When Capitol Hill Staffers Were "Bicycle Crazy"

1896 was the height of the 1890s "bicycle craze" - when cycling was highly fashionable and popular. So much so that this short article appeared in the [Washington DC] Morning Times on May 24, 1896.

EVERYBODY around the Capitol has gone bicycle crazy. As a consequence more people are limping around the corridors than one would suppose. They are all learners. So it is no strange thing to hear every person laughing when some one comes limping along. Most of them have been there before and have gone through the same experience. The case of the clerk of a prominent Presidential candidate illustrates the heartlessness of the initiated, of those who can dodge a cable car, coal carts and street sweepers all at once. He was limping along the corridor when he was greeted by a friend with:
"Halloo, Billy; sick?"
"No; bicycle."
That was all except the laughter.

Since most cyclists were riding fixed gear bicycles at this time, either with no brakes at all or primitive spoon brakes, it was not just that many cyclists were learners but also that cycling was generally more risky since stopping (in particular) was more problematic.


This photograph illustrates the suggested approach for coasting with an 1890s fixed gear bike, with the rider putting her feet on pegs on the fork while the pedals spin below - she does have a brake on this bicycle, at least


A photograph of fashionable young then-Washingtonians, some with their "wheels," near the U.S. Capitol

Robot Cyclist for a Rainy Day

The weather today here is terrible, following what was for me, as a bicycle commuter, a tiring week. After several weeks of riding very little while on vacation, I came back and worked a full week (imagine that!) and rode the "Polar Vortex" on Tuesday and yesterday in freezing rain in the morning when I managed to find the one icy spot between my house and work and fall down. (I did not suffer much physically from the fall, it was just unpleasant and inspires further thought about how to avoid such things in the future.)

Anyway, I happened to bump into this video on YouTube that I find very entertaining - yes, it is several years old. It only has around a million views, however, so not everyone has seen it . . .

Robot manages to keep the fixed gear bike upright with internal controls

The general direction the robot takes and the speed of travel is controlled by someone with and RC unit but keeping the bicycle upright during travel is up to the robot itself as an independent activity. The robot rides a fixed (single) gear bicycle that simplifies things somewhat - the robot doesn't use a braking system to slow the bike down but simply pedals more slowly until it is almost stopped, then puts its feet down quickly to keep the bike upright.

The person who created this thing states, "I'm interested in artificial intelligence, and in that context I think intelligence and skills have equal value." I am not even vaguely an engineer, but I am someone who rides a bicycle a lot and there is sometimes (rarely, but still) a conflict between the direction I want to have the bicycle follow and the almost reflexive "keep the bike upright" moves my hands make with the handlebars - it can be a little unnerving. Here, the operator steers the bicycle only approximately since the robot must make independent adjustments with the handlebars to keep the bicycle balanced. To me, it isn't whether the intelligence to choose the route and the skills to keep the bicycle upright are equal, it is that they are independent and if not managed intelligently can be in conflict - for example, with poor planning on my part, I end up running off the edge of the trail because my reaction at some point causes me to steer off the trail to stay upright because I choose (with my intelligence, or lack of it) to ride to close to the edge otherwise.

This kind of thing seems particularly relevant for "intelligent" drone robots that will be flying overhead, it seems. They will also combine intelligence to choose routes with reactive flying skills that may (or may not) have the same issues.

Bicycle Commuting & the "Polar Vortex" (in DC)

So, Tuesday January 7, the temperature when I would normally take off to work on a bicycle was around 8 Fahrenheit. (Apparently that is around -13 Celsius.) Also it was windy, although thankfully not too windy, and not directly from the north.

If I had any sense, I would use Metro. Apparently I don't have any sense. And I have all this biking stuff I have accumulated over the years - surely if I put it all on, I would be able to ride in this weather? In my mind, I had drawn a line at about 10-15 degrees F - below that, stop riding. But I have purchased still more stuff, so perhaps 8 was OK. This would be the coldest weather I have ridden to work in.


In front of work, having arrived - I don't look so good, as a matter of fact

I managed to get there, but I can't say I enjoyed it much. Neither my toes nor my fingers got cold, so the clothes worked OK (I guess). Here is what I wore, from head to toe:

* (Cheap) hiking boots - I have some low-rise boots that are not intended for cycling (at all) that are not "breathable" (due to their cheap design) and therefore are windproof. I swap my usual pedals for platform pedals so I can use these.
* Odd polypropylene "cycling" socks for cold weather - I bought these odd things from Performance some years ago and they do a good job of keeping heat in and cold out, but they don't breath (moisture) at all, so are only really useful when it is really cold.
* Two pairs of wool socks - not real heavy ones, but two pair.
* regular bicycle fitted shorts.
* Cycling cold weather windproof tights.
* Regular cycling tights on top of the other tights.
* A pair of shorts.
* Medium sleeve fitted bicycle wool base layer shirt thing.
* Long sleeve fitted bicycle wool base layer shirt thing on top of that.
* Long sleeve wool cycling jersey (old style).
* Long sleeve lycra cycling jersey with hood built in.
* Short sleeve lycra cycling jersey.
* Polyfill vest
* Cycling windbreaker that is truly windproof.
* Pair of full gloves with fingers.
* Pair of "lobster" gloves (thumb plus two compartments for fingers in pairs) over the other gloves.
* Polar fleece watch cap thing.
* Some other watch cap over that (and over the hood of one of the shirts)
* Wool scarf pulled tight over face, up to below eye level.

There you go!

Land of Second Chances: The Impossible Rise of Rwanda's Cycling Team - Book Review

Land of Second Chances: The Impossible Rise of Rwanda's Cycling Team by Tim Lewis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book covers in a fair amount of detail the development of a road cycling team in Rwanda that began with the cycling equipment entrepreneur (and mountain biker) Tom Ritchey's visit to Rwanda in 2005 until the beginning of 2013. But it is more than that, with a description of the history of the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and a brief summary of the relevant history of Rwanda and the region.

Team Rwanda is more of a program to develop young Rwandans as possible professional cyclists on other teams rather than a true racing team. The team (or program) was led by an American former Tour de France racer, Jock Boyer, who was persuaded by Tom Ritchey to start the it after Tom had started a cargo bicycle program to support Rwandan coffee growers - Ritchey observed that the conditions in Rwanda were excellent to produce professional cyclists, if only they had leadership, equipment, and . . . well, a lot more. Which is what this book is mostly about.

The author's decision to spend the first ~50 pages of the book on background, including introduction of rather many people, means that this may be a difficult book for some to get into if they thought they were going to be reading mostly about a bicycle team's activities. Jock Boyer, the leader of the team, isn't even introduced until after 90 pages, as another 35 pages or so are spent on the coffee cargo bike program.

This book is as much about the challenges for Americans (or others from the west) in trying to provide on-the-ground assistance and motivation in sub-Saharan Africa as it is about a bicycle team.

With a subject like this, where the author has to choose a moment to stop his coverage of the story, the events don't necessarily cooperate to create a neat end - this seems the case here. It isn't obvious where things are going to go with Team Rwanda in the future.

Westerners seeking to provide help and the Rwandans themselves will have different views on what works and what doesn't and why or why not - the author makes this clear with an update he provides on the coffee cargo bike program that Tom Ritchey started (before Team Rwanda even came into being). Lewis follows up with the Americans who are still nominally responsible for the program and they make various excuses but mostly state that the Rwandans didn't want the cargo bicycles for cost or other reasons. Those Rwandans who received the bikes and used them (but then had maintenance problems with them, since they used them very intensely) disagree. The Rwandans claim that no parts were available but then Lewis quickly finds a warehouse of spare parts. It is not clear what the real problem or problems preventing the further success of this clever program to provide cargo bikes to Rwandan coffee growers is, just that it isn't working and that (apparently) no one understands why not. This would seem to map to discussion of the more robust and complex Rwandan cycling team.

Philip Gourevitch had a long article in the New Yorker about Team Rwanda in July 2011 (unfortunately only a short version available to non-subscribers online); this book is to some degree a much expanded version of that (albeit by a different author). There is also a documentary movie out covering the development of Team Rwanda - Rising from the Ashes.



View all my Goodreads reviews of books on cycling.

DC Bike Messengers 100 Years Ago - 1912

In a blog post a few days ago, about some bicycle accidents in 1913 in Washington DC, I included a photograph of a bicycle messenger (below) - I have since looked to see how many other photos of DC messengers were digitized and available on the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Catalog - it seems there are just two more.

Title: Sam Maddox, 132 N St., S.E., Washington, D.C. Western Union No. 227, one of the young boys pretty close to the age limit. Was born Oct. 3, 1898, which makes him 13 yrs. old. Has permit to work from Juvenile Court. Has been troublesome in school. Location: Washington (D.C.), District of Columbia.
Creator(s): Hine, Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940, photographer
Date Created/Published: [1912 April]
Medium: 1 photographic print.
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-nclc-03766 (color digital file from b&w original print)
Library of Congress
www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ncl2004000319/PP/

Lewis Hine was a photographer (among other things) whose photographs were important in getting child labor laws passed - many of his collection items have been digitized by the Library of Congress, including photographs of bicycle messengers from different parts of the U.S. Of which there are three from Washington DC.

Title: Earle Griffith and Eddie Tahoory, working for the Dime Messenger Service. They said they never knew when they were going to get home at night. Usually work one or more nights a week, and have worked until after midnight. They said last Christmas their office had a 9 yr. old boy running errands for them, and that he made a great deal of money from tips. They make about $7 a week and more, sometimes. Said "The office is not allowed to send us into the red light district but we go when a call sends us. Not very often." Location: [Washington (D.C.), District of Columbia].
Creator(s): Hine, Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940, photographer
Date Created/Published: 1912 April.
Medium: 1 photographic print.
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-nclc-03757 (color digital file from b&w original print)
Library of Congress
www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ncl2004002434/PP/

Apparently one concern was that bicycle messengers were often assigned to make deliveries in "red light districts." (The "titles" for these items are taken from the annotations from the collection and are interesting.)

Title: Wilbur H. Woodward, 428 Third St., N.W., Washington, D.C., Western Union messenger 236, one of the youngsters on the border-line, (15 yrs. old) works until 8 P.M. only. Location: Washington (D.C.), District of Columbia.
Creator(s): Hine, Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940, photographer
Date Created/Published: 1912 April.
Medium: 1 photographic print.
1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in.
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-nclc-03761 (color digital file from b&w original print)
Library of Congress
www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ncl2004000314/PP/

If you follow the links to the LC presentations of these items, they have different versions that were digitized from the glass plate negatives that are (in effect) B&W rather than these digitized prints, which are "in color" in the sense that they reflect the way that the prints look now (i.e., sort of sepia toned). I prefer the digitized prints, but others might prefer the digitized negatives. Something for everyone ~

1914 - The Year World War I Started

Later in 1914 we will have the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, about which I expect we'll read and hear plenty. Bicycles were a relatively low-cost way to achieve a more mobile infantryman, but their use seems to have been limited. Still, one does see photographs.


France - Cyclists of Army, from the Library of Congress

[between ca. 1914 and ca. 1915]
1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.
Notes: Title from data provided by the Bain News Service on the negative.
Photograph shows French soldiers with bicycles during the beginning of World War I.
Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress).
Subjects-World War, 1914-1918.
Bain News Service Collection
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.17027 persistent URL for version at Library of Congress.

While cyclist-soldiers take up most of the visual space in the photograph above, there is one mounted cavalryman to the left. One wonders how the two groups, cyclists and traditional cavalry, regarded one another.


Cycle orderlies under fire, from the National Library of Scotland

From the National Library of Scotland description of this photograph: Cyclists sheltering from shelling, Western Front, during World War I. A shell bursting in the rubble of ruined buildings beside a road. Two cyclists have turned their bikes upside down and are using the wheels to give a little shelter from the blast. Curiously, a third man, appearing totally unconcerned, seems to be using a hammer and chisel on a rock in the road.

Bicycles were used quite commonly, not only for general transport, but also for carrying dispatches. Motorbikes, runners, pigeons and dogs were also used to carry messages because field telephones were limited by the need for cables and wireless was still unreliable.

I think the person who wrote this annotation is lacking imagination - rather than using a hammer and a chisel on a rock, I believe the fellow is bashing some bicycle part to try to bend it - that would make more sense. I also don't think they were seeking shelter behind their bicycles - not much shelter to be had! It seems more logical that they were simply working on their bikes, the photographer was going to record that scene, and by chance the photographer captured the shell going off in the background as well. Anyway, I like that theory better.

By chance I found this book written by a young American journalist, Roadside Glimpses of the Great War by Arthur Sweetser, published in 1916 before the United States was part of WWI - amazingly he did much of his travel in the war zones of France and Belgium by bicycle. On page 23 he starts what is probably one of the more unusual bicycle travelogues:

It was obvious that even if the Germans entered Lille at all, it would be only with a small holding force. The main army was driving through farther east. Douai, they told me, was the centre of activities, but how to cover the forty kilometres there was a poser. At last the idea of a bicycle struck me. It would be quaint indeed thus to chase the battle-front blindly all over France. After a whole day's hunting and tremendous linguistic effort, I secured the best the city could offer, the best bicycle, I soon believed, in all France, a machine which, costing me but $23 secondhand, was destined to take me half across the country.

"Ringing in the New Year"

Christmas "doggie" bell added to handlebars of carbon fiber road bike

I got this bell in my Christmas stocking and decided I would try it. As it turns out, a few days after Christmas it was warm and I took it for a ride and decided I liked it better than "on your left" all the time. And in DC at least it is the law to have one.


More typical modern bell in roughly the same location on my older steel bike

I had this bell on the stem, but it isn't a very convenient location. I thought since I have no trouble finding the downtube shifters without looking that I wouldn't have any trouble finding a bell that was on the stem without looking but it hasn't worked out that way. So I have moved it to this location, which seems a lot simpler to find.


Bike bells available in 1900 - quite a variety!

A number of the bells available in this catalog are described as "electric stroke" bells. I don't think any electricity is involved; this is meant to evoke the way it works somehow. There are also "single stroke," "double stroke," "push button," and "continuous ring" bell - this last one activated as by the rotating tire somehow.

Some 1913 Bicycle Accidents in DC

October 1913 had two bicycle accidents that received newspaper coverage, one that involved President Wilson and "the White House car" (as it was referred to) and another involving the then-highest ranking bicycle commuter in the U.S. federal government.

The Washington Herald of October 06, 1913 had this story about the follow-up after President Wilson's car (driven by a chauffeur) had an accident with a bicycle messenger.

WILSON VISITS BOY AUTO HURT - Calls at Hospital and Feels Robert Crawford's Pulse and Head.

LAD SHOWS PLEASURE - Particularly Happy Over President's Promise to Give Him Bicycle to Replace Broken One

"Laying on of hands" may fail to cure nine times out of ten in these days, but in the opinion of Robert Crawford, the messenger boy run down and injured by President Wilson's automobile Saturday, the soothing touch of the chief Executive's hands and his cheering talk worked miraculously yesterday when the President visited the little patient at Providence Hospital.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Young Crawford was assured that the President would see that he had another bicycle in place of the one that was demolished by the White House car. After giving the patient this assurance and telling him that he hoped he would be completely well soon, President Wilson left the sickroom and returned to the White House in his automobile.

A typical messenger boy with bicycle in Washington DC, 1912

This incident was of sufficient notoriety that it is mentioned in the Wikipedia article about "telegraph boys" - "The President sent his personal physician to attend Crawford. Later, he visited the boy in the hospital and presented him with a new bicycle. "I did not know it was the President's car that I ran into," the boy said. Wilson replied, "I rather thought it was the President's car that ran into you.""

Not long after that, the second highest official at the Department of State had a bicycle accident that was reported on in the newspaper by The Washington Times on October 14, 1913.

ADEE, ON BICYCLE, CRASHES INTO AUTO

Secretary's Machine Wrecked and He Narrowly Escapes Receiving Serious Injury.

Assistant Secretary of State A. A. Adee had a narrow escape from serious injury this morning, when he rode his world-famous bicycle, which was carrying him to his office in the State Department, into the automobile being driven by J. E. Baines. of Browning Baines, coffee manufacturers, as Pennsylvania avenue northwest. Mr. Adee'a bicycle was damaged to such an extent that he was unable to ride it. He escaped serious Injury, however, although miraculously. Following the collision, Mr. Baines jumped from the car, assisted Mr. Adee to his feet, brushed the dust from his clothes, and after making an inventory, found that the aged cyclist was practically uninjured. The accident happened at Sixteenth and Corcoran streets. Secretary Adee was going west on Corcoran, and was turning into Sixteenth when he came immediately in front of Mr. Baine's automobile, which was going south. Mr. Baines turned his machine about, but not in time to keep Mr. Adee, who had not till that time seen it, from colliding.

Alvey Adee in 1914, riding his bike to work, some time after the above-described crash

Bicycle: Around the World: Around the World by Linda Svendsen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Other than the single page introduction, there is no text aside from captions that identify the location that each photograph was taken. The pages are unnumbered but the volume is easily an inch thick, so there are several hundred pages of color photographs, some running across both pages.

The goal is to show how bicycles fit into everyday life around the world. The focus isn't on the qualities of the bicycles themselves in the usual way for books that are heavy on photographs of bicycles. Some of the photographs are crammed with bicycles in some setting while others have just one that may be off in the corner of the photograph.

This selection of three photographs from the book gives some sense of what the book is like. There is no apparent attempt to include photographs taken in every country of the world - of the ~190 countries in the world, there are probably photographs of bicycles in around 40 (I'm guessing) but there are certainly photographs from each continent (not including Antarctica). They were organized in some order that presumably made sense to the photographer but I didn't discern any pattern - photographs from a particular country may run for several pages, then from some other country, and later one finds another photograph from the first country later in the book. It seems whimsical.

Many of the bicycles shown in the developing world have obviously been subjected to heavy use and are not emblematic of bicycles as works of art or engineering. In fact the only "iconic" bicycle, presumably included without a sense of its iconic nature, is a Jack Taylor tandem shown in California. Perhaps this is repeating myself, but this is not a book of photographs of bikes to be admired in the typical way that I might.

Most of the photographs do not include the riders with the bicycles; rather the bicycles are shown parked (sometimes laying on their sides, looking more discarded than parked), waiting patiently for their riders to return.

This is not a new book or likely to be found in a bookstore selling new books. I was able to find a used copy at Powells book store for $6.50 which seemed an excellent deal.

View my reviews of cycling books on Goodreads.

Classic American Bicycles - Book Review

Classic American Bicycles by Jay Pridmore

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book, which is now 15 years old, is a good blend of readable text and color photographs of mostly iconic bicycles from the earliest bicycles in America through the 1990s. The book is published as part of as series titled, "Enthusiast Color Series" so the presumed audience would most be people like me who are already interested and know something about bicycle history.

The photographs are generally of bicycles on exhibit at the Bicycle Museum of America - most were taken outdoors in posed settings. There are a small number of reproduction period photographs, too. Perhaps the main drawback of this kind of book is that the photographs are all full shots of the bicycles at medium distance so that you usually can't make out particular details - it really takes a coffee table size volume to have lots of close-up shots, too, I guess.

Given that more than half the space in the 96 pages is taken up with the photographs, the text does a good job of being both engaging and informative, even though it can't serve as an in-depth description of the subject. Mr. Pridmore, whose other books include ones about Schwinn's history, seems well qualified to write this book.

A book like this, focusing on "classics," tends to emphasize the unusual - for the enthusiast these are often the most interesting. And for a so-called enthusiast, that's fine - such a person will get that. As a photographic history of American bicycles more generally, however, this wouldn't work very well.

I gave this book five stars because it fulfilled my expectations for such books very well - I bought it used from Powells Book Store - I like to have books like this to pick up and page through from time to time.

View my reviews of cycling books on Goodreads.

Additional comment: Having read this book, which credits the Bicycle Museum of America as a "collaborator" on the title page, I looked at their website. I assume there are any number of reasons why small museums like this provide somewhat inferior presentations of their collections online - for one, if one could see the bicycles well on the site, why travel to New Bremen, Ohio? And also such web presentations cost money. The "online museum" includes a timeline of bicycle history (that reflects many of the highlights in the book) and an alphabetical directory of bicycles, presumably ones they have on exhibit. Oddly the entry for Pierce Arrow misspells the company's name as "Piece Arrow" in not one but two places. The selected images in this directory of bicycles are small and not likely to take away anyone's desire to visit the actual museum.

Presta Valve Follies

A few days ago while putting air in a road bike tire before taking off to work, I managed to remove the pump head such that it snapped the front tire's Presta valve stem off. This is the second or third time I have had this happen - admittedly over something like 15 years, so not exactly an everyday thing. Still, it is annoying since I typically put air in the tires right before taking off. In this case, since the broken valve didn't let any air out but simply meant I could no longer put air in, I decided to ride to work and back before dealing with it - that is, replacing the tube with a new one with a working valve. So I wasn't slowed down on departure much.


The Presta valve - the part that should insert into the pump and open the tube to receive air snapped off

This situation was preceded by bending the stem at some point, which apparently creates a weak point. Then I suppose when I loosen and tighten the lock nut every time I put air in the tire, it puts some stress on the bend, or something like that. Then at some point as I pull the pump head off, it is at such an angle that the stem snaps.


Inner tubes with working Presta valves

The replacement tube I will use is at left - I an using the tube that was in my bicycle tool bag, which was in a bag with talcum powder so it will move around easily in the tire and not get trapped between the rim and the tire during installation. I will coat the newer tube at right in talcum and put it in the bike tool bag.


Schrader valve patent from 1892

Apparently the Presta valve is more suitable for high pressure situations than the older Schrader valve - or at least I think the Schrader valve design is older. In Google's patent database the Schrader valve carries the Schrader name from its being patented in the U.S. in 1892. The Presta valve is a little more mysterious.


Is this the earliest Presta valve-like patent? from 1897

According the Wikipedia article on Presta valves some Presta valves now have removable cores which is not something I had realized was even possible. It says, "removable core Presta valves have become more common" - perhaps, but not on the low cost (i.e., cheap) tubes I buy. (Schrader valves all have removable core valves - a slow leak with a tire with a Schrader valve can simply be that the valve is not tightly installed. A very useful thing is a Schrader valve cap made of metal that has a built-in valve core remover/tightener.)

End of Year Look at Blog Stats

Overview - 90,001 all-time pageviews (click image to enlarge)

No, I still don't get what happened when pageviews was shooting up and then went south for a while, and now sort of zigs and zags.


Posts

The top four posts are the four that are featured at the right as "popular posts" - once ensconced there they seem hard to displace. They have, however, changed in rank relative to one another over time.

The blog post that has the most page views that comes next is Kickstarter Reflector Sticker = Success - I don't understand at all why this continues regularly to come up. It is (from my point of view, writing it) the least substantive post I did about Kickstarter proposals. There is little predicting which posts will get lots of views.

I do like that several posts related to my 1982 Bridgestone Sirius are popular. (Another one is here.


Traffic Sources

The traffic mostly comes from Google searches, not reading of current blog posts (I think). The VampireStat spam numbers are fairly low, all things considered. Good.


Audience(s)

Not surprisingly most traffic is from English speaking countries. And an assortment of others.

Kickstarter Risk Example - E-Bike Co. Goes Bust

I suppose I should take care not to appear obsessed with Kickstarter . . .

For a while I have looked at the Bike Portland blog fairly regularly because I guess I thought of Portland as somehow advanced in its support for cycling. Now I'm not so sure "advanced" is the right word, but anyway, it is a source of bike related news that can be stimulating to read.

They just had a blog post about a company ceasing operation - the company, Conscious Commuter, was trying to bring a folding e-bike for commuter use to market. Although not evident from their web site, they have packed it in - the Bike Portland blog post quotes extensively from an email sent out from the company to its Kickstarter supporters.



So yes, in addition to other funding sources, this company sought and got $25,000 through a Kickstarter effort. Thirteen of the people who contributed were at the $1,395 level, for which the "reward" was to be, "You are pre-ordering and will receive a numbered, signed, limited edition folding e-bike, numbered in the order your Kickstarter pledge was placed. In addition to special pricing, you will get another pre-release offer -- a 2 year warranty!" (Estimated deliver - March 2012.) Anyway - no, that didn't and isn't happening, as it turns out. Instead you get an email more than two years later that says, "We appreciate your support of Conscious Commuter. We wish we had been able to raise the additional funds needed to continue what we believed was a very promising business- but after two and a half years filled with momentous achievements and challenges, financial issues have forced us to close our doors." Actually the email says a lot of other blather. At this point anyone who gave them $1,395 is probably not too surprised.

Since this proposal was made in 2011, Kickstarter has tried to clarify that there is some risk in such things with their "Kickstarter is not a store!" blog post, that requires proposal to include a "risks and challenges" section (which the e-bike proposal didn't have) but in my experience these never say, "there is risk we spend the money on something other than producing the thing you think you will get."

Just from the fifteen minutes or so I have spent acquainting myself with this effort (admittedly after the fact) it appears they had problems staying on track. Even the Kickstarter people say, "under-promise and over-deliver" - instead they seemed to have tried to come up with every conceivable variant imaginable - the same bike without the electric drive, the same bike with the e-drive but you don't have to (or can't?) pedal the thing, even a version in carbon fiber.


A slick video pushing a carbon-fiber variant

Most amazing to me, for a project that involves Kickstarter funding, is the "about us" page on the Conscious Commuter site. (This page is most likely going to disappear soon, but no worries, I used the Internet Archive's "archive this" functionality to make a copy for posterity, which is here: https://web.archive.org/web/20131222164759/http://www.consciouscommuter.com/pages/our-people-1.) I mean, good lord, the company describes nine different management or adviser types and nothing about anybody who puts their hands on a bicycle!! You know, to make one. The 25,000 bucks from Kickstarter, less the five percent to Kickstarter and the credit card charges, wouldn't pay for this crew's $ needs for very long. (Yeah, I get that maybe one of these people was focusing on this full-time - but still, can't they say something about someone who gets grease on his hands occasionally?)

Again, it's easy for me to look at this critically more than two years after they created their Kickstarter proposal. Perhaps there is something be learned here. Hmm.

A Modern Lugged Frame & 3D Printing

VRZ 1. a tack bike frame with 3d printed lugs from Ralf Holleis on Vimeo.

A clever use of 3D printing to create lugs for a bicycle frame. I am not someone who pines for a bicycle-as-work-of-art like this, but there is no reason I can think of not to use a technical approach like this to build a bicycle frame that would more pedestrian in appearance but good to ride.


From a bicycle "accessories" (mostly parts) catalog of 1900

The elegance of a lugged bicycle frame to me is that it is the way most good (and I suppose some other) bicycles were built for the better part of 100 years.


My 1982 Bridgestone with a lugged steel frame

The Kickstarter Wheel of Fortune - Bicycle Turn Signals (Again)

There are very few new ideas - that is one lesson one quickly learns perusing Kickstarter. But some folks are able to package an idea in a way that is far more attractive, that much is clear.

Several years ago I had a blog post about a Kickstarter for bicycle turn signals built into gloves.



Failed Kickstarter proposal from September 2011

The fellow had a pretty ambitious goal ($50,000) and his product, as displayed in Kickstarter, looked in need of further development work. His proposal failed - he only got about 20 percent of his goal pledged.

I myself don't really get the logic for electric light driven bicycle turn signals, whether on your gloves or otherwise. I discussed aspects of why I think this in the earlier blog post but mostly I don't think they will contribute much to making urban cycling more safe. Such gloves would give information to vehicle drivers coming up from behind that the cyclist is turning - but this isn't a scenario where most accidents happen between cyclists and motor vehicles. Check out the top ten ways to get hit at BicycleSafe.com - none of them would be helped by rear-facing turn signals for the bicycle. (OK, arguably a signal could be used for #9 where you change lanes to get around parked vehicles etc and are hit from the rear by a car - but these signals wouldn't obviate their critical advice, which is Never, ever move left without looking behind you first. Is the motorist going to be more likely to give you room because you have an electric thing on your hand?


I read in the WashCycle blog about this new Kickstarter to fund essentially the same idea

This guy has a lower target dollar figure and it looks like he might make it (as of mid-January). So apparently 100s of people (who peruse Kickstarter and have extra money) think this is something they want to own - because this Kickstarter is very up front that the whole idea is to sell funders the device. Even though Kickstarter maintains that Kickstarter is not a store.

As far as how this connects with cycling history, it was big part of early cycling history in the 1890s that folks submitted patent applications for very similar "inventions" - over and over. See some on Flickr.


Many different versions of "no flat" tires were patented during the 1890s with springs in the tires - all of which failed

Bicycles as Christmas Presents - Ads

My local bike shop (that isn't a national chain) says on their web site that "bikes are the perfect gift for kids" - but then the photograph they have of happy kids with their new bikes shows them in summer. On the other hand, the best bike I ever received as a gift from my parents was a Christmas present . . . I guess there is nothing to be done about the disconnect between bicycles as presents for kids and December weather (at least where it isn't typically that warm in December).

In the 1890s bicycle sales focused heavily on adults - until the collapse of the bicycle market around 1897-98. After that apparently interest in sales to children (or anyone!) for Christmas grew, demonstrated in the Washington DC newspaper ad below from 1903.


From The Washington times., December 13, 1903

The ad copy isn't particularly good - "any boy would be hilariously happy if Santa Claus brought him a new bicycle for Christmas" - perhaps the phrase "hilariously happy" made more sense 110 years ago. It's also unclear why the effectively exclude girls - presumably there were girls bikes for sale.


The herald. (New Orleans, LA), December 14, 1922

Above is part of an ad from a newspaper in New Orleans in 1922 - more what one would expect. Of course today it would be rare when a parent would think that a bicycle as present would "fulfill the biggest wish" of the child receiving it.


The full ad - most of the toys are more oriented toward physical activity than those of today


My daughter, some years ago, and her Christmas present bike

NYC Bicycle Accident Report - From 1897

This long list of accidents involving bicycles in New York City for the month of July, 1897 is from the New York Sun newspaper. I reproduce the text (cleaned up from what is in the source) from the full article. No illustrations were provided. Normally I do not fill a blog with the entire text taken from an article like this, but at least for me reading all of this gives an interesting picture of that time, particularly when compared to how such things transpire these days.

Some background may help - the actors are generally pedestrians, bicycle riders, drivers of horse-drawn vehicles, and a few runaway horses. In particular the word "rider" is always used to refer to cyclists, particularly in the phrase, "rider arrested." And the word "driver" is always referring to someone operating a horse drawn vehicle since at this time there were no automobiles, again as in the phrase, "driver arrested."

Despite the title of the article, that to me suggested wheelmen and wheelwomen were at fault in all the incidents described, the blame is sometimes ascribed to the drivers of vehicles or to events beyond anyone's control, for example with runaway horses or a bicycle that has a fork break and falls to the street. Where fault was found by the police on the spot, it is noteworthy that the party at fault, whether a rider or driver, is immediately arrested, sometimes after being chased. Some of the cyclists are not arrested because they escape. And in this list, riders are considered to have been at fault far more than drivers.

Some cyclists are described as "scorchers" - I described scorchers in an earlier blog post - this term was used to describe reckless speedster cyclists during the 1890s.

Some of the language in the piece reflects a different approach to journalism - some individuals are labeled as "fat" or "stupid," for example. The article appears to be intended to have a certain entertainment value in its approach to the subject (or something like entertainment).

JULY'S BICYCLE RECORD - Misadventures of Wheelmen and Wheelwomen and Accidents Caused by Them

The list of bicycle accidents that occurred in this city during July is long, despite the fact that for more than two weeks most of the wheelers were kept indoors by almost incessant rain. A surprising thing about the month's casualties is that while the cycling season is well advanced the number of careless and unskilful riders doesn't seem to diminish. Fewer of the accidents in July can be counted a unavoidable than in June, although in some cases it is difficult to determine by the brief report obtainable whether or not the mishap could, under the circumstances, have been prevented. The habitual scorcher certainly took a rest last month, and was probably not responsible for more than one-tenth of the damage done. Following is a summary of the accidents reported:

A peddler's wagon runs into a wheelwoman, who is thrown from her saddle. 8he falls into the arms of a bike cop and escapes injury. The bicycle is smashed and the driver locked up after a lively chase.

A scorcher knocks down an elderly man, whose collar bone is broken by the fall. The victim is taken to a hospital and declines to make a complaint against the wheelman.

A cab driver runs down a wheelwoman and one of the wheels of the cab passes over her head, breaking her nose and fracturing her skull in several places. She is taken home and the cabman is arrested.

An elderly woman is knocked over by a wheelman and so severely cut and bruised that she is taken to a hospital. Cyclist arrested.

A seven-year-old boy, while playing in the street, is run over by a cyclist, receives a scalp wound, and is sent to a hospital.

The entire middle column is made up of this list of bicycle accidents for July 1897 in NYC

The forks of a bicycle break on Eighth avenue and the rider is thrown heavily against the curb. He is taken to a hospital.

A boy cyclist knocks down three-year-old girl who is playing in the street, the child is severely injured about the head and shoulders and is taken to a hospital. Boy arrested.

A woman is struck by a wheelman, receives a broken wrist and scalp wounds, and is taken to a hospital. Rider arrested.

One wheelman collides with another, is thrown, and receives a bad scalp wound. He is taken to a hospital.

A young woman is run down by a wheelman and has her left thigh and arm broken. Rider arrested.

A wheelman's pedal strikes a curbstone and he is thrown heavily to the pavement, but escapes with a few scratches.

A tandem collides with a buggy at the Central Park Circle and is smashed. The cyclists, a man and a women, are thrown off, but escape injury. The accident said to be due to the torn up condition of the Circle.

A reckless young wheelman runs into a six-year-old boy, whose right leg is injured and left ear badly torn. Rider arrested.

A seven-year-old girl playing in front of her home is run over by a wheelman, but not seriously hurt. Rider arrested.

A six-year-old girl is struck by wheelman; her leg is broken and she is taken to a hospital. Rider arrested.

A young wheelwoman runs into an ambulance, which comes upon her suddenly. The wheel is smashed, but its rider isn't hurt and the driver isn't blamed.

A truckman corners a wheelman and runs over his bike, smashing it. The cyclist barely avoids being run over himself, and, it is said, is told by the truck's owner that 'tis a pity his neck isn't broken as well as his wheel.

A wheelman in trying to pass in front of a wagon, hits its shaft and strikes his eye against a harness buckle, injuring the eye badly.

A woman is knocked down and run over by a wheelman, has her cheek badly cut and is taken to a hospital. Rider arrested.

A wheelman is crowded off his machine by a team of horses drawing a heavy wagon. A wheel passes over his ankle, and the driver, in backing the team, rolls the wheel over the cyclist's ankle a second time. The injured man is taken to a hospital and the driver is arrested.

A man is knocked down and run over by a wheelman. The pedestrian receives contusions on both knees and on the left arm and is taken away in an ambulance. Rider arrested.

A driver runs over ten-year-old boy cyclist, who is badly cut and bruised about the head. Driver arrested.

A monkey-backed scorcher, riding on a cable slot with his head down, bucks into a truck and is thrown violently into the street. He is picked up in a semi-conscious state, with his head badly cut, and is treated by an ambulance surgeon.

A wheelwoman's bike slips on a wet pavement and she is thrown off. Her elbow is cut and she is bruised in several places. An ambulance is called and the surgeon dresses the woman's wounds and sends her home.

Another wheel slips on a wet pavement, and the rider, a woman, is landed in the street with great force. Her left ankle is fractured and she is taken to a hospital, where she is likely to remain for several weeks.

An engaged couple on a tandem are run into by a lad driving a grocery wagon and are thrown, one of the wagon wheels passing over the young woman's body. She is severely bruised and receives a bad scalp wound, while the man escapes with slight injuries. Driver is blamed, and is locked up after a chase.

A coal cart and a wheelwoman collide on the Boulevard and the cyclist is knocked out, but not seriously hurt. Bystanders blame the driver.

A young couple, man and woman, are riding a tandem in Central Park, when the handle bar parts and the man is pitched forward onto the fork and receives a slight wound on his right side. He is taken to a hospital. The woman is not much hurt.

A four-year-old girl is knocked down by a scorcher, and has her right leg broken. The scorcher doesn't stop to investigate.

A young woman, after spurting to get past a wagon, strikes against a curb before she is able to stop. She is thrown heavily to the sidewalk, her head striking against a hydrant. She goes home in a cab.

A wheelman, in anticipation of a happy event expected hourly to take place at home, scorches down Second avenue, runs over a six-year old boy, and is locked up. The boy is taken to a hospital practically unhurt. The cyclist is released, but was too late.

An elderly woman is knocked down and run over by a wheelman on Eighth avenue; her thigh is fractured, and she is taken to a hospital in a serious condition Rider arrested.

A wheelwoman walking beside her bicycle is knocked down by a runaway horse. She is unconscious, but suffers only slight injury.

A wheelman riding up Fifth avenue, with his back curved like a dromedary's and his nose almost touching the handle bar, fails to turn the corner, dashes into the sidewalk and strikes a girl, knocking her down. She is rendered unconscious, but isn't much hurt. The rider is thrown by the collision, but immediately remounts and scorches away.

A wheelwoman falls from her machine on Fifth avenue, receives a contusion of the right elbow and it taken home.

A wheelwoman loses control of her machine on Eighth avenue and falls, fracturing her left ankle. She is removed to a hospital.

A young wheelman collides with a truck on Third avenue, is thrown, and lacerates his hand badly. He refuses to make a complaint.

Two wheelmen riding rapidly on the Boulevard collide, and are thrown to the ground. Neither is much hurt, and they ride away after a brief but heated argument.

In cleaning his bike a wheelman's forefinger gets caught in the sprocket wheel and is cut off. The wound is dressed by an ambulance surgeon.

A wheelman is overcome by the heat and falls from his machine, striking on hit head. He is picked up unconscious and removed to a hospital suffering from concussion of the brain.

A cab driver runs into and knocks down a boy cyclist, badly cutting the lad's left knee and arm. The cabman lashes his horse and escapes.

A bicyclist is taken ill and falls, fracturing his skull. He is taken to a hospital and his injuries are probably fatal.

A cab strikes a boy cyclist, who is knocked under the horse's feet and barely escapes being run over. He is badly cut and is taken home in an ambulance. Driver hurries away.

A middle-aged woman learning to wheel becomes over-confident of her skill and turns too short in a bicycle academy. Her machine slips and she falls on her left foot, breaking her ankle. She is taken to a hospital.

In getting off a street car a man steps in front of a rapidly moving bicycle, is knocked about five feet, and has his left leg broken. The wheelman is thrown, but remounts and spurts away.

A stupid driver proceeds uptown on the wrong side of Eighth avenue and runs into a wheelwoman, who is thrown into the street, but is not much hurt. Her wheel is completely wrecked. Driver is locked up.

A middle-aged wheelman is run into on Eighth avenue by another wheelman and knocked off his machine. He falls under a truck and has his right arm broken. In explanation, rider No. 2 said: If I hadn't run against you I would have fallen myself." The injured man is taken to a hospital, but refuses to make a complaint against the other rider.

A fat wheelman and a slender wheelwoman, in trying to escape from a runaway horse, collide on the Boulevard and both riders strike the pavement on all fours. They suffer only from fright. A bike cop stops the horse.

In June several wheelmen were struck by cable cars at "Dead Man's Curve" and other places but it is noticeable from the above sketch that the cable road was responsible for none of the accidents to wheelmen in July. Whether that fact is due to the warning which THE SUN gave to the bicycles last month or to the slower speed at which the cars have lately rounded the curves, is left to the reader's judgement. A striking feature of last month's record is to be found in the theo largo number of children who were run down while playing in the street. And in this regard a hint may be wisely taken by parents and wheelmen alike. It appears that the troublesome, reckless driver so much complained of by cyclists came near smashing his previous records in July, a very large fraction of the month's accidents being attributed to his long-felt want of good sense.

Wheelmen - Rise and Fall (of the Use of that Word)

This is a somewhat random post, as I think about it in advance. Hmmm.

In the 1880s-90s, the term "wheelmen" was most commonly used word to describe (male) cyclists as a group. Therefore if one is using a search engine sort of approach to mining in the digitized newspapers of Chronicling America (up to 1923) or Google books, one will generally get more results using "wheelmen" than "bicyclist(s)" or "cyclist(s)."

This can be confirmed using an Ngram viewer that is available that works against the Chronicling America body of newspaper text. It returns the frequency of particular terms in the corpus over a period of time (here, 1865-1922).


"Wheelmen" (red line) rises - then falls (click image for more detailed view)

"Wheelmen" (the red line) starts up around 1890 and takes off, peaking in 1896-97, then falls just as quickly as it went up. By 1910 is practically gone. The terms "wheelman," "bicyclist" (which gets the plural also), and "cyclist" (also gets plural) have a similar trajectory to one another and also peak in 1896-97, but really it seems "cyclist" goes forward as the most used term - but not so much (per million words) as in the 1890s! (By the way, "wheelwomen" was also a term used during the late 1800s and the Ngram curve for it is like of "wheelmen" but on a lower level, going up, then down.)


"Bicycle" (red) is overtaken by "automobile" (green) (click image for more detailed view)

When you open the viewer the "demonstration" search is for "telephone," "bicycle," "automobile," and "telegraph" - this shows the same rise and fall of all things bicycle in newspapers, which presumably reflects their significance in society, to some extent anyway. Of the four, "bicycle" shows the most dramatic rise - and then later, fall. It must mean something - but I'm not sure what - that the fall of "wheelmen" as a topic in newspapers starts before any significant discussion of "automobile(s)" in newspapers.

I was reminded of this in part by seeing a reference to the recently published book that uses the word "wheelmen" in the title about Lance Armstrong, Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour de France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever - talk about "rise and fall." Do anyone still want to read about Lance? I'm surprised.

Four Mile Run Bicycle Detour - A Coming Distraction

One of several signs announcing the detour

A detour was supposed to start on in my bicycle commute, but the demolition must be behind since it hasn't happened as of December 2nd (2013) per announcements.

Four Mile Run Potomac Yard Bridge Demolition Updates

As of today, this is what the text says:

Starting December 2nd and running for approximately 6 months, a short section of the Four Mile Run trail in Potomac Yard near the junction with the Mt. Vernon Trail will be closed during most commuting hours due to demolition of a bridge overhead.

A detour will be provided, but many riders may find it better to pick an alternate route to avoid the construction area altogether.

I have given it some thought, and for most people there aren't workable alternate routes that don't add significantly to the distance or that you use surface streets through Crystal City, which means that you ride on (ugh) surface streets. Well, whatever, as they say. It continues ~

The detour - designed for ADA compliance, not necessarily bicycles - diverts traffic off of the trail onto the Jeff Davis Hwy west side sidewalk and also at the new switchback ramps to cross US1 at the S. Glebe Road signal. For those who are game, the switchback does incorporate a flight of stairs with bike rails built in.

I find this part quite annoying. The "switchback ramps" are not "not necessarily [for] bicycles" but absolutely not for bicycles, if they mean while being ridden. And the "bike rails" are simply boards butted up against the railing, not trough-style rails that guide the bike properly up and down the stairs. Pitiful. "If you are game" - what's that about? It is either OK or it isn't OK. It isn't OK.


Above is a screen grab from a video from Arlington County that shows the switchbacks while under construction (although it is not, in fact, in Arlington County)


The stairs that is part of the detour, with the so-called "bike rails"


This image shows what a proper bike rail looks like

Lance Armstrong in the Public Domain & Other Finds in "The Commons"

The Flickr Commons has many interesting digitized historical photographs of cycling and also the (very) occasional original "born digital" photograph as well - these are believed to be in the public domain or otherwise under some Creative Commons type license and available for use in things like my blog. So occasionally I go through the search results in the Flickr Commons for "bicycle" just to see what is there. Since the search results include items in Flickr where users have added tags, the available search terms are often more than if one did searching in the "native" system. So for example, a user may tag a photo from the Library of Congress with a bicycle in the background with the word "bicycle" when the Library of Congress would not have that as a search term associated with that photograph.


A digital photo (not digitized) of Lance A from the San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives

The San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives has an unusually large number of photographs, both digitized and "born digital," in the Flickr Commons - about 166,000. Among those are a few tagged with "bicycle." The photo above is unusual generally for the Flickr Commons because it is a photograph of a public figure, Lance Armstrong, taken relatively recently (2008), and in the public domain. Or anyway, the statement is that, "there are no known copyright restrictions." Perhaps in their hurry to put material online, the amount of metadata supplied for any item can be minimal - here the title is "wind tunnel (2)" and that's all there is - Lance Armstrong is not named (or searchable).


Blurry bicycle in the background, off to the left

Above is an example where the user-added tags include bicycle, resulting in a "hit" for this photograph, although most users will not find this particularly helpful since the bicycle is so blurry as to be unidentifiable other than that it is a bicycle. Although perhaps someone might find useful the presentation of the opportunistic nature of bicycle parking in 1910 (as compared to today).


National Archives digitized photograph showing children cycling in Oregon in 1974

The National Archives has some digitized photographs (including a few with bicycles) from after 1923, after which U.S. published materials (well other than music . . .) are generally not in the public domain. I am particularly amused by some photographs that document life during the "gas crisis" of the 1970s. The caption for the above photo states that, "School Children, Were Forced to Use Their Bicycles on Field Trips During the Fuel Crisis in the Winter of 1974. There Was Not Enough Gasoline for School Buses to Be Used for Extracurricular Activities, Even During Dark and Rainy Weather 02/1974." Apparently (and perhaps not surprisingly) things were more dire in Oregon in this regard than they were in Washington DC - I don't remember this level of deprivation around here. The children depicted all seem to have road bikes - was that typical in Oregon? It sure wasn't here. That I recall.

The "American Girl" of 1897 - to be Thankful for on Thanksgiving

In the St. Paul Globe newspaper this article was titled "The Queen of Thanksgiving" but the same article was published in a number of newspapers across the country (with various titles). The article has a large illustration portraying the American girl (or woman, really) of 1897 in various settings.


Full version of the illustration for the article about the "American girl" of 1897

The full text of this article in the Sunday November 21, 1897 issue of the St. Paul Globe talks about many positive aspects of the "American Girl," stating that, ". . . Thanksgiving day, '97, will find the American girl, as all other Thanksgivings have found her, not emancipated, for she never was enslaved, but free as the bright, frosty air that wooes her athletic frame, sending the bleed coursing swiftly through her veins and imprinting the charming tinge of robust health on her cheeks." One can argue that point, of course, but the description of women and cycling that follows seems to suggest that some things have been changing:

A good place to view her at her best will be from the sidewalk of any smooth-paved street of our cities, or from the pathways of macadamized country roads. Here, in the nattiest and newest of bicycle rigs, she will be seen, with her cheeks aglow, her bright eyes sparkling, her pretty hair dancing merrily in the wind, bowling along a-wheel at a pace that surely has nothing in common with chains or fetters, unless it be the bicycle chain that enables her to challenge the wind to a trial of speed and beat the old flirt in a canter. The manner in which the American girl has taken advantage of this glorious sport bears ample testimony to the fact that when she wants a thing she will have it and knows how to take the fullest advantage of what is hers by right. If the shades of the dear old grandmothers of the days of wheel and distaff could return to earth next Thursday and gather along the highways and byways where laughing, chaffing, free and happy columns of wheelwomen fly by, they will surely return to the land of shadows with feelings of regret that their lot was not cast in an era when women find more healthful means of employing their time than the laborious and confining duties of the old-fashioned home life. That the change is vastly for the better even the most disgruntled and cross-grained critic of the up to-date womanhood will admit. Instead of the pale-faced, narrow-chested woman of the wheel and distaff era, the spectator who chooses a front seat to view the passing show of Thanksgiving day '97 will see a long procession of rosy-cheeked, lithe-limbed, happy, healthy and wholesome specimens of femininity that speak contentment in every action.

Bicycling "American girls" - to be thankful for on Thanksgiving

There is a certain polemical aspect to this that speaks to the power relationship between men and women at that time which I think it is possible to separate from the way that women and and cycling are portrayed. In other words, trying to say that women are don't need emancipation because they enjoy the benefits of cycling is not a terribly good argument against emancipation, but the way women and cycling in 1897 are described here (aside from the period writing style) tells us that cycling was in fact a change for women at that time. Just not the last change . . .

Get the Kids Riding

Happy rider - moving along steadily

This is from a few weekends ago - this young rider from the neighborhood is making his way up the trail alongside "Lucky Run." Apparently he enjoys having a distinctive bike. It isn't clear how much the "chopper" design changes the dynamics of how the bike rides - the combination of a very long wheelbase considering the low position of the rider and the small head angle and the amount of trail. (See this for some explanation of bicycle geometry.)

Observing him ride up the slight hill, my sense was that the bicycle frame design wasn't an issue so much as the single speed aspect - once the hill started getting even slightly (but not very) steep, he got off and walked. Fortunately it is mostly pretty flat around here . . .

"Make Us Bicyclists Look Good"

Last Monday I took the day off - as the end of the "leave year" (accumulated vacation time) is approaching, I have more than I can "carry over" so I am having many three day weekends. The weather was slightly odd for November since it got up to 70 degrees (F - around 19-20 C). I did a counterclockwise circuit, riding north along the Potomac and then heading up near Rosslyn on a trail that runs along I-66. In Rosslyn while waiting at a light to cross, I looked down and found the stenciled message below.


This means you!

This is an area that I am not crazy about riding in, but since it isn't a very long part of what is otherwise a ride I enjoy, no worries. The reason I don't like it is that after miles of riding on trails, here it is necessary to ride on the sidewalk - although there aren't many pedestrians. This location, where Lee Highway crosses Fort Myer Drive, feels like as a cyclist one is intruding on the automotive bliss (or hell) the the drivers are experiencing. Because of a curve in the road for the oncoming one way traffic, a person would be crazy to venture to cross three lanes of traffic that can come zipping out of D.C. So there is time to contemplate this statement painted on the sidewalk.

I have blogged about my views on the "cyclists should model model behavior" before. I don't care much for it as a priority - to summarize my thinking.


Another Flickr user in DC has a similar photo

To me, this statement - "make us bicyclists look good" - begs the question, look good to (or for?) who? (Or whom, I suppose.) And for what purpose? Make us bicyclists look good to the motorists so they will respect our law-abiding nature? (And not run us over.) Really? Keep in mind almost all of these same motorists are from time to time committing all sorts of small traffic infractions (exceeding posted speed limits, not making full stops at stop signs, talking on cell phones, texting, on and on).


The classic Disney cartoon portraying motorist behavior

This 1950 Disney cartoon, with Goofy portraying the crazed "Mr. Wheeler" when behind the wheel and the calm "Mr. Walker" while on foot, demonstrates the reality I see - most drivers, looking for an advantage in getting down the road more quickly themselves, aren't spending mental energy toting up a positive karma scores for cyclists when they see one who is 100 percent law abiding. If you get in their way, they'll remember that - not in a good way, of course - but if you stay out of their way, they are down the road. Bye!

Super Cargo Bike ~ of 1898

Paging through issues online of the 1898 "Cycle Age and Trade Review" I found in the November 10, 1898 issue a remarkable article with two illustrations of what seems to be a monster cargo bike - but alas, by this time, this "cycling" journal was starting to include articles about various motorized vehicles as well.


The eye-catching cargo trike - with gasoline engine, it turns out


Detail view, that hides the engine from inspection

COLUMBIA MOTOR CARRIERS

Pope Mfg. Co. of Hartford, Conn., has published a pamphlet describing the carrier vehicles shown in the accompanying illustration. The merchandise capacity of the vehicle is rated at 500 pounds under which it will give its regular speed and power. The structural strength, however, is sufficient to permit a load of 600 or 650 pounds, although under this extra weight the motor will not develop its normal speed. The form and design of the carrying bodies are not necessarily as shown, but may be varied to suit different requirements. The two styles illustrated show wide variation between a light motor truck wagon and a closed-up affair such as would be suitable for a dry goods establishment. The motor is a specially designed gasoline engine for which no water jacket or other cooling device is necessary, thereby saving many complications and much weight, says the company. A supply of gasoline which is sufficient for about 100 miles travel is carried in a tank attached to the frame between the boxes. Like all gas or gasoline motors, the first explosion must be obtained by physical effort, and bicycle cranks and pedals were adopted to give the desired result in the easiest and most satisfactory manner. By the attachment of a clutch with chain and sprocket to the shaft of the driving wheels, foot power may be used to assist the motor when on steep grades, obtaining higher speed than the auxiliary low gear of the motor would normally produce. When the cranks and pedals are not in use they remain stationary. The normal weight of this carrier vehicle is given as 750 pounds.

Pope was the manufacturer of Columbia bicycles (I was not familiar with this identity, "Pope Motor Carriers") and I had not realized the degree to which some of their motorized products were hybrids with their products as this one is. Of course this may only have been a design prospectus and never produced or sold.

It's an interesting idea, to have the pedals used for the kickstarter function to start the gasoline motor and then as a supplementary power source when useful.


Modern day cargo trike, in Portland Ore (naturally), with an electric assist motor

"Dangerous States" Where Insurance Companies Hope to Sell You Coverage

Hope to sell you policies and make bigger profits.

Insurance Business America, on online publication, has an article, "The Most Dangerous States for Cyclists" - it's a little strange to read.

Florida is the most hostile state for bicyclists, with 6.56 cyclist fatalities per million people in 2011, according to data from the US Department of Transportation. Louisiana and Oregon follow close behind, with 3.93 and 3.87 deaths per million.

This publication is arguing for special bicycling insurance policies - "For cyclists in these states, certain insurance policies are vital." They even get the League of American Bicyclists to provide an endorsement: ""Claims against any of your existing policies may result in an increase in premiums," said Scott Williams, membership director for the League. "But filing bike-related claims under a bike-specific policy may protect you from rate increases—and provide additional, supplemental coverage." Plus the national authority on bike law, Bob Mionske - "And cyclist insurance isn’t just for people who bicycle professionally, says bicycle attorney Robert Mionske. Producers would do well to recommend cyclist insurance to all clients who regularly ride a bike and don’t have proper coverage elsewhere."

Comprehensive cycling policies are only $250 to $300 a year for most riders, this article says, and concludes that, "there is a "big movement" in the insurance industry for bicycle coverage, which may pay off handsomely for producers in at-risk states." Yay, more profits for insurance companies!!

Probably it is better if people outside of an industry don't read these sorts of things.


Bicycle insurance was around before there were cars, as a matter of fact

Ad from the Evening star. (Washington, D.C.), 15 Oct. 1895.

Why They Were Called "Safety" Bicycles

The first popular bicycles were so-called "ordinary" bicycles - the rider sat high atop a single large wheel that had pedals attached directly to it with a single wheel that trailed behind. It was not easy to mount, it was not easy (apparently) to stay balanced, and since there were no brakes as such, stopping could be difficult - but if you hit the wrong sort of obstacle, you could come to a sudden and unexpected stop, pitching forward.

Recently I found two different booklets available online, both published in 1881 in Boston, that make the dangers of the ordinary bicycle quite clear.


As with all the illustrations in this little instruction manual, at first things seem manageable . . .

These two illustrations are from "Over the Wheel" - well, with a title like that, perhaps the emphasis on mishaps is not surprising.


As usual as portrayed in this booklet, the rider ends up in an accident

Another booklet in a similar vein is "The Illustrated Bicycle Primer" that similarly features illustrations with cyclists crashing in various ways.

So, once the bicycle as we know it today apppeared in the late 1880s, with similar sized front and back wheels and a chain drive system, it is hardly surprising it was distinguished from its predecessor, the "ordinary" as being the "safety bicycle."


An early "safety" bicycle

After not a very long time, the "ordinary" bicycles disappeared and the word "safety" to designate a bicycle also went out of use.

Negotiating for Cyclist Safety - the NYTimes Editorial View

Today the NYTimes has an opinion piece titled, "Is It O.K. to Kill Cyclist?" It takes a meandering approach to the subject, so summarizing it accurately isn't something I am going to try to do, but a few aspects jump out at me.

It's a step in some direction (whether forward or back may vary depending on one's perspective) that someone has published something in a broad circulation publication that says we have a car culture that tolerates cyclists getting killed on a pretty regular basis with no legal consequences for motorists who are at fault, unless the motorist flees (hit-and-run) or was drunk. And he ties this to the obvious point that in car-cyclist crashes, "only cyclists have much to fear." The apparent answer to the question in the title of the piece is, "yes, generally it is OK to kill cyclists with your car." That's radical, even for the NYTimes.

In fact, it reminds me of one of the reoccurring rants from Bike Snob NYC, who in recent months has revisited the lack of culpability for motorists who kill cyclists often. But Mr. Snob brings approaches the subject with several differences that I think are significant.

For one thing, Mr. Snob usually brings in the pedestrians, and points out that the better way to think of this problem isn't "all powerful (and protected, in several senses) motorists vs vulnerable cyclists" - he adds in the vulnerable pedestrians. Because when you look at the highway statistics, what you see is that motorists kill a lot more pedestrians than cyclists. The way to look at this is to use the "Complete Streets" model - not reducing the conversation to "a vs b" when it really should be a discussion of what serves all the road users so that none are at high risk is better, and to his credit, that is the way Mr. Snob approaches it (even though he is not particularly pedestrian oriented otherwise).

I find it exceptionally annoying that the NYTimes' author drags into his discussion that he sees cyclists routinely "ignore traffic laws" - that much of the problem must come from that. This seems to come up all the time - those scofflaw cyclists, it's all their fault. Strictly speaking, the scofflaw aspect only means that the cyclist is at fault when the cyclist (let's say) doesn't stop for a light and gets into an accident. That one breaks certain laws from time to time and then is in an accident that is the motorist's fault does not absolve the motorist because the cyclist can be presumed to have been breaking laws frequently elsewhere.


Under the NYTimes writer's logic, this dopey cyclist who is "running" (slowly) a red light is inciting motorists

This fixation on getting cyclists to "obey the law" can be seen in news publications often - yesterday, for example, the "Kearney View" (of Nebraska) has an opinion piece Follow Safety Codes Bicycling on City Streets that is a very politely stated reminder from a motorist that cyclists have rules that they need to follow - but based on the two-times wrong statement that "unsafe cycling puts everyone on the road in danger." Uh no - it isn't all on the cyclists and it isn't the same risk for everyone.

The NYTimes writer closes with this: "So here’s my proposal: Every time you get on a bike, from this moment forward, obey the letter of the law in every traffic exchange everywhere to help drivers (and police officers) view cyclists as predictable users of the road who deserve respect. And every time you get behind the wheel, remember that even the slightest inattention can maim or kill a human being enjoying a legitimate form of transportation."

For me, this "we cyclists can (or gotta, more like it) earn the motorists' respect!" approach is just baloney. The only legislative change advocated for in the piece, stronger penalties for motorists who kill cyclists, is made dependent on that "obey laws/earn respect" mantra.

I am reminded of the Norwegian video that looks at motorist-cyclist interactions that I blogged about recently. The video carefully avoids strong suggestions of fault and rather draws out the often ambiguous nature of cyclist-motorist interactions. It is a "be careful out there" message without the "be legal" argument thrown in.

If we want to focus on passing laws to improve this situation, I think budget laws that direct more resources to Complete Streets style infrastructure is more important long term. And short term.

Hmm.

Soviet Kid with Bike Mystery Photo

Taken during the mid-1970s, somewhere near Leningrad

I have digitized slides and photographs from when I was in the Soviet Union in the mid-1970s, but in some cases I can't figure out exactly when and where they were taken. Like this photo of this Russian boy with his bicycle. I am puzzled by the monastery or whatever it is in the background - where is this?

The boy has what seems to me for the time and place to be a decent bicycle, for a child who is fairly serious about riding a bicycle. I like the tool bag attached under the top tube and the place for a pump behind the seat tube.

It is somewhat surprising that there is such a photo (to me) since I was not particularly interested in bicycles at the time. Also, one really didn't see that many people in the city riding bikes. But then this isn't in a city.