Bicycle Tuesday - 11

We can all remember how just a year ago, the Boston Marathon was interrupted by a series of bombs that changed a happy occasion to one of sadness, grief, and anger.  As an amateur athlete, I was very shaken by the news of the bombings.  No, no one that I know was there or was injured by the blasts, but it still struck a deep chord within my heart.  Runners rarely mean any harm to others, because they are most often racing against themselves and not against the people around them.  Even on race day, I personally strive to give a wave or a quick 'thanks' to everyone there helping out along the course.  I take risks and occasionally get accidentally injured doing things that I love, but no person should have to be scared of personal danger when pursuing their own interests.  Let us never forget what happened, work together to keep similar events from happening again, and keep those affected by these travesties in our thoughts.

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With regards to biking and Boston, I just saw this article: 
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/boston-doctors-write-prescriptions-for-bike-share-program/

How about that?  The implementation seems a bit odd to me, but I do appreciate that they are doing their best to encourage low-income families to make use of their expanding bike share program.

When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking. 

~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Bicycle Tuesday - X, Diez, Dime, 2x5

As a kid I had a dream - I wanted to own my own bicycle. When I got the bike I must have been the happiest boy in Liverpool, maybe the world. I lived for that bike. Most kids left their bike in the backyard at night. Not me. I insisted on taking mine indoors and the first night I even kept it in my bed.

~ John Lennon

 

Bicycle Tuesday - 9

 Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.

~ Charles M. Schulz

Bicycles are almost as good as guitars for meeting girls.

~ Bob Weir

"I see here that you're a cyclist?"

 

Bicycle Tuesday - 8

You never have the wind with you -
either it is against you or you're having a good day. 
~Daniel Behrman, The Man Who Loved Bicycles

Bicycle Tuesday - Lucky Seven

To everyone, I'd just like to take a minute to share my thoughts on how lucky that I've been to have all of your support while preparing for my upcoming summer with Bike & Build.  Between individual donations, donations not even asked for, everyone who showed up to the booster night fundraiser, and everyone who has given their own personal time in spreading the word about my trip, contacting businesses for donations, and sought out other donors, THANK YOU!!!!!!

There have been some naysayers and some that want no part of supporting the cause, but by and large everyone has had good things to say about Bike & Build and Affordable Housing.  I feel incredibly blessed to have such wonderful friends and family around me right now.  You are all wonderful people and I am lucky to know all of you! Thanks!

Now, for the bicycling part....

Life is like riding a bicycle - in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.

~Albert Einstein

Bicycle Tuesday - Sextus (That's 6th in Latin)

If Americans made one 4-mile round-trip by bike instead of car each week, we'd burn nearly 2 billion fewer gallons of gas annually. At $3.64 a gallon, that's a savings of $6.6 billion.

- Sierra Club: Pedaling Prosperity, 2012

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We all know that it costs much more to ride a bike than drive a car.... but what can you find wrong with the following chart?

That's right, there's no way that I only drive 15k miles a year!  On the other side, try to limit an enthusiastic cyclist to spending only $308 a year on bike parts and upgrades... now that is a kicker!  Nevertheless, the chart still does make a good point.

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What about reducing traffic in cities?  Back in 1991, a photographer in Munster, Germany captured the amount of space required to transport the same number of people in different modes of transportation (bicycle, car, bus).

Keep in mind that these cars are also much smaller than American cars!  The bus actually takes up less space than the bikes, but then you're stuck to a predefined route.  How boring is that?

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Now, wouldn't you like to give bicycling a shot?  I know, some of you might be thinking "but my arms are just too long to comfortably ride a bike."  Don't worry, there's still a bike for you!

So come join the fun!  Even Mr. T's doing it!

"I pity the flat"

Bicycle Tuesday - 5 (Now it's a party!)

As I'm knee-deep in getting ready for my Bike & Build Trivia Night Fundraiser, hand-writing thank you cards, and work with Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre, I thought that I'd make a short post today that's certain to entertain!  Without further ado....

Animals On Bikes!

It looks like everyone's getting into bicycling!  Here are a group of pictures that I found online of animals on bicycles!  I'll let you determine which ones are real... (Please note that I claim no rights to any of these pictures, except for the hairy Sasquatch at the end.)

Bicycle Tuesday - Now in 4D!

Bicycle Trivia Time!

In keeping with planning for my Trivia Night Fundraiser, here are some bicycling trivia facts:

What is the price of the most expensive bike ever sold at auction?
$500,000 for the "Butterfly Bike" designed by artist Damien Hirst and ridden by Lance Armstrong during the final stage of the 2009 Tour de France.

What is the fastest speed ever achieved by a bicycle on a flat surface?
166.944 mph, set by Fred Rompelberg in 1995 while slipstreaming behind a dragster at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

What is the fastest speed ever achieved by a bicycle on a flat surface (unpaced - no slipstream)?
83.13 mph, set by Sebastiaan Bowier in 2013 in an aerodynamic recumbant bicycle in Battle Mountain, Nevada.

Which annual bicycle race takes riders from Oceanside, CA to Annapolis, MD (on the current course)?
The aptly named Race Across America. Most winners complete this race in under 10 days!!!

When was the first "human-powered land vehicle" created?
1418 by Giovanni Fontana.

No, this was not it.

The majority of a bicycle's parts exist in which bicycle component?
The chain.

How many bicycles are estimated to exist in the world?
1 billion, with 400 million of them in China alone.

The term "bicycle" was coined in which country?
France in the 1860s.

Who was first to circumnavigate the world on a bicycle?
Noone... that would be fairly impossible (without an amphibious bike)! Nevertheless, we do know that Fred A. Birchmore circled the globe by bicycle in 1935, using a boat for those pesky pond crossings.

What is the largest/longest network of bicycle trails and greenways in North America?
The La Route Verde in Canada, containing roughly 2,500 miles of trails.

Thanks for reading! If you're interested in more trivia, please consider coming to my Trivia Night Fundraiser on March 27th in Grasonville, MD!! More details are on the Trivia Night page!

Bicycle Tuesday - Part 3!

It's part three of my Bicycle Tuesday series!  This week, it's all about terminology!

Source: www.aarline.info

How much do you know about bicycles?  Do you know the difference between a derailleur and a hanger?  How about a bottom bracket versus a headset?  Here's a short list to start you off:

Bicycle Parts:
Bicycle - Alternative mode of transportation, which gets you places faster than walking and in less comfort than a car.  May be an enemy or friend, but either way, you will either let it rust away or manage to invest a fortune in 'upgrades'.
Tire -  (also spelled Tyre) The rubber bit around the wheels that keeps you from sliding around too much while you're riding and provides a minimal amount of shock absorption.
Inner Tube - An unholy contraption designed to hold air within the tire and to develop a leak at the worst possible time.
Rim - The first line of defense in an accident against the rest of the bike being destroyed.  Yeah, they get bent a lot.
Saddle - Saddle sores, need I say more? You sit on it and will eventually patch it with duct tape or electrical tape instead of getting a new one.
Fork - Holds the front wheel on and hopefully straight. I could go into detail about mountain bike shocks, but this is a road bike blog, right?
Handlebars - Strange curvy thing that you hold onto for dear life while pedaling over sand and snow.
Brakes - Hopefully will stop the bicycle before you roll through that stop sign into oncoming traffic. Occassionally squeak.
Chain - Incredibly important part of making sure that any pants that you are wearing while riding will end up greasy and shredded.
Chainring - The forward gears on a bicycle (Don't ask me why they decided on the name).  Likes to eat exposed ankles.
Cassette/Freewheel - The aft gears on a bicycle.  Incredulously expensive.
Derailleur - Moves the chain around so that you don't die while trying to pedal up a very steep hill.
Shifter - Moves the derailleur thingy in some crazy assortment of gears and levers.
Pedal - Your foot goes here.  Varieties include 'platforms' which will end up smacking your ankle after a large bump and 'clip-in' pedals which will cause you to fall over whenever you stop.

Other Terms:
LBS - Local Bike Shop.  They always take good care of you, so please make sure that you take care of them by buying parts locally.
Helmet - Keeps you alive and protects against brain damage in your eventual crash.  Please always use one.
Drafting - Getting as close as you can to the rider in front of you to minimize air resistance and to ensure a group crash party.  Pray that your fellow riders have not had beans for lunch.
Aero - Short for aerodynamic, or the idea that the more money that you spend on a bike to make it look even stranger than normal will result in Superman-like powers of flight.
Bolt Cutters - The enemy of any cable lock.  Just don't use cable locks in a city... ever.
U-Lock - The crusader of justice in the fight against aforementioned bolt cutters.
Armstrong - You know which one I'm talking about.  Extremely polarizing in the bicycling world these days.
Shelden Brown - A bicycle mechanic, technical expert, and a god amongst the cycling community.  You should really check out his website and see his own bicycle glossary, which is a lot more serious than this one :)  Rest in peace, Sheldon.

I hope that you enjoyed this list.  Yes, this is not an overly-serious list, so let's not have any heated arguments!  I might even make a serious glossary one of these weeks.... Cheers!

Bicycle Tuesday - Part 2

Bicycle Tuesday! Part 2!
(a.k.a. "The Bicycle Strikes Back") 
(a.k.a. "Bicycle 2: Judgement Day")
(a.k.a. "My Bike Has Arrived!!!") 

My Bike & Build bicycle arrived yesterday!  Although I felt bad for the delivery man who walked the box up to the second floor landing of our office, I was thoroughly excited to see the Giant box (bad pun intended...) finally here and in one piece!

Bicycle waiting to be unpacked in my living room.

While I couldn't just leave work to go assemble the bike, you can bet that I did the moment that I got home!  Although I love to tinker and assemble new 'toys', thanks to the folks at Bokoo Bikes in Chanhassen, MN, the bike came almost fully assembled.  All that I had left to do was to attach the handlebars, front wheel, seat, and pedals...

Bike out of the box, ready for unwrapping and assembly.

I've never made any You-Tube videos before, but on a whim, I decided to create my first-ever time lapse video of my bike assembly.  The photos were taken at a 10-second interval and are replayed at a 0.5-second rate.  Enjoy!

 

Finally, here's the bike!  By the time my trip is done this summer, she will have over 4500 miles on her.  Not bad for a bike that's only 7 months old!  Now I need to find some time to start riding those 500 training miles...

Fully-assembled 2014 Giant Defy 2

On another note, I made a quick bike fitting using Competitive Cyclist's Bike Fit Calculator.  While I will still be getting my bike properly fitted by my local bike shop before the trip, this online tool is a great aid in getting your bicycle roughly-fitted to your body measurements.  If you've never had your bike fitted (and I mean more than picking the frame size), I highly recommend that you check it out!

Bicycle Tuesday

Wooh, February, where did you come from?!  Hold on a minute, how long ago was New Years?  Yup, that passed by quickly!  Well, it does seem like time is speeding up these days.  With preparations for Bike & Build (many hours wasted in silly research), planning for fundraisers in MD and NY (details soon to be announced!), volunteer work at the Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre, band practice, time spent with friends and my girlfriend Emily, and my normal 9-5 job, there is just not enough time in the day to squeeze in all that I would like to!

Thankfully, this road has been fairly smooth so far.  My Bike & Build steed is on order (a Giant Defy 2 road bike) and today I get to thank all of my wonderful supporters for helping me make it past one-third of my minimum fundraising goal of $4,500! There's still a long road ahead, but I'm going to continue working my butt off to raise funds and awareness for affordable housing while keeping up with all of the other excitement in my life! To everyone who has donated and to everyone that has wished me good luck, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It is so refreshing to have everyone supporting me on this major undertaking, and I couldn't do it without you.

Wrapping this intro up, I'd like to thank my roommate Katey for taking the time to help me with an impromptu photo shoot for Bike & Build fundraising pictures.  While I've never been accused of being particularly photogenic, I'll let you decide what you think:

Now, without further adieu, here's Bicycle Tuesday!  I'm adding this in to my blog to showcase the first half of the Bike & Build equation, the bicycling!  Whether it's a small quip about bicycling, a picture from another website (my graphic design skills are minimal, at best), or some other random tidbit, this is one feature that I hope to continue on a weekly basis on this blog!

This week:

"It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle."
~ Ernest Hemingway

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."
~ Mark Twain

Source: http://xkcd.com/880/