1/30: Cool on two wheels

[darkemeralds]

This picture of an attractive Dane on a bike was posted on BikePortland the other day.

I have since decided that I will signal no other way than the cool way that Mr Copenhagen there signals. (How else could you signal, you wonder? Well, I'm typically more emphatic and full-armed about it because Portland, though bike-aware, does not have Copenhagen-levels of bike-awareness. But screw that. I'm going to be cool Danish-signaling gal from here on.)

The extraordinary editor of BikePortland, Jonathan Maus, is currently posting dispatches from the two great world bike capitals, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. He has mentioned the amazing bike-riding skills of the citizens, and since we're not talking Tour de France racing, I'm assuming he means stuff like riding steadily in slow and crowded conditions, navigating safely around pedestrians, riding handlebar-to-handlebar with your friends while conducting a conversation, gauging traffic, or riding with two kids, a cigarette, a cellphone and no helmet.

No, I'm not being facetious about that last item. Americans think of cycling as a competitive sport requiring speed, power and endurance. (My daily commute is often made uncomfortable and even dangerous by cyclists of that sort.) We don't seem to place much emphasis on casual ease. And let's face it, casual ease requires skill.

I shall henceforth be all about the casual ease. (I'll probably keep the helmet, though.)

Crossposted to bicycles

Comments

[branchandroot]

*grins* Very cool-and-casual signaling.

And seriously, it is so hard to find bikes made for you to sit upright on in this country! I'm not in a race, here, I'm just trying to get to work, I don't need to be streamlined or anything.

[darkemeralds]

It's getting easier, though! My Dutch bike was practically a tourist attraction when I bought it three years ago (some Dutch tourists actually stopped me once!) but I see chain-guards, fenders, enclosed gear hubs, front baskets, kickstands, and "gull wing" handlebars on the streets all the time now.

I don't think I know what part of the country you're in, but don't despair! The return to biking as transportation is definitely driving the return of upright bikes. (The bike-share programs in DC, New York, Boston, Miami Beach and Minneapolis all use uprights--as do London and Paris.) The big American bike companies are way, way behind, but most local bike shops, around here anyway, seem to recognize the need to carry some true urban commuters.

You might shop around for Electra, Linus, Breezer, Pilen, Dutch Workcycles, Pashley...they're all imports and not bargains, but they're a good starting point for dreams.

[branchandroot]

*nodnod* I'm aiming for a Nirve, when I move. Since that will mean I have a real paycheck again!

[darkemeralds]

Oh! That's a beauty!

[pinesandmaples]

If you need a starter bike that's upright and quite solid, the Globe Work retails around $400 for a hell of a bike. I'm in love for the price point.

[branchandroot]

That does look like a solid piece of *grins* work.

[pinesandmaples]

I bought a Work in August of 2011, and I'm still not tired of making puns about it. Or, shall we say, they still work...?

[darkemeralds]

Wow, Globe's come a ways since I bought mine! I'm now looking at the Daily, which seems to come equipped with the commuting basics.

My first bike, Clyde, was a Globe Specialized, the Carmel model, and it had a very decent build quality for the price. But I had to add fenders, lights, a rear rack, and a front basket, and I'd have upgraded the tires too if I hadn't moved on quickly to my Dutchie. (Something like 17 flats in six months.) These items are rarely included on American bikes but are not "extra" at all for daily riding in street clothes. Without them, I'd never have gotten through my first month's commutes.

[pinesandmaples]

Heck, they've streamlined since I bought my bike. I don't see the bike I was in love with when I was shopping to get back on the road after my string of Christmas accidents.

I did have to add a bell and fenders, but that cost all of $50 to toss on. It was the stuff that came after to tickle my vanity that I ended up paying for. (I'm about to pay out the nose for another set of vanity upgrades on a different bike. The tire and tube will cost me $15, but the sandblasting and repainting? Worth the money.)

[darkemeralds]

I think it's IMPORTANT to have a cool-looking bike! That's not vanity. :D

Eleanor is mostly black, with white "tailfeathers" and when I began Dressing My Truth I was terribly relieved to know that she suited my new style. If she hadn't, I'd have seriously considered a paint job. Or a trade in. The way I see it, especially now that I'm no longer a car owner, loving my bike is a critical part of my health, happiness, and transportation, and it's worth budgeting for. Including vanity extras. I just bought a handlebar phone mount. And I have a cupholder.

Not even kidding.

[pinesandmaples]

And I have a cupholder.

Not even kidding.

I'm a New Orleanean. We bike as a way of life, and go cups are the norm. Every bike shop in the city sells cup holders in every color. In Boston, it shocked me to see bikes without cup holders.

[darkemeralds]

OMG really?? That is so cool! \o/

[pinesandmaples]

Well, yeah. A beer bottle fits into a water bottle holder, but a dixie cup spills when it's set that low.

You'd fit right in down here.

[darkemeralds]

Hah! Well, around here (and for me, personally) it's more hot coffee on a cold winter morning, but I would love to ride a bike in New Orleans sometime. I never hear it mentioned as a bikey kind of place, and the only time I was there was before I started biking myself, so I wouldn't have noticed bike traffic. I really had no idea--but it makes sense. Pretty flat, easygoing, and not much in the way of snow or ice.

[pinesandmaples]

New Orleans isn't bikey in the same way that your part of the country is. We don't have much by way of elite/intentional/down-shifting* bike culture, but we have a huge population of urban poor. Biking is cheap for folks who need to get to work just a few miles away. Our drivers all know how to drive around and share the road pretty well, too.

* This is an idea we're tossing around at ESR right now. Basically, it's living simply by choosing to live smaller, lighter, and with less. This blog post is making the rounds on Facebook. Warning for Christian language contained therein.

[darkemeralds]

After reading the post you linked (and I appreciate the warning, or I probably wouldn't have proceeded) I went hunting for the quote on humility that it reminded me of. I had no luck. It was, I'm almost certain, St Bernard of Clairvaux (I may not be religious but boy did I have a Jesuit mentor at university), and it was along these lines: God, having nowhere upward to grow because he is already the most high, chose to grow downward in order to complete his experience. (I am BROADLY paraphrasing.) There's some riffing on the humble/humus/soil connection, and of course Bernard was talking about Jesus.

But the concept of growing downwards resonates in the blogger's thoughts. It certainly seems true that there's nothing more to gain by expanding our footprint on the earth. Contract-or-die, I'm pretty sure, is where we are now.

The question of bikes as "elite intentional down-shifting" versus necessary transportation for the poor seems to be a politically fraught one, and it's true that most bike activism comes from the former. I would imagine the latter don't have much time for blogging and critical mass. Still, those of us like me who could conceivably afford to own a car but choose not to have many of the same concerns and needs as the urban poor--safe streets, freedom from harassment by drivers, recognition of cycling as an equal travel mode, etc.

Further--and I speak from experience--once you voluntarily give up car ownership at a certain time of life, the prospects of ever returning to it begin to vanish. You very soon realize that you couldn't really afford it in the first place, and soon your life re-forms around the new financial picture and you probably won't be able to afford it in the future without considerable sacrifice.

(I don't know what ESR is and Google wasn't much help. Care to elaborate?)

[pinesandmaples]

Tired reply tossed off at the end of a very good birthday means leaving things out to answer burning questions.

(I don't know what ESR is and Google wasn't much help. Care to elaborate?)

ESR is Earlham School of Religion, my seminary and a Quaker institution. That explains why I officially live in two places.

[darkemeralds]

Happy birthday!