New depths of ineptitude.

People who have a bike and know how to make it go, but somehow missed the basic rules of the road confuse me.  A couple of days ago I witnessed an absolute gem. There was this guy  peddling along on the wrong side of the street on the sidewalk. Which by itself isn't that strange, hardly anyone understands that bicycles are vehicles and therefore are not allowed on sidewalks.

The really strange thing is that this gentleman failed to use either of the two generously wide, well marked bike paths along this particular section of, residential, low speed, well maintained roadway. In fact he could have still been on the wrong side of the road and in the bike lane and I would have no qualms, because the bike lanes on this road are so generously wide that someone cycling in the correct direction could easily and safely pass him without even leaving the bike lane.

So what the fuck was this guy doing on the sidewalk? I suppose I should have stopped him and asked, if I really wanted to know.

Anyhow, rant over, I just had to write this one down.  Get a bike, just try to be cognizant when riding it.

Super neat bike light!

Just saw this video on Earth First and had to share:



I figure this is way cooler that your ordinary bike light, and when can I get one?

Thats What I Get for Signaling

[caption id="attachment_56" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Man falling off bike in the rain."][/caption]

I wish I had a picture of myself last night. If I did it would probably be as comical as this one. I ride my bike nearly every day, so I should be quite good at it. However, last night I was distracted, thinking of other things, and not paying enough attention to the road.

I was signaling to turn left which took my left hand off my handlebars. Then I noticed that with traffic coming from the other direction I would have to slow down and wait before turning. So I applied my rear brakes with my right hand. Just then I got that "something's not right" feeling. I'm still not entirely sure why exactly I lost control but it was probably due to a combination of factors.

I ended up quite embarrassed and lying in the gutter. I quickly checked to see that nothing was broken and then got to my feet, wile dragging my bike to the curb. After looking around and getting ready to assure people that I was O.K. I realized that no one had stopped, to see if I was alright, much less glance my way. I didn't know weather to be glad that I had avoided embarrassment, or outraged at the lack of compassion from my fellow humans.

Instead of dwell on these thoughts overmuch, I opted to do a more trough check of my person and my transportation for signs of damage. I got away with a scrape on my elbow, a bit of a scratch on my knee as well as a bruise on my ribs. The bruise on my ribs must have been where I cushioned the fall of my bike, since its roughly the right shape and other than my bike light being knocked out of alignment my bike seems fine.

So all in all it was a quite harmless lesson. Just as when operating an automobile, it is important to pay attention to the road at all times. So don't ride/drive while distracted. That or, signaling is dangerous. Take you pick.

Remember accidents can happen to anyone no matter their skill level or amount of practice. If you're riding a bike you're only likely to hurt yourself but if your driving a car there is the very real possibility of killing someone. So ditch the car and... Get a Bike!

Ridiculoustastic

I just got linked to "The Conference Bike" you have to check it out.

Helmets Are For Your Head!

Now I don't care if you wear a helmet when you ride your bike. Its your head protect it or don't as you will. I like my head, it's where I keep my brains. If you are a parent, you'll probably want your kids to wear their helmets so why don't you set a good example and wear yours?  Which brings me what inspired this rant. I see way too many young people riding their bikes with their helmet hanging off their handle bars.

I can only imagine that this comes from concerned (and rightly so) parents telling their kids "if your going to ride your bike you have to wear a helmet".  The kids either think they are too cool for a helmet, or think it's uncomfortable or something. The probably leave the house dutifully wearing their brain protection, but quickly remove it once out of site of their parents.

This is a real shame, like I've told a few of these errant youngsters, "That helmet doesn't do you any good hanging on you handlebars!". I've worn a helmet since I was 8 or so and my parents were still making sure I wore one. One day I was riding down the street "poping wheelies" as kids do, and I came down off of one of my better ones with the handle bars turned. This propeled me head first over the handlebars and onto the pavement. I was sure glad my parents made me wear that helmet. Other than a few scrapes I was fine even though I landed on my head.

So if you ride a bike, wear a helmet. The more people that do it, the more normal it will be, and the less kids will shy away from it. Especially you parents, you cannot just tell you kids to wear one "because I said so", you have to lead by example.

So, get a Helmet!  ...and wear it.

Cheap Solution for Repairing Bikes

One thing that I learned this weekend is that a bike stand is an invaluable tool in bike repair. I'm too cheap to buy a nice repair stand so I opted for a cheap bike rack from Harbor Freight Tools. Don't get me wrong the cheap bike rack is not a decent replacement for a real bike repair stand. However it is a whole world of awesome when compared to nothing.

One major disadvantage of the bike rack is that it just has Velcro straps for holding the bike in place. Where as a real repair stand would have an adjustable clamp that can alternately clamp onto the top tube or the seat tube. Another disadvantage of the bike rack is that the height is not adjustable. I'll probably break down an get a real repair stand one day, but until then the bike rack will at least hold my bikes off the ground while I try to work on them.

Bike Repair @ Home

After going over many video tutorials from bicycletutor.com I've finally got one on the old bikes that was cluttering up my backyard reconditioned. One of my old roommates left this Giant ATX 760 mountain bike with me, so I called him up and asked if I could fix it up and sell it on Craigs List for a portion of the proceeds.

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When he gave the OK I started working on it. First the chain and chain rings came off and got soaked in mineral spirits to clean them off from years worth of gunk and grime. I wanted to tear the bike down even further but I soon realized that I was missing a lot of specialized tools such as crank pullers. I settled on buying a chain breaker for 20 bucks so that I could at least remove and repair the chain.

Once I got the chain rings back on in the right position and put the chain back together. I moved on to lubing the chain and adjusting the front and rear derailleurs. The rear derailleur was pretty easy and I had it in good enough shape in no time. The front however,  took me all after noon tinkering with it until I went back over the tutorials and realized that I was doing a couple of steps out of order.

After the transmission was working again I tightened up the brakes and now the bike is totally ride-able again. I've got a few responses from my Craigs List ad and I should have it sold in the next couple of days. It was a great experience and now I know all about how bikes work. Especially the damned transmission.

If you've got a old bike laying arround, Repair Your Bike! Then get out there and Ride Your Bike!