People For Bikes

People for Bikes put out this video which makes a lot of sense. The more I have been riding, it seems the angrier I get at people on the road. I think we all need to slow down and take a breath.
peopleforbikes.org

D-bag drivers

Maybe its just my time. Maybe i lost a bet with God, but this mornings ride into town was filled with the worst drivers i have ever seen.

I would read on the forums about the jerks on the road but for the most part my encounters with them have been few and far between.  It seems karma is a spiteful little bitch who decided to collect, in full for several years of peaceful streets.

It seems i was wearing a target on my back only visible by the lowest common denominator of drivers.  The clueless ones. I was buzzed, right hooked,  and yelled at. All on a 10 block stretch of penn in the strip.

I wad seething by the time i got into town.  I think I'm gonna get a basket for my handlebars so i can fill it with rocks to throw at the cars.

Congestion

Found this article over at Copenhagenize.com. It talks about congestion and gives some interesting data that I found surprising in that this problem comes from the cycling holy land Copenhagen. Here is some of the data that I found so interesting.


About 15 years back, a majority in the Copenhagen City Council agreed that car traffic had surpassed any reasonable level and decided that car traffic must be forced to remain at 1996 levels - at the most.

When I tell you that...
Today, 8% of Danes die a premature death due to car accidents, car noise and air pollution.

Cars occupy 5-20 times as much infrastructure capacity as any other commuter modality we know in Copenhagen, so if you want to fight congestion, you need to change modal share from cars to other modes of transportation.

Car infrastructure is ten to 25 times as expensive as bike infrastructure and, in most cases, research from Aalborg University shows, almost never returns reasonably on investment, due to induced traffic. 

Oh, yes, and the noise and air pollution decreases property values and workforce productivity. 

... it's easy to understand why car growth had to be stopped.

 When you really think about it you understand just how expensive the car infrastructure really is and how many hidden costs there are. As I think about it I begin to see just how important it is that we increase the number of people who aren't using a private car as their main form of transportation.

Please read the entire article here.

Bike theft

London cyclist has a good article about bike theft  (link to article) and I have always felt lucky that when I did ride to work I was always able to bring my bike into the office and store it in one of the empty cubes. Still there have been plenty of times that I locked up my bike outside of  a store or restaurant and I always worried about it until I had it in my sight.

The article over at London cyclist listed some interesting statistics the most interesting was that 2/3 of people give up cycling after their bike was stolen. That seem like a very large number. I don't know what I would do if BOB got stolen but I hope the answer to that question isn't stop riding.

Sometimes

http://lovingthebike.com/uncategorized/bike-to-nowhere-to-see-nothing

Grow Your Own

The Idea of a Bamboo bike was one that has always interested me. I am not sure how a frame like this would react to someone my size but the idea of it is tempting. I found an article on Bike Hacks that talks about this very subject from the topic of sustainability and the idea of using locally grown bamboo.

You can read the whole article here.

Bikefest Party

Happy 10th birthday Bike Pittsburgh

Last night was the bikefest party held at Pittsburgh Opera. This was a special party on several fronts. This year marked the 10th birthday of the organization Bike PGH. It was also special in that it was my first year that I actually got to go to the party.

It was a blast

I still feel a little out of place in a room full of young people, but I had such a good time that I was able to get over it. As I have said before on here I am constantly surprised by just how accepted I have been by the biking community. I mixed, I mingled, I almost danced. I stopped myself before that happened, much to the relief of those around me. Even with the close call with everlasting embarrassment I still managed to enjoy myself more than I thought I would.

The Drinks helped.

Penn Brewery was there and they made things easy on everyone by listing their beers as Light, Dark, Hoppy and HOPPY. The Hoppy was excellent, and the HOPPY was even better. The highlight of the night, drink wise was the Red Star Kombucha. A locally made fermented green tea. I look forward to getting a growler or two of this wonderful drink and trying my hand at making my own.

The night was topped when I actually met friends I knew there and had a great time hanging out with them. We talked and I realized that I really need to change the way I think about my bike as transportation. I need to learn to rely on my bike more and the bus less. I had to leave the party early because I was unwilling to ride my bike back home that late at night. I need to learn to depend on my bike even more.

This was my view as I rode from the strip district back to town to get my bus home. I enjoyed the night, the drinks, and the people. especially the people. Bike people really are some of the best people around.

Bike Counter in Oregon

Cycle Oregon co-founder (and VP of Communications for ODS Health) Jonathan Nicholas. 

"From now on, people crossing the Hawthorne Bridge by bike will count. Literally. A new bike counter (a.k.a. the bicycle barometer) — the first of its kind in the United States — went live at midnight last night and at this morning's press conference the number was already well over 2,000."

You can read the whole article over at BikePortland.org

I would love to see something like this in Pittsburgh but at 20 grand a pop it could get a little pricey in a city full of bridges.

Three Stories about Sex and Bicycles

Found this today in my Reader. Thanks to Miss Violet for posting about it' I hope you enjoy

http://www.nerve.com/love-sex/true-stories/true-stories-bikesexuality

Share the Road

From Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Bob Rogers writes: Pittsburgh has been steadily moving toward being a “bike-friendly” city for decades. Unfortunately, recent tragedies involving cyclists and automobiles has left some thinking we are not as “friendly” as we should be.

Found this on the Bike PGH blog and I am sorry to say that this is probably more truth than satire these days. I don't get to ride near as much as many others but even I have been getting harassed when I ride and even when I'm walking. maybe it is the fact that I have been sensitized to the problem and thus noticing it more and more. However with the recent spate of cyclists getting hurt and killed, and the high percentage of these being from hit and run drivers I can't help but feel like we are being targeted.

It's a feeling I don't really like.

New Ink

So this is my new tattoo. I got it last night at a tattoo shop in Brentwood. This is easily the most painful tattoo I have gotten but it is so worth it. While I have been stuck out here in the wilds of Brentwood I have been pondering over the book "Just Ride" by Grant Petersen.

You can read my review of the book here Book Review - Just Ride

I didn't like the book very much, in fact the book really rubbed me the wrong way. I have been thinking that a book like this is a good idea but the book that Mr. Petersen wrote isn't that good idea. So i have decided to try my hand at it' So im now announcing 

Fatguy's guide to cycling

I will be posting the chapters here and I hope you enjoy them. They will labeled under fatguy. Topics to include 

getting started - you can do it

picking the right bike

fitting your bike

clothing

riding for fun 

training rides (yes they are hard)

fun rides

advocacy

commuting

Topics to be added as I make them up.

if you have any ideas for topics just let me know.

Pedal PGH

Today was my first Pedal PGH and of course halfway thru the ride it started to rain. You know that nice light rain that takes the edge off the heat and humidity. This wasnt that kind of rain. This was the kind of rain that gets people building big boats in their backyards. yeah that kind of rain. Still it was a great day and I got to try out my new helmet cam, until the rain go to the point that I had to put it away to keep it dry. I will be posting the footage here so look forward to that. I also have some thing that just getting into the planning stages. keep your eyes and ears peeled for something coming.

Until then I hope you get out there and ride, and enjoy yourselves.