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.

New Years' Eve Ride

New Year's Eve in Boston was amazingly warm for this time of year- high in the 40's,  damp and overcast.  The Scientist and I took advantage of the warmth to take out his road bike, and my Shogun and ride to the next burb out (Belmont),  an area which we haven't ever explored much, and ride around in a new to us neighborhood.

First we aired up using another one of Christmas bike presents- a Lezyne pump with a thread-on chuck.  

While I have no problem with the pumping part, I've always hated the flip levers on most pump heads- it seems like either you whack your fingers on the spokes while trying to flip the lever, or that even after the lever is flipped, you have to wrestle the head off, all the while listening to the leak of air that you just squeezed in there.   So the screw on chuck of the Lezyne is a dream come true for me- so simple!

You can unscrew the gold bit from the silver link,  and the first silver link turns freely on the second silver link.  To change from Presta to Schrader, you just unscrew the gold bit, and turn it around.   The "Classic" pump has other nice features, like a wood handle, and substantial alloy feet,  but this screw on chuck is the real selling point in my book.

wore a rain jacket, just in case

 We rode out to Fresh Pond Reservoir,  and then took the new cycletrack on Concord Ave to the Belmont line.

This turns into a bike lane at the Belmont line, and we rode around a bit in the neighborhoods off to the sides of Concord,  just to explore a bit.  We had lunch in Belmont Center, and then did some more serious hill climbing in the neighborhoods between Belmont center and Arlington.  I was glad I took the Shogun, because I would have never made it up those hills on any of my other bikes!  I think that a combination of feeling more comfortable on this bike and riding the (slightly too big for me) DL-1 for the last two months means that I'm ready to raise the saddle another inch or so, to be closer to level with the handlebars.

As it is, I think I need to adjust the rear derailleur because it keeps popping out of the lowest gear, which is annoying when climbing a hill.  It also seems to want to switch more than one gear at a go, but that might be my imperfect technique.  First of all I need to figure out how to adjust a derailleur.   I have an old "Bicycling Magazine"  guide to bicycle maintenance  that my Dad gave me years ago.  It's old enough that it probably is about the same vintage technology as the Shogun.  Time to pull it out and figure out how that works.  I have some serious work to do on Gilbert first, (which is why he hasn't been featured on the blog for while now)  which I hope to do in these next early days of the new year.

I wished I'd had a handy reference book as I tried to replace the headlight bulb on the Scientist's car once we got home.   I managed to figure it out, but it's always an adventure the first time on a new (to us) car.  I wanted to get it done before we head out to our yearly appearance at what I call the Nobel NYE party.  It's held at a Nobel Laureate's house (the Scientist's PhD advisor), and the Scientist is always asking me on the way home "how did you like talking to "XXX" - did you know he won a Nobel prize in "XXX"  And here I'd been talking to him about the sweater his wife made him.  Sometimes it's better not to know to whom I'm talking, or I'd be too tongue tied to make conversation :)

It's been an exciting year in biking for me- I've gotten a lot more involved in advocacy in a more official way through the Livable Streets Alliance,  and there are a lot of exciting and challenging projects ahead in the next year.   I'm also looking forward to doing some real touring on the Shogun in 2012.   This year, I finally completed my upgrades of  Minerva the DL-1 from a Sundays-in-the-park bike to a daily rider, capable of carrying just about anything.  As mentioned above, Gilbert is due for a couple of upgrades,  and may get a new higher tech BB and modern crankset as well- continuing in his bionic bike evolution.  So lots to look forward to in 2012!  Hope everyone has a safe New Year's Eve,  and best wishes for great biking in 2012!

Minuteman Connections

One of the real problems with the Minuteman,  either as a thru-way for travel, or a pleasant corridor for family recreation is that it cuts out at the complicated intersection at Mass Ave and Route 60.  Users who are separated from traffic along both ends of the route, are dropped into this nasty intersection without any guidance or signage- except the frequently ignored signs not to ride on the sidewalk.  Going westbound,  first you have to make an unprotected left across a 4 lane road.  And then you have no way of turning right on 60, and making a legal left onto the path, because of a high median with no turn pocket-  you HAVE to either ride or walk on the stretch of sidewalk from the intersection to the path.
The crossing is a bit better going East,  but still forces more timid riders either to mix it up with the right turning traffic and then take the lane on Mass Ave,  or walk/ ride on the sidewalk.

The town of Arlington is looking at a number of options for improving this connection for bicyclists and pedestrians,  some of which are quite progressive.   As you may have heard, there are a number of Anti-bike loudmouths in Arlington, who will almost certainly be there, and be fighting tooth and nail about possibilities that include removing the median to make space for bike lanes,  or even (gasp)  removing a couple of parking spots!!!

Information on the options can be found here,  and I strongly recommend coming out to support this potentially great project if you use the Minuteman- January 10th, 7PM at Town Hall.

A very merry Christmas

My parents came to visit for Christmas, and we had a wonderful time- makes me wish we didn't live so far apart.  Apart from a road trip to Newport to see the mansions decorated for Christmas, we hung around the house together.

We set up the tree that I carried home on Minerva- you can see how the small brown dog is assisting the Scientist and my dad as they mess with the stand.

There was a little bit of bike riding (my Dad took Minerva around the block after I came home from a massive Christmas eve grocery run).

I got an assist from my Dad (the electrical engineer) on a wiring project I'd been wanting to do since we moved in.  The problem with wiring in an old house, is that you open up the boxes and they look like this !!!!!

Cue the violins from Psycho

  We cleaned it up as best we could and ran a new wire to a new wall switch so that we can turn on the lights at the top of the stairs from the bottom of the stairs,  which is a vast improvement.

We opened presents:

is that one for me?

How about this one?

Do you need any help unwrapping that?

One of a couple of bike-related presents I received was a Yakkay helmet- something I've been wanting for some time now,  and which are now available in the US, in a US approved model, the smart 2.  I rode in it to work today,  but I think it needs some adjustment still-  the crazy winds were catching the brim and blowing it up out of position.  But overall, I'm very excited about the look of it, and it's incredibly light compared to my Bern.

It's gonna be a cold one tomorrow- the temperatures dropped dramatically this afternoon, and it was cold and very very windy on the ride home- I think we're going to get some real winter after all!

Reclaiming Cities for People

A great article here about a project in Madrid to replace a highway with a waterfront park

"All around the world, highways are being torn down and waterfronts reclaimed; decades of thinking about cars and cities reversed; new public spaces created."

Got some very exciting "bike presents"  that I'll share later in the week when things get back more to normal...

Don't look now

But the days are officially getting longer now (in this hemisphere anyway)!

It's nice to be over the hump and headed towards more and more light in the afternoon/ evening.
Even though it's a long series of gradual changes before it will really make things better, it's nice to know it's coming.

Hooray!

BU Bike lanes are officially IN!

Rode the long way in along the river this morning to check them out.  Decided to ride over and come back just to check them out, and the experience is SO much better than before.   In my ride to the bridge, I had just seen a brave and very fast guy riding across the River street bridge vehicularly,  and was thinking how scary that must have been.  Fortunately on BU, now there's a better option.  (And someday there will be a better option on River too I hope).  UPDATE: lots of great photos  (including this one of me in full transpo-geek mode) on the livable streets flikr page.

 Livable Streets Alliance volunteers on the Boston side were out handing out "thank you" postcards to send to Mass DOT and breakfast.   

On the ride from there to work, I ran into Mark, a friend that I've met through the blog and got to chat and say hi, which is nice.  It's great to be able to run into friends while traveling through a big city,  and even nicer, when on a bike to be able to pull over and chat for a moment or two- hard to do that in a car.