Bleu Cease, the man behind The Obediah Dogberry Society, has been running a series of New History Tours this summer. Unfortunately, they’ve all been on the same night as Critical Mass. Until this weekend, that is. RocBike.com’s own Jack Bradigan Spula led a tour titled “Not So Smugtown After All: Political Protest and Direct Action in Rochester History.” The tour was this afternoon, and the weather was gorgeous as 40+ cyclists assembled at the Rochester Contemporary art gallery on East Ave for the ride.

Our first stop was just up East Ave from our gathering place — the Cutler Building between Stillson and Chestnut. The current building wasn’t the interesting bit. The site used to be the location of the home of William Clough Bloss, one of Rochester’s abolitionist leaders.

(more…)

From The Bike-O-Sphere

• Manly skills?
• It’s not about the stuff, Part I
• It’s not about the stuff, Part II
• It’s not about the stuff, Part III
• It’s not about the stuff, Part IV
• A first timer’s journal
• The two mile challenge…
• The Interbike Hangover
• Alex, Mark and Kent Compare Folding Bikes
• Undriving Ballard
• Evo Morales: “Let’s respect our Mother Earth” (This one has nothing to do with cycling, unless you consider not pouring exhaust fumes into the air a mode a conservation. Hey wait, that makes a lot of sense!)

In The News

• Santa Clarita Named Bicycle Friendly Community
• Bicycle plates would fund safety programs
• $4,951 for Matra MS1: electric-powered bike, more bicycle less Harley
• Signs meant to help cyclists

…four tubes. Four tubes. FOUR TUBES!

Let me come clean. I’ve never had a flat tire on a bike until the day Bernie and I met Mr. Crazy. I’ve never had to change a flat. Never put new tubes or tires on a bike. Not once.

So after I blew a tube on the Nomade, I switched over to the Giant. I knew I needed new tires for the Nomade to replace its 25-year-old Continentals. I asked Jack for a recommendation, and he suggested some Panaracer Pasela touring tires with a Kevlar belt. I ordered a set from Bike Nashbar and figured I’d ride the Giant until they arrived.

To prepare for their arrival, I went down to Full Moon Vista and bought a set of Bontrager tubes — 27 x 1 1/8 Presta tubes. And that was my first mistake.

The tires arrived with today’s mail. While taking a break from a day of house visits for a union campaign, I put on one of the new tubes using three separate guides: (1) Park Tool’s Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair, (2) Zinn And The Art Of Mountain Bike Maintenance (I know the Nomade isn’t a mountain bike), and (3) the instructions on the back of the tube box. I’d mixed up my two Motobecane bikes — the Mirage has Presta valves, but the Nomade has Schrader valves. Knowing nothing at all about whether it mattered if I switched them, I started with the non-flat front tire on the Nomade.

I deflated the tube and removed one side of the tire. I pulled out the valve and then removed the tube. Then I pulled out the rest of the tire and put just enough air in the new tube for it to be round. I put it inside the tire and — after what I can only describe as an embarrassingly Herculean effort — I got the tire back on the wheel. I blew the tube up to full strength — 105 PSI as recommended on the side of the Pasela tire. I sat back smugly, basking in my newfound–

BANG!

The tube exploded, sending my younger son about three feet in the air. I was, of course, making this repair in the dining room, as all good wrenches do. My wife, who was sitting about three feet away stripping wallpaper, got a nice shot of adrenalin through her system, too.

Figuring that I must have pinched the tube somewhere, I went through the entire process again. Partially remove tire. Take off old tube (no need to deflate it this time!). Remove tire. Put some air in second new tube. Replace tire on wheel. Inflate. Holding … holding …

BANG!

This time, I’d warned my wife and son ahead of time. My youngest son probably didn’t understand the warning, given that he doesn’t really speak too much English yet. But what’s the big deal — he can function with 80% of his hearing, right?

I was now thoroughly demoralized. Jen was quite supportive. “I’m sure everybody goes through tubes when they’re learning. This is your first time.” She almost managed not to laugh while she was saying it. I checked the wheel for a spoke poking through or some other sharp bit. Nothing.

Later in the day, Bernie and I rode down to Full Moon Vista for the second day in a row. This time, I got two Shrader-valved tubes. We rode back home. Removed the not-old-but-recently-detonated tube. Put the new one on. Blew it up part of the way. I could see that the bead line of the tire wasn’t even, so I deflated the tube and fixed it. Blew it up part of the way again. Another bulge in the bead line. Deflate. Fix. It looked good. I blew it up to 95 PSI. “That was a lot easier,” I told Jen. “I think it’s going to work this–”

BANG!

The tire started to pull away from the wheel and the tube popped. I sat on the dining room floor in stunned disbelief. “Maybe your pump is reading incorrectly,” Jen suggested.

In a darkly comic mood, I repeated the process for the fourth time. I put the new tube in as if it were a piece of nuclear material going on the warhead of a rocket. I straightened every crimp, lovingly massaging the tube into place. I’m not a religious man, but I may have invoked a deity or two. I blew the tire up part way. Found another bulge in the bead line. Fixed it. Blew it up. Five seconds went by … 10 seconds … 20 seconds … 30 seconds. “Can I touch it?” asked Bernie, who was now watching the Explode-A-Thon. “Sure,” I said. He lightly touched the tire with one finger. No explosion. I picked it up. It looked good. Had I finally done it? It looked like I–

BANG!

Sweet weeping Jesus! FOUR TUBES! What kind of half-witted knuckle-dragger blows up four tubes changing a tire?

Tomorrow, I plan to enlist the aid of someone who knows what they’re doing. In the words of The Dude: This aggression shall not stand, man!

From The Bike-O-Sphere

• Burma
• The news of CCM’s demise
• Sheboygan pushes for bike lanes
• Something like a bakfeits
• Interbike 2007 overview of bikes
• Rest Assured
• Three mountains
• a few snapshots

• Bike commuting in suburbia
• Bike commuters save gas, get exercise

In The News

• Hercules Hits 130.7mph On a Bicycle
• Rain fails to dampen bikers’ mood on World Car-Free Day

This is Che Guevara on a bicycle. OK, it has a small engine, but it’s still a bike that you have to pedal. Che rode this through Argentina in the late 40s. I was thinking about Che because I’m reading Companero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara. Several years ago, I read Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life and The Motorcycle Diaries. I recommend them both.

As you know, I’m a union organizer. In my office, I have a big Che poster mounted on the wall. It’s the one thing you can see as you pass my office. A few people have commented that it’s a shocking thing to see. That may be true. It’s there because it has one of my favorite quotations from Che (or anyone else, for that matter) printed on it:

“At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.” — Che Guevara

From The Bike-O-Sphere

• CCMX
• A few more Interbike links
• On the road again
• Burley “Piccolo” is back
• Dream On
• Cool stuff seen here and there
• Visiting our vendors: Electra
• Visiting our vendors: Kona
• Peace In Our Time: A Cycling Summit
• City bikes at Interbike
• BikeArlington Bike-sharing Presentation & Happy Hour
• Bend
• Becoming Bicycle Friendly
• Best of show!
• De-Guiltification
• Friday: The madness continues.
• Comments Back On
• Strida and the Frankenbikes
• Three ways
• Dutch & other Euro bikes @ Interbike
• Interbike 2007 videos

In The News

• Intelligent lock focuses CCTV on bicycle thieves
• City hall bike plan would transform Toronto
• Bagels and Bluegrass bicycle tour is Saturday at JSCC
• Crime On U Of O Campus Centers On Bicycle Thefts
• SANTA CRUZ: CITY RECEIVES RECOGNITION FOR BEING BICYCLE FRIENDLY
• Why didn’t the car park have a bicycle section?
• BICYCLE ROUTE TO FACE TV VOTE FOR MONEY
• The half-skateboard, half-surfboard bike

From The Bike-O-Sphere

• I’m doing this for democracy…
• Betting high with Civia Cycles
• Navigating Barcelona Online
• Bicycle rock and roll tour
• Interbike 2007 links
• Carpet Tacks
• Tour of America?
• Routine route
• “Innovate or Die”
• Project Rwanda
• “Urban” Is the new buzzword
• People, not speed
• Velo Darwinism: The Evolution of the Top Tube Pad
• Swobo expands their line with the Del Norte
• Team Slipstream jersey winner
• trike on abc

In The News

• ‘City Bike’ Hot New Category at Bicycle Industry Show
• Free bicycle fleet benefits UCO students
• Inconsiderate bicycle riders irk drivers
• Clarence bicycle plan open for public consultation
• Funds OK for bicycle bridge?
• Local custom: Bicycle builder Christopher Igleheart of Wenham is just one of many in the region who are renowned for their design prowess
• Euclidean dynamics: Any way you slice it, it’s one cool ride. The electric bike mixes pedal power with a battery pack. Hills? Easy as Pi.

My family and I are big fans of the South Wedge Farmers Market, the brainchild of the wonderful Chris and Vicki Hartman. Now, the Market is offering something that should make every RocBike reader happy — home delivery by bicycle!

You can order online and have the food delivered to your house by bicycle. The rules: “All orders MUST be placed by 4:00pm Wednesday for delivery the following day. Deliveries will be made between 4:00 - 6:00pm on Thursday. Full payment is due at time of delivery. CASH ONLY!!” The market is open from 4-8 p.m. on Thursdays. It’s located on Alexander and Clinton, right behind Boulder Coffee. Visit their Web site for details.

You should really head down there and check it out. But if you can’t make it, bring the market to you — by bicycle.

P.S. — Here are some photos I took earlier this year at the market.

This wonderfully combines my vocation (union organizer) and avocation (cycling):

Staff of occupied bicycle factory in the Thuringian Nordhausen take up production in self-management again

The 135 colleagues of the bicycle factory Bike Systems GmbH in the Thuringian Nordhausen, who keep the factory occupied since 10th of July 2007, decided to resume the production of bicycles in self-management. For this aim 1,800 binding orders on bicycles must be received till 2nd of October. So the collegues are working together with the anarcho-syndicalist union FAU (Freie Arbeiterinnen- und Arbeiter-Union – Free Workers-Union), which formed for this campaign the internetpage www.strike-bike.de.

Since more than two month the staff keep the factory in the south of Harz Mountains in three shifts occupied. They want to prevent the definite dismantling and sale of the factory. The file for bankruptcy from 10th of august is against long odds: The factory is exploited and ran down, the hall was emptied except for the coating line. The staff receives unemployment compensation and hopes for a new concept and a new investor.

The “Strike Bike“ - Solidarity-Bikes from Nordhausen

In the time of occupation and in the wake of discussions during the visits of solidary people, the colleagues of the factory developed the idea to initially take up the production in self-management for a short time. Because it’s not the point to only prevent the evacuation of the last machines and to wait for a new investor, the idea of an own “Strike-Bike” meet with more and more response. Now the opportunity arises to show the ability to develop an own concept and to self-manage production and distribution.

If it goes well to collect 1,800 advance orders for the bicycles produced in self-direction, we spread solidary ideas and bolster the colleagues in similar situations, not to let themselves easily being restructured to zero. By whomsoever!

The staff gets assistancy by the solidary members of anarcho-syndicalist union Freie Arbeiterinnen- und Arbeiter-Union (Free workers-union), which will become active in whole germany to spread the knowledge of the struggle of the bycicle-workers and to support the sale of the “Strike-Bike.”

More Informations can be received at: www.strike-bike.de.

Here are the bikes. You can click the image for a larger version:

The Women’s Strike Bike

The Men’s Strike Bike

Team RocBike member Julie White sent me this today:

This hovers in the “biker down” category, but I follow her other blog and it should be interesting…her accident is both a lesson in wearing a helmet and the importance of NOT carrying things with your hands while cycling…

• Accidents Do Happen

I read the first few installments. Harrowing and well written.

Courtesy of gwadzilla
Jason says: I speak Japanese a lot better than I read it, but I believe this poster says “Nippon Jitensha ? Kenkyukai,” (Japan Bicycle ? Research Institute) with the “?” being a word like “historical.”

From The Bike-O-Sphere

• Rollin and Tumblin on the Cape Cod Canal
• Good Bikey Karma
• Octo what?
• Prisoner of the Slave-Mobile, Day one
• Request For Help!
• Helmet to Helmet: Cycling’s Greatest Rivalries
• Gary Fisher Simple City Update
• First Look: 2008 Raleigh Detour Deluxe
• Combat Commuting
• Korean Minibike
• The ultimate commuter bike
• A brief diversion…
• Interbike 2007 photos
• Transcontinental Tour of America
• Bobbies on Bicycles
• I Heart Bicycling Magazine
• Untitled
• Junk Miles To Monte Cristo
• The Blue Truck (Xtracycle) gives the Surly Pugsley a tow.
• Whats worse than a wooden tandem?
• Folds-mobile (Bicycle Neglect #9)

• Bicycle Film Festival x Puma: The Re-Bike Project
• Nigeria: The Cycling Wives of Damboa
• More room for bicycle riders and better safety for all are essential
• City looking for ways to expand bicycle lane system
• Bicycle fund-raiser deemed too dangerous
• Linking bicycle chains: Cities hoping to transform paths into one vast system
• Think pedaling a bicycle is hard? Try pedaling a submarine.
• Bicycle scheme puts city on road to wheel love

Jason’s note: This is Part 12 of Jack’s essay about his recent trip through the northeast. Here are the previous installments:

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 |Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 |
Part 11

Travel by bike often translates into travel with bike. That is, when you need to make an intermodal connection, your vehicle becomes a piece of luggage. So it was for me at one point this summer: I needed to get back to Rochester for a few days of paid employment, in part to finance my summer rambles, and that meant a quick zip west from Schenectady by train or bus. For this “detour,” I picked the train, mostly because I like Amtrak – which you should keep in mind when you see the criticism below. (And did I mention I’m a member of the Empire State Passenger Association, a fine public transport advocacy group that works to bring rail service up to par? Check it out at http://www.trainweb.org/espa/ — and think seriously about joining.)

Now, traveling with a bike shouldn’t be a problem – after all, the thing weighs only 25 pounds or so, and though it’s bigger than a bread basket, it’s not much bigger than some bags that are wheeled through the train station or airport every day. But the transportation system, such as it is, can’t seem to handle a bike.

I chewed on this fact several times during my summer tour. The first time was when I made an abortive stop at the Fort Edward Amtrak station, which I’ve already described. The second was at the Schenectady station, a “full service” hub where, like the proverbial glass, the vessel is only half-full.

What I chewed on was Amtrak’s schizoid attitude toward bicycles. There’s a limitation that applies to all routes: you can take a bike aboard only those trains that have a baggage car, which knocks you out of half the schedule. But on east-west routes in this region, you must box the bike, while on the north-south Adirondack line, you can check the bike unboxed - apparently a special service for the New York-Montreal traveler, who’s more likely to be a cyclist. Compare this to Canada’s VIA Rail, which allows unboxed bikes as checked baggage on every train with a baggage car – slightly better, more predictable service. Neither Amtrak nor Via provides free bike service; the former charges $5 for checking the bike, plus $10 for the box (unless you provide your own and truck it to the station).

You can circumvent the problems by traveling with a folding bike, which is legal on all trains and is not treated as checked baggage; on Amtrak, your folder slips into the oversized luggage area at one end of the passenger car. (I’ve got a Dahon folder that I used for part of my tour; more about this later, in regard to the New England leg.) This is similar to the European system – only across the pond, they allow full-sized bikes to be brought aboard passenger cars and stashed securely in a special area. No reason Amtrak couldn’t do the same, except for the fact that their leadership and political sponsors suffer from what I call hardening of the arterials, a transport syndrome that closes off the blood supply to creativity and innovation.

Well, I’ve said a lot about travel considerations and the ups-and-downs of intermodality. But what about the actual train ride to Rochester? Truth is, it was wonderfully non-eventful. I bought a bike box at the Schenectady station, then packed my beloved Miyata and checked it at the desk, and then proceeded to kill a few hours checking out, first, an new Irish pub near the station, and second, the modestly gentrified old section of town only a few blocks away. Think Corn Hill, but with more limestone than brick. I finally arrived in Rochester around 11:00 p.m. Seems like it should take a much shorter time to get from there to here; indeed, if we had modern high-speed rail service, the straight shot from Schenectady to Rochester would take an hour and a quarter, and I’d have got home by 8:00. And it would have taken me about ten minutes to deboard, unboxed bike in hand, and get to my front door.

I know: Dream on.

It was a beautiful weekend, and my significant other Kristine and I were headed out to her aunt’s house, northwest of Rochester, for a picnic on Lake Ontario. Paddleboats, pasta salad, and Tofurkey sausages awaited us, and we decided to use Kristine’s car to get there.

Kristine keeps a bike rack on her car pretty much all the time. Pretty cool, huh? When she came to pick me up, we decided to strap my commuter bike onto the rack so I’d have it later in the day to get home. It’s one of the most highly utilized and valued material items in my life, so I carefully fastened it in. The front wheel tends to flop around a bit during the drive so I loosely tied it to the rack with a nylon strap.

We started our journey on Rochester’s highways, headed through the city on 490 then taking 390 North towards the lake. The bike was shaking around a bit on the rack, and we joked about it getting away, but I wasn’t overly concerned.

I don’t remember exactly what I was talking about at the moment that it happened, but my words were interrupted by a shout from Kristine - “ADAM, YOUR BIKE JUST FELL OFF THE RACK!” She had been looking at it in the rear-view mirror and watched as it lifted off the rack and disappeared from view.

I looked back in horror. Indeed, my bike was gone. As Kristine started to pull over, I tried to spot the bike on the expanse of the highway, and could see nothing. I feared that it would cause an accident. I got ready to sprint down the highway shoulder. I felt like crying.

As Kristine’s car came to a stop, I jumped out and ran around to the back. And there was my bike, attached to the back of the car by a single nylon strap around the front wheel. The loose strap had dragged it at 55 miles per hour. The seat, right-side pedal, back basket, and front fender took the brunt of the road rash. The bike remained in perfectly rideable condition.

My severe lack in proficiency with fastening the bike to the rack with the supplied rubber fasteners was made up for by my knot tying skills and distaste for a front wheel that flaps in the wind. Kristine was visibly shaking after the incident. From now on, I’ll pull those bike rack straps extra tight.

CRITICAL MASS
Friday, September 28

We’re not blocking traffic, we are traffic!

Critical Mass ride departs:

• From the Wilson Commons clock tower on the UR campus at 5:30pm and
• From the Liberty Pole (downtown) at 6:00pm

NEW HISTORY TOURS
Sunday, Sept. 30, 4 p.m.
Meet at Rochester Contemporary, 137 East Ave

Please join us Sunday, September 30 at 4pm for the last in the 2007 series of guided bicycle tours exploring Rochester’s obscure and radical history:

Not-So-Smugtown After All: Political Protest and Direct Action in Rochester History

This tour will visit sites in and near Downtown Rochester where people have taken their political, social, and economic grievances to the streets, and often prevailed. The physical landscape has changed somewhat, but the sites still bring history back to life — a history that includes the Vietnam anti-war movement (the “Flower City Conspiracy,” etc.), the rise of organized labor (1946 General Strike), the Civil Rights movement (especially the misnamed “Race Riot” of 1964) protests and civil disobedience against Reagan-era US attacks on Central America, and popular agitation against urban poverty and injustice.

Guide: RocBike.com’s own Jack Bradigan Spula

This tour will depart at 4 pm from Rochester Contemporary Art Center, 137 East Avenue. The ride will proceed at an informative pace for roughly 8 miles, then return to RoCo where participants are welcome to view Rochester Contemporary’ s current exhibition For Drawing Sake. A $5 donation per rider is encouraged and appreciated.

In case of rain call 802-2492

From The Bike-O-Sphere

• The end draws near…
• Another Budget Bicycling experiment
• Demo Ride: Masi Soulville
• Velib’ Video’
• Bikescalator
• Personalised Bikeness
• How to Justify Your Next Bike
• My Bad Experience With Myron Global
• To Heaven & Hell & Back
• Time to give the Pugsley some attention.
• Back to the Car for a Few Days…
• It’s All in the Details: Greetings and Salutations
• Demo Ride: Surly Big Dummy
• Seattle Climate Action Now Event at Bikeworks
• Interbike 2007 photos and more
• This Fall’s First Night Ride
• Here it goes
• Interbike ‘07: Dusty, Hot, and Tired!
• Coastin’ along

In The News

• Spartanburg named bicycle friendly community by national organization
• Bicycle for Two Seats Riders Next to Each Other
• LETTER: Drive safely around bicycles