Chinese food delivery

A couple of weeks ago  the NY Times published this moving profile of a bicycle deliveryman.  They are much maligned for not obeying traffic laws, and there have been a lot of very punitive laws proposed to try to rein them in.  The irony is that it seems that a lot of the people who complain about them, are also quick to complain if their dinner is delayed by even a few minutes.  Or the time it takes to only go the right way on one way streets and wait at red lights.  I'm not saying that deliverymen are blameless, but perhaps there needs to be a better system that rewards safety and not just speed.   I know that there's a safety program aimed at delivery bikers and their employers, founded by a woman whose husband was killed (by hitting his head) after being struck by a delivery rider.

We don't have much of a bike-food delivery culture in Boston- I guess because it's not quite dense enough.  I know that Bertucci's and Upper Crust both have specialized pizza delivery bikes,  and I think that Redbones does some local bike delivery, but I haven't heard about much else in that vein.  It surprises me a bit that there aren't bike deliveries of Chinese food to the Financial district-  Chinatown is close, but far enough that it's a bit of a long walk, and there aren't really any good asian restaurants in the FD.  For that matter the North end is close too, but too far to walk on a regular basis,  but there could be a lot of business in delivering sandwiches.

Anyway, I was craving Chinese food, so I organized my own bicycle transport.  The ride there is a lot more pleasant now that they've striped bike lanes on the Greenway's surface roads.  I actually mostly get Vietnamese takeout from Chinatown (yeah I know).  But this time I tried a Chinese place, and I think it may be a winner.  Will have to do more "research"

I parked next to this fantastically decrepit  Hudson,  which I had to take pictures of, because I think my Dad had one of these back in the day.   The owner and what I'd guess were his grown sons were taking photos of each other with the car and a restaurant in the background.  I volunteered to take a photo of all of them together.  It seemed like a family tradition or get together to drive into Chinatown and eat together.  I should have asked them, but after looking online I think this might be a Hudson Hornet-  anyone out there know for sure?  

groovy steering wheel

fantastic patina

Although for gas milage reasons it's probably a good thing, they really don't "make them like they used to."   it would be nice to have more detail and character on modern cars to get the best of both worlds.

Dutch Panniers

Full of Dutch Tulips

Not much more cheerful than a pannier full of flowers!

Hope everyone is out enjoying the spring weather!

Coffeeneuring

Like Randonneuring, but in the pursuit of coffee.  
This morning was kind of grey and although not really that cold (37) felt dank and chilly.   The Scientist went immediately to work after waking up- his grant is due tomorrow.  I've got work to do too, but first- coffee!  I decided to head to the new branch of High Rise Bakery on Mass Ave near Porter Sq.

I was hoping we could ride out together for coffee/breakfast, but he didn't have time for that.
So I saddled up alone and went for a quick "Utilitaire" 3-fer.  First stop the library to drop a book off (they're weren't open yet).

 Then instead of just bombing up Mass Ave to the grocery store in Porter Sq, I decided to cut through the neighborhood, going up Oxford through the Harvard and Leslie campuses.  Noted these blooming bushes- I don't actually think they're forsythia, but they look a lot like forsythia.

A quick grocery run got sandwich fixings and carbonated beverages.  Then back down through the same neighborhood,  parallel to Mass Ave, down to where Hi Rise was.

Unfortunately I only have one coffeeholder on my bike, so I had to ride one handed all the way home- and there was a bit of spillage unfortunately.  My PDX design works holder continues to do a great job.

I've been trying to get into the habit of taking coffee into work with me this last week (which is why the Scientist bought it for me).  The only problem I've had is that if there are some drops of coffee left on the top post-sip,  they tend to become airborne when I hit a bump, and then get onto my clothes.  If I'm careful about making sure I don't leave any drops, it's not a problem.

* Utilitaire 12.9   Coffee breakfast.  This is one of the few I've done which didn't have a night time riding component.  I still used my regular generator running lights front and back (Edeluxe on front, 4D Lite Plus on the back) and because it was kind of grey and contrastless, I ran my PB superflash on the back of my helmet.

Getting Back into the Groove

After coming back from a week away,  I was greeted with an empty fridge and a smelly compost bin (yuck).  And being away from the bike for a week meant I was getting behind on my Utilitaires.  Fortunately for purposes of the game, Sunday is part of the week before,  so I still had a chance to pull a double and get both 12.6 and 12.7 as I ran my normal errands, even if they weren't terribly exciting categories.

two bags of bags (stretch plastic that can't go in the blue bins) and one of stinky compost

First I went to the grocery store(s).  I take my compost to Whole Foods since they make their bins available to the public.

Pretty full, but I've seen worse

  I try not to do it on the weekends, because they get packed and sometimes really grody,  but I didn't want to wait any longer than necessary, and fortunately they weren't overflowing.

One cool Whole Foods thing that I keep meaning to blog about is that they have dedicated employee bike parking (visible in the background).   I guess anyone could use it, but I suspect that because it's behind the dumpsters, most customers don't seek it out.  While I was there, I stopped in and bought ground beef for a giant pot of spaghetti, and a batch of enchiladas.

Bumper sticker in the WF parking lot

Next I went to the "regular" grocery store, for sodas and less "whole" foods. I ended up with just a bit more than would fit in my panniers,  so I did the same trick I did two weeks ago with "outriggers" to my panniers.

It was fairly windy, and there's one stretch of Green Street (right outside the Green street Grille)  which is this crazy wind tunnel- I notice it often, and this day, it was so bad I had to stand up and pedal to keep moving forward in my lowest gear!

Despite the wind, it's getting warmer, and there are signs of spring in the yard!

The Haul

When I got home,  I turned some of those groceries into pannini sandwiches for the Scientist who was working on a  grant.   I also started a huge batch of spaghetti sauce with home canned tomatoes.   One of the advantages of canning my own tomatoes, dried beans and chicken broth is avoiding BPA can linings.   Unfortunately the inner surface of metal canning lids is lined with BPA.   Since the food is only in contact with the lids when it's boiling during canning,  I think it's probably safer than regular cans,   but I'm doing some research on reusable BPA free canning lids, and think I'll probably order a bunch of them for use on pantry staples.

Once the spaghetti was simmering away,  I headed out into that wicked headwind  to Target, (a store that is not a grocery store) to return a bunch of Jason Wu stuff that I had ordered online and then was too large to fit :(   I was riding on autopilot a bit, and ended up on the Home Depot side of the road without thinking about it.   Since I was there, I stopped in briefly to get some clips for wiremold.  Because you never know when you'll need them right?  I couldn't resist browsing the garden center, but honestly it's not THAT warm yet. Last frost here is supposedly 5/3,  and we're supposed to get snow later this week.

When I was coming into the parking lot, I passed a guy biking out with a trailer full of building supplies!  And here I thought I was (almost) the only one!  I rang my bell and waved,  but couldn't get the phone out fast enough to get a picture.

At Target I returned stuff,  and bought tax software and lip balm.  Somehow a bag of Easter candy managed to find its way into my bag too :)  and some long lasting lip color, which I'm surprisingly excited about- it's hard to find colors in target-style cosmetics, and I lucked out with this one.

I headed back "inland" through my old stomping grounds in east Watertown, and stopped again at the Star on the Cambridge line to grab a couple more red peppers for snacks at work this week.  I neglected to get any pictures, but unlike a month ago, it wasn't totally dark at 5pm!  Then home to make enchiladas, and stay up way too late watching the Oscars!   I'm going to see if there's anywhere that's still playing Hugo, since the only way to see the 3D is in a movie theater.

12.6 Trip to the grocery store approx 2.3 miles
12.7 Trip to store other than grocery store approx 6.2 miles. Wasn't really dark, but my dynamo lights are always on for extra visibility.



 

Spare Tire

Sorry for the radio silence- have been busting my butt at work, trying to get a framing package out the door before I leave on vacation next week.

Chafed of Chafe City,  recently posted something I thought was interesting. About the same time I was struggling with getting Gilbert's new tires on his rims, she was raging at how insanely hard it can be to change a stupid bike tire.   She mentioned that it's easy enough for cars to carry a whole extra wheel with tire already mounted on it around with them at all times, so they never think about it.  The mass and awkwardness of carrying a spare on a bike is obviously prohibitive.

If a bike carried around a spare wheel, it would be about as inconvenient as this car I saw this morning carrying an XXL tire around:

Double Double-Wide

I interrupted Minerva's "winter vacation" Saturday afternoon to do a grocery run.  I knew that with both Superbowl snacks and the rest of the week's groceries, I was going to have an extra large load, and I wanted to use the voluminous Fast Rider panniers that only fit on her longer chainstays.

It was a pleasure to ride her- it's amazing to me how two upright step through city bikes can be so dramatically different.  Although I guess it shouldn't because the geometry is completely different -riding minerva is like sitting in a chair- it's so incredibly upright,  and I've missed it. 

In any case I ended up with an enormous load- surpassing even the capacity of the big panniers.  So I devised a reusable bag version of "Velouria's panniers"  and by my third stop, had a load 4 grocery bags wide!   Too wide to get through the 3' gate.

I looped the handles of the bags through the lock and locked it closed, et voila!

Time to watch the game (and commercials) - Go Pats!

Edited- I'm counting this retroactively as Utilitaire 12.1-  My first entry in the Utilitaire challenge- more details here:

Linus Panniers Review

I received a very nice pair of Linus canvas "market" panniers for Christmas.  Since the first time they leapt out at me, in photos from Interbike a couple of years ago I've coveted them,  and after using them for a couple of weeks, I wanted to post a quick review of my thoughts so far.

The canvas is very heavy duty,  and was disconcertingly stiff at first.  They have limbered up a bit after some use.  The leather trim is nice and heavy, and has a nice feel to it.
The natural canvas "cream" color is very attractive on Gilbert with his cream tires and brown leather trim.

While Gilbert was "down"  and I was riding Minerva every day for transportation, I grew quite fond of using a pair of  "Fast rider" Dutch style double saddlebags.  Those saddlebags hold an enormous amount, but they're too long to fit comfortably on Gilberrt's smaller rack and shorter wheelbase.  The Linus panniers are shorter and more vertical,  and they fit nicely on Gilbert's rack.   I also appreciate the shoulder strap,  which is convenient for taking them into the store to fill with groceries.  I might leave them attached to the bike for a short time, but I'm not comfortable leaving them on for extended periods as the Dutch do.  They come with a small brass padlock which you could use to secure them to the rack if you were going to leave  them on all the time.

I was a bit worried about the carrying capacity at first, but I found them to be surprisingly capacious.  On my first trip with them, I did a fairly comprehensive shopping trip,  and you can see what fit in them:

Sunday NYTimes, cheese, cream cheese, 2 pounds of ground meat, and a package of pork chops, can of chopped clams, vice grips, 2 liter soda, box of pasta, package of mushrooms, bag of red peppers, dryer sheets,  dog food,  two packages of salad mix

Some small details:  there's a set of snaps to close them,  but there's additionally a magnetic closure that will keep them mostly closed without a full load, which is nice when you don't want to deal with the snaps.  Unfortunately there are no pockets for cell phone or keys etc.  That's not what I expect from a "shopper" style pannier like this or the Fastriders.  If I really wanted them, I could sew a cotton pocket inside to hold small things safe, but I don't anticipate doing that.

As I mentioned last week,  I put reflective patches on them for added visibility.  They don't seem to have a "front" or a "back"  so I put the patches on both sides.

Attaching them to the rack is more challenging than a single sided quick release pannier like my Ortlieb or Klick-Fix hardware bags,  but a bit better than the Fast-rider.   They're designed "specifically"  for the Linus rack  (they actually had a funny little insert that cautioned that using them with any other rack could cause serious accidents).   The bottom sides of the bag have a series of leather straps with nice brass snaps. You're supposed to fit the straps around the top tubes and struts of the rack, and snap them closed.  Unfortunately the top tubes on my rack are too large in diameter to fit the straps around.  I managed to fit them around the "rat trap" bars,  but that's not a great solution.

Fortunately the straps at the struts of the rack are much bigger and fit around fine, although it's a bit fiddly and clumsy to open and close them with gloves on.   The leather and brass is very classy and retro, but perhaps velcro would have been faster.   It wouldn't make much difference if you were going to leave the panniers on all the time though.

The only real problem I have is that the solid top piece interferes with using my rack straps, which is where I normally put my lock.   I can slide the lock under the solid fabric top,  but if I need to use the rack straps, I have to detach them at the axle (simple enough)  and bring them across the top of the rack diagonally, which works OK.  If I were going to leave them on all the time, I'd probably reinforce the top with leather, and make a slit for the straps to fit through on each side.

I don't think that they're waterproof, and I'm a little concerned about how the light color will wear. As you can see in the above photo, they're already showing a bit of black scuff- possibly from (a tiny bit of ) heel strike, or being leaned up against something dirty.  I could Scotch-guard them I suppose.  The other approach would be to wax them or treat them with a rub-on waterproofing somehow- I looked at the Barbour waterproofing stuff, but I don't know how chemical-y it is.   Has anyone out there done any DIY waxing of cotton?   Without treatment, I think that they could be hand-washed,  or even maybe machine washed if you treated the leather immediately after.  In any case, I'm not riding with them in the slush mess that the roads have been in the thaw after last weekend's storm.  That's made a bit of a mess of my leather bag, but at least it can be wiped down and oiled.

In sum:  these seem like a great set of "Saturday errands"  or CSA pickup panniers for Gilbert. They're  not super easy on and off,  or great to carry into a meeting, or for carrying a lot of small stuff like my phone or camera.  But to leave them on the bike, adding stuff at each stop, they'll work very well.  They hold an awful lot, look handsome on the bike, and are easy to carry into a store.  I suppose it's a weakness of mine that I have a bag for every occasion.  On one hand, I have a lot of very useful bike bags.  On the other, I'm constantly realizing that my lipstick or my hand sanitizer is in my "other" bag.  The perils of too much choice!

Damn minivans

I spent a lot of the long weekend doing some frustrating wrenching work on Gilbert,  tearing my fingernails to shreds and doing a lot of cursing under my breath.  The Scientist was watching football in the wrenching room (AKA our TV room) for at least some of this time, and there was a particularly annoying commercial that kept playing for some kind of minivan that showed a variety of improvised cargo carrying situations (with cars),  and mocking people who have to resort to strapping things on top of their cars as shaming the human race.

Good thing they didn't see me biking around recently.  Not sure what they would have made of the dishonor I was doing to humanity by not having an enormous vehicle that I would use to capacity four times a year.

I read a nice post on a blog I recently discovered, "Chafe City" about shopping for dining chairs, and the satisfaction of carrying them home by bike.  I find that most often the people who work in loading docks are totally cool about you carrying big/ bulky stuff home on your bike,  much less surprised than people who don't deal with cargo all the time.  Perhaps many of them have had more than their fair share of Macgyver moments, so they sympathize.   I got the Scientist a desk chair for Christmas (not in "mucus" color- sorry Chafed),  and the loading person not only helped me take the (24x 36x13) box out to my bike,  but happily helped hold it stable on the rack while I strapped it in place.  I think there's a bit of a dopamine hit to the brain to figuring something out, and making it work that you wouldn't get if you just shoved the box in the back of your minivan.

In unrelated news,  the jersey barriers (and the traffic barrels)  are all gone from the Longfellow,  so the bike lane is completely open again (for now), and no longer have to take the lane going uphill with speeding cars coming up behind you.   Cars still go too fast, but at least you have a lane of your own to go your own speed in.   I wouldn't have minded too much if they left the barrels in though for a buffered lane :)

Even more importantly for Boston biking culture,  the Mass Ave bike lanes are in,  complete with the promised removal of parking all along one side of the road!   They're just painted,  not thermoplastic,  but that might not be a bad idea for the short term- so they can get an idea of what works and what doesn't.   There seemed to be some confusion with the lane shifting at Mass Ave and Newbury,  and while the parking spots had been removed,  the meters were still in place, which was confusing people.   I'm glad the city squeaked through and got it done before the end of the year.   I'll be even more excited when they figure out how to make things work through Symphony and connect the lanes all the way through from the medical center to the river.  The city committing to parking removal is a huge step forward,  and I'm very excited that they've taken it.


Finally, "Oh Frabjous Day! Callooh! Callay!  Yehuda Moon is BACK!  Go sign up and give them their $12 and let the good times keep rolling.

Packing heat

In all kinds of unlikely places, (in the comments anyway) I see half facetious suggestions for cyclists to ride carrying weapons, along the theory of "an armed society is a polite society"    I can only imagine the catastrophic consequences of my trying draw and aim  a gun while riding,  or really at all,  so I'll leave that alone,  but today I was packing heat of a different sort:

Nerf gun, received in an office gag gift swap,  on its way to Toys for Tots.

The Scientist was sad that it was going away, because he thought it would be cool to play with.  But honestly he'll play with it for a half an hour and then it will just clutter the house, while some 7 year old who might not get any other presents will drive his siblings crazy with it for months :)

Why Yes, Virginia

You can carry your tree home by bike!

The guy at Home Depot was totally cool with it-  He asked me if I needed help putting it on my car, and I said, nope, but I do need help putting it on my bike.  He trussed the tree up, and then I strapped it on with a bungee brought for that purpose.

Handling was decent, though a bit wobbly at low speeds.  I rode most of the way home on the bike path along the Charles,  where fortunately I didn't meet many pedestrians, since I was taking up the whole path width.

Hope everyone is having a good lead up to the holidays!

Day on a bike

This morning we raked the year's leaves, which even with out tiny backyard ends up filling 15 or so paper leaf bags.  We have a LOT of deciduous trees back there.   We ran out leaf bags mid-rake, so I ran to the hardware store for more, and also got an extra rake- we had one leaf rake and one fixed tine "rake"  which is more for breaking up clods of dirt than raking leaves,  so I thought things would go faster if we had two proper leaf rakes.

Raking complete, I puttered around the house cleaning a bit, and then made a Home Depot run to get a new snowshovel, some red loctite, and a square bit screwdriver for adjusting our french door, which is rubbing on the jamb.  I also just couldn't resist a giant poinsettia.  

After this photo was taken, I went to Target across the street, and got two grocery bags worth of toiletries, cleaning supplies and and general stuff,  including some solar powered LED Christmas lights for our front yard which has no outlets.

After unloading at home I turned right around and went out to the grocery store- where I got a lot of "stock up" items like flour, canned goods, etc etc.   40lbs of etc- I was a geek enough to weigh it.  Reverse weight weenie I guess.  Velouria posted recently about just how little you need to go on a ride.  My problem isn't what I take with me, as what I bring back!

 I've been using these Dutch "Fast Rider" panniers,  of the saddle-bag style a lot lately.  I bought them from Somervillain, some time ago, and didn't use them much because they're too big to sit comfortably on Gilbert's rack, and I wasn't using Minerva much for transport.  Now that I've got her brakes working so well,  I've been riding Minerva a lot, so I dug them out and have been using them when I need XXL carrying capacity.  Somevillain had a system rigged up to semi-permanently attach them to the bike using P-clips, with the idea of leaving them on all the time, as the Dutch do.  But I find that I like to take them off more frequently,  either to move stuff in them inside, or to strip down the bike a bit.  So for now, I've been attaching them with a little strap to the rack.

Starting to be the Season

Although it's been so warm, the weather is about to change as we enter December,  and I was determined to buy a wreath at the store, despite already having too much to fit in my bag.   No problem, I'll just loop it over the handlebars for the 8 blocks or so ride home!

Now if I can just find where I put Gilbert's Christmas lights....

Happiness

Bicycling to drop off the compost:   15 minutes.

Bicycling to the library to drop off overdue books:   7 minutes

Bicycling to Target to buy laundry soap, black tights and a new mattress pad : 20 minutes.

Bicycling from Target to TJ's to buy an orchid as a hostess gift 25 minutes

Bicycling home very very slowly to not damage the orchid, and watching all the people out enjoying car free Memorial Drive 10 minutes.

Spending the afternoon running errands outside in the crisp fall sunshine instead of in a box on wheels, cursing at traffic:  worth all the time in the world.

Brown Bagging it

Since Gilbert's "appointments"  (grips, basket, saddle)  are brown, I've been on the hunt for a brown leather bag to turn into a daily pannier.   After a lot of ebay trolling, I finally found what I was looking for- a dark brown leather bag with a handle, a shoulder strap and a pair of outside pockets.

Varying from my usual MO, I decided to try the "Klick-fix"  hardware from Rixen & Kaul.  The advantage of this hardware is that it has a bar on which the hooks are mounted, allowing them to slide back and forth to accommodate different racks and chainstay lengths.  Ortlieb offers a similar system,  which is actually simpler, but it's only available as part of an Ortlieb bag, not as a stand-alone part.  the Klickfix is actually a bit simpler than the Ortlieb to adjust to a variety of tubing diameters with a spring loaded system,  and accommodates the very oversized tubing of my two Steco racks.

As I did with my previous bag,  I added a 12" brass stabilizer bar inside the bag instead of just using the provided two washers to help distribute the weight and keep the bag from cupping inward.  

As you can see, the bag has two large outer pockets, a small inner zip pocket, and a large main compartment.  There is an open pocket on the "wheel side"  which might be a good place to slip a rain jacket.  I may add an interior button and elastic strap to keep the inner pocket a little more closed even if the top flaps aren't buckled down.

The Klick-fix system is a little more complicated to mount on the rack than the Ortlieb (or maybe I'm just still getting the hang of it.  you have to pivot the red tabs out, freeing the black hooks, and then lower it onto the rack.  

Once the black hooks are seated on the tube of the rack, you push down (and slightly in) on the red tabs, which are spring loaded.  Once you get them down far enough, they pop under the bottom of the tube,   where they are held in place by the springs.

Unlike the Ortlieb, removing the bag isn't just a matter of lifting up,  but is the reverse of the mounting process,  although it is a little simpler because you don't have to be as finicky about pivoting the red tabs out of the way.  Basically, you push down, and a bit out on the red tabs, and once they clear the tube, they pop up and away.

 I adjusted the pannier hooks based on pretty low heeled shoes, and I think I'm going to have to adjust them a tiny bit more to eliminate heel strike when wearing higher heels.

 Adjustment is simple- but does require a screwdriver.  You loosen the two screws on each hook,  and then they slide along the bar as needed, then tighten them back up again.

I put this together over the weekend, and have now used it a couple of days this week.  I'm getting a bit better with the Klick-fix,  although it's still not quite as smooth as the Ortlieb.  Unfortunately the first day I rode in, one of the toggles that hold the top flap to the pockets broke off somewhere along the road.   I'll go to the shoe repair store this weekend and see if they have anything that might replace it- otherwise I'm going to have to create a button-type closure for that side.  The pockets are very deep though, and I haven't had any fear that things might fall out of the pockets, even when unsecured- it's mainly that the bag tends to gap open in the middle if left completely unfastened.

Party Bike

We're having a BBQ tomorrow, so I headed to the grocery store today for supplies:

In the left pannier:  a good sized watermelon,  a half gallon of ice cream, plastic cups, bowls and plates, mint tea bags, and kitchen sponges.
In the right pannier:  a pound of cherries,  a couple of nectarines, regular tea bags, and three bags of chips (they were on sale).  Cokes down the middle on top of the rack.

I went to the store (also by bike) yesterday for other stuff, and will probably go again tomorrow for ice and hotdog buns.  I suppose that if I had an enormous freezer and a big car, I could do one giant shopping trip, but given that I always seem to forget something I need, it's not a huge hardship to me to do it in medium size chunks,  which are perfectly manageable by bike.

A dialog

Scientist:   Where did those giant boards in the dining room come from?

Cycler:  I got them to build a mounting plate for the new AC unit.

Scientist:  Did you scavenge them somewhere?

Cycler:  No, I got them at Home Depot yesterday.

Scientist:   On your bike?!?

Cycler:  Sure, on my bike, how else?

Scientist:  Rolls eyes.

Fade

Velouria's Panniers

Sorry for the radio silence, have been super busy on an advocacy project for the Longfellow bridge construction that I'm trying to condense into a manageable post.  In the meantime....

She's gonna hate being the namesake of such a homely thing, but Velouria, of Lovely Bicycle had a great suggestion a couple of weeks ago for using pairs of plastic bags in tandem as panniers.
The CSA season started for me last week, and I completely forgot about it until I got to work, which meant I only had my normal small-ish leather daily bag .   In the past I've resorted to making temporary panniers out of boxes or baskets, secured by rack straps,  but this time I decided to use "V-Panniers"

These were a bit hampered by the fact that I had my normal bag on the left side, and the bag just sitting on top of it.   I put the heavier bag on that side so that it would be partially supported.

I put the knotted portion under the "rat trap"  and then latched it down with a lock and rack straps.

Bottom line,  it was fine for a couple of Kolrhabi and a bunch of bulky but light greens,  but I'm not sure I'd trust it with heavy stuff like cans of tomatoes or peanut butter.   Not a bad solution though for an emergency!  Necessity is indeed the mother of invention.