Seasonal Cycling Attire (1895)

All these are taken from the August 11 1898 issue of the Washington Times. This newspaper later cultivated its cycling readership with stories on cyclist matters, but at this point apparently the paper was still unsure how seriously to take the topic, resulting in these somewhat less than flattering illustrations with the caption, "Experience with a garment."


Winter


Rainy weather


Summer (in Washington)

Driving, Smartphoning, Biking

OK, at this point we were both stopped

A bit east of 14th St, traveling west on Independence Avenue SE (in Washington DC), I found myself pacing alongside a new-ish Mercedes with a fellow driving and typing on his phone.

People in cars should keep in mind that for a cyclist, nothing can be worse than finding oneself "sharing" the road with a driver whose attention is diverted in this way. This guy is an accident waiting to happen - and if it's with a cyclist, the Mercedes wins (and the cyclist loses).

I'll confess - I didn't take this while we were still moving but only after he stopped and I stopped alongside. But it tells you something about his engagement with the outside world that he was oblivious to me alongside while driving and when I stopped and took his picture.

What I really don't get is when people like this guy, in order to (sort of) do two things at once do them both poorly - or at least the driving part. It's a dead giveaway that you don't have your mind on the task at hand when an old guy like me can keep up with your Mercedes.

Belling the Bike (Not the Cat)

With the trails busier, some use bells to indicate they are passing but most don't (where I ride, anyway). I saw someone the other day with "jingle bells" on his handlebars, ringing more or less continuously, although not very noticeably.

I then happened upon this ad from 1898 - for the the Saks [chain] stores, in Washington DC. "Looking towards spring season sales of bicycles and bicycle 'sundries.'"


Full ad is here, with many bike accessory prices from 1898 (not just bells)

The "continuously ringing bicycle bell" is apparently not a new idea.

Bicycle Bells. Easily the best, pronounced by all the most expert riders, is the Saks' Continuous Ringing Bell. It "winds like a watch," is simple of mechanism, nothing to get out of order, and will ring from 10 to 20 minutes with one winding .... $1.

A dollar for a bicycle bell is pretty pricey for those times. The ad lists a "single stroke, large size" bell for only 12 cents. More exotic "bell grips, a handy combination of grip and bell" were 25 cents (each - unfortunately no illustration of what these looked like). In general, by 1898 the prices for bicycles had collapsed to a considerable degree - the Spalding price was only $50 for their best bicycle, down from more like 100 dollars a few years earlier.

Weather to Bike ~

Today it was 95 in the afternoon, tomorrow it is supposed to be 100 (degrees Fahrenheit). As often happens at such times, people who know I commute by bike ask, "did you ride in this weather?" (Or some variant.)


I find the winter extremes more challenging than the summer's

For the past seven or more years, I have found it simpler to plan on riding my bike regardless of the weather except for very rare occasions. In particular, just heat (or well heat + humidity) isn't that bad except if it the first such day following a sudden swing from cooler weather and there isn't time to acclimate. I just don't push very hard.

Of course thunderstorms can be a bit tricky and require waiting out. But lately there haven't been so many, or so it seems to me.

Wintry weather, as opposed to the rather mild weather we had this past winter, can be more of a problem. I have this old mountain bike with studded snow tires, so I can ride in pretty icy conditions, but it is a lot slower and can be tiring. Heavy slushy snow on the trail can be worse than ice to try to push through. In short, some winters I have used transit a few days.

Turn Signals for Bikes; or, Bad Ideas Persist

I have a daily Google "news alert" that brings up random news items that are the equivalent of running a search in news.google.com on the keyword "bicycle" for the preceding 24 hours. It doesn't generate much of interest for the most part.

I was amused to see an item about bike turn signals in a blog called cleantechnica.com, the "#1 cleantech or clean energy site in the United States." The author asks the question, "Why didn’t someone come up with this a long time ago?! Turn signals for bicyclists would be very useful and could go a long way towards reducing bicycle-vehicle collisions." He then quotes from and points to a longer piece on some other site that gives more details about a do-it-yourself solution to this perceived problem. The inventor asserts that, "unfortunately, few people know hand signals anymore, so [he] decided to make his own wearable turn signals that he could put on his arms and turn on by lifting his arm up from his side." These signals "use a mercury tilt switch and some electroluminescent (EL) panels that light up to show big bright arrows every time he lifts up the arm that corresponds with the direction he wants to move."

This CleanTechnica site lets you embed an entire page (more or less) in your blog entry. So here is the page:

Turn Signals for Bicyclists! (DIY) (via Clean Technica)

  Why didn’t someone come up with this a long time ago?! Turn signals for bicyclists would be very useful and could go a long way towards reducing bicycle-vehicle collisions. From lifehacker: Unfortunately, few people know hand signals anymore, so Instructables user CTY1995 decided to make his…

Bike Tribes: A Field Guide to North American Cyclists (Book Review)

Bike Tribes: A Field Guide to North American Cyclists by Mike Magnuson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Magnuson is a writer for Bicycling Magazine, a (fairly serious, I guess) recreational cyclist, and has written several books, including his autobiographical "getting control of my life" Heft on Wheels: A Field Guide to Doing a 180 that I read a few years ago. Heft on Wheels was a mighty peculiar book that was somewhat entertaining but often in a "too much information/I should avert my eyes from this train wreck" sort of way. Some of his writing for Bicycling Magazine has too much Mike Magnuson injected into it too, so if nothing else this is a change for him in that he is writing about cycling but leaving himself almost entirely out of the narrative.

Apparently Magnuson likes the phrase "field guide" since this is his second book with that phrase in the title, but this book (unlike his last "field guide") bears some resemblance to a field guide. As he says in the beginning, "this is a book about people who ride bicycles" - and according to him, most of these people fall into "tribes" that Magnuson proceeds to describe alternating descriptions of different "tribes" as such with vignettes that include composite characters (as he describes them) that are meant to represent the different tribes.

There are 22 chapters and since their are full-page drawings as illustrations and a certain amount of white space when chapters end in mid-page and the book is only 200 pages long, it reads quickly and really, there isn't much too here. But then what are we talking about - the main types of cyclists. So should this be War and Peace? Hopefully not.

The last few books I have read about cycling has led me to wonder, "who did the author think this books was for?" Presumably nobody imagined that this book would have much appeal beyond the cycling community. For someone who knows much of what the author describes, his presentation is amusing - I would not agree with the blurb on the back cover that it is "hilarious." For newer cyclists there is probably enough context provided that one can learn a few things about those different cyclists one would be seeing out and about. For people who aren't familiar with any of this I would guess this is all a bit too obscure.

I was personally saddened not to see myself in any of the archetypes Magnuson created. His three "commuters" include a serious steel bike person with fenders who rides in his work clothes, a young guy who is becoming enamored of cycling even though it was forced on him by DUI convictions, and a young woman who is a student for whom it is a green thing to do and fun. I suppose I am closest to the first one . . .

Because Magnuson himself used cycling as the centerpiece of a weight loss program, he talks about cycling as a way to lose weight a fair bit. Apparently he would disagree with Grant Petersen, who claims in his recent book that cycling is not a weight loss system. It's an interesting question. I don't regard cycling as a weight loss system but as a way to keep extra weight off. Mostly.

I gave this three stars in large part because of the slightly failed expectations - it was only slightly amusing. Usually short books like this I zip through but this didn't grab me much I guess because I had to remind myself to finish it.



View all my reviews

"Lamps On All Vehicles" (1896 Newspaper Article)

1896 article about lighting for bicycles and other vehicles

The article text is as follows:

The District division of the League of American Wheelmen is still working for the interests of the bicycle rider.

In answer to a request from the Commissioners, Chief Consul Robertson yesterday mailed to them his reasons for thinking that all vehicles should carry lamps [at] night. The letter reads:

"August 29. 1896.
"Hon. Commissioners, District of Columbia.

"Gentlemen: In reply to your request that I should submit facts showing the necessity for all kinds of vehicles carrying lamps, I would respectfully submit the following reasons:

"Bicycles have been adjudged by the courts all ever the country as vehicles with equal rights on the streets and roads.

"Bicycles are required to carry lights. Private and business vehicles are not so restricted. According to this discrimination a bicycle for hire (which is a public vehicle) should be required to carry a light, but not the machine used as a private conveyance.

An electric bicycle light, shown in the article

"A number of business houses require their drivers to carry a light within or about their vehicles, more for their own safely than for that of others. This can also be said of some of the owners of private carriages. At times it is very difficult to determine the direction in which a vehicle is traveling, or on which side ot the street it happens to lie, by the noise occasioned by the horses' feet. A light would show just what part of the street it occupies. One might advance the argument that if it were approaching it would be on the left hand side of the street, and on the right hand side if going in the same direction. This would be so if everyone obeyed the rules of the road, but unfortunately, this is not so, and more wagons are on the incorrect than on the correct side, else there would be less necessity for lamps on horse-propelled vehicles.

"A carriage or wagon is often collided with by both bicycles and other vehicles. This is especially the case when drawn up alongside of a curb awaiting the owner. In this instance the horse, not being in motion, no noise is made. A vehicle in this connection occupies the same relation to the street as a pile of mortar or bricks, and should be provided with a light. It is it temporary obstruction, and one is more liable to danger than if it were known to be there, like mortar or bricks.

"A cycler generally leaves his lamp lighted when stopping before a house, because he knows his machine is in danger
of collision if he does not take this precaution.

"Therefore, I would respectfully request that all vehicle, be required to carry lamps.

"Very respectfully,
"WM. T. ROBERTSON,
"Chief Consul D. C. Div. L. A. W [League of American Wheelmen]