I enjoyed this post on Xtracycle’s Everyday Adventures blog about using cargo bikes to do some curbside “shopping.”
My e-mail client (Thunderbird) just tried to replace the word “Xtracycle” with the word “tetracycline.”
So.
Last night I rode my bike to Tess’s Lark Tavern for the monthly Poets Speak Loud event. It was an open mic followed by a walk to the Robert Burns statue in Washington Park, upon which a daring poet placed a beret. I’ll talk more about the event over at jasoncrane.org, but I wanted to mention a tangential fact about it here on RocBike.
Last night’s bike ride was my first time on a bike since … maybe September.
There, I said it. The founder of RocBike, former board member of the New York Bicycling Coalition and blogger about car-free living no longer rides a bike.
When I was transferred to the Albany area in November 2007, I lived in Saratoga Springs for the first few months. Most of my job duties, though, were in Albany and Schenectady, so I was on the road all the time and needed to be in my car. My family were still back in Rochester, so my eating habits suffered, too. Less good food, more fast food and food eaten in the car.
In the late winter or early spring of 2008, I moved into the city of Albany and started riding again. It was around that time that I started blogging again in earnest and joined the board of the New York Bicycling Coalition. I was also attending meetings of the Albany Bicycle Coalition, and blogging about the challenges of car-free or car-light living in my capacity as a Parent Panelist for the Albany Times Union newspaper.
When Jen and the boys moved back, I was still biking a fair amount. Jen got an Xtracycle like mine, and we biked a lot as a family. But then things started to change. I had already gained a fair amount of weight because of the changes in my lifestyle. I started driving most places and left the bike locked away. By the fall, I wasn’t riding at all. I was 35 pounds heavier than when I moved here. And my poor Packet Boat was dry-docked in the back shed.
Well, it’s time to get back on the horse. Look for updates from me about returning to the bike and making some much needed changes.
I’ve got nothing to lose but my chains! (And 35 or 40 pounds.)
From today’s New York Times:
After a pilot run in 2007, United Parcel Service is once again adding bicycle carriers to meet its holiday demand. It’s a tack that, like alternative fuel vehicles and other measures the company has historically taken to reduce operational costs, provides an attending environmental benefit in the form of reduced carbon-dioxide emissions.
According to Norman Black, a company spokesman, the bikes simply make sense at this time of year. “You and I are having this conversation on the peak day of the peak season when all the volumes come together and hit us at once,” Mr. Black said. “You can imagine what a challenge it is to be able to dramatically increase your network’s capacity to reliably deliver packages,” he added.
The company typically delivers nearly 15.8 million packages a day. During one five-day stretch of the pre-Christmas peak last year, that jumped to over 20 million a day.
Read the rest of the story at the Times site.
Courtest of Fossil Fool at Rock The Bike:
My Xtracycle has been a long time coming, the result of over a year of scrimping and saving (the car-free lifestyle has helped with that a lot). It was further delayed when the Xtracycle kits remained sold out, so the morning they went back on sale I purchased one and had it shipped straight to local upscale bike shop Full Moon Vista (which had previously put together Jason’s Packet Boat).
An hour after it arrived at Full Moon Vista, I received e-mail confirmation, and gave them a call. I found myself in an awkward conversation, trying to assure the fellow at FMV that I had called ahead to make sure shipping the Xtracycle kit directly to the bike shop was OK. I think he just wanted to know on principle, but I imagine they’d still be willing to do the work if I hadn’t called ahead. And then I scheduled an appointment for this past Monday. This is the first time I’ve had any work done at Full Moon Vista.
If you haven’t been to Full Moon Vista yet, you should check it out.
Today, I got the call: the Xtracycle was complete. I headed on in and they brought her out. It was love at first sight.
I’ve named her “The Chicken Avenger,” because that’s the name Jason gave me for all the work I do to help chickens. They’re the most abused animal on the face of the planet, and my Xtracycle will help me stand up for them in a lot of ways! Plus, it makes a cool bike name.
So I paid for the work, hopped on my bike, and I was off.
Ah, entering the world of long bikes.
But, after heading a few blocks on the bike, I realized there was a problem with the chain slipping. So I turned her around and headed back to the shop. Dave, the mechanic who had worked on the Avenger, rode her around and diagnosed it as a worn out cassette.
I hope his name is Dave. It would be a jerk thing to get his name wrong.
You see, I’ve traveled many thousands of miles on this bike over the past year, which had done a number on my chain. A worn out chain has a way of wearing out the cassette. The new long chain on my bike simply didn’t jive with the old cassette, so $26.99 later and I was back on the road without a slip to speak of.
With a drivetrain that is half-new and wheels that I learned how to true myself, my bike feels almost new again! I remember what I love about her now and see so much more to love, so I think we’re going to be spending a lot more quality time together going forward.
It’s like the pickup truck version of a bike.
The first thing I did with the Avenger was ride to Abundance Coop and stock up on massive quantities of delicious vegan foods. I was nervous about fitting everything in, but once I started playing around with the well-designed system of straps I realized that it’s hard to imagine a limit to what the Xtracycle can carry.
The straps on either side can actually reach over the back deck, fastening pretty much anything in place.
Team RocBikers or other good friends/trustworthy acquaintances in the area are more than welcome to take the Avenger for a spin. Just let me know. And I’ll let you know how life with her goes.
And, in regards to Full Moon Vista, I’ll definitely be headed back. Dave was the best thing about FMV; I’ve been insulted or seriously let down by bike mechanics before (want me to go into that?), but Dave was patient, honest, and very friendly.
Friendliness of attitude: 
Accessible by bike?:
Store organization:
Affordability:
This coming Monday, I’m bringing my bike in to Full Moon Vista for a modification that’s taken a year of scrimping and saving to afford. Here is a lousy animation of what keeps playing in my head:
My family and I were riding our Xtracycles back from a Hair of the Dog show at Ten Broeck Mansion last night when we came upon Loren Grugan from the Albany Rickshaw Co. He’s been mentioned on RocBike here and here. We found him at Washington Park with three passengers — a woman and two young children, who all thought the ride was “great!”
I talked with Loren while we pedaled and asked him to write about his experiences for RocBike. He already knew about us (thanks, Google!) and said he would. So look for dispatches from PedicabLandia coming soon.
From the Albany Business Journal:
The owner of the new Albany Rickshaw Co. has teamed up with the Lark Street Business Improvement District to promote his pedicab business.
Loren Grugan, a 17-year Albany Police Officer, formed his rickshaw company in July and hopes to expand it from one pedicab to six by spring.
The rickshaws, which run from 6 p.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday, also will be leased out to independent contractors, Grugan said.
The business had been delayed getting off the ground while Grugan finds insurance that will cover himself as well as independent contractors that he plans to hire.
Read the rest of the story here and previous coverage of this story on RocBike here.
The fine folks at EcoVelo just let me know about their site. Here’s their description:
Utilizing bicycles for transportation to reduce our impact on the environment.
Welcome to EcoVelo. This site is the public expression of our personal commitment to reduce our impact on the environment by employing bicycles as our primary mode of transport. By sharing what we learn from this endeavor, while also providing an aesthetically pleasing experience that celebrates the beauty of the bicycle and the joys of everyday bike riding, we hope to inspire others to make a similar commitment.
Thanks for visiting-
Alan & Michael
So head on over, and tell ‘em RocBike sent you!
Don’s Bike
After posting my story about our bicycle camping adventure, I was contacted by Don Lubach from s24o.com, a site dedicated to the Sub-24-Hour Overnight bicycle excursion. Head on over there and check out Doug’s site, and tell him that RocBike sent you.
We had our first bike camping adventure this weekend, and it was great!
We decided to start easy, with a family camping event at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center in nearby Delmar, New York. Here’s a bit of history about Five Rivers, which started out as a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in the New Deal era:
Five Rivers is a place where conservation began, and today the Environmental Education Center proudly carries forward this long legacy of environmental stewardship. From 1933-36, a resident Civilian Conservation Corps built brooder houses, dammed streams and fenced fields to create New York’s first and only State Experimental Game Farm. For 40 years, state biologists conducted a comprehensive and widely acclaimed study of the ruffed grouse, while raising a variety of game species for release.
Research biologists at the site’s Wildlife Resources Laboratory, established in 1941, field tested new techniques in wildlife management, many of which revolutionized the profession and put New York in the forefront of a growing national conservation movement. The technique of aging deer by dentition, the use of cannon-nets for live-trapping, and the abundance of mallards in the eastern flyway are all directly attributable to this early work on the grounds. Today, the careful visitor can spot many elements which recall the storied Game Farm era.
Five Rivers is 8 miles from our house. We rode the entire way on Delaware Ave, which is hilly, but not too bad. We’ve had a ton of rain this summer in Albany, and it rained on Thursday and early in the day on Friday. As we headed out on the road, we noticed rain clouds coming in. By the time we’d gone a couple miles, the clouds were really coming quickly:
Here are more photos of the Cranes on our Xtracycles. These were taken by my mom on Washington Ave in Albany in front of El Mariachi.
That’s quite a load I’m carrying — and there’s a lot of stuff on the bike, too.
The last three times I’ve been on my Xtracycle in Washington Park, it has rained on otherwise sunny days. The most recent time was today, when it rained only while I was in the park.
After careful scientific observation, and with an appropriately American amount of avarice, I have come up with the following proposal:
People Of Albany!
For $5 per day, I will pledge NOT to ride my Xtracycle through Washington Park, thereby ensuring nice weather.
Please note, this does not mean $5 per person per day, merely $5 per day. At that rate, given Albany’s population of 90,000 people, you’ll only have to contribute once every 18,000 years. Seems fair to me. Look for a PayPal button soon.
I highly recommend Spinner’s Pizza & Subs in Albany at 14 Picotte Drive — Phone: 482-7311.
My parents stopped in Albany today on their way from Canandaigua, NY, to a Red Sox game. They brought with them a bunch of camping gear that we’re borrowing for some bicycle camping next week. My mom said, “We’ll have to drive over to your house because we’ve got so much stuff for you.” I said thanks, but no thanks — the Xtracycles can handle it. Even Jen was skeptical, but we did it, with no problem.
And here’s the big version:
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| 080801 Camping Gear |
Jen and the boys and I set out today for Five Rivers Environmental Education Center, but we got as far as a playground in downtown Delmar, about 4 miles from home. We had a blast, though, throwing the Foxtail, playing in the sandbox and reading Walt Whitman aloud. Here are some photos from the trip, plus a few photos of a quick errand run I did with Bernie on my 1957 Raleigh Sprite. Enjoy!
Salon.com writer Mark Benjamin wrote an article about Xtracycles. This video accompanies the story:
One of the things you have to deal with when you’re living car-free is getting to work. At the moment, that couldn’t be a nicer proposition. From our home in the Helderberg neighborhood, it’s just a short hop to most of the hotels and restaurants I represent as a union staffer for UNITE HERE. Here’s a slide show of today’s commute:
A larger version of the slideshow is at my Picasa site:
I spent most of the day today trying to unbury myself after 4 days off and 2 more days in a staff retreat. But I took an hour out this afternoon to ride with my family over to our community garden plot. Here are some photos of a car-free day in Albany.
