Burley bike trailer renovation

Late last year Wendy and I bought an old Burley trailer at a yard sale.  We cut all the faded and worn tent material to expose the bare aluminum frame.  Cleaned the rust off with steel wool, and strung up an old metal fence from Urban Ore around the frame to serve as a bottom mesh.     The trailer frame was actually woven through the fence for a seamless attachment. Latter zip-ties were added in a few places to stop rattling.

A highway sign from Urban Ore was cut to fit, and attached with velcro-rivet attachments.  A second, longer portion of the highway sign was cut and velcro-riveted to serve as a cover.

Bungie cords are used to secure things in place.  The trailer-to-bike attachment was left as found, except that all the old nylon webbing was replaced with new webbing.

So far I’ve used it for groceries and plants/garden supplies.  It does take some getting used to, because it is wider than a bike and can easily clip parked cars and curbs.

Share the road

As I was biking home from work yesterday, a car was trying to pass me within the lane, and the driver rolled down the window to tell me to “share the road.” It struck me as ironic that a driver would co-opt a bikers message with such panache. Sharing the road is not something I want to do with most cars, yet we use it as a rallying cry. In fact, at the moment the driver made an awkward lurching attempt to pass, I drifted into the middle of the lane TO OWN IT and not to SHARE IT. The incident reminded me how difficult it is to promote biking without alienating drivers, and how little education is provided for bikers and drivers on how to ride in multi-modal traffic.

Here is my attempt at a few rules-of-the-road for defensive biking.

1) assume the worst case scenario from every car

2) obey the same laws that cars do:

2a. stop at stop signs and proceed through 4-way stops in order;

2b. don’t run red lights;

2c. signal your intentions;

2d. don’t pass other vehicles within the same lane

2e. bike with traffic, not against it

3) when approaching an intersection, take the middle of the lane to prevent sideswipes

4) don’t let driver road rage infect you; just being on a bike can lower stress levels and induce smiles

5) use lights and reflective clothing at night

6) ride with a friend and take the whole lane

7) be friendly with your fellow bikers and drivers at stop lights (maybe this is a Southern thing?)

Tilden (bi)cyclocross

I took a great ride today around Tilden and Wildcat Canyon on a Scwinn road bike outfitted with cyclocross tires (27×1 1/4”) and clipless pedals. In the first 100 meters I almost fell while climbing, but quickly remembered to keep my butt in the seat for climbs.  Lots of jarring descents without shocks made my arms feel like jello.  It was fun!  If you want to follow along, see the route here on Gmaps Pedometer.

[image from Wikimedia foundation]

Scraper bikes an Oakland original

Right out of Oakland, CA: Scrapers in bike form (scraper bikes; pic) make bikes look good. These two-tone bikes have colorful rims that remind me of a low-fi version of monkey electric LEDs. Most bikes from stores have boring colors and lack a personal touch. These scraper bikes fix that and bring culture to two wheels. See more pictures on the California Report.

Something similar that I saw in Durham, NC was a group of kids that turned their bikes into low-riders by replacing the rear wheel of their (usually) mountain bikes with a kids rear wheel. I worked on one at the bike co-op where we took an old Schwinn cruiser and put a 27” road rim on the front and a 20” BMX rim on the back. Pedal strike on the turns but the rest was ok. Another personalized bike that I saw had animal bones zip-tied to the frame– one bone for each tube. Each bone was supposed to represent the strength of the tube. Including a skull on the front and it was both intimidating and intruiging.

More on Scraper bikes

• BikePortland.org
• Scraper Bike King on Myspace
• Make magazine

London cycling safety video

A friend from Barcelona forwarded me a new cycling safety video from London that highlights driver blindness to cyclists. Check it out.

A bit of an aside, but I also want to share the by-line on my friend’s email.

“It takes two lanes of a given size to move 40,000 people across a bridge in one hour by using modern trains, four to move them on buses, 12 to move them in their cars, and only one lane for them to pedal across on bicycles.”
— Ivan Illich, Energy And Equity, 1974