Incipient Tire Failure

I bought more tires at some point than I needed and switched mostly to 25 mm wide tires, so I ended up having this 23 mm tire probably longer after it was manufactured than I realized. Then I wasn't able to ride much of the winter and the tire developed these odd red . . . things. What are they? But they didn't seem to weaken the tire. I rode it a few times, then noticed the grey stripe material was giving way. Yikes!

In 2007 when I purchased a carbon fiber road bike in a fit of self-indulgence, I assumed I would ride it with 700x23 tires forevermore. But then I got a steel frame road bike and it came with 700x25. This of course was hardly a fat tire, but it was more forgiving in certain ways than the narrow tires, and eventually I became convinced it had little influence on how fast I could ride (which was hardly a huge concern anyway).

Unfortunately right before I became convinced of the superiority of the slightly wider tires, I purchased several Michelin tires that were on sale. Eventually I decided I would use up these on the front tire of my carbon figure bike. What we see above is the last one. I realize I have no idea how many years old it is . . . as it happens, I had some surgery so I was not riding this bike for something like six months. I was surprised to see that over the winter, these crazy red dots had appeared, but the tire seemed sound. I rode it a few times, then Sunday looked at it again and discovered it was coming apart at an accelerated rate, to say the least.

This is a Michelin Krylion Carbon Road Bicycle Tire (700 x 23) - Black/Grey. Michelin no longer makes this tire, which was somehow related to the ProRace tire Michelin was selling at the time. Typically described as a "training tire" rather than a "racing clincher." This particular one came with a grey sidewall stripe, which is not something I was looking for it often seemed like tires on sale had some odd color (and I'm cheap, I guess).

It is somewhat dramatic to me how the tire rubber is giving way now - you can clearly see the casing under the rubber. So bike tires do age, if you don't wear them out otherwise, it appears. Yikes!

The Bicycle Girl (1895)

Sheet music from 1895 with cover photograph of woman riding bike

https://www.loc.gov/item/2017562127/
Title-The bicycle girl
Contributor Names
Meacham, F. W., composer.
Oddfellow, Avery, lyricist.
Schwalbach, Alex, dedicatee.
Created / Published-Brooklyn, N.Y. : Published by Hedenberg and Oakin, [1895] ©1897
Subject Headings
- Popular music--United States--To 1901
- Feminist music--United States
- Bicycles--Songs and music
Genre-Songs, Scores
Notes
- For voice and piano.
- Includes a photograph of a woman riding a bicycle.
- "Respectfully dedicated to Alex Schwalbach, Manager, Wilson Myers Company."
Medium-1 score (5 pages) : photograph ; 36 cm
Call Number/Physical Location-M1622 .M
Digital Id
hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/mussuffrage.mussuffrage-100007
Library of Congress Control Number-2017562127
Online Format-image
Description- For voice and piano. Includes a photograph of a woman riding a bicycle. "Respectfully dedicated to Alex Schwalbach, Manager, Wilson Myers Company."
LCCN Permalink
lccn.loc.gov/2017562127


Detail - just the photograph (click through to Flickr to see more detail)

The suffragette connection to cycling is made in this sheet music collection:

In 1896 Susan B. Anthony declared, "Let me tell what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world." The Music Division's sheet music collections feature countless titles referencing and depicting the "new woman" or the "coming woman," frequently wearing bloomers and/or riding a bicycle. And Anthony was not the only suffragist to sing the bicycle's praises; in Elizabeth Cady Stanton's own words: "The bicycle will inspire women with more courage, self-respect, and self-reliance and will make the next generation more vigorous of mind and body; for feeble mothers do not produce great statesmen, scientists and scholars." To read more about the significance of the bicycle to the suffrage movement, see Sue Macy's book, Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom.

https://www.loc.gov/collections/womens-suffrage-sheet-music/articles-and-essays/highlighted-sheet-music-selections/

As with much photography of this period, this was shot in a studio, posed. One presumes (or at least hopes) that this young woman was in fact a cyclist and further that her pins are some kinds of awards for cycling, but it isn't certain (to me, at least).

Toe Overlap Mars Perfection - Perhaps

The perfect commuter bike?

In 2011 I purchased the frame, including fork, of this 1982 Bridgestone Sirius road bike. At the time it was the "top of the line" road bike sold by Bridgestone in the U.S. I bought it used on eBay for a little over $100 including the shipping, which was a good price. The frame appeared never to have had components attached to it or to have been used - it was, in effect, a 30 year old unused bike. I attached a mix of components (many not "period correct" alas) and commenced using this as my main commuter to and from work, about 19 miles round trip.


Winter cycling shoe (boot) cleated in to pedal and amount of overlap with front wheel and fender

I would suggest that any bike used for commuting represents a series of compromises, starting with how much money you are willing to spend versus your desire for certain features. (The perhaps trite phrase for bicycle choice generally is, "strong, light, cheap - pick two.") This Bridgestone is relatively light given that even after I bought components and assembled it all, it was only around $500. I chose to stick with wheels and tires that are relatively narrow compared to what is popular now. Most people are not crazy about downtube shifters but they are extremely low maintenance. I also like the dual pivot brakes which are more modern than what the bike would have had when originally sold in 1982 but not as good at stopping as the disk brakes I had on the bike I used before this - but I got tired of the maintenance associated with disk brakes. The dual pivot rim brakes are predictable for both maintenance an performance.

One problem however that I simply live with is the toe overlap. I fitted the bike with fenders, which makes the wheel extend back towards the pedals that much further, but in winter the problem is more with the bike boots I wear and where I have the cleats fitted on the bottom of them, which means that the front ends of the shoes are well in the travel path of the front wheel when steering. The crank arms are relatively short at 170 mm.

As it turns out in practice, awareness of this problem is the main thing - I haven't had a problem with this in years. And as it happens, as a practical matter, I hardly ever steer hard enough left or right that it matters, which may seem surprising but seems to be how it is. I ride up Capitol Hill on the Capitol grounds on a roadway where I zig-zag my way up (to decrease how steep it is for the ride) and even that at a relatively slow speed doesn't require a particularly tight turn, or enough that this overlap matters.

So if this is all that keeps this from being the perfect bike, I can live with it.

Arlington VA Winter Bike to Work Day->Friday Feb. 8 (2019)

A winterized (more or less) commuter bike at Gravelly Point, near National Airport

EventBrite registration for the event Friday February 8, 7 to 9 am.

World Winter Bike to Work Day Twitter page.

Arlington County organized a Winter Bike to Work Day last year, but it was in Rosslyn, which isn't on my way to work. This one will be at Gravelly Point along the Mount Vernon Trail, right where I will be going. Yay!


1972 National Park Service photo of Gravelly Point (not in winter) and bicycles, from the Library of Congress (via Flickr).

This is my Road - book by Yoshizo Shimano (2008) Book Review

This Is My Road: The Shimano Story by Yoshizo Shimano

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read this because of my interest in cycling, and in particular, Japanese bicycles and bicycle components.

This book was apparently produced from some Japanese language articles that were published, re-purposed and translated into English to produce this memoir and personal history of the Shimano bicycle (and fishing tackle, but not much about that) company.

Apparently because the book was taken from some serially-published articles, the 30 chapters are all short and all about the same length. Some themes continue from chapter to chapter and get a little more in depth treatment eventually, but there isn't much depth here. On the other hand, there is a certain amount of refreshing honesty, I would say, as Mr. Shimano looks back.

Given that I was mostly interested in the cycling history aspects going in, I didn't get that much - but I found it interesting in other ways, as it turns out, as he talked about his family relationships and the company. The discussion of Shimano's development of different products and leadership is presented only very briefly.

It is somewhat curious that the translation is not that good. No credit is given to a translator; sole authorship credit is given to Yoshizo Shimano. He lived in the U.S. for decades; perhaps he did it himself? It would certainly be in character.

An interesting example of seeking out a book to read for one reason and coming away satisfied with the experience mostly for other reasons.



View my book reviews about cycling books.

14th Street Bridge Approach Still Not Perfect

Of course, what is perfect. Not much.

I have not been commuting by bike since early October (2018) when I had some surgery. At the time, work had started at the DC end of the 14th St Bridge across the Potomac for the pedestrian/cyclist access. There was a relatively narrow strip of asphalt that followed the contour of the hill towards the Jefferson Memorial - this was widened.


Looking towards Virginia

Above you can see the main enhancements, such as they are - before there was just some poorly applied asphalt to the right of the two poles in the photograph. They added and redid the asphalt so there is more of it for cyclists and pedestrians inbound and outbound can maneuver better at the approach to the bridge. Not visible, reflect panels were added to the far pole so that cyclists on the bridge riding in the dark won't plow into the pole. I am disappointed that they didn't add a railing - if you made a mistake and went over the wood edge material you would be seriously injured going down the hill.


Looking in to DC


Not very friendly supports for road railing

If a cyclist makes a mistake where the asphalt curves in and falls, a cyclist could easily fall onto the ends of the girders that support the road railing. This was true before, of course, but this was project was supposed to be a comprehensive improvement.

American Pro: The True Story of Bike Racing in America (Book Review)

American Pro: The True Story of Bike Racing in America by Jamie Smith

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is the third book by Jamie Smith about American bicycle racing, the American bicycle racing scene (as perhaps one can still say). I read his first book, published ten years about (also by VeloPress) -
Roadie
. He has a more recent book, Reading the Race, written with Chris Horner is (apparently) intended as an instructional book for road bike racer-beginners - I have some interest in reading it but haven't got around to it yet.

VeloPress has some further background information on Mr. Smith.

The first book, Roadie, was intended to be somewhat humorous but this third book is more of a narrative where the humor that appears is part of what the narrative describes. The author's goal is to clarify what much of professional cycling racing at the levels below the World Tour (ie, Tour de France type events) is like in the U.S. today. He describes five seasons (2012-2016) of racing by a particular team that competed both in road events and criteriums.

You don't have to know that much about bicycle racing to enjoy the book. He doesn't focus a lot of attention on the bicycles themselves and their technology. Most of the narrative is more about the people involved and the challenges of this kind of semi-professional sport. The approach is mostly chronological covering the five separate seasons but there are some separate chapters, such as one on how families often host bicycle racers. Any book on bicycle racing has to have some blow-by-blow descriptions of interesting races and Smith is good at those.

Very nice.



View my other book reviews.

Cyclist Safety - Is it Really that Hard to Understand??

I found this on the Internet, from the govt of the state of Georgia.

GEORGIA DOT RESEARCH PROJECT 13-17 - FINAL REPORT
BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN SAFETY IN THE [Georgia] HIGHWAY SAFETY MANUAL - July 2016
http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/ggp/query:_ca:%22GA+T700.R4+M1+2016+B53%22

Abstract: An accurate understanding of the expected effectiveness of bicycle and pedestrian safety countermeasures is needed to support decisions about how to best allocate limited public resources to increase safety for non-motorized users. However, the kind of data necessary for developing Highway Safety Manual (HSM)–style safety performance functions for bicycle and pedestrian treatments are not currently available. Limited research has been done to date about the impact of bicycle and pedestrian treatments, and most studies are not robust enough to draw broad conclusions. Most agencies surveyed valued safety as a key component of their decision to implement infrastructure, but most did not collect enough exposure and crash data to adequately assess the safety impacts. The two major challenges in using crash records for bicycle safety research are that crashes in general and cyclist crashes specifically are underreported, and pedestrian and bicycle crashes are rare events. Therefore, GDOT should pursue case-control approaches in the immediate and build toward more robust data collection, including new sources for bicycle and pedestrian crash data, counts for exposure data, and site-specific before-and-after treatment data collection.

As I read this, bicycle and pedestrian accidents are sufficiently rare and/or not reported that their approach will be to wait until there are more reported accidents and then study the subject. But in the meanwhile . . . after all, those resources that you might allocate are limited. Etc.

Also, the pseudo-military phrasing, "expected effectiveness of bicycle and pedestrian safety countermeasures," sounds like it concerned with measures to oppose rather than support safety, but who knows. And why do they refer to "bicycle and pedestrian safety" and not "cyclist and pedestrian safety?"

Strange.

When Is an eBike No Longer a Bike?

This Gazelle (from the Netherlands) appeared on the bike rack in the garage where I work.



I am amused (or something) by the seat on the bike rack, which I guess is intended for a child too large for a conventional kid's bike seat. It would put a fair amount of weight relatively high up.

The entire bike is quite heavy. Out of curiosity I tried lifting it by the back rack and I would guess the whole thing is at least 60 pounds. So a certain amount of what the electric motor is doing is assuring all the bike's own weight gets down the road, before it starts in with the rider. Or riders, in this case.

Given the weight, I would expect hydraulic disk brakes, but it has conventional rim brakes. Perhaps you aren't expected to go that fast, but with this much weight and rim brakes, you would have less stopping power than you might want and go through brake pads at a pretty good clip. You would probably go through (expensive) wheel rims much more often than most people expect (which I think is typically never - people don't expect to wear through wheel rims with rim braking).

The Gazelle USA site suggests this kind of eBike costs somewhere upward of $2,500 - many of their models are around $3,500.

I guess because of the cost (value?), the owner of this thing has a chain that he uses to lock it to the rack. Most people do lock their bikes to the rack in this garage, but I don't see the point - there is no public access to this garage. I prefer to keep the time I don't spend messing around with bike locks. And certainly I don't carry a massive chain with me! Or any chain, actually. I use the strap on helmet through part of the frame to assure the bike doesn't fall down during the day - this is the worst sort of bike rack for that.

One realizes how things change looking at this - the Dutch Gazelle bike aesthetic (or something like that) for me was always a simple, mostly steel bike - utilitarian and simple. Ageless. This thing has heaps of plastic (that will most certainly age poorly) and I don't think "simple" is a word that comes to mind, although I guess it is utilitarian.


"A Timeless Classic" from user MacFred64 on Flickr (CC license)

This probably pigeonholes me as an aging cyclist frump of some kind. Oh well.

New Video (from 1965) "Magic of the Bicycle" (from Schwinn)

Part of the Library of Congress National Screening Room.

Summary: From MacDonald inventory: Historical profile of the development of the first bicycles beginning in the 1800s--various bicycle models shown; high-wheeler, bike without peddles, etc.--first bicycle w/ sprocket and chain gear--newspaper boys delivering paper on bicycles--new bicycle lanes open-up--bikes used in industry and businesses; bikes used to delivery tools to business--bicycle used for adventure trips--couple enjoys romantic time bicycling in the wild--housewife and mother uses bicycle w/ shopping basket to go grocery shopping, "She will save money on gas!"--film promotes bicycling as a good family bonding activity and good for health--bicycle race around track--Jackie Hines, Olympian bike rider and others shown--bike safety features of new model shown--interview w/ Dr. White on the importance of bicycling for good health.

One wonders what the audience was for this promotional video, or where they would have seen it, but clearly Schwinn spent very little on having it created. The doctor who speaks on the health benefits of cycling at the end appears at about 17 minutes into it and takes up about five minutes - he might get 45 seconds today.

Commuting Choices (Mine)

1995 Trek SingleTrack with right set up makes a good commuter

I have a shoulder problem that has meant I had to cut back on bicycling. For a while I wasn't riding at all, which wasn't much fun. Thanks to a cortisone shot, I am riding some now, commuting to and from work most days, which is about 19 miles round trip.

Initially I didn't want to carry my stuff in a backpack or messenger bag as I usually have for more than five (?) years, so I put a rack and fenders on my Trek SingleTrack. This is a good commuter, and the fact that I paid only $65 for it amuses me. Because I started using Metro here and wanted to get the transit subsidy, my agency's transit subsidy person told me I couldn't keep a bicycle parking permit for our garage. This turned out to be wrong, but for a while I was locking up my bike outside during work and I wasn't willing to park a bike that would be sad to have stolen.


1982 Bridgestone Sirius appeals to me more

Fortunately I was able to work out the business with the parking garage and have decided I can use a backpack, so I riding this bike again, which is zippier than the Trek and somehow more fun. Don't get me wrong, the Trek would be an outstanding "I can only have one bike" bike, but since I seem to insist on having 4-6 ridable bikes, the one I want to ride to work on most days is the old Bridgestone.

The Comeback: Greg LeMond, the True King of American Cycling, and a Legendary Tour de France (Book Review)

From Flickr user Anders - Greg LeMond and the 1989 Tour de France

My rating: 4 of 5 stars - from GoodReads.

It's odd, but the title on the hardcover version I have is "The Comeback: Greg LeMond, the True King of American Cycling, and a Legendary Tour de France" which is quite different from "30 Shotgun Pellets, and the World's Greatest Bicycle Race."

The central event of the book is, as the title (on the copy I read) suggests, on LeMond's amazing win over Laurent Fignon in the 1989 Tour de France after recovering from being shot in a hunting accident. But to describe this properly, the author presents a reasonably complete biography of LeMond and narrative description of his career both before and after that Tour.

Perhaps of equal importance, this book is about the transition from the LeMond era of professional cycling, when racers could win without doping, to the Lance Armstrong era, when the could not. For the author, then, LeMond is "the true king" of American professional bicycle road racing and Armstrong is not.

After the detailed description of LeMond's second tour victory and a shorter description of his third victory the following year, the book becomes tendentious. The tone changes since for the most part, it is no longer build around bicycle races but instead focusing on who-did-what-to-whom-and-why. Armstrong is the villain while LeMond is a tragic hero. I don't disagree (not that I'm an expert) on anything said here but my sense was that the author ends up launching a discussion of the EPO era in cycling to end his book that is less than convincing because it is so much less detailed and nuanced than what came before - and yet is hardly just a few pages in closing.

One problem for me with some of this is that two different issues are mixed together. One is simply that EPO was so much better a substance when used for doping than all the preceding ones (from strychnine to amphetamines) that it allowed mediocre racers to become winners. The other is that Lance Armstrong in particular was an evil person who orchestrated a successful campaign to discredit and demean LeMond. This is true not just of this book, but other discussions of this time that one reads.

Perhaps a problem is simply my own shame since I was one of many who began to follow the Tour de France mostly thanks to Armstrong's success. This coincided with my own developing interest in cycling (of a far more utilitarian nature). With the complete discrediting of Armstrong I lost interest in bicycle racing generally and the Tour de France in particular. (It is July and I have no idea who any of the leaders are and have not watched one second of footage.) Still, I have found I am still willing to read some books about road racing history, such as this one. And to be clear, I think this is mostly very well done.

This book complements rather nicely "Slaying the Badger: LeMond, Hinault and the Greatest Ever Tour de France" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11435656-slaying-the-badger published in 2011 that centers on the 1986 Tour de France that LeMond won over Hinault.

View my other book reviews.

Danes Have Used Bicycles for a While

Photograph of "Danish election returns" in Flickr from the Bain News Service, about 1915

I was slightly surprised to see the prevalence of bicycles represented in this photo of Denmark one hundred years ago. Probably should not have been? The newspaper office that is shown in this photo is in Copenhagen.

I see five or perhaps six bicycles here - all seem to be in the service of men in suits who are riding them in the same way most modern Americans would use a car, that is, to get around, not for exercise or sport.

New Bicycle Project - Panasonic Sport

Purchased as-is yesterday from Vélocity Bicycle Cooperative in Alexandria VA

A project, of sorts. Other than the foam handlebar (tape) and one assumes the tires, it appears to be all original. Some parts are not worth speculating about too much - say, the chain. Is this the original chain? Doesn't really matter, I'm not concerned with ending up with a modern operating version of the bike as it was.

To my surprise, the tires hold air and I could immediately ride this thing. The gear levers shift the gears correctly both front and back. I wouldn't ride down a hill at high speed on it since the tires have fatigued looking sidewalls but riding around the block, sure. Also the front wheel spins, but it seems like something with the front wheel bearings is not right. It doesn't seem crunchy like the bearings have deteriorated; more like the grease is gunked up (for lack of a technical term). So with the front wheel as it is, riding more than a short distance would require needless effort.

Slightly over 30 lbs. This was the lowest end Panasonic road bike model available at the time (whenever that was) based on what I see on the Internet. The highly curved front fork, the presence of only five cogs in the back, and the type of rear drop out suggest this is from some time in the 1970s. I like the periwinkle color.

The 1982 Bridgestone road bike frame and fork I once purchased and turned into a good commuter bike presented different issues than this older bike. Also with that, I planned to purchase and add the components while this thing comes "ready to go" - but how much would one really keep? And it probably doesn't make sense to invest much $ in this frame since it is not as good as the Bridgestone was. But the way to learn is from practice, I guess.

Vélocity Bicycle Cooperative, which sells used bikes that it receives as donations after refurbishing them, ends up with too many bikes, so they periodically have these "as-is" sales. I purchased a 1995 Trek SingleTrack from them in December 2015 that I am extremely pleased with, but its situation was quite different than this periwinkle bike. It was missing pedals and a seat and was filthy - like it was covered in kitchen grease. Very odd. But once it was cleaned up and pedals and saddle added, it was good to go. I added some slick more narrow 26 inch tires and it became an outstanding commuter bike. I don't expect anything so useful from this, but who knows.


Previous purchase from Vélocity Bicycle Cooperative

Dog Trailer - a New Experience

Laika (the dog) outside of the trailer

I purchased a Schwinn "Rascal" dog trailer to haul around our Springer Spaniel. She weights around 39 pounds. This trailer is supposed to be OK for dogs up to 50 pounds.

The trailer by itself weights 24 pounds. It is a little on the heavy side, I suppose - which isn't surprising, this trailer costs less than $100 (online). After all, this bicycle by itself only weighs 27 pounds! It has 16 inch wheels, which seems reasonable - that is, bigger isn't necessary in order to have a reasonably smooth ride. It takes a little extra care to make sure that the trailer wheels don't encounter something that they shouldn't, to give the dog a pleasant enough ride. One change I will probably make is to lower the air pressure in the tires; I think the tires could be doing more shock absorbing if they were softer.

Once I discovered that there are trailers intended for dogs, I stopped looking at ones intended for hauling small children. A trailer for one child seemed too small while the ones for two children were larger than this one.


Laika in the trailer

I don't think of this as being a high speed experience. I don't think Laika would care for it, for one thing. This bike is good for that since it has lots of low gearing.

Bike to Work Day 2018

6:30 in the morning at the Shirlington "pit stop" for Bike to Work Day in Arlington, VA

I was surprised to read in the Wikipedia entry on Bike to Work Day that it was created by the League of American Bicyclists in 1956. I would have guessed much more recently.


From BTWD ride in 2011 - it doesn't always rain on BTWD

I have a somewhat ambiguous relationship with BTWD - I commute almost religiously; that is, I hardly get to and from work any other way than by bicycle. In theory I want more people to ride because it is the logical thing to want, but I have found in fact that so far for my commute, increasing use of the Mount Vernon Trail in particular has not led to significant improvements in the trail's usability. Most of the asphalt is the same as it was 20+ years ago - and this isn't because it is aging well or that there is enough of it (in terms of the width of the trail in particular).

Also, my sense is that the DC area BTWD has had amazingly bad luck in terms of weather - that is, more often than not, it rains. And in fact it rained yesterday for BTWD 2018 and it was fairly steady and heavy enough to keep many from riding. I had signed up and stopped at the local "pit stop" in Shirlington to get a free BTWD 2018 t-shirt (as I did last year, when the weather was better) as a way of showing interest and support (I suppose). It is inspiring (or something along those lines) to see the volunteers there, even at 6:30 am when it started. I was amused to see a small "convoy" of riders there right as they opened. A few seemed underdressed to me, given that it was wet and not really May warmth. (This turned out to be a ride where at the start the rain was light, but over the 10 or so miles it got more and more heavy, to the point that upon arrival at work I was pretty well soaked. Fortunately I have my own office and it is fine to have a clothes line, more or less. Well - fine with me, anyway.)


Another slightly out-of-focus shot

I was glad to get my yellow BTWD 2018 t-shirt. During the past year I have been amused how many times I have seen people wearing the lavender colored BTWD 2017 t-shirt - amused that I recognized it, as much as anything. I suppose eventually they will give away the 2018 t-shirts somehow but I assume most were not picked up by riders on the way to work, because I think many people took a pass on riding yesterday. Still, a good souvenir of what was not a bad ride - it was just another ride. The rides - they're all good.

Copenhagenize: The Definitive Guide to Global Bicycle Urbanism (Book Review)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mikael Colville-Andersen has a strong set of views about urban cycling - I'm not sure I agree with all of them but it seems good to have a person able to voice a positive approach for urban cycling infrastructure and changes in attitudes so clearly.

http://www.copenhagenize.com/ the web site for Colville-Andersen's cycling infrastructure consulting company (in English) gives some flavor for what the book is like. Colville-Andersen is Danish but grew up in Canada, so he writes in English (as well as Danish . . .).


Photo of Copenhagen bicycle "superhighways" - CC license by Colville-Andersen from his Flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/16nine

Here is the table of contents - the book is in three sections.

Introduction
1. The Life-Sized City
2. Bicycle Urbanism by Design
3. The Bicycle's Role in Urban Life
4. The Redemocratization of Cycling
5. Taming the Bull in Society's China Shop

The Learning Curve
6. Copenhagen's Journey
7. Climaphobia and Vacuum-Packed Cities
8. Arrogance of Space
9. Mythbusting
10. Architecture
11. Desire Lines & Understanding Behavior
12. A Secret Cycling Language
13. A2Bism
14. The Art of Gathering Data

The Toolbox
15. Best-Practice Design & Infrastructure
16. Prioritizing Cycling
17. Design & Innovation
18. Cargo Bike Logistics
19. Curating Transferable Ideas
20. Communication & Advocacy

Conclusion


Colville-Andersen speaking at a TEDX conference, from Flickr user TEDx Zurich

Most of the positive examples are taken from Europe, with some mention of Japan. From north America, Montreal and Washington DC are mentioned the most - I don't think either Seattle or Portland OR are mentioned. (The book does not have an index.)

As an American who favors development of better infrastructure for cycling along the lines of what is described here, the distance we have to go to get there is distressing. Also, according to Colville-Andersen, as a bicycle nut I am not the ideal advocate - that advocacy for cycling does better when it comes from "regular" people. Hmm.

Much of the current DC area bike cycling measures do not meet Colville-Andersen's approval - in fact, the center-0f-the-road bidirectional cycle track on Pennsylvania Avenue is specifically taken as an example of what not to do - of what is done by people who think they know what to do but who have really really bad ideas. DC provides several other such examples, alas - I agree with his analysis completely.

It was fairly late in the book, but there is some discussion of "vehicular bicycling" which was a theory from the 1960s onward that advocated strongly for cyclists to use the same infrastructure as motorists - which he dismisses easily enough. He also has a brief discussion of e-bikes - he is generally not thrilled with their typical use at relatively high speeds, creating a new hazard for other cyclists and even more so for themselves.

There is a brief discussion of bikeshare as a good "last mile" measure but dockless bikeshare is so new (outside of China) that it isn't mentioned - suggesting to me at least that even though bicycles have been around for more than a hundred years, we are having a period of change or evolution. Interesting.

The books is readable. The author as noted has strong views, but doesn't (in my view) hit the reader too hard over the head with them.

An odd complaint - the typeface used in the text for the book has very fine lines and I discovered my lighting setup for reading in bed wasn't enough to let me read this book comfortably, which was a surprise. I felt it was a kind of ironic statement that a book that advocates simple intuitive designs in one area (urban cycling infrastructure design) failed the test of simple access this way, making the book more difficult to read because of some font-fashion decision. (I read a lot - this is an unusual problem for me to have.)

There is a lot here to try to get one's head around - I should likely read this again in a few months.


Photo of cargo bikes racing - CC license by Colville-Andersen from his Flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/16nine

View all my reviews

Crawford Bicycles Poster (1896)

Title-Ride a Crawford Bicycle
Summary-Young couple with bicycles pause by side of road.
Created / Published-1896.
Notes
- Chromolithograph by Strobridge & Co. Lith., Cincinnati-New York, 211 x 102 cm.
- This record contains unverified, old data from caption card. Medium-1 print (poster).
Call Number/Physical Location POS - ADV. 19th c. - Bicycles. S778, no. 7 (in 3 parts) (D size) [P&P]
Repository-Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
www.loc.gov/item/2002719169/

The summer of 1896 was the height of the "bicycle craze" of the 1890s - a price range of $60 to $75 at that time was fairly good (that is, inexpensive) compared to Columbia bicycles that were offering their most expansive models for $100.

"For Health & Recreation" is an amusing slogan to feature on this poster, given that the couple seems mostly to be enjoying one another's company. Also, the width of the byway upon which they are traveling seems fanciful - not realistic one suspects for the time (or any time, in fact). Still, cyclists were (ahead of motorists, who didn't yet exist!) leaders in the "good roads" movement. Well - some cyclists along with some bicycle manufacturing companies. There had to be some good roads in order for the product to be useful.



A modest ad for Crawford Bicycles - see how it appeared here: archive.org/stream/cyclinglife00test#page/n759/mode/1up in "Cycling Life," a trade journal. This small ad ran frequently in 1896-1897.

Crawford Bicycles had its factory in nearby Hagerstown MD. (Nearby from the perspective of the Washington DC area.) In 1902 the Crawford brothers sold their bicycle business to a larger bicycle company and proceeded to start up an automobicle manufacturing company, Crawford Automobile.

Seattle PI Newspaper and Cycling in 1897

Newspaper sponsored cyclists riding from Seattle to SF

The Page devoted to cyclist interests in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer of 1897. From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for 16 May 1897.

According to Biking Puget Sound (2nd edition) by Bill Thorness published in 2014 Seattle in 1900 had 55,000 residents and these 55,000 had 10,000 bicycles. Pretty impressive!

In looking at Seattle papers online, I see evidence of the interest in cycling with occasional full page coverage of the subject.

Here is the article's text:

SEATTLE TO SAN FRANCISCO

Arthur W. Whaliey, W. W. Ewing and Arnet Johnson, three well-known Seattle athletes, are now on their way to San Francisco by the pedal route. They left the city Friday afternoon at 2:45 o'clock on the steamer Flyer and commenced their long ride from Tacoma, intending to follow the telephone line to Portland. After leaving Portland the stumbling block will the Siskiyou mountains, but as their trip is not made on a wager or for the specific purpose of breaking down their constitutions by overexertion, they may be able to ride over the difficulties.

Prior to the completion of arrangements for the trip it was mutually understood that it was merely a pleasure jaunt, to end at San Francisco, providing the roads were !n good condition, and the riders did not play out. If the journey proves too hard a strain on one or all of them, they will take the first train and ride the remainder of the way, free from the companionship of the first relay of tramps.

The riders have followed the common-sense plan of reduicing the weight to be carried to the minimum. Every article that Is not absolutely necessary to their welfare has been discarded. In fact, the only supernumerary is a kodiak. which might be called a necessity tn this latter part of the nineteenth century.

The Hardmen: Legends and Lessons from the Cycling Gods (Book Review)

The Hardmen: Legends and Lessons from the Cycling Gods by The Velominati

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Apparently the idea is to celebrate tough guy cycling, mostly road racing figures, mostly (but not entirely) men. The point of view, according to the dust jack, is one of "(ir)reverance." Well, perhaps.

Each of the 38 chapters focuses on a particular cyclist. The chapters are not long enough to say that much. The tone is . . . well, it might be fine for a blog, but it seems a little much for a book.

I suppose as much as anything I was annoyed when the chapter about Rebecca Twigg said she attended Washington University in Seattle. Of for God's sake, it is the University of Washington. Washington University is not in Washington state. Geez.

There is a snarky attitude towards dopers such as Tyler Hamilton or Mr. Armstrong, but the casual thumbs-up, thumbs-down approach of the collective authors disregards the historical complexities of this topic. To take just one example, the same Rebecca Twigg won a silver medal at the 1984 Olympics in part because of admitted blood doping, which at the time was merely discouraged and not forbidden - the chapter doesn't mention this.

The intent of the book seems good, and the person chosen seem interesting enough, but the execution could have been better.

View my other book reviews