tacoma biking, part 1: my little french friend.

This blog isn't dead! Really! Between the end of the semester and being called home last week for family business, I haven't had a whole lot of blogging energy.  But I'm done! I'm back! So get ready for me to start blowing up your Google Reader like whoa.


The first two days of my trip came at the end of #30daysofbiking.  I was really committed and wanted to ensure that in spite of my travel and stresses, I met the goal.  As I was to be spending a lot of time going back and forth between two family homes linked by a bike lane, biking at home was an easy and feasible transportation choice.  Big Brother asked a family friend if I could borrow the vintage Peugeot folding bike that BB rehabbed last winter. Alas, to my delight, me and The Peug were joined together for 8 wonderful days. The link above will give you better insight into the specs of the bike, so now I can just prattle on about the bike's awesomeness.

This bike fits me the best of any bike I have ever ridden.  I have a long torso and short inseam, so my smallest-size Old Dutch is a bit of the stretch, and the Dahon is you know, fine.  But The Peug fits perfect.

This bike is what you would see if the Old Dutch Treat and the Dahon had a baby.  Size-wise, The Peug would fit nicely in a car trunk or small apartment.  Size isn't everything, though, so you still get all the amenities of a city bike- nice upright position, a skirt-friendly frame, built-in lights, and a rear rack.  The positioning is great-- riding the bike, it feels like your sternum is being thrust out in a very "Hello, World!" kind of way.  Compact bike happiness if I ever saw it.


We are very grateful that the person who loaned me the bike generously ended up giving The Peug to our family.  I am looking forward to riding this bike when I go home at the end of the summer... and will probably start trolling Craigslist for one of my own.  It's that fantastic.

 

Moms and daughters alike love Peugeot folding bikes!

cute little cargo bike.

Last month I took my flat ODT tire to the shop (this was before Clever Cycles and Dutch Bike Co. got all hip to self-help tips. Got that damn thing off myself with phone coaching from Big Brother).  This picture was trapped in my phone until today. The Dahon handled the load quite well, and hey, I'm sure it added to my visibility... 


Seriously, this little bike is such a workhorse.


(Bicycle Therapy took care of the flat and the subsequent tweaks to the Old Dutch. I love that shop!) (and not just because they showed me the trailer for The Expendables)

some thoughts on #30daysofbiking.

I was thinking about this post and how it would be good for the end of the month, and then I was like no.  Victory narratives are good, but you guys already know I'm a champ.*  What we need around here is some process.  Nitty gritty process.  


I got on the Thirty Days of Biking train at the end of the worst week of cycling I had ever had.  I had been riding the folding bike for a month straight, I had witnessed an awful, head-mangling crash, and then I had to ride a bajillion miles over the course of several subsequent soakedawfulrainy days.  


Biking.  I was so over it.  


So Thirty Days of Biking came at a moment when I wanted little to do with bikes.  Literally, April 1st was a beautiful day and as I was headed out to a meeting, I was pumping up my folding bike tires, got impatient, jerked a valve and gave myself a flat.  So. over. it.  


Later in the day I found out about Thirty Days of Biking, and determined I had to get the Old Dutch back together.  I had to see if I couldn't reclaim some of the joy.  Because this blog isn't called Church of the Granny Bike for nothing, and I'm the kind of person who stops going to church if there isn't any joy in it.


So.  I had some work to do.  And my roommate did too, because that chain wasn't going to put itself back on.**


My first ride was at night.  The first thing I noticed was that I had gotten faster from riding that teensy bike.  The second thing I noticed was the way the wind felt against my face.  Feeling the wind on my face again-- in that special way that one can only feel on a big steel upright bike***-- gave me hope.  I might be able to enjoy this.


It's been a gift getting reacquainted with the Old Dutch.  Going out on it every day has challenged me to actually leave me house every day.  Did you know I can be kind of a hermit?  To meet my daily ride quota (just one!), I've actually taken the bike out just for fun.  I've been more prompt about doing errands instead of combining trips.  I've wondered why I wasn't riding my bike every day.  I've given in to urges to make banana bread, urges to circle around Swann Fountain, and urges to ride around in short short dresses in spite of the wind.  


It wasn't until today-- after I put the seat up a bit, and after somebody had manhandled the ODT in an effort to have it for their very own-- that I felt truly reconnected.  Hightailing it out of the unfamiliar neighborhood, I couldn't help but feel like I was on parade, showing the whole damn world that the Old Dutch Treat [!] is my bike, and that smile on my face is there because I'm having so much fun riding it.  


It was perfect.




*this blog is all about meeeeeeeee!
**I am now an expert at this.
***yep. if it's not steel, you can't have that feeling. sorry.

a month of folding bike.

I got a flat last month.  It took me a while to getting around to taking my rear wheel off.  It took me still more time to get the flat repaired.  And getting the wheel back on... I think I will do that tomorrow.  It's not that I've been particularly busy-- though I have been out of town for about a week of the last month and out of school for a week on top of that.  I didn't realize how long I had been off the ODT until I did a mass update of my bike log yesterday: a month!  

I suppose that says a lot about the functionality of the Dahon.  It's an easy bike to grab and go (considering our stairs).  It has fenders and stays reasonably clean.  It handles fine in the rain and I am plenty visible on it.  Surprisingly, I've even settled into a grocery getting routine with it- the bike handles just fine with a bag on the handlebars, or the basket on, depending on how well I plan.  I've actually been doing fewer deliberate grocery trips and doing more combined trips, getting groceries on the way home and the like.  I even rode it to a job interview in high heels (red patent peep toes, if you must know) and a dress.  It was fine.  I have yet to fall off it in traffic, even if it is not always as sturdy or as maneuverable as I like.  A month of folding bike has been a mostly positive experience.  I've gotten a lot faster on it. The bike does exactly what I need it to do.  It is a pure transportation machine... if all I'm doing is five or six miles a day.


Any more than that and the Dahon starts to exact its revenge.  Smaller wheels mean more spin.  I have to work harder with a load in my backpack vs. on the rear rack (generally not a fan of stuff on the rear rack of the Dahon).  The last couple of days were particularly busy.  I inadvertently did 25 miles in 2 days on that little machine.  That kind of mileage is a little out of the norm for me considering my habits, and not something I would usually do without rotating bikes.  My leg muscles can take it but my seat bones... my knees... my pecs... oy.  So I've encountered the comfort limits of the Dahon and we're kind of like frenemies right now.  It only took 120 miles!  


Needless to say, I'm getting on that ODT wheel tomorrow.

my life in bike stats.

Big Brother and I have a monthly bicycle miles accountability routine.  Tonight we checked in and I went a little crazy with my numbers.  They reveal a lot about my habits- though not entirely, as there was a lot more bussing, subway-ing, and walking in January than a typical in-school month.  But here's what I was up to on my bike:


I rode 118 miles.
I rode 82 of my total miles on or after school started on January 19.


I rode 35.3 of my total miles at night.  
Are you watching for bikes when you drive at night?


I failed to encounter zen and the art of bicycle maintenance.


I averaged 3.8 miles a day, or 6.2 on days that I rode (I like my days off).
My average round trip was 4.9 miles.

A. 32% of my miles involved acquiring or imbibing drink.*
B. 27% of my miles involved picking up library books or amazon.com orders from the post office.
C. 26% of my miles involved getting groceries.


There was no overlap between A and B or A and C. There was a teensy bit of overlap between B and C thanks to a sweet new supermarket by my school.


I had a Church of the Granny Bike moment on my folding bike.


I made 15 round trips on the Dahon.
I made 11 round trips on the Old Dutch Treat.
This was the first month that I've ridden the Hello Kitty bike more, thanks to my snazzy new headlight.


I've ridden approximately 685 miles since going car-free last August.  Amazing what the body can do without the Honda, isn't it?




All routes were checked using Google Maps. My lifetime car-free cumulative numbers include some earnest fudging from unrecorded rides early on and when I was on vacation away from my lovely spreadsheet.  All errors are due to the fact that I'm a historian who's never taken a statistics class. All bike miles were accrued wearing regular clothes for the purpose of transportation. All January miles were accrued wearing a helmet.


*Know your limits before you get on your bike and plan accordingly (that's how I roll). Drink and ride responsibly, judiciously, or not at all. I'm not here to tell you how to live your life so don't blame me, sue me, or judge me.  I'm not looking for a conversation, that is, unless you are the awesome dude who was hauling a mega-case of bottles on your front rack in 20 degree weather the other day.  Because that was awesome and required some serious skills.

planet bike blaze 2 watt led headlight review.

A while back I wanted to take my folding bike out.  It was a short trip- just a mile- and one that I knew would probably include a car-involved change of venue.  It was perfect for the folding bike- but unfortunately, I was headed out at night.  I try to practice what I preach, so I decided to take the Old Dutch.  But not before I got online and ordered a headlight for the Dahon, because this aggression would not stand, man. 

Big Brother and I had been talking about this purchase for a while, so I knew instantly that I should check out "that headlight reviewed on Kent's Bike Blog."  Between Kent's review and the reviews he linked to on Amazon, I was sold.  

My only comparison as far as headlight experiences go is with the bottle dynamo-generator light on the ODT.  It is not incredibly bright and it adds some resistance, but you know, it's a headlight, and aesthetically, it's really nice looking.  The parts of Philadelphia that I ride through are generally well lit, so my headlight concerns are more oriented towards making myself visible to cars.  So that said- that my needs and expectations were pretty low- you can understand that I was totally blown away when my new headlight arrived.  

I ordered it through Niagara Cycle Works on Amazon and it arrived a week before it was scheduled to. Installation was quick and easy.  The light slides off and on an interchangeable bracket so that you can use the light on a number of bikes and take the light off when you go inside places.  It has three settings- High, Low, and Superflash.  Since my goal has been visibility and not necessarily lighting the way, I have used the Superflash setting the most.  

This may be a better statement about the merits of effective headlights in general rather than this specific product, but the results were instantaneous.  While on a main street that I frequent often, I noticed that cars at stop signs stopped and stayed stopped because they saw me- no false starts or lurching forward.  Parked cars coming into traffic tend to stay stopped for longer as well.  People getting in and out of their cars have waited for longer, which I think decreases my chances of getting doored.  I feel more confident in situations were the bike lane leads to overlap with the right turn lane and making left turns.  I like being able to see the light bouncing off the back of cars and stop signs two blocks away as I ride.  

My night riding experience feels exponentially safer, and as a result- at least until I get another bracket to attach the light to the ODT*- the Dahon has become my go-to night bike.  Testing the light during the day time, just for the sake of this blog post, produced similar results and got me thinking that riding with a headlight during the day might not be such a bad idea.  With the addition of this light, I can't seem to stay off the Dahon, The ODT is resentful but understanding.

All in all, this is probably a lot more light that I need- but I like the overkill quality.  I like going from being questionably visible to absolutely visible (this is especially true now). If you're on the market for a headlight, I really recommend this one.  But more than that- and rhetorically (not actually), this is my "I challenge you to pray about the Book of Mormon" moment- if you haven't reevaluated your lighting setup lately, I'd like you to join me in exploring the joys of greater visibility.

*Ordered! I wrote this post like 10 days ago. Oops. As it turns out, the bottle dynamo is on the fritz- wires maybe? That poor bike has been totally battered on my stairs.  Somehow lost one of my rack-to-skirt guard clips grocery getting last week. 

bike math.

a lovely bike spotted whilst in the UK

I was talking to Big Brother last night and I mentioned that I haven't taken the bus hardly at all since I got the folding bike two weeks ago. We started crunching numbers, and I was surprised to learn from Google Maps that my trips to the shopping street (2 miles round trip) and to the University campuses (5 miles round trip and 5.4 miles round trip, respectively) are really starting to add up. No wonder I am hungry all the time!

Anyways, once we got talking about it, I couldn't just stop there and found myself channeling the spirit of social history and making an Excel spread sheet. Here are the results- the sheer data of it all, as sent to BB:

"Per our conversation, I went through my calendar and my spending transactions to determine how many miles I've ridden since I got here. As of right now, I've ridden 94.6 miles since the Old Dutch arrived on 8/23. So tomorrow will make it 100 miles in 24 days- not bad. In the first 2 weeks of the month, I've done 65.8 of those miles, so I am on par for about 140 miles / month just for regular trips to school and the store.

For the whole time, that adds up to 56 one-way trips, which at $1.45 / trip via bus is a savings of $81.20.

I've spent about half that on extra food and beer compared to my usual habits before (not controlling for higher cost of living in an eastern city), putting ~$40.00 towards the value of the folding bike.

But add in the time saved from riding the bus (especially if I billed at my transcriptionist rate of $20 / hr, with an average bus round trip taking ~ 1 hour, whereas average bike round trip is 40 minutes) (making that $20 x .33hr saved x 28 round trips) for a savings (including fares saved) of $172.

So, more or less, the folding bike will have paid for itself in the next two weeks or so... not taking into account which bike I ride, just in general quantifiable savings.

Though now that I consider it, when I had a car-- my insurance quoted me at $155.00 for Philly. Add in my gas costs (going with what I spent last Sept.) of $35.00 and monthly maintenance of the car (towards oil change, car wash) of $20 and that's about $200 / month. Going out on a limb and saying that driving is not all that much faster than biking in this town (parking being a bitch) so no subtraction for time saved. Considering I planned originally to have bike and car here, I can totally add that to my savings towards bike cost, and when you include projected hypothetical bus costs (not paying for all modes of hypothetical transportation even though they are redundant) the folding bike will actually be paid off by like, Thursday.

Obviously, the numbers game is useless because (the math may be wrong, heh heh...) the physical fitness and mental health benefits and sheer convenience mean that bike has already paid for itself, but the statistics make it kind of gratifying now that I am spending basically $0 on transportation and instead of putting all those miles on a car or a bus, I put them on my legs.

Sweet."

one of these things is not like the others.

When I first got my Mac and had some trouble making the switch, the guy on the support line told me that once I got past the initial challenges, I was going to put the experience behind me and absolutely love my computer. That's exactly what happened. I was trying to keep that in mind today because I recognize that I have zero patience for error, and really, five hours after it arrived, I am back from my first ride on the Dahon and feeling much better about the purchase.

I went all the way out to Performance (which is so far away that it is almost in New Jersey). The guy popped out the offending packing piece and pumped up the tires. I was there all of five minutes...


...Which was long enough for him to lecture me about how I shouldn't buy anything online and I should always come to the store. For his information, the store is too far out of the way to be useful to me after an extremely harrowing experience trying to ride through unavoidable Downtown on the way back (I ended up mostly walking the tiny bike and stopping for a worthwhile and much needed Hot Sausage from a street vendor).

Really, it is getting bitched at and denigrated that keeps a lot of people, especially women, from going into bike shops in the first place. I shouldn't have to defend my choice to buy something online when it is cheaper to anybody. The bike would've cost me $500 with tax from the store, which was more than I paid. I don't need to be intimidated when I come seeking help. That was disappointing and even if it was closer, I wouldn't go back to that shop.

So that pissed me off, but I got on my bike and rode off the angst. End of story.


So the Dahon- the bike, the actual bike itself- is fantastic. As a short legged person it is so hard to find a bike that fits perfect, but this one does. Once I got onto bikeable streets, I felt like I could really fly on that little bike. The Schwalbe tires were great on Philadelphia's debris laden streets (much like the ones on the ODT), and the gearing- well, usually on the ODT it takes all 3 gears to get me up the hill from the Downtown area and on the Dahon, I stayed in 3rd the whole time, quite comfortably.

The positioning is pretty upright and I felt visible and safe on the bike- though I will be adding a bell and using a blinkey light. I like that the rack came with a special little bungee so I could strap my purse on. Not having a coaster brake takes some getting used to, but what the bike has works fine. And of course, most importantly, it fits through the front door and is not hard at all to get up the stairs and through our sharp cornered hallways. I think it's pretty sweet that Dahon throws in a little vial of touch up paint and a bunch of stickers. I'm looking forward to many pleasant miles on my little bike.