I rode nearly 40 miles yesterday, including the Critical Mass ride. It’s amazing how much more in-shape I’m feeling these days. I started working out in January, doing cardio and lifting weights. I had ballooned up to nearly 200 lbs, and it was time to start looking a little less like the Pillsbury Doughboy. I’ve lost 20+ pounds since then, and all that cardio and weightlifting has made bike riding a lot more fun than I’ve ever found it before.

I went to Barnes & Noble in Pittsford yesterday and bought Graeme Fife’s Tour De France: The History, the Legend, the Riders. Yes, I know. I’ve been commuting by bike for a month and I’m already reading a book about the Tour. Listen, when I lived in South Carolina I had a license plate that read WANKER, so you know what you’re getting into, OK?

Anyway, I was surprised to see that Barnes & Noble, a place I expect is frequented by cyclists, has a crappy low bike rack that only connects with the front wheel. I don’t know much, but I do know that my front wheel comes off quickly. I’m guessing bike thieves get that, too. And even with two locks (one from wheel to rack and one from wheel to frame), those low racks still seem likely to bend your wheel. What gives?

I’m also surprised that one of Rochester’s most popular bike shops is located on the corner of a four- (and often six-) lane thoroughfare. Coming from downtown, you have to turn left from the suicide lane to get into Park Ave Bike Shop on Monroe Ave. (It used to be on Park Ave, thus the name.) I know that our roads should be more bike-friendly, but until that day, why is the shop in such a dangerous spot?

• While I was out riding, I took pictures.

Enough kvetching for now. I had a great day on my bike yesterday, and I’m really falling in love with the whole idea of being a cyclist. Not a flashy one, just a guy on a bike.

Tonight I took part in one of the most exhilerating things I’ve ever done with a group of people — my first Critical Mass ride. What is Critical Mass? Here’s one definition:

Critical Mass is a monthly bicycle ride to celebrate cycling and to assert cyclists’ right to the road. The idea started in San Francisco in September 1992 and quickly spread to cities all over the world. Critical Mass has no leaders, and no central organization licenses rides. In every city that has a CM ride, some locals simply picked a date, time, and location for the ride and publicized it, and thus the ride was born. CM is an idea and an event, not an organization.

More than 50 cyclists came out tonight for the ride, riding everything from fixies to road bikes, mountain bikes to hybrids. There was also an inline skater and a skateboarder. It was wonderful! We cruised through the lights, taking an entire lane and reveling in the rare feeling of security and confidence that is sometimes hard to find when commuting by bike here in the Flower City.

Before, during and after the ride, I interviewed riders using the Hipcast mobile audio blogging service, which allows you to post instant audio clips to a blog using your cell phone.

• I also took pictures.

Please send me your pictures, and please post your own comments on the ride using the comment form below this post. Thanks!

For your listening pleasure, here are the interviews, many conducted while riding. Enjoy!

#1: Adam Durand

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#2: Ally, Ray & Jenna

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#3: Dave Skinner

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#4: John Cuminale

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#5: At the Liberty Pole

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#6: Monroe Ave, while riding out of the city

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#7: Dawn Zupelli, while riding

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#8: Paul Fuller, while riding

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#9: Monroe Ave, while riding back to the city

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#10: Culver Road on the way to Park Ave

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#11: Main St, post-ride

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Remember to post your own stories from this ride using the comment form below. See you on July 27!

p.s. — You should also check out these brilliant Critical Mass leaflets from Rochester’s past!

Early this morning, I chatted with guitarist Gene Bertoncini for my weekly jazz interview show, The Jazz Session. Gene was teaching at the Tritone Jazz Camp at Nazareth College, a week-long camp for adult musicians who want to learn from the pros.

Gene Bertoncini (photo by Howard A. Gitelson)

Nazareth is about 8 miles from my house in the Ellwanger-Barry neighborhood, so I packed by Marantz PMD 660 flash recorder, headphones and two mics in one of my panniers and headed off. The clouds were very wrath-of-god, and a quick scan of the forecast showed lots of rain heading our way on the radar, so I wore my “breathable” Zephyr jacket for the trip. If by “breathable” they mean you’ll be able to expand and contract your lungs while wearing the jacket, then I agree with the description. If they mean that any air or heat can escape the jacket’s black-hole-like embrace, then I beg to differ. I was a puddle of sweat by the time I reached Nazareth. Luckily the trip took less time than I planned, so I cooled down in a coffee shop before the interview, and changed into my spare shirt.

That said, I was pleased to see that it was worth the extra money I paid for the Zephyr jacket with Full Irony Mode, which meant that wearing the jacket was the surest way to prevent rain. In fact, the only wet area was the inside of my jacket.

There’s been an interesting discussion of commuting clothes going on over at the blog Commute By Bike. I usually wear a cotton t-shirt and shorts with sandals or sneakers, but after today’s Perspire-A-Thon, I’m thinking I may pick up some sort of cheap running shirt or something like that — some material that wicks water away rather than multiplying it loaves-and-fishes style.

I drove my car for the first time in 3+ weeks tonight. I had to do some house visits for a union organizing campaign, and I took a worker with me. One of my co-workers suggested a set of pegs for the back wheel so the worker could stand on the back. Maybe I’ll try that, right before they fire me.

Anyway, I was surprised to find that I felt weird driving the car. Let’s not get carried away — I’ve been using a car as my primary mode of transportation for most of the past 1,716 weeks, and I’ve been bike-only for three weeks. Even so, I felt kinda guilty and exposed to be driving in the car. Being on a bike all the time just feels … cool. And it comes with that delightful whiff of moral superiority that makes every day brighter.

Last week, I averaged 10 miles a day. I’m finding that there’s just about nothing I do that I can’t do on the bike. Even transporting the kids around. I have a bike trailer and can take my older son wherever he needs to go. We went to a soccer game the other night. It was about 90° in the shade. When we got to the stadium, my son, who had been sitting in the trailer singing the entire time, said, “Whew! I’m tired!” Amazed, I asked, “From what?” “From all that sitting!” I’ve already ordered the new Arkel Airtight Kid Transporter Pannier. It should be here any day now.

UPDATE: I ran into an interesting wardrobe malfunction. I brought my work clothes to work and left them there last night. That included my pants, stuck through the loops of which was the only belt I own. I’ve lost 20+ pounds in the past six months, so all my pants are big and I need the belt to be sure they don’t fall down. Unfortunately, the belt was at the office and I wasn’t, so I was crossing my fingers while I was out doing house visits, and hoping that I wouldn’t end up doing some of the visit half-naked. As it turned out, we spent most of the evening sitting on the couch in the worker’s home, so all was well. Phew!

As often happens with me, a new interest quickly travels down the steep slope to obsession. Once I made the decision to commute by bike, I started to read every bike blog and bike site I could find. You’ll find many of them linked here at RocBike. Among the most useful sites for the new bike commuter is Paul Dorn’s Bike Commuting Tips. It’s got everything you need to get started safely, efficiently and enjoyably.

Another site I found is the very catty but always enlightening Bike Snob NYC. This blog rails against a lot of things I don’t completely understand, but the author is funny and always worth reading.

However, after reading Bike Snob NYC for a bit, I’m hesitant to post pictures of my own bike on the site, for fear of looking like a piker. At least, I was hesitant until I realized that I’m not riding this bike to be fashionable or to get dates, but to get to work and back! After three weeks of not driving my car, I’m really getting a soft spot for my bike. And here it is:

• Gallery

Enjoy!

This tour will travel to High Falls and follow the Genesee River Gorge north along Saint Paul St., parts of the River Trail, and Lake Avenue. Along the way will visit some historic, and not so historic sites important to Rochester’s history. The underlying theme will be the Genesee River Gorge area, but many lesser known, and obscure historical facts will be presented, such as High Falls daredevil Sam Patch, Rochester’s connection to the 1977 New York City blackout, the 1972 Brink’s armored car heist, a foiled suicide lottery, and one of Rochester’s most colorful historical figures “Rattlesnake” Pete, famous for treating goiter by wrapping Rattlesnakes around patient’s necks. We’ll also be visiting some city landmarks that include The Underground Railroad at Maplewood Rose Garden, memorials to Henry Lomb, and George Eatman (Mr. Eastman’s tomb at Kodak Park), Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, and Kodak’s Hawkeye Plant.

Guide: Erik Olsson

Tour starts at Rochester Contemporary, 137 East Ave. More info: New History Tours

J. Edgar Hoover described Emma Goldman as “the most dangerous woman in America.” This tour will travel to the sites where Emma worked and lived in Rochester and address why Hoover hated her and millions of men and women throughout the world loved her. George Campbell McDade, is the author of “If I Can’t Dance, Its Not My Revolution!” a play about the life, times, triumphs and trials of Emma Goldman.

guide: George Campbell McDade

Tour starts at Rochester Contemporary, 137 East Ave. More info: New History Tours

This tour will travel to Mt. Hope Cemetery, the first municipal rural landscape cemetery in the country. After visiting their current locations in the cemetery, we will visit significant sites around the city of Rochester where some of these innovators made their earlier marks on the world. Included will be Hiram Sibley and Don Alonzo Watson (Western Union, Purchase of Alaska), Henry Augustus Ward (Ward’s Natural Science Establishment), George Baldwin Selden (Automobile), James Goold Cutler (Mail Chute) and Josephus Requa (Machine Gun).

Guide: Ron Richardson

Tour starts at Rochester Contemporary, 137 East Ave. More info: New History Tours

• Event: Critical Mass
• Date: Friday, July 27th
• Time: 6PM at the Liberty Pole (or 5:30PM at the U of R clock tower)
• Details: Critical Mass is a monthly bicycle ride to celebrate cycling and to assert cyclists’ right to the road. The idea started in San Francisco in September 1992 and quickly spread to cities all over the world. Critical Mass has no leaders, and no central organization licenses rides. In every city that has a CM ride, some locals simply picked a date, time, and location for the ride and publicized it, and thus the ride was born. CM is an idea and an event, not an organization.

The new energy bill from the House Ways & Means Committee includes three pro-environment changes proposed by Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon 3rd). You can read the press release for all the details, but here’s the part relevant to bike commuters:

The Commuter Benefit for bikers amends section 132(f) of the IRS code to include “bicycles” in the definition of transportation covered by fringe benefits. Included in the Ways and Means energy bill is a benefit of $20/month for those employees who bike to work, which is a clean, healthy and efficient mode of transportation. The provision is based on H.R. 1498, legislation introduced by Blumenauer earlier this year.

Now we’ll see what passes.

• Event: Critical Mass
• Date: Friday, June 29th
• Time: 6PM at the Liberty Pole (or 5:30PM at the U of R clock tower)
• Details: Critical Mass is a monthly bicycle ride to celebrate cycling and to assert cyclists’ right to the road. The idea started in San Francisco in September 1992 and quickly spread to cities all over the world. Critical Mass has no leaders, and no central organization licenses rides. In every city that has a CM ride, some locals simply picked a date, time, and location for the ride and publicized it, and thus the ride was born. CM is an idea and an event, not an organization.

My name is Jason Crane. I’m a union organizer and jazz writer/podcaster living in Rochester, NY, an upstate city on the southern shore of Lake Ontario. I started commuting by bicycle a few weeks ago.

Tonight I was riding home after teaching a class in broadcast techniques to a group of Unitarians. Huzzah! As I turned from Monroe Ave — one of the busy main thoroughfares — onto the much smaller Field Street, a car turned right with me and then tried to immediately pass me on the left. There wasn’t room for the car to safely pass, so I kept to the middle of the single lane. I stopped at a stop sign, crossed the intersection, and continued up Field Street, which at this point becomes two directions with no center line. There were cars parked on the right side of the street, so it was difficult for the car behind me to get around and pass.

The Erie Canal locks near Monroe Ave in 1918

To demonstrate how difficult it was, the driver started beeping his horn over … and over … and over. I finally had space to move over, so I did and the two 20-something men sped by. They pulled into a street on the right-hand side a few hundred yards up and stopped, putting the car in reverse but waiting for me to pass.

As I passed them, they backed out into the street and sped up behind me, laying on the horn in one long, loud honk. Then they sped past me again very close.

When Planet Bike comes out with the handlebar-mounted rocket launcher, I’ll be first in line.