Awesomeness

Toys R Us Ferrari Cruiser Bike. What's so awesome about it? It's $4,400 and it's an aluminum frame! A "comfort" aluminum frame. Anyone familiar with bikes can tell you: Those words don't fit together.

It appears that what's running the price up is:
1. The front generator wheel hub.
2. The automatic shifting electronics.
3. A cheap saddle that says Ferrari.

I must admit that if you got rid of #3 and charged $1,500 you might actually sell a few to rich folks looking for "the mostest awesome bike." You can't sell at Toys R Us though.

Why Cyclists aren't Cool

In case you're unaware of this factoid: Cyclists aren't cool. We try, God knows we try. We even buy overpriced shorts. We have special hats. We constantly obsess over our rides. We even work out!

But in the end we're still riding a one man vehicle which denies the primary purpose of life: To have sex and create more people. Well, at least that's the apparent purpose of life to anyone under 22. And let's face it: "Cool" is a term that exists to help people under 22 find a fertile partner.

To make matters worse we actually tuck our pants into our socks (or worse yet, buy a special strap) to keep it out of our chain. If we were cool we'd put that bike where it belongs: In the garage. Then we'd drive a friggin' car cause it's just easier! We'd eat chips (crisps, chips, or fries as long as it's a fried potato) and get fat like a normal person. Then we'd go on to demand free health care for our now necessary heart surgeries.

There's just nothing cool about cycling. But we would be doing fine if it weren't for these guys.


These guys retroactively made us all uncool. I vote that we kick them off the island.

My Next Bike

Ah I've found her. She's a long way away but I've found my next bike. And here is the frame to base her on: http://www.somafab.com/speedsterplus.html

I'm thinking downtube shifters (part of the Dura Ace group) and decent brake levers. I've grown to loath STI brifters and long for brake levers that weren't made for ogre hands. That longing has been fulfilled on my commuter which uses bar end shifters. I'd rather reach to shift then have humongous hoods that I can barely get my hands around.

Anyway, the frame is lugged which is the big thing I'm looking for. I thought I'd have to go used but I managed to find a sexy lugged frame for $800, new.

And of course it's steel.

Trouble with a frame like this is that I can't ride it anywhere so I'll have to figure the geometry and sizing out on my own. Well, if they still make this frame when I have money to buy another bike that is.

Commuter Benefits. Just in case you thought you're being ripped off by not getting a tax credit for your transit costs I'd like to remind you that the federal Government already gives a tax credit for:
* Use of mass transit.
* Paid parking costs.

It's about time they gave something to cyclists. I think I'd be happier if they ditched all of the incentives and invested in building useful bus systems instead. The last thing we need is more subsidized downtown car parking.

Toyota iQ

Have you seen the iQ? This is a pretty cool concept. It's pretty similar to the Smart ForTwo with two big differences:
1. You can actually seat 4 people if you need.
2. It gets great mileage. The Smart only gets 33/41 mileage which is great but this car is claiming 55 mpg (they don't specify city/hwy). I'm unsure why the Smart doesn't get better mileage: It has about the same weight and volume and it's engine is similar. Smart must simply be making a cheaper (read sloppier) product.

In other, unrelated, news: Target's battery selection looks like it's been under attack. I forgot that normal people buy 10 thousand batteries after Christmas for all of their new devices. I, on the other hand, simply needed to keep a few more AAA's on hand.

9sp Means 9sp

When I ask for a 9 speed cassette I mean a 9 speed cassette. The last time I got an 8 speed cassette. It's a good thing I road the bike before assuming it was ready to go with this new cassette.

It'd also be nice if bike shops carried non-performance parts. Hyper glide is overkill for commuters. I don't want to pay more for chains that wear out faster. I want to pay more for chains that last a lot longer.

Ultracapacitor

Similar energy density to Li-ion battery. It'll be interesting if this isn't vapourware.

Asus Eee

This is exciting. The Asus Eee. It's so inexpensive it's scary and it's a solid state system.

There's virtually no space and the screen is tiny so it's not laptop replacement. However, it's more portable and likely more comfortable in ones lap so it may be a great platform to take on the road.

I'm strongly considering buying one for ciding, especially since I can buy one with linux pre-installed.

Yay for Studs

So this week was a good test for all of my equipment. On Monday it was bitterly cold. On Tuesday we had lots of snow. On Friday we had a sheet of ice. Zero falls all week. The only close calls I had were in driven snow on Tuesday night when I decided to make use of side streets: Big mistake.

I did end up going out and buying ski goggles after Monday.

Snowy Ride In

Today was my first truly snowy commute. There was probably an inch and a half of fresh snow this morning and double that on the way home.

By and large it wasn't a problem. On the way in it was virtually all fresh snow: Lots of work but very little affect on stability. On the way home I took some side streets which were completely unplowed by driven a little bit. This was a rough ride. You'd hit certain patches of disturbed snow and your bike would shake back and forth. At first it was extremely disconcerting and I thought impossible to deal with. However, I eventually realized that I wasn't falling down and if I kept my speed up I kept better balance.

Keeping my speed up meaning to go faster than 6mph...

Overall it wasn't bad. Last night I purchased ski goggles. These are a huge help. At this point I cover every inch of skin and keep everything pretty warm. I could use some warmer gloves though.

The current winter equipment:
* Studded tires: $90 (pair)
* Fleece mittens: $10
* Cotton glove liners: $10
* Weather shell: $100
* Ski goggles: $45
* Insulated Shoes: $40
* Balaclava (smart wool, I recommend it): $30
* Beanie (half wool, I couldn't find all wool): $20
* Warm long johns: $40 (I'm not sure, they were a gift)
* Regular shirts and jackets, I'm not gonna cost this cause it's not for biking.
Total: $385

Winter cycling gear is not cheap. Although most of the cost is in a few small items. You only need studded tires on a few days, but you can't put them on each time without wearing the tire out before the tread is worn. Anyway, purchasing a second wheelset or putting the studs on a junker bike, solves this. You'll wear through wheelsets anyway, so don't worry about the cost in the long run.
The weather shell is worth it and is useful during every season but summer.

You can live without the ski goggles. I wanted something to keep my glasses from icing over and to keep that part of my face warm on negative temperature days. They keep my face warm but I must admit that I still get some fog on my glasses. It's better though. These things really ought to be cheaper though. Hopefully I can get several years out of them.

You need insulated shoes if you intend to ride when it's below 20 degrees.

Chevy Volt

How is it that the 2500lb Tesla Roadster has a range of 244 miles on commodity lithium ion cells and the Chevy Volt has a range of 40 miles on a 375lb advanced technology lithium ion battery pack?

If the Roadster has 6 times the batteries it would have to be a 200lb frame, motor, wheelset, and axels: It's not, there's no way.

Is the Volt simply that much of a power hog? Is Chevy making stuff up because they don't want to ship this car? Is the Volt vaporware?

iPods are Cheap Junk

This is the 3rd time my iPod has locked up in a year. Each time it does it you have to wait for the battery to fully discharge before using it again: Be careful not to plug it in, you could be in for a long wait. This isn't acceptable behavior, especially from a device with a sealed battery.

Next time I'm buying a Zune.

Possibly a new bike shop

LJS blog.

One of the commenters suggests it could be a trek store. I hope not. We've got plenty of Trek here. It'd be nice to have something like monkey wrench on the south side. Something that carries good stuff in addition to what's popular: You know, a store where the saddle area isn't filled with gel cushions but has a wide variety of saddles including Brooks. Something that carries some steel frames.

Flats and Tires

Monday night I had a random blow out flat. The tube was toast: There was a centimeter diameter hole in it that had ripped into an even larger tear.

I swapped that tube out and went to the bike shop to refill my supply of spares. The shop informed me that I was using too large of tube by using the tube which says it fits my tire size: Life is so straight forward. So, now I have about a billion tubes for 32-35c tires.

On Tuesday night I discovered the same tire had jumped up over the rim in one spot. I found this out on my way home as the tire rubbed on the brakes: Shockingly I was able to go quite a way like this before I realized that vibration wasn't from the road.

So I got to use my frame pump twice this week. I hate frame pumps!

I can't wait for those new wheels so that, at least on dry days, I can ride with decent tires!

Silly Rabbit, Linux is Free as in Freedom

Some silly teacher went and confiscated (without good reason) some kids copies of HeliOS. It's a sad sad world when our teachers are so confident in what they don't understand. Alright, it's not so bad. This is just one idiot and for some reason schools seem to have a tendency to try far to hard to obey the law. Often obeying laws that don't actually exist.

WSJ Reviews an eBike

The Electric Car Is Coming

Finally, what looks like a sensible electric car. It's expensive but it's competitive. I doubt it could be as cheap as a Smart Car (TCO) but it's competitive. So, if avoiding buying gas, or avoiding carbon use, or making use of that insane solar array is a goal this looks like a reasonable electric vehicle.
* It's small but it has 4 wheels, not 3. 3 wheeled vehicles probably work fine but they look funny and right now that's a concern for most consumers.
* It has enough range for city driving: 50 miles.
* It's cost to purchase is competitive with 5 seat economy cars.
* It can do 70mph, if the DOT passes it for safety. This will be important for those who live in cities with a beltway.

It looks like it has a big limitation: A lead acid battery. To the end user that means that the 50 mile range is not something you can do regularly. Lead acid batteries die if you fully discharge them often. They're cheap, and handle partial charges well which makes them perfect for your car starter. I'd like to see this in a NiMH version but I'm guessing that would add a few thousand to the cost.

For this kind of vehicle I would think it'd be reasonable to cut the battery size by about 20% (assuming you can do a full discharge) to 40 miles range and drop the power such that it can barely hold 55: This would be a stop gap car for folks who can happily give up freeway driving. Towns like, well, Lincoln, NE which have no freeway don't require a car that can exceed 45mph but they do require 45mph. It'd make an excellent second car for quite a few people: The car "daddy drives to work."

This isn't how I know the electric car is coming though. This is. Electric bikes are becoming cost effective using Li-Ion cells and pedal based throttle. It's a lot easier to make this (electric power supply) work on a bicycle due to the efficiency. And what happened the last time that bicycles became affordable for the common man? Henry Ford and others made cars affordable for him as well. It has to do with the shocking amount of infrastructure and function that they share.

You can currently buy what looks like a nice electric bike for $1,900 in the US. They don't appear to be popular but they're new. While $1,900 sounds like a fortune for a bike it works out quite a bit cheaper than an automobile: If you actually use the bike. The advantage? While Giant doesn't seem to be forward with their numbers most of these bikes offer a 2:1 power ratio. That means that the bike gives twice the power you do. So a regular guy with no cycling history can keep up with someone who cycles semi-regularly. It means going to work at 15mph without choosing between crawling up the hills or getting sweaty.

Missile Defense Works!

Sort of. It works if the missile you're shooting at doesn't have any counter measures. Wow, I'm so impressed. Ignoring the political implications of this there are some engineers who should be very embarrassed right now. Embarrassed that some idiot considered this a successful test and told the media about it.

Weren't we arguing about this 8 years ago? Wasn't this supposed to work by now? I mean, really work in a test that wasn't screwed up?

New Wheels

Okay, so studs are wonderful. Studs are work. So I'm buying a second set of wheels to put my regular tires on.

I decided to go with a nicer set of wheels than I have. They're lower spoke count and lighter. The same rim width for easy swapping. ALX220's for under $250. It's good to know that not everyone is insane and you can buy wheelsets that are cost effective (assuming these don't turn out to be cheap junk).

So I'll put my normal street tires on these and put them on on days like Friday where I really didn't need any studs.

Studs

Yesterday was my first ride with studs. No falls, so either I was on my game (read: chicken shit of falling) or they work pretty well.

Dish Detergent Makes a Bad Degreaser

I learned something today: Dish detergent won't cut it to clean your chain. I ran it through about 4 times with two different detergents and got murky water. Then I sprayed some finish line degreaser on the chain and ran plain water: Black.

The lesson: Clean your dishes with chain degreaser. That'll take off that stuck on grease :).

Warning: It burns.

It's Worse!

I looked at their findings.

• Liberals score an average of 49%; conservatives score 48%.

Nowhere did the quiz ask me my political views. Yet it somehow categorized me?

• Only 21% know that the phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people” comes from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

That's because it's not important that it comes from here. It's an obvious derision of two hundred years of political theory which some might say culminates in the US Constitution. The important part is that they understand this purpose of Government.

Less than one in five know that the phrase “a wall of separation” between church and state comes from a letter by Thomas Jefferson. Almost half incorrectly believe it can be found in the Constitution.

The important thing is that over half know it's not out of the US Constitution. Where it came from is trivia. This is a good result, a surprisingly good result.


They must accompany this quiz with a questionnaire with their other information elsewhere. Then they roll the results in with everyone's results and come to negative conclusions whenever they possible can. Booooo.

We Don't Know History!

Oh noes! We've forgotten our heritage. Did you know that when asked this question:
33) If taxes equal government spending, then:
A. government debt is zero
B. printing money no longer causes inflation
C. government is not helping anybody
D. tax per person equals government spending per person
E. tax loopholes and special-interest spending are absent

Some of us don't know that the answer is D! That could be because the question is worded terribly. I actually answered "A" because with progressive taxes "D" only makes sense in the average and I couldn't find "the budget is balanced."

They also ask these:
7) What was the source of the following phrase: “Government of the people, for the people, by the people”?

15) The phrase that in America there should be a “wall of separation” between church and state appears in:

27) Free markets typically secure more economic prosperity than government’s centralized planning because:

Which tells me that we have a conservative think tank asking annoyingly tricky questions. I'll be honest: I missed #33 and #7. Fortunately for me, old Abe wasn't wrong when he said that in the Gettysburg address.

Let me show you the first sentence of the US Constitution (highly abridged): "We the People of the United States ... do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. "

Well, I guess he had one thing wrong. It's Government by the people for the pandas!


The quiz has enough sensible questions to trick you into thinking that its results will be important. In the end though it's a politically charged constitutional history quiz, instead of a civics quiz.

I propose that they add some things which matter to a citizen outside of politics. I'm not sure what they'd be: I tried and I just game up with a different bias then they did ;).

Why Commute By Bike?

As you may know I'm a full time bike commuter finishing up my first year. So I thought I'd run a few articles on what I've learned about commuting by bike so far. Look at the category "guide" to see everything.

To start we'll consider a cost analysis. These numbers are intended to be ball park figures. I'll miss minor details and probably make some estimates incorrectly. The purpose is the comparison.

Cost by car. We'll use a semi-fictional car that retails for $18,000 (with all of the goodies that you end up buying and taxes). Our car averages 30mpg. So keep in mind that this is an economy car. We're assuming 15,000 miles per year of use.
* Cost of car: $18,000
* Maintenance: $1,000 per year. (Note that maintenance tends to have a delay effect)
* Gasoline: $1,125 per year. (At $2.25 per gallon)
* Insurance: $800 per year.
* Taxes: $150 per year.

Running the car for 12 years and getting $2000 out of it at that point: $18,000 + 12*($1,000 + $1,125 + $800 + $150) - $2,000 = $51,100.
* Cost per mile: $52,900 / 180,000 = $.29.

Please keep in mind:
* We didn't include financing
* We assumed that gas would stay at the current price, and it won't.
* We assumed you'll drive this car for most of its lifespan.
* Insurance and taxes start high and go down. So this is a huge estimation!

Edmunds estimate, over a 5 year driving period, would be around $.45 for this size car. However, no frugal car purchaser is buying a new car every five years!

Cost by bike. I'm gonna use my bike, which is a bit fancy for a commuter.
* The bike: $1,025
* Maintenance: $100
* Fuel added in later.
* Insurance: $0
* Taxes: $0
* Replacement parts: $1,400

These are estimated over the life of the bike which I'm calling 30,000 miles. Many, many folks report getting a lot better mileage out of their bikes. However, somewhere in this area you'll find that many of your components are worn out and require replacement. You may or may not want to just buy a new bike. Some folks swear that they can keep a bike running indefinitely.

The cost of fuel is hard to figure since it depends so much on what you eat. I'm going to use this blog as a source of food costs. It takes about 40 calories for a cyclist to propel himself one mile. To get into less basic food it takes about $.10 for 40 calories. You'll probably eat cheaper stuff to refuel from cycling, but that's okay we'll cost for real food. If you ate peanut butter it's about $.03 per mile. If you ate smoked turkey it's about $.64 per mile!

You should also keep in mind that the average US adult is overweight. You may already be eating enough to make your commute. NOTE: You'll suffer from weight loss and longer life.

Cost:
* The Bike: ($1,025 + $1,400) / 30,000 = $.08 per mile
* The Gas: $.10 per mile
* Total: $.18 per mile

So. With decent food and an expensive bike we've still come out cheaper than we could hope to get in the car. And it may be that the food cost is almost nothing because we might be eating that anyway! Besides that: Cheetos taste good; gas smells like poison.

If we commute 10 miles a day (5 miles each way). 22 days a month. That's 10 * ($.29-$.18) * 22 = $24.20 per month. It's not exactly a fortune is it? It gets a lot better if you can do enough commuting to get rid of the car or relegate it to the minimum insurable mileage. You might also keep this in mind. You're theoretically supposed to get that money, somehow, to pay costs on your bike. It's in the interests of evening things out with respect to existing bus and personal auto parking subsidies which are far bigger.


Next I'll talk about what sort of bikes are available and what makes a good commuter.

The IEA Is on the Peak Oil Boat

It looks like the IEA has jumped on the peak oil boat.

Basically the report estimates that our demand will rise at a slightly slower pace and we'll make up most of it using alternative methods. In 2030 they show natural gas and non conventional oil as making up about 25 million barrels per day, or about a quarter of the oil supply. Most of the rest is from currently undeveloped fields, what's left of existing fields and to a smaller extent newly discovered fields.

How much do they estimate it will cost? $200 a barrel in 2030. That means, according to my napkin calculations, $6 a gallon gas here in the midwest.

Typically the IEA forecasts a pretty rosy outlook for oil. I wonder why the sudden turn.

Grow your own diesel?

This could be kind of cool, in a long long time. But it's possible that this fungus could grow on grass. Imagine having a diesel garden.

Brookes Swallow

I got a new Brook's Swallow saddle for my birthday. She's so pretty :).

Ride

I went for a nice ride today, although it wasn't as nice as the plan. The plan was Lincoln to Cortland. Cortland to Roca. Roca to Bennet. Bennet back to Lincoln. 56 miles.

Well, I took a wrong turn after roca and ended up on a gravel saltillo road. Only got 50 miles in, oh well.

I'm hoping to get ready for track and back in a couple weeks.

The Media Hates Palin - And Newt Gingrich

It's a load of crap. The media is unbelievably agnostic to Palin. They seem to refuse to criticize her but instead criticize McCain for hiding her.

Let's look at the first four results on news.google.com for 'Palin.'

A less-popular Sarah Palin heads to debate:
The article starts to talk about how Palin initially helped the McCain campaign but then disappeared off the media map (probably has something to do with her refusal to talk to the media -- because they're so mean).

The article then cites a poll which indicates that some folks think Palin isn't ready to be President if McCain dies.

The article then has some quotes from regular people about Palin.

This is totally off limits. They talked about a valid issue (a candidates experience) and then went on to ask voters what they thought of the candidate. The media is being absolutely terrible to this woman! Shame on you Los Angelas Times!.

McCain's 'Stop Sarah Palin' strategy working like a charm, polls show:
This one is even worse. It accuses McCain of keeping Palin out of the lime light. That's terrible! I mean, yes, she's been out of the lime light. And, yes, it's McCain's campaign. And, yes, he does tend to interrupt her questioning in interviews (Curric interview). But there's no reason to point out the obvious!

This article should be talking about how she doesn't sleep around on her husband! How she can camp, hike, and shoot good too! She's a good person, of course she can run the US Senate! (Okay, she has had it out with big oil -- and won: She probably can command the senate).

Political Wisdom: Sarah Palin's Big Moment Arrives:
This one really criticizes her. Apparently she sucked it up pretty bad with Curric (she did) and the pundits are wondering how well she'll do in the debate.

This is actually ridiculous. I really hate it when pundits get too far into the debates before they happen.


McCain dogged by questions over Palin:
This is about McCain about Palin. Yea, he's defensive. No wonder the media is all over it. He comes off as if he's been cornered. They're pressing it. Way to go McCain: You were a solid candidate before you started spouting crap about Obama's "naivity."

Then you start talking about working with Palin on energy issues. I hope Palin knows something about energy, but I suspect she knows a lot about oil (specifically how to tax oil companies) and not much about other, more realistic, forms of energy.


As I watch this thing unfold I'm seeing McCain calling names, spouting half truths about war funding, blaming the media (like a child), and failing to present rational thought in his first debate. I'm watching Obama talk about the future, talk about his plans, and present important information about why he made controversial votes. Biden and Palin are hardly covered (not a surprise).
I liked McCain. Until I saw his political ads. I liked Obama. I still like Obama.

We've got big problems folks. Demand that the candidates shut up about each other and talk about themselves and their plans on: Energy, economy, and security. Everything else is secondary because those three things could leave us speaking a foreign language if they're not handled well.

Now I'm listening to Newt Gingrich talk about shale oil in the rockies. Although NPR reported that it could be pulled for as little as $33 a barrel, it just hasn't happened. Admittedly that is probably because oil prices were below that until about 6 years ago. All reports I've heard indicate that getting this oil is barely better than 1:1: That's one barrel of oil worth of energy for one barrel of oil worth of product.
Current production is supposedly around 20:1. Production fifty years ago was more like 90:1. Oil is getting harder to get: And it's not surprising. We took the easy stuff first. Duh.

Everyone Should Watch This

Pelosi Speech.

This bailout is messed up. And I'm sad to see a President fail to lead the people but instead be "disappointed."

I don't know if we should do it or not, but I do know it shouldn't be unregulated: That'd be stupid and naive.

Global Warming Petition Project

Shockingly I first heard of this today, in todays editorial section. I thought, "yea, right, I wonder how long it takes to complete the web form."

Well, it's not a web form. Over half of their respondents have been required to mail in their signature (their early signers didn't have to, I presume they could e-mail). 31,000 "scientists" have signed it! 9,000 even have PhD's! Okay, so I'm not obsessed with academic degrees, but if you don't have a PhD then what kind of scientist are you signing this? A student? Well, that's fine. Often students have some great ideas.

Well, really the breakdown looks like most of these folks aren't scientists by any normal definition. They're working folks in industry. They're not signing because of that, but they're not publishing papers either.

Still, 9,000 PhD's is quite a few. Certainly many of them are what you'd call "scientists."

If only they were terribly serious about what they signed. Scientific American, 2006:

Scientific American took a random sample of 30 of the 1,400 signatories claiming to hold a Ph.D. in a climate-related science. Of the 26 we were able to identify in various databases, 11 said they still agreed with the petition—one was an active climate researcher, two others had relevant expertise, and eight signed based on an informal evaluation. Six said they would not sign the petition today, three did not remember any such petition, one had died, and five did not answer repeated messages. Crudely extrapolating, the petition supporters include a core of about 200 climate researchers -- a respectable number, though rather a small fraction of the climatological community.

What I find interesting is that they've gotten 7,600 PhD's to sign this in two years? Hmm, I doubt that. If only there were an example of fraud. 2005, Hawaii Reporter:

In less than 10 minutes of casual scanning, I found duplicate names (Did two Joe R. Eaglemans and two David Tompkins sign the petition, or were some individuals counted twice?), single names without even an initial (Biolchini), corporate names (Graybeal & Sayre, Inc. How does a business sign a petition?), and an apparently phony single name (Redwine, Ph.D.).

Now, if you want to find out how the scientific community feels about global warming then ask its database: Published scholarly works which have been peer reviewed.

Peter Norvig's summary is my favorite due to his writing style. The important part of it is his references to the two scholarly meta studies on the subject. Norvig's is a casual and small sample size replication of theirs. Norvig is no climatoligist, so his study should be taken with a grain of salt. Oreskes and Peiser are the papers to consider.


I've listened to scientists who disagree with global warming, or at least some part of it. Some have some great points (Al Gore blew things out of proportion by showing the projected worst case scenarios). Their disagreement is hardly stunning and usually laced with implicit agreement that we are causing some change. Search you-tube for these. They're interesting.

Global warming isn't religion and it's not a you verse me political issue. It's a problem of debatable scale with debatable methods for battling it, and the debate isn't for you and I: Most of us think we can't fix our computer or car, we're far too inept to discuss something truly complex.

What is for you and me is a debate of what you and I should be doing and shouldn't be doing.

The Pickens Plan

This is on tv a lot. It doesn't entirely sound like a bad idea. The idea is to expand wind energy, massively, and use natural gas to fuel new fleet vehicles (which according to Pickens makes up 38% of our oil needs).

Here's my problem: Where's the conservation? Are we just replacing one finite resource for another in order to keep an unsustainable lifestyle going? That would just hold out death for another generation. Are we just gonna assume we'll have functional cold fusion in one hundred years?

We can't fix this thing with conservation, but we can make the fix cheaper with conservation. This doesn't mean changing everything it really means one thing:
1. Consider the energy costs of the things you do as well as the normal considerations of convenience and cost. So, convenience, cost, and conservation.

There are two things which can bring this about:
1. Patriotism.
2. The market.

You won't like the second option. It's $12 gas and $1000 utility bills. We may never see energy prices that high, but energy prices on that scale will definitely make conservation a top issue in every purchasers mind.

The first option is the real thing. It's making sacrifice for your country. It's not a lapel pin. It's not an offensive and ridiculous $2 plastic flag in the ground that you forgot to grab last night before the sun went down. It's not a flag you'll disgrace when it falls out of the car window.

The sacrifices don't have to be tough, now. There's a lot of little things.
* This site has some, although it's California so it takes water conservation very seriously.
* Want to save gas without spending any money: A less ridiculous form of hypermiling can help. Basically drive defensively and patiently. The game is to put yourself into situations where you will use the brakes less. Don't just "try not to brake." That's dangerous. "Try not to need to brake." The difference is looking ahead and having a plan and if you're not doing it already with respect to safety then you're a bad driver.
* Walk. It's the best form of transit and it's effective for distances up to 1.5 miles. Just remember that it takes 20 minute to walk a mile (slightly less actually).
* Bicycle. It's the second best form of transit and it's effective for distances up to 8 miles, although the distance expands with more experience (you get faster).
* Buy the model with the smallest available engine. Anything larger is a rip off: They're selling you aluminum at a high price and it's only going to cost you money. (This doesn't apply to folks buying trucks, this is concerned with passenger vehicles).
* Just park in the back, the walk will be good for you and the search for a great spot only wastes time and gas. I know it's hard to resist, I do it too sometimes. Plus, by parking in the back you're reducing your parking lot driving which is accident riddled.
* More square feet means more cost not just "more." Just buy the space you'll need when you buy a house. You might get a house that's a bit too big, don't sweat it. But so many houses going up today are simply gigantic. And it's expensive. It's expensive to heat and cool and the price tag on the house is huge. Do you really want to pay your mortgage for 30 years? Wouldn't you rather retire a little early with the money you save on interest?
* Buy quality stuff and take care of it. Keep in mind that it's not always a cost issue to find quality, but it usually is. You won't find much quality here. They're all about price and volume, and you can increase volume with lower quality.
* Cook.

Most of this stuff isn't even sacrifice. Much of it is actually just being a smart consumer.

David Feherty: You Rule

The Man Got Hit By a Truck.

And he's livin' on to say awesome stuff like this:

In an 11-day period in June, eight cyclists were struck by Dallas-area motorists. Three of the riders were killed, and one did time in intensive care. The others had “minor injuries” like mine. Ha! Lucky them! Later that month, I witnessed one of Dallas’ finest writing up the cyclist in front of me for going through a three-way stop at a walking pace, an act of gross stupidity by the Police Department that, given the events of earlier that month, further highlighted the astonishingly arrogant and erroneous thinking of city and state officials.

I think that when you get hit by a truck you instantly become right about a lot of things people would have previously ignored. Especially about things which concern traffic safety.

It could just be me, but I doubt it.

Cadillac

Cadillac apparently thinks its customers are rodents. They'll run to flashy, shiny objects and do anything for sex.

Utility and valuable helpful luxury be damned. The people want big motors and pretty colors.

Achieving a grand 20/21 mpg the escalade hybrid is truly, well, a joke. Not as bad as this one though. The Lexus gets better mileage (slightly), but it's a Sedan. My Buick is competitive. My 1996 Buick. At least the escalade seats 8. Not that folks who can afford an $80,000 car will ever have 6 children or 6 friends willing to accept a ride. Sorry, was that a nasty generalization?

Max Rider Capacity:
Honda Odyssey 7 * 21MPG = 147MPG (per rider)
Escalade Hybrid: 8 * 20.5MPG = 164MPG (per rider)
Chevy Express: 15 * 14MPG = 210MPG (per rider)
Prius: 5 * 46MPG = 230MPG (per rider)

Why aren't they shipping hybrid minivans and passenger vans? Am I just not noticing these hitting the market? Like this one? (Japan). 40MPG out of a minivan. That's 280MPG per rider.


Hybrid timeline.

Death Threats from a Kid

So I'm coming out of Hy-Vee. I come to my bike to unlock it (I had it locked to a cart holder, it's the best and most out of the way spot at this Hy-Vee, plus my u-lock works on it). I set my bags down and behind me I hear:

"Hey Patty, remember when you hit that guy on a bike? You should hit another guy on a bike."

It continued on along the same lines. The mother (I presume based on the number of kids and the use of a minivan and ability to ignore stupidity) said nothing.

The girl must have been 7 or 8. Maybe a bit older. I don't think she was joking.

I would never listen to death threats from my kid. This sounded like childhood aggression out of control. Unlike more emotionally healthy kids she doesn't hit, spit, run, or fight. She instead tries to tear people down from the inside.

New Urbanism for the non-green

What's new urbanism? Basically it's a movement to build neighborhoods the way we used to:
1. Apartments
2. Condos and other shared wall structures
3. Small lots (you may have no yard)
4. Bad parking

Why would you ever want this? The medium (large actually) lot single family home with a two car garage is American right? It's like Apple pie and a cheeseburger. Well, yes, it is. It's bad for you.

Here's the one solid reason why you want this sort of neighborhood: America gave you 4 wheels and a freeway, then it charged you $5,000 a year to pay for it (actually more, but the extra costs - mostly parking - are hard to pin down). God gave you two legs. Then he built you to use them. Seriously, he built you to use them.

The main advantage of new urbanism is the ability to walk most places.

Now, there's one obvious problem: Work. Every other destination can be transplanted (even family, which moves for reasons outside your control). But your job if your life right? This is in a way the sacrifice of our intellectual working society: Your sort of stuck in your career path because you know so much about it and you can't just work anywhere.

Well, that's a problem that's up to you to solve. This isn't an argument that new urbanism can solve all of our travel woes or that everyone should live in these neighborhoods. This is an appeal to explain why you should desire to live in this style of neighborhood. An explanation of why it is attractive.
The solution part should fall into place as a majority of us stop taking up so much space in our large single family dwellings. How many houses do you pass on your way to work? Now, how many driveways? How many gigantic (mostly empty) free parking lots? People don't live in driveways, expensive ($5,000 or so annually) cars do.


The video is a bit more, um, eco-centered.
Video.

I'm thinking one major problem is a total lack of availability. There just aren't hardly any of these neighborhoods. And they're expensive. Not because of the cost of supply but because of the level of, largely ignored, demand. I'd love to live in one of these places if, well, Lincoln had much to offer. Mostly they just have crummy apartments near downtown and a few houses near downtown (on medium, actually large, lots).

It really should save you a fortune to live in this style of neighborhood. Maybe when it's done being a hoity toity fad it'll become a utilitarian feature again.

Debunking Debunking Portland, Part 3

Linkie.

This is actually a well written article. I only have one problem. The source he's using is only showing $2 billion dollars of federal expenditure on roads. There's no way that's even close.

According to this link (same source): They're spending about $16 billion on roads.

You'll also notice from that link that lots of our fuel taxes don't go to road funding. And, other taxes do go to road funding. I think it's odd too.

Debunking Debunking Portland, Part 2

Linkie.

This article is all about how unsafe light rail is. I'll sum it up for you: People get hit by trains.

The article is misleading because it presents deaths per passenger miles. This leads the reader to believe it's the likelihood of dieing from riding the train.

All of their 19 deaths were people hit by the train, none were riding the train at the time. Some weren't even at the train station.

In the US, about 4,000 pedestrians are killed each year. About 600 cyclists as well. A larger city, like Sacramento, can expect to have over 100 pedestrian fatalities.


They should look a little harder. Trains do crash, but I'd bet you're less likely to die in a train crash (per mile) than in a car crash.

Debunking Debunking Portland, Part 1

Linkie.

First I'd like to say this is an interesting site. It's well researched, they've found some sources of info I was previously unaware of. Now, onto the debunking.

Basically this page is trying to prove that it's inefficient to ride the bus or take the train. I'm just going to talk about the bus (we have buses here, we don't have trains).

They present a few vehicles:
1. The Honda Insight, as a hybrid example. Unfortunately, this car wasn't made anymore when the article came out (2006 was the last model year, so 2005 was the last production year). Also, unfortunately, there's no hybrid that's so efficient today. The Honda contains 1.57 people.
1. A bus, with 9 people on it.
1. A normal small car, with 1.57 people.

They point out that for the last 30 years buses have gotten far less efficient and cars have become far more efficient. That's almost true. Look at table 2.11: Buses have gotten slightly less efficient (Actually, they probably seat more. I've been in buses from almost every decade and the modern ones are roomy). Yet their per person energy has grown far less efficient. Simple division tells us that the average bus is transporting 9 passengers. I've been on a few buses in my life, and a normal size bus is meant to carry 80 people. It seats around 25 people (which is about how many it takes to be as efficient as the Insight).

I must agree with their conclusion though: If people drove smaller cars it would probably do more to reduce energy use than bus riding. And the reason is simple: People won't ride buses. I think there are a host of reasons:
1. The stigma.
2. The chicken and the egg problem.
3. Buses are run by cities, which is painfully stupid. The city of Lincoln actually cut its routes back due to high fuel costs.


So, ride the bus. It'll run the same route anyway. And, if you were the person who tipped the scales to add another bus to the route then it's safe to assume they have a decent passenger ratio on your route. Buses, as your head is telling you, are pretty efficient if people ride them.

Voting Present

Obama's "Present" Voting Record.

Interesting article. The main takeaway is this: Obama voted "present" 130 times over 8 years within the Illinois legislature. He voted about 4,000 times in that office.

So, the "present" votes issue is not an issue. It's spin.

You Have To Love Robert Hurst

A very depressing read. But maybe it's not, maybe we need some tough love.

Leaving Late

Today is the first day I've had to adjust my schedule to avoid a thunderstorm. As I was about to walk out it kicked up, crap. Hopefully it'll be over in a half hour, otherwise I guess I'll get a ride.

Russ Feingold

Wikipedia Article.

Why didn't this guy run for president? He's clearly the best choice for president from the democratic party.
1. He voted against Iraq. He called it right, from the beginning.
2. He voted against the Patriot Act. He didn't sacrifice his ideals to avoid being labelled anti-american. He voted the way every US Congressmen should have voted.
3. He's frugal with government money. Can you say more conservative than the typical republican candidate (for president)?
4. He's truly anti-lobbying. Well, that's just a good thing.
5. He gives back his pay increases, literally gives them back to the US treasury. Keeping campaign promises even when it costs him personally. Wow. I'm sure he has plenty of money though.
6. He's for universal health care. I don't think you could be a democratic candidate and not hold this position today.

Before the nominations were over I liked both candidates (Obama and McCain). Now that they're finished Obama is for drilling and McCain is an idiot. It can only get worse before November. Maybe we're supposed to ignore everything they say between the nomination and the election and vote based on what they said before that?

Rob Anderson

Jerk of the day.

If you haven't seen his blog yet it's worth a look. He's stopped up a major bike facility improvement in Frisco with a fake bit about a lack of environmental research. It's the perfect example of the abuse of truth by failure to mention scale. His concern is that bike lanes, which will generally remove traffic lanes, will increase congestion and therefore increase pollution.

This is only an issue if:
* The bike lanes go unused. If the cyclists were there, in regular traffic lanes, they were occupying one lane anyway. And if they weren't there, but use the new cycle lanes, then there is less traffic. I know it's the first of those two, but it doesn't matter.
* No one (by percentage, we'll define no one as less than 10%) buys a hybrid. Hybrids don't pollute at rest. They're just that much more efficient from the decreased speed. Although the lost time sure sucks!
* Road use does not change: The roads have to be updated for their real use and their planned use. If road use will increase the congestion point is moot. The city will be building new lanes, or doing something to reduce use, in the future. Now, if these are central areas cycle facilities are a great idea: You probably can't make new lanes for cars. So why not compress traffic by a factor of 10 by getting people on bikes? Because it's impossible? I don't think so. We used to do manual labor, are we so deformed that we can't pedal now?

However, it's much easier to debunk Mr. Anderson: If you read his posts you'll see that he's continually on the attack.

You Negligent Parent, Your Baby is in the Car!

A cool device.

A very cool idea. I wonder: Does the keychain beep because it's sent a signal to do so, or because it isn't sent a signal not to beep?

I just want them to say: "You negligent parent! You left your baby to die!" Is that too much?

This really is a minor disadvantage to the closed in private nature of cars and parking lots. Your car is so safe in that big parking lot that you don't have to worry about anyone noticing a baby in it.

Oregon Bicycle Manualhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

The Manual

I found this in my wanderings today. A pretty good read and it's mostly applicable to most states in the US. It seems like any state could take this, change a few sentences, change the Oregon stuff for their state and have their own bike manual.

All they'd have to do is get past the uninformed voting population that would be shocked to find out that bikes go on the road, not the sidewalk.

Holding Marketing to a Higher Standard

As I watched this morning, on the "news," about former. Sen. Edwards extra marital affair I had a thought: When our politicians cheat and lie we get really upset with them. Even if it's only in their personal lives. They're not taking money behind our backs and legislating our money away from us. They're not telling us their bill does one thing when it's actually the first step toward fascism. They're cheating on their wives. They're lying about their life experience.

But, when a company lies to us we go unphased. We actually let their excuses go to work in our minds.

Remember the lead paint thing? It hasn't been very long. Fisher Price, Mattel, etc. Do you still buy toys from these companies? If you collectively said no then I know you're lying. They're still selling lots of new toys on the promise that they've stopped. And I'm sure they have.

So, of course, your children are safe. Lead paint is the only hidden danger a toy can have. In case you don't click links: That was sarcasm.

I'm going to make a very strong statement: The companies which recalled, voluntarily or not, toys with lead paint: Those companies should go out of business. This should happen because we consumers should act in our best interest to punish these companies and put fear in the rest of producers. Fear of deceiving a powerful consumer base.

We won't though. And because we won't:
* Our products are made in other countries. Do you care about American labor? Don't buy things from other countries. It has an effect.
* Sometimes using what is essentially slave labor.
* Our products are often made cheaply, with safety as a secondary concern where it's not legislated.
* We need lemon laws. Since we won't act to protect ourselves from complex products which are unapparently junk the Government has to give us laws letting us sue when we've been had.
* We need anti trust laws. Want to know the efficient way to kill a monopoly? Stop buying their products. Most of these monopolies make new products or unnecessary products.
* Our producers lie to us readily on national television. When they're caught lying they apologize quietly on the news. I see no Mattel ads apologizing for lead paint.


The free market and capitalism has been entrusted to us to watch over and we've sold it to marketing departments. Many with much more psychological knowledge than myself will tell us we can't help it. Frankly, I don't care if we can help it. It's still our fault. We're still paying for it.

Drive Like Your Bike

Popular Mechanics says, among other things, to drive like you're riding a bike to increase fuel economy. You're looking for #4 in the link.

I started doing this when I started riding. I realized I knew about everything about being efficient on a wheeled vehicle because my bike had taught me the hard way! So why not put it to practical use when I'm driving? It's easier on my car/body/bike, uses less fuel/food, and is less stressful/fun.

Tom Casady Rocks

I enjoyed his recent post on cycling.

This is why Lincoln, NE is a great town :).

Interesting Read

Link

Off the Sidewalk

This is a common issue that arises: How do we get sidewalk cyclists off the sidewalk and onto the street.

* Make it the law.
* Convince them.

The first one is just out, most of us can't even begin to make that happen. Besides, why do it? There are occasions for sidewalk cycling.

So, the second option.

One way we can go about this is to simply state what so many of us perceive as fact: Riding on the sidewalk is more dangerous than riding on the street. Than we can go on to explain a few reasons why: Road crossings, commercial drives, out of sight out of mind, etc.

I think the trouble here is that you're leading with the wrong thing. You're first contradicting their sensibilities. Common sense tells us that the sidewalk is a safe place to cycle: If you don't believe me I direct you to observe where most folks ride their bike on a busy street.

So how about this direction:
1. Admit that one can safely cycle on the sidewalks.
2. Explain how:
* You must keep your speed low, say below 10mph.
* You must slow, even more, for every commercial drive and street crossing; then look behind you for traffic which appears likely to turn across your path; then look forward for traffic which appears likely to cross your path (or the other way around I think).
* You must consider it your responsibility to not get hit by cars who cannot see you.
* Always ride behind, or stop for, cars which intend to pull out onto the street from side streets and commercial drives.
3. Point out that this is how you should be doing things as a pedestrian as well, but it's a bit easier to do at that speed and with that extra balance and ability to stop and go quickly.
4. Explain how to ride safely in the street:
* Ride to the right when you feel it's safe (I'd say practicable, but no sane person cares what this word means).
* Follow the same rules of the road cars do.
5. Point out that 4 is easier than 3; and since it's easier it's more repeatable and so it's probably safer in the long run.
6. Show the normal statistics.

Popularity of the Commute

This is my first summer commuting in Lincoln. I started commuting off and on last November and started doing it full time last February.

But these last two months have been, by far, the best showing of Lincoln cycle commuters I've seen. I see about 4-5 other people every morning, although they're usually different people but my schedule varies a lot. I saw my neighbor commute the other day. There are usually 4-5 others at work each day (sometimes more, sometimes a bit less). And this is a 50 person company.

I don't remember seeing so many cyclists while driving last year, but I might not have been looking.

Now, they're all on sidewalks and MUPs. But one thing at a time right?

Must be $4 a gallon gas.

87 Miles, LBL

I went on a ride to beatrice today, by the way of the homestead trail. It was a nice ride, big showing: Me and the ride leader.

Crushed limestone is punishing, especially 4 hours of crushed limestone.

Um, No

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bike-gb,0,3315740.graffitiboard?slice=24&limit=10
[QUOTE]
233. Far too many cyclists arrogantly ignore basic traffic safety laws and rules of the road. Riding side-by-side on a narrow and winding road is the height of stupidity. A profane retort to a reasonable if not polite request just compounds the stupidity. Now, you have to guys whining about injuries that would have been avoided if they had simply done the right and safe thing, ride single file. Not that the guy in the car was right just that the cyclists in this case were more wrong.

Submitted by: T.G.Smith
[/QUOTE]

This comment is responding to a story where a driver pulls ahead of two cyclists, going down a mountain road, riding next to each other (presumably taking the lane while doing so). They were doing about 30. Apparently the road is windy, which makes sense, it's a mountain road.

The driver pulls ahead, and slams on his breaks. Road bikes don't stop well at 30mph. It's not as horrible as many make it out to be, but it's not as good as a car. Especially a car with ABS who has the reflex advantage (he doesn't have to wait for reflexes).

I fail to see how it's a bad idea to ride side by side on a narrow windy road, especially if you're keeping pace. This is the _best_ time to own the road in such an obnoxious and totalitarian manner. Because: No one has good control or good visibility, and the cyclists need margin for error around the curves.
Now, going up, then it'd be pretty stinkin' rude to ride side by side when there's traffic.

This is typical of comments on this kind of story. If you're not a cyclist everything is the cyclists fault. Even if it goes against the law, reason, and our best sensibilities. If you're a cyclist then "bikes have all the same rights." Few bother to point out that we (usually) have a couple extra responsibilities.

*sigh* I'm gonna be biased here. The cyclists are correct. The cyclists were probably being slightly rude by not riding single file, in the middle of the lane (where they belonged in this case), but who cares? It would mean the same issue for the driver.

Fighting Dress

I read a letter to the editor today about how young men aren't dressing properly. Since I can't find the letter in the newspaper's online version I'll just have to attempt to recreate his essay:

[paraphrased]
I wear a suit everywhere. Anytime I go out. Other men don't. They wear muscle shirts. I think they look silly, they compliment my suit but I doubt they understand it. Everyone should wear a suit. All sensible men listen: Wear a suit.
[/paraphrased]

I've been a long standing proponent of abolishing the ridiculous garb we know as the suit. It's fine for those special occasions: Weddings, funerals, your execution. For anything else it's an attack on your fellow man.

Let's look at why.

Dress, like so much of our appearance, is relative. Your clothes look good if their fit is better, their style is newer, and their neatness is more uniform. Notice the use of the comparative. It's very intentional. You don't look good because you're wearing nice clothes, we're all wearing nice clothes: If you don't believe me, take a trip to the third world. You look good because you're wearing nicer clothes, that's why you stick out above the others.

So what happens if everyone wears clothes like yours? Do you still look the same? Certainly! Do you still stick out: No.

The point is, if most of us wear suits then we all have to wear suits. Otherwise you'd look like a slob.


So why don't we want that?

1. You can't do anything in a suit. They're not only restrictive of movement, they also don't remove heat from the body effectively. So, try walking 3 miles on a hot day in your suit. If you survive the heat, come talk to me. (Note: Using a $3,000 suit made of space age wool blends is cheating, but if you'd like to do that I don't mind. It's your money.)

2. You certainly can't bicycle in a suit. Which should matter to us utility riders who think the bicycle is a partial solution to our energy and pollution problems. I guess we just all have to ride the bus in our suits.

3. They're expensive. A comfortable suit costs $500. A comfortable suit in the summer costs a fortune.

4. They're expensive to clean. Anybody know what dry cleaning costs? I do. 6 years ago it cost more than a few dollars to clean a simple white shirt. I'd rather spend my money on something useful, like a weather shell.

So let's not bring the suit back. It's just one more way for the rich to rub poverty in the face of the lower middle class.

New Commuter Pictures

How about some pictures of my new commuter.

New Commuter

I ended up buying a stock Surly Cross Check and changing out some stuff. It turned out to be quite a bit cheaper than doing a custom job, and the parts are fairly similar to what I'd have done custom (although I probably wouldn't have gone quite this crappy on the brakes, but I can replace those later if they drive me nuts).

Surly Cross Check.
Changed the tires out for some continental street tires (which are on order).
Changed the seat out for a Brooks B17 Champion saddle.
Added the new Shimano double sided pedals. They're SPD on one side, and a nice platform on the other.
Added fenders (which are on order).
Added the axiom rack I already owned, seems to work fine.

All in all it's pretty nice. I haven't even done a half dozen miles yet. But tomorrow will be her first commute! Then I go on a 4 day weekend.

The Brooks saddle is definitely a different feel. It's like a more connected, but gentler, feel on the road. But, if you ignore the bumps, it's really hard. If you account for the bumps, it doesn't seem so hard compared to gel.
I'm sure the steel adds to the ride quality.

The pedals are pretty great for regular shoes. I haven't tried them with my clipped shoes yet. They're not as wide as standard platform pedals, which is a nice feature.

It's good to have a frame that's so standard and has wide clearances. Thank you Surly!

Custom Commuter

Well, I've kind of had it with my current commuter. Here are my complaints:
* I can't put regular fenders on it
* It's really heavy (I carry it up two stories every day)
* There's a tick in the bottom bracket, and I've had it rebuilt once so it looks like replacement time.
* The chain rings are a bit scarred up, but mostly good.
* It's a mountain bike: Heavy, front shock, back rigidity.

So it looks like I'm going to get a new commuter and sell the old one. Hopefully I can get $100 or so out of it.

I have two choices: A trek 7.3 FX, or a custom surly. The custom Surly is a lot more expensive, but I think it's worth it. And hey, I'm not strapped for cash so let's build the bike I really want!


Here's what I'm thinking:
* A Surly cross check frame. I can't use a Long Haul Trucker (well I can) because in my size (54) it doesn't come with 700c wheels.
* Bar end shifters.
* Drop bars, obviously.
* Probably a Brook's saddle, my butt needs to feel good in jeans.
* Double sided pedals: One side is a platform, the other is SPD.

Everything else I'm less worried about. I've got a source for a very low cost 9 speed cassette, rear derailleur and crankset. Low end stuff, but I'm not looking for a racing machine I'm looking for a good commuter that I can still park. The cassette may or may not be satisfactory, I despise large changes in my cassette. I still dream of a cassette with decent range and only steps of 1 tooth. Maybe these new 11 gear cassettes will realize my dream in 6 years when they're cheap. 3 tooth steps suck. That's a small complaint I have on my current commuter, and on the 7.3 FX.

I rode a Cross Check at Monkey Wrench on friday, and it was a nice ride. I'll probably give it another ride and start ordering parts sometime this week. Should be fun, I've never assembled a bike before :).

I'm excited!

Why Congress Is Broken

"19th Century solutions to 20th century problems"

Ladies and gentlemen, I propose to you that this is what's wrong with congress. Now, don't jump the gun, go ahead and listen to what Mr. Patrick McHenry has to say. It's a very interesting point that he makes. Let me paraphrase:

I didn't read the bill, I just glanced at it. But it says something about bikes, and bikes are old technology. I'm pretty sure most Americans think old things don't work anymore, so I'm gonna say that's why bikes can't possibly do anything. You see, only things invented this century work. What? Oh, someone is telling me people still ride bikes. Um, they're retarded, they might as well ride horses.

Did I get that pretty close? Basically he just spits out a bunch of rhetoric intended to bring out your beliefs that bikes are for recreation and make the utilitarian use of them sound ridiculous. It's really very smart: Assuming the folks he's talking too are stupid. Luckily for us, our House knew enough to look at the other 10 things in this bill, and maybe even consider that many folks successfully use the individual transportation device (which we fondly call a bicycle) already.

It's apparently been stalled in the senate. 50-44. I haven't been able to track down the votes, but I'm sure Obama and McCain were absent. Oh well, if they're not lying about their green stances that would only have made it 50-46.

Maybe I missed something when I read this bill. But here's what I got out of it:
* A tax credit for building wind farms.
* An individual income tax credit for solar panels (think, those things people put on their roofs).
* An extension of the tax credit for biodiesel
* $20 a month, given through the employer, for commuting by bike

The tax credit for wind farms and solar panels are probably the big items. Home solar panels are already considered to be cost effective, but the period you must wait is something like 8 years. The tax credit would shorten that period, and make the benefits more immediate. This should make these panels more popular, which would decrease the load on power grids. Here in Lincoln, NE this is no big deal: LES is cheap and supposedly has room to expand. But Californians might think about this differently.

Making room in the power grid is going to become more important as electric chargeable cars come to market in a serious way.

As for wind energy, it seems that many states are doing this anyway. It might just be too little and too late.

And the cycling part is just a minor item. It's not much money. However, this will provide one more immediate incentive for riding to work. It doesn't sound like you have to be a everyday rider, but a most of the time rider: Hopefully, just an every fair-weather day rider is enough.
$240 a year should be obvious to most consumers as enough to pay for their bike over a few years (assuming they don't qualify for many of those months and bought a decent bike).

But this bill must struggle, because there are people who think that rhetoric has something to do with reason. People like Representative Patrick McHenry.

Repair Stand

http://trekstorecincinnati.com/itemdetails.cfm?id=1888

There's a picture in the link.

This is my 1st anniversary present from my wife, a bit early. So I took the opportunity to use it and did a more thorough cleaning of my road bike. Cleaned most of the grit off the frame. Degreased and washed the chain (on bike). Removed the cassette and washed it (although I didn't disassemble it, I don't have the tiny allen wrench). Put her back together and re-lubed.

I waited a few hours and took it for a short ride. She rides better than the day I bought her. The shifting is perfect. I didn't even mess with it, I just cleaned it and the shifting got better (I think I had it pretty well adjusted already, it was just dirty so it tended to slam the chain around). Pretty good for a road bike with 1700 miles on it. Let's hope for another 17,000 :).

The repair stand is pretty nice, works quite well. Kind of makes me wish I'd got a smaller frame and set it up more aggressively so as to avoid changing my seat height. Oh well, the seatpost was getting a bit stuck so it's good I moved it.

Commuter Work

I lost a spoke on my commuter last week. It was a joyous occasion (lie). I ended up riding the bike back home on the broken spoke (mistake). I then waited a week to do anything, because I was about to leave town for a few days.

When I got to working on it I ended up discovering how many tools it takes to change a spoke. Let's go through the purchases:

First Trip, bike shop:
* 3 spokes ($3), two for the broken spoke I knew of, and one for the future on the other side
* 2 park allen wrenches ($20), these had nothing to do with the spoke, I just needed them for other things

After this trip I discovered I had three broken spokes. Oops. I also discovered I'd have to remove the cogs to get to the broken spoke, *doh*.

Second trip, bike shop:
* 1 free wheel tool ($8)
* 1 chain whip ($22)
* 3 spokes ($3)

Then I realized I didn't have a wrench to grab the free wheel tool. I also didn't have an adjustable wrench (Okay, I'm 23 I don't have many tools!).

Third trip, Lowe's:
* 2 adjustable wrenches ($30)

So I finally got the free wheel loose. Yay! I then proceeded to work with spokes. Well this didn't go so well. I overtightened the first one and stripped the nipple. The guy who cut the new spoke gave me lots of extra thread, I assumed (wrongly) that I needed to get most of the thread inside the nipple before it was even close.

Fourth trip, Home Depot:
* 1 pair of bolt cutters ($15)

So I cut the spoke out, fixed all three, and trued the wheel against lines on a piece of duct tape (on the bike). This bike has disc brakes, so I couldn't use the brakes. The wheel is true enough, but I'll probably have it trued this summer. Or wait until Christmas, when I'm going to beg for a truing stand.

Then I decided it was time to do other work on the bike. I took some parts off my childhood bike (a tiny frame on standard 26" wheels and other parts, a Specialized Hard Rock from about 1995). I stole the kick stand (commuter bikes need kick stands, it's a fact of life). That was easy, although sadly damaging to the paint job: Oh well, Giant does a shitty job of painting anyway (Don't buy a Giant, they're cheap for a reason).

Then I decided to steel the handlebars from my other bike. They're regular straight flat bars, about 3-4" narrower than the up curving bars I had. They also had slightly rusty and banged up ends: I had to hammer my shifter assembly over the ends! Handlebars should be aluminum!

Saturday ride
Distance: 25mi
Time: 2 hours

It was a nice ride. I rode up to the edge of downtown, then jogged over toward the cemetery on O. Unfortunately, the only open entrance is on O, and I didn't want to mess with that to see graves!

So I rode down 33rd street to Normal. Then jogged over to the lake. I got pretty close to the lake when I heard "USE THE TRAIL" yelled from a car on the opposite side of the road. Maybe I should start yelling "USE A BICYCLE" at every motorist I see? I doubt they'd care, those sealed cabins are pretty sound proof. And it's not like it's the perfect temperature outside for rolled down windows (it is).

Then I went out East on the trail (I thought I'd take his advice, afterall there's no good road for where I was going).
Road past a "No Trespassing" sign that was practically on the trail. In fact, I was strongly tempted to rip it off: I pay to raise their land values and build a trail by their house, then they put up a no trespassing sign. Screw you buddy. See if I share with you again.

Road on East until the trail ran out. Then I proceeded through the muck on foot. I wanted to ride around in the really expensive section of housing out here. Apparently there's a hospital out there? It mentioned an emergency room but didn't mention a name.

Then I took a trip down to 84th, down 84th, then down Old Cheney. Decided I'd stop being obnoxious and use the Old Cheney trail once I got to 70th.

And on home I went. Good ride, only one rude driver. Alright, only one _really_ rude driver.


I'm convinced more of us should cycle on the road. Lincoln drivers have a lesson to learn. I'm thinking I should get a critical mass ride started. I think about 8:30AM on a Wednesday would be good.

It's our road too. We pay for it too.

Commuter Bike

So I decided it was time to stop commuting on my road bike. It's just too much work switching shoes every day, too much to deal with the mediocre roads I ride to work (they're paved, only minor pot holes, but they're cracked and there are permanent surface issues they never fix).

So I decided I'd turn my winter commuter into my full time commuter bike!

So here's a shot of my winter commuter a it was when I got it:













And here we have it after some upgrades:
1. Put a computer on it.
2. Front and rear fenders, not the nicest ones but this bike isn't setup for fenders.
3. Took the saddle pack, and its contents, from my road bike. It's easy to swap.
4. (This is the big one) New city slicks.


The first couple days have gone okay. The warped rear disc is driving me nuts, I'm gonna have to fix it. I lose a couple miles an hour over the road bike, but I gain much less obnoxious bumps on the road!

I also gain 10lbs to lug up and down the stairs :(.

Scoff Law

Today I found an old article on our local Journal Star newspaper. The interesting part though, is the comments. They're about two years old, so it'd be silly to respond.

A lot of people complain about scofflaw cyclists. Those cyclists who run red lights, pass on the right (I'm not sure if this is actually illegal), run stop signs, and in general don't fulfill each motorists every whim.

Frankly, this is crap. I don't do any tallies, but maybe I should start. I make a mental note each time a motorist breaks a law around me (on my bike) or threatens my safety by doing something that should be illegal (we really need a minimum passing distance, although I think 3ft is far too big for most streets and far too small on the highway).

Pretty much everyday someone makes an illegal pass. I'll define what I mean by this: Their pass crosses a double yellow line or is within 100ft of an intersection. Many times this pass is in the left turn lane for the other direction with mediocre visibility ahead.

About once or twice a week I get a rude honk. These aren't illegal, but they really should be. I see it as a very minor form of yelling "fire" in a crowded theater. It makes everyone nearby turn their head and slow up, and it scares the poor cyclist 4ft away out of his mind!

Seriously, just because you have a car doesn't mean you have the right to go honking your horn at each vehicle you pass! I don't care if you're too uninformed to realize that bike has a right to be there, there should be an extra penalty for not knowing the law and operating a motor vehicle! Learn the law, jerk!

So we all break the law when it's convenient for us, big surprise. We tend to do it in ways we won't get caught for. Cyclists can probably get away with more in most places for a couple reasons:
1. If you don't drive, the cost of a city ticket is a joke. It's the insurance increase that hurts you.
2. For the cop, you look like an idiot who's going to get himself hurt. Doing the same in a car makes you look like an idiot who may kill someone else. I wonder why he doesn't enforce the law equally?

This is a hard thing for most motor vehicle drivers to understand: You have more responsibility than cyclists do. That's because you can hurt more people in worse ways. We all have the same responsibilities to each other, but in a motor vehicle you stand to do much more damage with a smaller mistake.
Of course, that doesn't have anything to do with traffic tickets. It has to do with civil lawsuits.

The next thing to get here is that we're not banning vehicles from roads because of the actions of a some users. If we were, cars would be the number one hit. They do, after all, kill 40,000 people a year. How many do bicycles kill? About 600, almost entirely the cyclists themselves and most of those involve a motor vehicle.


I will say this: It's too easy to get a license in the state of Nebraska. That's been made clear by the lack of understanding most citizens have for the rules of the road and by the number of DUI's (it's not especially high, but most states have this problem -- and it's a serious problem).

I'd propose an one hour written test, pass/fail (pass is 80% and above). Then a random drivers test where about one in four is tested. Anything less and many will bet on not being the one. You'd be allowed a retake of the drivers test only after retaking the written exam with either a higher score or an equally excellent score around 95%.

A DUI, by the way, would be a scale of punishments based on your level and the officers interpretation of how drunk you were (let's face it, if I'm at .05 I shouldn't drive, but I know people who are fine at .10). Something like, .08 (the legal limit) and you lose your license for a year. .12 and you lose it for life. No need to put them in prison, they're not violent criminals they're just idiots. Now, if they drive without a license, then it's time to throw them in the can.


This would mean a lot of drivers would lose their licenses. Fine. You'll see forms of public and alternate transportation take off, and we need this anyway.

Being that this is my opinion, it's subject to change. I predict I'll change my mind within the next month. Maybe I'll post it when I do :).

I'm not sure there's need for punishment for riding drunk. It's an incredibly stupid thing to do, but until we see more cyclists and pedestrians on the road they're mostly just endangering themselves. If it were like Amsterdam or Portland I'd say you need punishment there too.

Velog

I just joined velog and you should too. It's basically twitter for cycling.

71 Degrees!

It was warmer this morning, about 31, when I left for work. But I didn't expect it to be 71 when I left work! What a pleasant surprise. No shell, no gloves, no baggies over my toes. It was a nice short ride home.

And, my odometer clicked up a zero. That's right, I finished my first 1000 miles on my road bike today. Hopefully the next 1000 won't take 6 months! Oh well, this means that even with the winter I averaged 40 miles a week in these first six months. I'm shooting for averaging 150 miles a week this summer. Since about 41 miles of that is a mandatory commute (I'm getting rid of ye olde car) that shouldn't be too hard. A group ride and a solo ride each week, and then another short solo or group ride.

Planning to go to my first group ride for '08 tomorrow night. You should go to! It's supposed to be in the 60's.

60 Degrees!

Saturday was gorgeous. I went for a nice 27mile ride which made me realize just how hard it's gonna be to get my miles back up. I actually felt fine to continue, but I had other things to get done and my back tire seemed low (pumping it up with a frame pump wasn't a pleasant sounding idea either).

I think I saw five child carriers.

The trails were just packed. So I gave up on them after riding some of the better ones. The newer trail out on the southwest side is pretty nice. It's sectional (complaint coming) but it's new enough that it doesn't affect the ride. And even though it's completely residential it doesn't see as much intense use.

Which brings me to my complaint: Why does Lincoln build trails like sidewalks? Do you build roads sectionally? No. So why would you build trails sectionally?

I actually think the trails are just missing the final step of road construction: The smooth top coat of cement or asphalt which can be stripped and replaced and repaired with tar many many times.
This seems to be how they build trails in Des Moines (they're all rail trails though).


The trail system here really is pretty cool. But it just doesn't cut it for a fast rider. I'm gonna be looking for new, non-trail, routes now. It's more stressful than busy roads (mostly because of the dogs) and you just can't keep any speed with all the thump-thump-thump-thump-THUMP-thump-THUMP-thump.

New Bike

On Sunday I bought a used mountain bike I found on craigslist. I'll skip on disclosing the price, but price was the main reason for going used: I didn't want to spend alot, but I didn't want a $300 mountain bike.

It's an '05 Giant Yukon Disc. Hardtail, disc brakes, trigger shifters, and some insanely odd 26x2" 80PSI tires.

So I rode it to work today. Since it was snowy out this morning I figured it was a good day to break her in. It does pretty well in this crap. Ice isn't so great, I really need studded tires for ice (I fell once on the ice). Snow though, for snow it does wonderfully!
On dry pavement it's not so nice. The road bike has spoiled me.

Anyway it looks like I'm gonna be about 11 for 20 for commuting this month. Pretty good given that I had only a road bike for the first 3 weeks.

Edit: A picture.

Saturday Ride

Distance: 25mi
Avg: 13.5mph
Route: Around the south side trails

Yesterday was a pretty nice ride. It was fairly windy, but the wind really only bothered me going straight south (almost directly into it) on parts of the trail with little coverage and some mild incline.
Still some slick spots. But not too bad.

Lots of irritating dog walkers and walkers. Special thanks to the older couple who thought the dividing line was a convenient his and hers trail setup.

MySpace

I don't have a MySpace account. I've always had sort of a moral issue with them: They allow users to modify the appearance of their pages; I firmly believe that's a crime against The Internet. You'd probably have to have seen opendiary to understand why I think this is a sin.

Anyway, other than that I don't care that MySpace exists. It never bugged me. But today I find a dozen e-mails from MySpace in my inbox, and some junkmail (I don't get junkmail, I've had this account since gmail went public and I don't get junkmail). Somone signed up for myspace with my e-mail address!
They then confirmed it. It wasn't horrible to clean up, I logged in using the password they set (asshole33 -- obviously this person doesn't like me or this spammer has an odd sense of humor).

They had created some friends. One was Mz. and my last name. So I'm a little lost.

Anyway, I'm mostly pissed that someone signed up for myspace with my e-mail address successfully. So I'm putting this here as, you know, evidence. When they decide to shut down MySpace I'll be all for it ;).

Fixing the Wife's Bike

My wife inherited her bike, it's about a 10 year old Schwinn hybrid. It's the old school WSD: Two down tubes, no top tube.

Other than the obvious structural and aesthetic deficiencies this design presents I've been noticing other things: The rear brake cable is a mess: It bends around corners cables shouldn't bend around, especially not on a bike where they're exposed to dirt, mud, water, snow, etc.

It also features cantilever brakes with plastic housings for the pullback springs. Of course, one was cracked. That's okay though, the springs are too weak anyway: I'm going to try to find decent brakes to put on this bike. The frame and forks have mounts for caliper brakes, but I'm not sure if I can use them with the wheel it has.

The tires are rotten. Oops, shouldn't have bought tubes for them before looking at the tires!

The derailleurs were still well aligned though! And the chain was good as new, with only minor damage to one sprocket.

Oh, and the rear wheel isn't true. I guess I get to learn how to true wheels now. I figure by the time this bike is in good working order we'll be out about $150, probably a third of its original price. A lot of that would disappear if the brakes weren't ... below my expectations.

Oh well, can't complain about free, right?

Flat Tire. Crap!

The odometer reads 804 (it's been a long winter), and poof. The tire begins deflating after a winter formed crack in the bike path.

So I bought a patch kit and bike mountable pump today; and a couple of spare tubes. The tube was patchable though, so I figured a $0.30 patch would be fine over a $6 tube.

Oh well, I was ready for the ride to be over anyway. It was cold today. The temperature was fine, but there was a lack of sun exposure and it was very windy.

I also saw warming patches at the shop. For $2 I'll skip them and buy shoe covers. But I'm wondering if I can order a box online for something more reasonable, like four times cheaper.

The Forecast

Well, the forecast looks pretty dismal. 3-6 inches tomorrow followed by weather that might melt snow by the weekend if there weren't more snow in the forecast later in the week.

I've gotta stop checking the weather, it's too depressing.