Photos from my ride around Albany yesterday:
There was a tornado watch yesterday, and the winds were crazy. I actually went backward on my bike at one point in a ridiculous gust of wind.
In other news, I rode up the State Street hill without shifting out of my middle chain ring, so that was cool.
Russ and Laura have published their first eBook from the road. Subtitled The Path Less Pedaled Bike Camping Guide, it’s full of tried and tested essentials for bike touring. Get your copy here.
I wrote a lot of poetry during my recent trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee. One of the poems was inspired by meeting bicycle adventurer Joe “Metal Cowboy” Kurmaskie, and reading his first book, Metal Cowboy: Ten Years Further Down the Road Less Pedaled
With Joe Kurmaskie in Chattanooga, TN. Photo by Lois Chaplin.
Idaho
for Joe Kurmaskie
on this rainy Idaho morning
I give you a name
I tap your destiny
with my white cane
have you reckoned
a thousand miles much?
have you packed a bag
and left all else behind?
with the legs as the only engine
you can hear what is there to hear
the whispering of spirits on the roadside
singing the world into being
Don’t Ride In The Door Prize Zone,
a haiku by everyday bicycle commuter Ethan Georgi
riding along and
A DOOR FLIES OPEN OH NO!
no door prize for me
The door prize zone is the area three feet to the left of cars parked on the right. When a car door opens, it opens into this space and it can kill you. I am not kidding. You might be thinking, oh, I can just swerve around it. If you do that, you are swerving into the traffic on your left. This is why I don’t ride in the door prize zone.
I do tend to call out “Door!” when I see one open.
Seconds after taking this photo to celebrate the new bike “sharrows” on New Scotland Ave. in Albany, NY, I was honked at and called a “cracker” by two young black women in an SUV. “Cracker”? Is this 1972?
There are also new sharrows on the part of Delaware Ave that is inside the city limits.
Fun video.
Built by the fine folks at Troy Bike Rescue.
My parents were in Hawaii last week and my mom snapped this shot of an Xtracycle with a parking ticket:
Click to engorge
EcoVelo, one of my favorite bicycling blogs, is running a series on Bike Commuting 101, which is shaping up to be very nice. Today Alan posted a bit about a subject dear to my heart: lights. While Alan is based in CA, the law is pretty much the same here. More importantly, the message is applicable here.
