Today one of my trusty toe clips, which was semi-fastened to a pedal not with trusty but very rusty hardware, broke and fell off as I was tooling down Mt. Vernon Ave. I just undid the strap, put the broken item into a pannier and moved on. Later, when doing errands downtown, I stopped at Full Moon Vista and bought a new pair of clips. And once back home, I put the new ones on – after resorting to cutting off the old bolts with a bolt-cutter. So now I’m good to go again.

Maybe you’re thinking I should just have taken the clips and straps off altogether and left them off. And there’s something to be said for that route. On short rides, especially around town, there’s no terrible need to be strapped in or otherwise be attached to your pedals. Pedaling efficiency, which surely is improved by clips and SPD/clipless systems, isn’t such a big deal for routine, everyday kinds of riding.

But I like old-fashioned clips for things other than efficiency. Indeed, I keep them pretty loose when I’m doing my commutes and errands, so the boost in efficiency is minimal. No, what I like about clips is how they make it easy and natural-feeling to position your foot just right on the pedal (assuming you’ve got the right size of clips and they’re installed right).

Even more important, I’ve found that clips can improve safety – crucially, once you’ve had adequate practice getting your feet in and out – by keeping your feet from slipping off the pedals. This is a real issue when it’s snowy, slushy or very rainy (and of course it also depends on the pedal style and the type of sole on your shoes or boots). You can imagine what kinds of accidents you could get yourself into if you’re pedaling like mad in traffic, your foot slips off the pedal and hits the ground, and your shin or calf is struck by the still-rotating crank. Ouch, and then some.

I do understand why people avoid using clips or similar devices. When you’re new to serious biking, they seem to just get in the way – very distracting, as you’re tempted to stare at your feet while trying to slip your toes into the damned things. Sort of like the questionable habit of staring down at your drivetrain as you go through the gears, which allows you to know precisely how many gear-inches you’re using in that dreamlike moment just before you slam into a parked car. But come to think of it, here’s one advantage to a recumbent, whose drivetrain is easily visible ahead of you, so you don’t lose sight of the road ahead, even if you’re not exactly focused on it.

Julie’s Horse of Many Different Colors was found a while back by Brian Killmore, Nick Fiocca, and Rob, but they hadn’t been able to get it posted to the site. Brian sent me the pics tonight along with this note:

“The old spot was Monroe High School on Alexander ave. Fiocca and I rode over there a long time ago with a new wednesday night rider Rob and came up with another shot that I’ll use for a later tag I guess, I cant seem to find it.”

So here’s their picture of Monroe High School:

And here is the NEW Bike Photo Tag target:

Better hurry, I think that those plows are a seasonal installation that may disappear once the snow is gone. Fortunately I think the train engine truck behind them is there year round. Happy hunting!

People often ask me “How do you do grocery shopping on your bike?” It’s as simple as this:

This is the way I do it, but you could always get racks, baskets, panniers, or even an xtracycle like Jason’s. But I can get a week’s worth of food in my backpack and I don’t have to get any bags at the store. How do you do your grocery shopping on your bike?

I’m re-posting, with a hint, to see if we can get this game up and rolling again before the snow and ice melt!

Here’s my blurry cell phone picture again…

And the hint–my bike is not in the picture because this horse is on the second floor of the building, and the building is a school on the route of the previous Team Rocbike trip to the market.

It’s the middle of winter, and our neighboring city of Syracuse, NY has been hit hard as always with inclement winter weather. It’s the perfect time for a newspaper to run — an article on bicycle infrastructure and three bike commuter profiles?!

That’s exactly what the Syracuse Post-Standard did today. The main article focuses mostly on bike lanes:

Since 2004, [Syracuse] has designated portions of six roads mostly on the city’s East Side as lanes reserved for bicyclists.

Holstein praises the city’s efforts but says more can be done to make the community friendlier for bicyclists. One thing it could do is put more bike racks downtown for people who want to use their bikes to commute to work, she said.

“We could always do more,” she said. “We’ve just dipped our toes in the water.”

Syracuse’s mayor has some really good ideas:

Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll, an avid cyclist, said the city plans to create more bike lanes to encourage people to ride for recreation and to commute.

He said he would like to see bike lanes in all four quadrants of the city create connections with downtown. Not only will it encourage more people to get out and exercise, creating bike lanes is good for the environment, he said.

“It’s a great way to cut down on traffic and air pollution,” he said. “It would be nice to see people, even for just one day a week, riding bikes to work.”

The paper profiles three year-round bike commuters: John Murray, who bikes to stay healthy after quadruple bypass surgery in 2003, Richard Breyer, who does a good job comparing winter bike commuting to skiing, and  Don Hughes, an environmental scientist who knows a thing or two about the benefits of biking:

“It has no environmental impact hardly at all,” he said. “Cars are just terrible for the environment. The impact of driving is just astronomical. Hybrids are nice, but they’re no match for a bike.”

My friend Kristen in Syracuse (who let me know about these stories) actually works with Don. She says her office is amazed by his dedication.

It’s wonderful to see an upstate paper cover bike commuting in such a positive way. The main article argues that biking improves the quality of life for city residents, benefits the environment, reduces traffic congestion, and even leads to job creation. Let’s get to work spreading similar enthusiasm for the bicycle lifestyle here in Rochester!

I rode my bike over to my ex-commuting-buddy Caitlin’s tonight to do a bit of brainstorming on Bike to Work Week. Our routes to work might change, but our mutual love of biking will never die. Ted and others joined us and we feasted on vegetable soup and vegan cake as we talked, in part, about bikes.

Ted works on a craft while Caitlin eats the soup he brought. 

We decided that, for those interested in biking to work during that week and beyond, it would be a good idea to have an article about bike commuting in Rochester (or at least, they agreed with my idea). So I started writing it, and I’ve posted what I’ve written to a RocWiki page.

Caitlin said she’d check out the posted version and see if there’s anything to add, but it’s a free country and Wikis are part of that freedom, meaning you’re free to edit it too! If you see something in the article that can use some tweaking, just sign up at RocWiki.com and have at it.

The ride home was super chilly. I have an enormous amount of respect for those in climates much further north who don’t hesitate to brave the cold on their bike. I consider my gloves reasonably thick, but I could hardly feel my fingers when I got home.

It doesn’t get much colder than this. At least, I hope not. 

Moments before my bike and I duck into our well-heated home 

This Bike to Work Week thing is getting rather exciting. I hope three months of hype doesn’t make you grow bored of the idea.

From The Bike-O-Sphere

• Pedal Power
• Obama on a trike
• A bargain at twice the price
• The Indignity of Commuting by Bicycle: Encounters Both Mechanical and Bacterial (BSNYC)
• Savannah, GA: Who speaks for the bikes?
• Flint Michigan Commuter – Doug Cook
• NAHBS: Friday photo dump
• Video: Snowplow within inches of cyclist
• Five Wheels, Three Arms
• It’ll Be Just Like Starting Over (Fat Cyclist)
• Both Sides of the Windshield (Fat Cyclist)
• One Of “Those Rides”
• What I carry. Plus, a Give-Away Contest!
• Arrowhead Ultra 135 Report: Fears, Doubts, Hallucinations, and Success–Part One (Congrats, Doug!)
• Preparing for Cycling Season
• What About Beauty?
• Helping Jill Do the Iditarod Trail Invitational Race
• What does 50 mph headwind feel like at 6F? (Up In Alaska)
• Trying to soak it all in

In The News

• Maui, HI: Bicycle tours rank as ‘high risk’
• Hartford, CT: Trails Serve More Than Recreation
• Uganda: ‘Kanyanga’ Can Ride Bicycles
• Trek recalls 49,000 girls bikes (RECALL!)
• Morristown, NJ: Bicycle Parking Racks
• Newton, MA: Homespun wisdom — Beloved Newton bike-shop mechanic, cyber-sage Sheldon Brown will be missed
• Frederick, MD: One less car — The 11th Annual Maryland Bicycle Symposium encourages changing the world by taking a walk or ride

From The Bike-O-Sphere

• Pedal Power
• Obama on a trike
• A bargain at twice the price
• The Indignity of Commuting by Bicycle: Encounters Both Mechanical and Bacterial (BSNYC)
• Savannah, GA: Who speaks for the bikes?
• Flint Michigan Commuter – Doug Cook
• NAHBS: Friday photo dump
• Video: Snowplow within inches of cyclist
• Five Wheels, Three Arms
• It’ll Be Just Like Starting Over (Fat Cyclist)
• Both Sides of the Windshield (Fat Cyclist)
• One Of “Those Rides”
• What I carry. Plus, a Give-Away Contest!
• Arrowhead Ultra 135 Report: Fears, Doubts, Hallucinations, and Success–Part One (Congrats, Doug!)
• Preparing for Cycling Season
• What About Beauty?
• Helping Jill Do the Iditarod Trail Invitational Race
• What does 50 mph headwind feel like at 6F? (Up In Alaska)
• Trying to soak it all in

In The News

• Maui, HI: Bicycle tours rank as ‘high risk’
• Hartford, CT: Trails Serve More Than Recreation
• Uganda: ‘Kanyanga’ Can Ride Bicycles
• Trek recalls 49,000 girls bikes (RECALL!)
• Morristown, NJ: Bicycle Parking Racks
• Newton, MA: Homespun wisdom — Beloved Newton bike-shop mechanic, cyber-sage Sheldon Brown will be missed
• Frederick, MD: One less car — The 11th Annual Maryland Bicycle Symposium encourages changing the world by taking a walk or ride

The blogs are abuzz over this year’s Bike to Work Week. Do you think Rochesterians can get fired up about biking to work? Can a weblog like RocBike.com fan the flames of the bike commuting movement in our fine city? I say we find out!

Want to help? We’ve got three months to pull this off! I’ll go about building a little section to this site explaining the purpose of Bike to Work Week, what bike commuting is all about, and featuring businesses, government agencies, blogs, civilians, and other organizations that help us out. We’ll want to start talking to local businesses — from bike shops to smoothie bars — about holding special events or free giveaways for bike commuters during the week. We’ll also want to think about promoting a couple rides that week to get people interested in the social aspect of bike riding.

The League has some great materials on their site, including an organizer’s kit and various brochures. Take some time to look things over, think about what you’d like Bike to Work Week to be like and what you’d like to do to promote it, and if you’d like to help, leave a note in the comments or e-mail me at .

I loved reading Adam’s post on, shall we say, spontaneous ice-biking. It can happen to anyone: the evening begins with a warm breeze, but then comes the rain, which soon turns to sleet; and as the temperature keeps dipping, the whole visible world becomes as slick as a “greenwashed” ad from Big Oil. And there you are, the intrepid bicyclist, faced with riding when even walking is a challenge.

The scenario is one of many arguments in favor of studded tires for winter riding. I’ve been using a pair of Nokians this year, after an apprenticeship in past winters with some cheaper but less durable Innovas. The Nokians are peerless (well, maybe equaled by Schwalbe, about whose studded tires I know very little) and well worth the price (the model I have runs about $60 apiece).

When the latest ice storm struck the other day, I had to do my usual commute to the RIT campus, about seven miles one-way from my place, through varied conditions: level streets, a couple gentle hills, some parking-lot-shortcuts, and a good length of untended multi-use trail. After the ice had landed, these surfaces were slippery as all get-out, and worse, textured by a wind-driven splattering effect (the elements as a sort of environmental Jackson Pollock) that added a little bounce to the ride. Still, the tires worked nicely. There were a few times when I felt a bit insecure, as when I went up and then down a steep pedestrian bridge over the Erie Canal. But for the most part, the tires kept me upright and going forward on ice that would have stopped a pedestrian cold.

I’ve got a lot of winter riding under my belt, and the experiences have included more than a few wipe-outs on unexpected or unseen ice. I remember one afternoon a few years back on the Genesee River Trail: it was about 10 degrees F, sunny and clear, and the ground and trail were almost bare. But as I swooped down and around a curve under a railroad bridge, I “encountered” a patch of black ice maybe 20 feet long that covered the full width of the trail. By the time I understood what was ahead, it was too late to take evasive action – or even let out a good ole Tarzan yodel. Down I went, sliding along on my left side as various add-ons from my bike tinkled and scattered on the cold, cold ground. (I instantly recalled an earlier fall on ice, this one at night, when it took me a while to find and reassemble all the little pieces of my headlamp, some of which had skittered under a parked car.) But my bike and I escaped without real injury. And I was glad nobody had been around to witness a most uncool maneuver.

Now cycling life is boring: my studded tires keep me from having more experiences like the above. So what stories am I going to tell my great-grandkids? Surely if you embellish it enough, you can make an absolutely uneventful ride into a heroic journey. I’ll give it a try.