snort*

Report a Marin County pothole or road hazard!

Reposted from the Marin County Bicycle Coalition's newsletter. I kept meaning to post this as a link to a valuable resource, so finally, here it is:

MARIN COUNTY BICYCLE COALITION (MCBC), WEEKLY BULLETIN, July 6, 2006

POT HOLE OR ROAD DEBRIS GOT YOU DOWN?
Call someone who can help!

Riding on poorly maintained road facilities can be dangerous. When road shoulders and bike lanes are littered with debris or extremely rutted, cyclists are forced to take the lane for their safety. If drivers are not aware of cyclists' rights to be in the lane, road rage and reckless passing by drivers often occurs.

Save your own skin (and that of your cycling friends!) by reporting all road hazards that you encounter to the proper jurisdiction. Those of us who ride the roads are the best eyes available to see and ask for conditions to be made safer. No one wants to maintain a liability, so call the right person from the list below.

Belvedere - Bob Branz, 435-4744
Corte Madera - Dave Bracken, 927-5120
Fairfax - Debra Sue Johnson, 453-0291
Larkspur - Hamid Shamsapour, 927-5017
Mill Valley - Wayne Bush, 388-4033 x113
Novato - Glenn Young, 899-8963
Ross - Mel Jarjoura, 453-1453 x119
San Anselmo - Rabi Elias, 258-4623
San Rafael - Andy Preston, 485-3359
Sausalito - Tom Birse, 289-4176
Tiburon - Tony Iacopi, 435-7399
Marin County - George Buckle, 499-7512
Caltrans Southern Marin - Lynn Houston, 289-2951
Caltrans West Marin - 663-1176
North Bay - 707-762-6641
Golden Gate Bridge - bridgecomments@goldengate.org

This list is available year-round on the MCBC website's (www.marinbike.org) Resources page.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

While looking for Andy Dick's "Presidential Speechalist" a humorous parody of a behind the scenes look at GWB's speech writer, my friend Rob and I came across THIS video. Someone spent a LOT of time piecing this one together, and it's definitely worth a watch. Max Headroom move over (sorry kiddies, some of you won't get that one), GWB's here to sing. Bono, don't worry, your day job is safe.

I'm going to be sick…

I've been a fan of Peter Gabriel's music for years. He's a fabulous musician and a brilliant, amazing performer. I've only seen him live twice, but his Growing Up tour was hands down the best live show I've ever seen. I've seen a lot of shows in my day, but the stage show for the growing up tour took everything I've ever seen to a whole new level. In concert, His crowd interaction was very genuine and made the show feel more intimate and personal than any show I'd ever been to. Blown away doesn't even begin to describe my experience.

Peter was instrumental in the creation of WOMAD.

Basically, I've got a lot of admiration for the guy.

Tonight I'm lying in bed reading my email while my wife is watching TV. I hear "Solsbury Hill", but a bastardized version, and look up to realize that cingular wireless has bought the rights to use the song in their ad for a "family talk" plan. Ugh. Cough, hack, sputter… the horror. I feel nauseous. As far as I know, Peter's never sold his soul to corporate interests, especially not to a souless corporation like cingular wireless, which is owned by the even more insidious AT&T. YUCK!!!!!!!

Maybe he's taking the profits and giving them to WOMAD. Maybe he's giving them to needy children. God, I hope so, because Solsbury Hill has always been a really beautiful song that held a lot of meaning for me, and it's been commodified, chopped up (and no, not in a good "remix" kind of way) and stripped of it's soul and meaning so some lame cellular company can have some background music for a meaningless ad that no one cares a rat's ass about. Dear lord I despise the corporate commodification of art.

Frontlines Fact from the NRDC

I've been a member of the NRDC for several years now. I receive their onearth magazine and with the bevy of other reading material I inevitable have in front of me, it usually takes me a while to get around to reading through it. I noticed this little factoid they threw in the middle of an article called "Voyage of the Sorcerer", which in in of itself deserves a blog entry.

"200 state food-safety and public-health protections were removed in April [2006] by the National Uniformity for Food Act. Since 2000 the American food industry has contributed more than $81 million to congressional campaigns."

onearth, Volume 28, Number 2, Pg. 9

"What" you might ask, "is the National Uniformity for Food Act"
You might need some time for this if you don't already know about it.

Read the speeches that were given in the House HERE

HERE'S what the Food Industry had to say about their victory.

HERE'S what the Organic Consumers Association had to say.

HERE'S what the Sierra Club had to say.

As far as I can gather, H.R 4167 makes states comply to federal law inre: food safety. Example: if California law says that the allowable level of mercury in fish is .05mg and the federal level is 5mg, the federal law supercedes the state law. There are other aspects to this law, but basically, consumers and states get the shaft. Guess who supports this law? Yeah, mostly republicans and the food industry. Who opposes? Democrats and Consumer advocacy and protection groups. Did it pass? UNFORTUNATELY, YES. Basically, the food industry is LESS accountable than before. Lovely. Of course, if most people knew about this when it was happening, they probably would have called their representatives and said "VOTE NO!". I mean, who wants to eat contaminated or dangerous food? I can't think of anyone (unless they were pathological or suicidal) that would want to eat things that could kill them or harm their children.

The word "DUH!" comes to mind here… and a double dose of that to me for not knowing about this when it was happening.

CURRENT MUSIC: The Raconteurs: Broken Boy Soldiers

Todd's reviews of "An Inconvenient Truth"

Todd reviewed "An Inconvenient Truth" and now I know why I instinctively knew that I didn't need to see it.

1. It would just boil my blood
2. I already "get it" so I'd just be wasting my money seeing "news" about things I'm already aware of
3. Riding my bicycle is a far better way to spend my time than sitting in a movie theater
4. Al Gore is STILL a politician. Y'all who know me know how I feel about politicians: "if their mouths are open, their lying."

Please, please, please; if you read this blog, please go read Todd's article. So very very right on the money, and so very well written. The guy has a way with words that makes me green with envy. Now if he would just get me my Stokemonkey!

"Houston, we have a problem…"

Sorry. Another one from darkreading.com. This article is about the vulnerability of the new ADS-B air traffic control system. A determined hacker (and I used to know a few in high-school) with a little bit of gear could reek all sorts of mayhem at the airport. What if Al-Queida paid a scrawny, pasty faced, socially impaired little hacker to crash planes for them? Sound farfetched? Think again. I'd like to see the FAA take this seriously, given that the last major weapon of mass destruction used in the U.S was a commercial airplane.

USB Demon Seed

Those of you with any interest in the security of your financial records should read this article. Very interesting, and makes me feel a little less silly for the minimum of security I place on my computer. Check it out.

Batman?

I found this article through rotten.com. The wing is a pretty cool thing, but people have already been doing this with wingsuits for years. Granted, wingsuits won't let you travel 120 miles, but they'll let you go a lot farther than a stadard parachute will, and you don't need a hard wing that you can't readily dispose of once you land in "enemy" territory. Either way, the thing looks like fun; hopefully some of the sky diving companies will get some of these so civilians can start using them!

Franken Fotolog

Franken Fotolog; Bridge Photo

This guy took an amazing photo of a footbridge somewhere in Europe: I'm not sure if the one person you can see is riding a bicycle, but cheese & rice, why don't we have bridges like this? That's just beautiful!

China the beautiful

Holy cow… I always knew China had some beautiful places, but I've never been there. My friend joe has taken several photos at one of the same places (the view from the top of the terraced rice paddy hills), but this guy has so many more. Check it out. BTW, I found a new kind of del.icio.us: it's called PixRat. As usual, my username is nollij, so you can look for the photos I find on the internet there as well as finding my links in del.icio.us.

Enjoy!