Crash, not accident

I remember my first summer in Boston many years ago. I worked in a well air-conditioned building and when I left it to walk across the street to a cafe for lunch, my glasses immediately got foggy from all the moisture in the air. This level of humidity and heat was totally new to me.

Many years later I'm more used to it but I can't say that I enjoy it. Far from it. Every year in July there are days when I choose not to ride my bike because of this unbearable weather. Last Sunday I thought I could take my kids on Big Eddie for a ride but at 95F (35C) air temperature we would probably melt down after just a few miles.

Ok, so I don't like hot weather. Australians probably don't like it much either, because they prefer to drive their kids to school instead of just letting them walk or bike. Hmm... no, there must be another reason why Australians don't bike. Maybe it's because of their mandatory helmet law, push to remove bikes from streets because they are "not safe for cyclists" (That's so Australian - instead of making streets safe, let's just remove bicycles), or the fact that soon they will be required to carry ID (Does it apply to 8-year olds riding their bikes to school?).

It must be all of these things plus lack of any action and funding of bicycle infrastructure. So it seems that things look pretty bad for all cyclists in Australia and the situation won't change any time soon as there are too many idiots at power (The prime example comes from their Minister of Transport, Duncan Gay). Sad.

But let's leave Australians with their own problems. Unfortunately, things are not much better here on the northern hemisphere. We may not be as baby-sited as Australians cyclists but we are not safe either. We can be killed by running over by a police officer, struck by a car door or being impaled on a fence. That's tragic.

"He came out of nowhere!"

What's also tragic is the way these news are brought to us. If you read through these articles you will see that the police officer hit the cyclists because "he came out of nowhere", the cyclist "slammed into the door" and died of sustained injuries and while the other one got impaled into his neck, the most important thing to check was "whether the cyclist was wearing a helmet".

So all is good, right? Those were just accidents and we can now move on. It was an accident the officer hit one cyclist and an accident the door popped up in front of the other one. No one is to blame, maybe except the cyclist in case he/she wasn't wearing a helmet.

Fortunately, there is a (still small) chance we will stop calling these situations accidents and call them what they really are: crash, collision, etc. But in order for this to happen big media must change the way they report news and eradicate "accident" from their dictionary. That surely won't be easy. People behind "Crash is not an accident" campaign want to change it because words do matter.

Crash, Not Accident

How to survive hot and humid weather

After reading this title, most people would advise on staying home, turning AC on and serving plenty of cold drinks. However, for us, cyclists, this may not be an option. Here is what you can do to survive the heat, such as one that hit us this week in Boston.

Leave your bike home and drive your car or take a bus instead. This assumes you are willing on giving up cycling and switching over to another vehicle, where you can benefit from air conditioning. Again, not an option for every hardcore biker but if outside temperature hits 90F (32C) and over 70% humidity, you will likely be ready to say "screw it" and enjoy AC inside your car.

Stay indoors and ride on a trainer. Good option for those who desperately want to ride their bikes without giving up the cool indoors. Main problem - you won't get anywhere this way.

Go for a ride very early in the day. By early I mean like 5am to 7am. This way you can avoid the heat and enjoy your ride the best time of the day - the coolest and least humid. The problem with this approach is obvious - it will work for recreational rides but don't expect to run many errands at 5am.

Don't ride with a helmet on. I can't emphasize this one more. I still see cyclists on a quiet bike greenway, such as our Minuteman Bikeway riding with helmets on. Seriously, in a weather like this the risk you damage your head by falling off your bike is significantly lower than getting a heat stroke. Helmets are good for competitive sports but shouldn't be needed in a well-designed city. Sorry, I value my brain too much to let it cook under a helmet.

Buy a "pissing helmet". If you are one of those believers who think that bike and helmet is the same as sushi and soy sauce - they should always go together, consider this crazy invention. It looks as weird as it works and I am not going to try it, but if you don't mind your helmet to pee on your head then who knows - maybe it will keep you cool?

 

Build an AC for your bike. If everything else fails, try equipping your bike with your own "AC unit". All you need is one of those handlebars-mounted baskets. Next, fill it with ice to the top and go for a ride. Melting and vaporizing ice will create a very cool fog in front of you that will be next blown over your face and body as you ride through it. This way you can ride your bike and have air conditioning at the same time (patent pending!).

 

For those who have generator hubs on their bikes, try to connect a small desktop fan to your hub and install it on your handlebars. This will enhance the cooling effect dramatically. Main problem here - riding your carbon road bike with a huge basket full of ice is not exactly aero.

MIT Haystack and Nashua River Rail Trail

This year's 4th of July came on Saturday but fortunately my company gave me Friday off so it still counts as a long holiday weekend. Having a full day available I decided to take a longer ride and explore new areas by bike.

I started in Arlington at 6:20AM and used the Minuteman Bikeway to reach Bedford, then crossed Concord River an approached Carlisle. It was supposed to be a very warm and sunny day but early morning air was still crisp and fresh.

Concord River

I continued on North Rd in Carlisle (One of the best places for road biking in this area - very low traffic, decent paving and places to see on the way.), then crossed Bruce Freeman Rail Trail and eventually reached Graniteville.

Railway crossing in Graniteville

From there, it was only a short ride to MIT Haystack Observatory in Westford. What was originally built for the army is now a MIT center for atmospheric research and planetary sciences.

Millstone Rd in Westford, MA - enter here.

Haystack Telescope is on the top of a hill so some climbing is required. The first thing you will notice is a large white ball of the Westford Radio Telescope. At this point you need to cross the gate that wasn't opened yesterday (Maybe MIT had a day off as well?) so I decided to... ignore it and continue up the hill (Sorry).

Westford Radio Telescope

Further up the hill I approached large antenna structures that turned out to be the Zenith Antenna (the one lying flat on the ground) for UHF transmissions, while the vertical one is the MISA Antenna.

Zenith (in foreground) and MISA antennas

MISA Antenna

Eventually, reaching top of the hill I could see the Haystack Radio Telescope (or rather its dome). I spent about half an hour on the top of the hill, taking a break from riding. It turned out that it took me 2 hours to reach Haystack, which was better than I expected.

 

Haystack Radio Telescope

Millstone Rd is the only way down the hill from Haystack but because I wanted to connect with Keyes Rd to the east, I decided to take one of the forest trails down. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a bad idea. The trails are heavily overgrown in places and are rideable only on a mountain bike or fatbike. Walking my bike, half an hour and multiple mosquito bites later I finally reached the bottom of the hill... at Millstone Hill Rd.

  

Trails around Haystack Telescope hill - don't approach without a good mountain bike. And a mosquito net.

So the shortcut didn't work but then I could keep moving faster and passing by the Upper Massapoag Pond (beautiful place, by the way) I reached Dunstable. I continued further north to cross the state border and arrived at the entrance to the Nashua River Rail Trail at Gilson Rd. This was a bit symbolic for me because for the first time I finally had a chance to ride my bike from my home to another state (and back).

  

Nashua River Rail Trail (NRRT) is very similar to the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail I visited earlier or our Minuteman Trail in Arlington and Lexington. It is narrower but a bit longer than the Minuteman - 12.5mi vs. 10mi.

 

At that point it was already almost noon and trail was full of joggers, dog walkers and other cyclists but despite that I could keep a steady pace. I took another long break at Groton to stop for lunch. Main Street Cafe offers good food but has no bicycle parking of any kind (not even a lamp post or a road sign), which is surprising given proximity of NRRT.

 

From there it was a straight shot to Ayer where NRRT ends. I've never been to Ayer before and center of this town surprised me - lots of nice, historic buildings.

Main St in Ayer, MA

It was time to head back home. Sun was at its peak and it was getting very hot. I was glad I put some sunblock on, otherwise I wouldn't look too good the following day. I kept moving through Littleton, Acton, Concord to arrive back in Lexington at the Minuteman Trail. The whole ride took me about 7hrs and 40min total and turned out to be 136km (85mi) long.

Barretts Mill Farm in Concord

By the way, I'm riding now on new tires - Stampede Pass Extralight (32mm wide) from Compass Cycles. From what I read about these, they are a holy grail of all road tires - very light, wide and supple. They feel great at 40-45psi (which is very low for this type of tire). It's kind of like riding on a bit harder tubes only because these tires are very thin. Which leaves an open question about their durability. Fortunately, they have worked very well so far.

That's it. Happy 4th of July everyone. Time for a beer!

Thirteen speeds please!

Long, long time ago pretty much all road bicycles had 10 speeds - 2 chainrings and 5-sprocket freewheels. Over time, bicycle drivetrains developed into 2x6, 2x7,... and today's newest 2x11 systems. That's what you would see now on a typical, new road bicycle.

When mountain bikes became more popular, they needed more gearing range and a standard 2x5 or 2x6 system couldn't provide that. The solution was to add an extra chainring so soon 3x6, 3x7 and 3x8 setups became a norm. But when cassettes got more and more sprockets and a wider range (such as 11-36T), it turned out that a 3x9 setup was usually not needed so the extra chainring was abandoned. This is why today's mountain bike feature 2x9 and 2x10 drives and a 3x? (three-by) setup is now a rare sighting.

The situation got more interesting with the arrival of 11 speed cassettes in the mountain biking world. The extra sprocket allowed for even wider range setups and when SRAM came up with a 1x11 system, with a single chainring and a 10-42T cassette, it became obvious that front derailleurs may soon be extinct.

A typical 2x9 MTB setup compared to SRAM's XX1 1x11 - same range but no front derailleur, simpler shifting and a lighter crankset (Simulated using 27.5" wheels with 2.35" tires. Source: gear-calculator.com)

But what's good for mountain bikers, is not necessarily good for roadies. Mountain bikes need wide gearing range and clearly 10-42T cassette can provide that. But it's not very useful on a road bike because jumps between the gears are just too wide. Not yet - but in several years when 12 and then 13 speed cassettes show up, such drivetrain is definitely possible on a road bike, providing wide range and tightly spaced gears.

Today's 2x11 road setup compared to a hypothetical 1x13 - similar range with tightly spaced gears in the higher cassette range. (Simulated using 700C wheels with 23mm tires. Source: gear-calculator.com)

Both 1x11 and 1x12 drivetrains have many benefits - they can be lighter, requiring less maintenance, easier and faster to use. But there are issues as well. The main one is the tight space available on the rear hub. Adding more sprockets to the rear wheel means that the spokes from the drive side must be aligned nearly vertically and asymmetrically loaded. In order to solve this problem, future rear road hubs may simply become wider, for example, adopting the 135mm MTB, or wider, standard. Such transition happened in the past already - old 5-speed road wheels used to have 120mm rear hubs until the newer 126mm and eventually 130mm standards were developed.

My prediction is that in the nearest future we will see more of:

• 12-13 speed cassettes combined with a single chainring
• lack of front derailleurs on most new bicycles
• wider standard for road bicycle rear hubs (and possibly MTB as well)
• more options for wide-range 11 and 12 speed cassettes (plus lower price)

The setup I would like to see for my future road/touring bike - wide range 13-speed 10-40T cassette with a single 38T chainring. (Simulated using 700C wheels with 32mm tires. Source: gear-calculator.com)

The future begins today. SRAM has already showed what the next road setup may look like with their newest 1x11 system. But at this point it's not a particularly interesting offering for those who would want to replace their 2x10 setups - it doesn't have enough range, using 11-speed only cassette.

We need more gears on the rear hub and I'm pretty sure we will have them (At least on road bikes. MTBs may get other solutions such as the Pinion gearbox instead). Anyway, the future looks exciting. 

Unfinished business

I mentioned a few weeks ago that town of Bedford, MA planed on adding multiple bike lanes in its area. Earlier this week I was really happy to notice that this process has already begun. Newly renovated section of Route 62 received bike lanes on both sides. Placing bike lanes on this busy road is definitely a good idea. Unfortunately, its execution doesn't look exciting at all.

Route 62 is wide enough in places to allow for wide bike lanes on both sides. But then, there are sections where the bike lane would have to be so narrow that you couldn't possibly fit a bike on it. Obviously, we would expect the traffic lanes to be adjusted or the road widened to make space for regular-width bike lanes. But it didn't happen. Instead, what we are getting is a very fragmented network of lanes, in short sections only.

No bike lane here since the shoulder is too narrow and can't be converted into a proper bike lane easily.

 

But the road gets wider several hundred feet later and we get a "protected" bike lane here.

 

Unfortunately, it continues for only 300ft until the road gets narrower again and we lose the "protected" lane. New lane markings are not complete yet but you can see where the shoulder will be, marked by this preliminary line.

 

The construction is not over yet so I still hope that the remaining part of the road is going to be rebuilt to maintain continuity of the bicycle lane network. Otherwise, I wonder what is the point in painting these bike lanes? If the town is not intending to do this right, then instead of pretending that these short fragments are real bike lanes, it would be better to just leave them unmarked, as road shoulders only. Cyclists could still use them as bike lanes if they wanted to and the town could save some money on paint and labor. But then they couldn't tell everyone how vast network of bicycle lanes they have in their area, I suppose.

In the opposite direction, there is no bike lane despite plenty of space on this side of the intersection.

 

But then, the lane shows up on the other side of the intersection...

 

...only to disappear at the next one.

 

This is what I find particularly annoying about modern infrastructure in many American cities. There is no vision. New bike lanes look like an afterthought, like unfinished business. Almost like city planners didn't really want them, but were required to add a number of new bike lane miles a year. So they did. In few hundred-feet-long fragments, not connected with each other at all. When a new road is built, no one suggests that only short sections of it should be paved, with others left undeveloped, so why is this approach acceptable with bike infrastructure?

Bikes for your young riders

I follow several bicycle-related, local blogs online and it seems that the author of one of them has moved to Northern Ireland where she can enjoy a perfect summer weather, wearing sweaters and tweed coats. Meanwhile, here in Boston, with outside temperature around 90F (32C) I wonder how many more layers of clothing I can remove without being accused of indecent exposure.

But sunny weather makes kids happy so I try to include my two little gangsters in any bicycle-ran errands whenever possible. Junior is 4 now and I am trying to teach him the whole biking thing but adoption rate seems very slow. Being a cautious kid he's just not that interested in trying on his own. Perhaps his time will come later. His little devil sister is much more eager to explore all the dangers of this world and I have a feeling she will be the first one to ride her own bike. For now, both of them love riding with me on big Eddie.

All this doesn't mean that I'm not trying to find the best future bike for my kids. Even if they are too young or not interested, it's still good to check what's on market. Fortunately, the situation has improved dramatically over the last years. We now have more options of quality kids bikes with new ones popping out each year.

That's good, because so far most children's bicycles were either BMX or some crappy and heavy pseudo-MTBs with really weird geometry. Also, too often, in my opinion, bicycles for youngest kids come with suspension forks and too many gears. Simplicity usually does the trick so let's not make bikes for 6-year olds look like miniature downhill machines, shall we?

A fairly typical bike for little kids. In order to ride this thing they would either have to lean back or have really short arms.

First of all, it's good to see the biggest manufacturers to come up with some new designs that may actually work quite well. For example, Trek sells Superfly 16 and Superfly 20 and both seem to be designed much better than an ordinary Walmart bike. Basic chainguards, better-suited sitting positions and aluminum frames should account for a stress-free riding.

But then I keep finding more and more examples of really well-thought children bicycles coming usually from new, small, family-run businesses. The biggest one of them is probably Islabikes. They have many models of lightweight and well-designed bicycles such as Cnoc 16 ($310) that comes with aluminum frame, lightweight wheels and fully-enclosed chainguard.

Cnoc 16 by Islabikes.

Another new player in this market is Cleary Bikes. They offer only a few basic models and, like Hedgehog 16, they are built from steel and as single-speed only. Interestingly, these little buggers have internal cable routing! Price is $295 for Hedgehog and $250 for a smaller Gecko.

Hedgehog 16 from Cleary Bikes.

Recently, we have also seen something new in this market coming from Linus - a classic-looking Lil Roadster (or Lil Dutchi for girls). For $290 your kid can roll around on a bicycle that resembles daddy's old Schwinn. You may question whether it's worth spending nearly $300 on a steel single-speed bike but this is one of very few that clearly doesn't have a mountain bike heritage, comes with fenders (even though they seem a bit short), bell and an optional rear rack. How many other children bicycles look like Lil Roadster? None, I think.

Linus Lil Roadster

If you want to be even more original, how about a tiny cargo bike for your kids? You can have one from Republic for $350. It looks like a miniature Christiania bicycle and although its usability may be questionable since the box can hold only up to 10lbs (So no carrying another kid in it. Sorry.), you have to admit that it does look damn cute.

 Miniature cargo bike from Republic.

That's not all. There are more interesting kids bikes on Kickstarter. Priority wants to be a new player on this market with Priority Start - a bicycle with some interesting features such as aluminum frame, belt drive and solid tires. I don't think I'm sold on non-pneumatic tires idea but belt drive in kids bike makes a lot of sense. No more greasy pants and virtually no maintenance required.

Priority Start - a bicycle with solid wheel and a belt drive.

The second one you can find on Kickstarted is The Revo ($260 with discount) from Pello Bikes. It looks really good, I have to say. Aluminum frame with fender eyelets and low weight is a good start. Add a chainguard and we may have a winner.

The Revo from Pello Bikes.

Interestingly, the main motivation of all designers behind those Kickstarter bicycles is to build one with lower weight than an oridinary Walmart bike. That's not surprising given how much a tiny kids bike can weigh. And even though BikeSnob says that "children should not be exposed to weight weenie-ism at such an early age", it's great to see so many higher quality options showing up.

So far it looks like all of these bicycles are priced around $300. It may seem expensive, compared to Walmart's $129 options but in terms of build and ride quality, I'm sure they come from two different worlds. On the other hand, $300 is probably not that much for something our kids will use for a few years and will make them want more. It equals 2 sets of high quality tires or 2 leather Brooks saddles or just 1 Rapha jacket.

It is important for the first bike to be the right one and not discourage our little ones from bicycling by anchor weight or uncomfortable riding position.

Oh, and one more thing. If you happen to have way too much money you can always go full custom. How about a 14.3lbs (6.5kg) bike with a titanium frame, carbon fork, Chris King headset, hydraulic disc brakes and Tune hubs? It can be done. Just don't expect this one to cost $300 (More like $3000 is probably a good guess).

Skyde 246 - a titanium youth bicycle for those who already have everything.

How bike-friendly is your city?

This week's big news in bicycle world (at least for those who just happen to ride their bikes for transport) is the 2015 Copenhagenize Index. Among the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world Copenhagen is first, Amsterdam second, and within the first 10 we also have 3 more Benelux cities, 3 French, 1 Swedish (Malmo) and 1 Spanish (Seville). Really, no surprises here.

 

More interesting things happened in places 10-20. We have Ljubljana and Buenos Aires ranked 13 and 14 and I didn't expect to see these cities ranked that high at all. Then, there is Minneapolis at number 18 (highest from all North American cities) and Montreal at 20. I'm happy to see that some American cities showed up on the Index and in general this is in agreement with many bicycling infrastructure improvements happening here. Unfortunately, with this rate of improvement Boston will show up in Top 20 around year 2150.

 

Speaking about the infrastructure, I was watching this video and really enjoyed how something Dutch and Danes take for granted is simply as foreign as real beer to most Americans.

Cycling Copenhagen, Through North American Eyes from STREETFILMS on Vimeo.

Unfortunately, Dutch (and Danish) concept of bicycling safety is even more foreign on this side of the ocean. Otherwise, we wouldn't see comments like this one:

I enjoyed the video (...). However, it seemed a minority of the cyclists wear helmets and I am wondering why safety would not be stressed more.

Frankly, what truly surprised me in this video was how MANY cyclists wore helmets as in any other videos of this kind I usually couldn't spot a single helmeted person. I explained it to myself that those wearing helmets must be American tourists.

Anyway, it's pretty clear that in this part of the world helmeted cyclist = safe cyclist and words "bicycling" and "infrastructure" just don't mix together. In general, at least.

But cycling infrastructure is not only about those protected lanes that we want so badly but rarely see here. It is also about parking, such as bicycle racks. I have seen many poorly designed and placed racks and I wondered why there are no installation guidelines to follow. Annie from Anniebikes blog must have felt the same. That's why she came up with this guide. Very well written.

A bike rack next to my office building. Not the best design, but I actually like the non-tubular construction. I can use a lighter and narrower u-lock this way.

Finally, some news from Australia (Because no week is a good week without some ridiculous Aussie news). First of all, if Australia's focus is on ticketing jaywalkers, they clearly use their police resources in a wrong way, but that's probably not news anymore. But then it gets worse. The fact Australia is hostile to all people on bicycles is well known. In such case their idea to remove a protected cycle lane in Sydney, in order to widen the street for more cars, as ridiculous as it may sound, is actually not surprising. I could understand such decision if there was some logic behind it, but even though that cycle lane carries more people during the rush hours than car lanes on the same street, Duncan Gay, NSW minister of transport, is not convinced the cycle lane should stay.

College Street cycle lane is used by more people than adjacent car lanes. Minister's of transport decision? "Remove it!"

 

Actually, Duncan Gay must be mentally stuck in the 70's as he truly believes that bicycles have place somewhere far in the forest but not on city streets:

Gay is a staunch supporter of Australia’s mandatory helmet law for cyclists, has proposed banning cyclists from some roads, and is also a vociferous champion of making cyclists carry license plates. An Australia without mandatory cycle helmets would lead to “rage everywhere” and would be akin to letting “anarchists run the world,” he has said.  He is “increasingly persuaded” that cyclists need to be licensed – banning cyclists from some roads would be considered “on a safety basis.”

Holy shit! With people like that in your government, good luck Australia getting close to Copenhagenize Top 20 before year 2500.