Beauty, Bike, & BUST

My flickr friend Meli is featured in the latest issue of BUST magazine. THe photo features her and her bike, a lovely motobecane astra mixte. On her blog, she remarks:

“What makes me happy is the exposure of the bike, the cities we live in and that being dressed ‘normal’ and a woman is no longer that rare. We don’t need crazy get-ups (cute shoes are not consider crazy! he hee), fancy gadgets or man-lead long distance groups, to be part of the bicycle culture. We are here, and we are ready to ride, with our normal clothes and our happy faces.”

Its nice to get some common sense about cycling out there in print media (besides the NYT Style/Bicycle section), and especially in an interesting magazine like BUST.

Beers with BikeSD.org

I had a few beers with my friends who edit Bike San Diego. You might recognize them from Life w/Bicycle and Brown Girl in the Lane. We enjoyed some craft beers, mostly stouts between the three of us (OK, I had 4), and talked about riding, family, books, and culture.

I’m going to start writing a column for Bike San Diego, but I’ve got to figure out a theme, or a position to write about. Without being too narrow, I’d like my contribution to be about the fun aspects of utility riding, which is almost the whole endeavor. We’ll see how it goes.

I then rode home in the rain, part of the way with Beany. She is undeterred, and even thrilled by the rain. I enjoy it too.

Where Are My Slipper Socks!?

I love Rivendell Bicycle Works for so many reasons. The bikes and designs are great, of course. But Grant and Co. do so much good work and embrace craft and in general run counter to the meanie trends of global capitalism.

Sometimes they offer off-the-wall stuff that they find simple, useful, and made in countries that do not mix unrestricted capitalism with strict authoritarianism. One of these doodads that I recently started using is the Australian-made slipper sock. Here’s what Grant says:

Nobody will buy these for you, because they’ll think you’ll want Uggs if you want slippers at all, and these aren’t that fancy. Tough! They’re easy on-and-off, perfect for hanging out in, retrieving the paper, packing for travel, in camp, in your tent, and even walking down the hall to the hotel vending machine late at night.

They are good. I don’t ride in them, but coming off a cold ride home and while making dinner, they take the cake.

Waiting Out the Storm


Some rain and snow can be fun to ride in. When I was in graduate school in Western Massachusetts, I loved riding my 3 speed in fresh snow. But when the snow was crushed into perma-ice, I stopped riding out of safety’s sake.

I also love riding in the rain. It feels fresh, adventurous, and it gets you where you need to go. But sometimes, its worth waiting it out. The third of three major storms hitting California is currently making my windows whistle. It hasn’t been too bad, but when a Pacific storm brings wind and water, drivers can’t see well and people don’t necessarily slow down.

Yesterday, I had a second moka pot and worked from home until things became less blustery. All things shall pass. Same today.

Storm Riding

I was sitting in my office, struggling to conjure words on a revise-and-resubmit journal article. The sky darkened, and I knew a major series of storms was coming off the Pacific. I thought I might go for a ride before San Diego and the rest of California was hit hard by this El Niño event. Time for a storm ride.

The Berthouds are newly installed, and the Hetres have already proven their mettle in a few recent rides. I was ready to go. About 8 miles into the ride, by now at the mouth of the San Diego River, the rain started. I love the rain, and riding in the rain, so I began to enjoy it. Then the rain became horizontal. Winds were about 30mph. The ride became less fun as I rode straight into the storm, which was coming from the southwest. I turned around, and with the wind at my back, rode quickly home, mostly out of caution — Southern California drivers have a bad reputation for safety when it comes to storms.

I was soaked through, but it was fun. Storm riding is where its at.

William’s Great Cork Grip Hint


I finally met William during my last trip up to the Bay Area, and I look forward to rides and coffee with him in the future. But just this morning, while obsessing over the Ebisu bicycle, I found this great post at his blog Workhorse Bikes.

So over here he discusses how to secure cork grips without the use of glue or hairspray. Simply wrap some cloth tape a few times around the middle of the grip area and push the cork grip over it.

That’s pretty darn good. Detailed instructions are included.

Back Home

It’s always nice to be home. Southern California has been experiencing some unseasonably warm weather while we were up in the Bay Area. Typically, I like cool weather in the winter, and days in the 70s in January kind of annoy me. But sometimes a bike ride around town when its warm this time of year brings a little smile on my face, especially when remembering my time in graduate school in Western Massachusetts.

Even though I love riding elsewhere to get out of the familiar routes back in San Diego, it is always nice to get back home and appreciate the great riding out one’s doorstep. Unless you’re snowed in.

First Long Ride of 2010

I met a bunch of great people, most for the first time in person, for about 90 miles from San Francisco to Pt. Reyes Station. It rained the day before, and the mist kept things damp for most of the ride. The scenery was lovely, and the company was great. Bikes and riders included Cyclofiend’s and Bradley’s Rivendell Quickbeams (both fixed), Aaron and I each on a Rivendell Romulus; JimG on his Kogswell P/R; Adam’s Pelican (fixed).

Underbiking


Underbike | ˈəndər-bīk |
verb
1. ride a traditional road bicycle on surfaces that typically warrant the use of knobbie tires, flat bars, and sometimes suspension : its fun to see dual-suspension mountain bikers’ strange looks on the trails as we underbike.
noun
1. a bicycle with a light frame, drop bars, slick tires, multiple gears, suitable for ordinary roads, but instead ridden on fire roads, trails, singletrack, sand, and rocks : let’s put some 35mm road tires on there, we’ll have ourselves an underbike.
2. a bicycle that facilitates mixed surface riding
• Rivendell: a country bike

DERIVATIVES
un•der bik•ing noun
un•der bik•er noun

Thesaurus
noun
an underbike ready for the trails COUNTRY BIKE, all-rounder, cyclocross bike, mixed-surface riding

Underbiking used to be called “bicycling,” long before the logic of marketing dictated design. Since then, the tried-and-true technology of bicycling has been replaced by gimmicky bells and whistles (although without the actual bells), and the industry has divided bikes and components into highly specific uses.

Can you spot the “mountain” bike in this photo?

Can you spot the \”mountain\” bikes?

Before all this nonsense, Raleigh DL-1s would ramble along dirt roads with 28” wheels and French cyclotouristes would ride their 650B randonneur bikes on long rides through the mountains. In other words, people rode bicycles around long before most roadways were paved. In fact, roads in the U.S. were originally paved in order to facilitate bicycle travel. But that’s another story.

Even the mountain bike pioneers of Marin in the 70s took modified Schwinns on singletrck. Still today, much of the world rides ordinary bikes on off-road surfaces. Considering the kind of riding that takes place in underdeveloped nations, underbiking may be the most wide-spread type of cycling in the world.

Some consider riding a mountain bike with slicks on road rides underbiking. I guess that flys. But I don’t think it is much fun. Riding dual-suspension mountain bikes on simple fire roads and hard-pack trails, which is very, very common — I’ll call that “over-biking.”

Utility is the logic of underbiking. If you can find a road bike with enough tire clearance to run something above 32mm, any trail, any errand, any route is yours. I do believe that some singletrack requires knobbies and suspension helps from getting too beat up – but for most off-road riding, a well-equipped road bicycle is just about perfect. Here’s a few reasons why underbiking is so much fun:

1. Mellow trails are more challenging and exciting on an under-equipped bicycle.
2. Road bikes climb faster than suspension-clad mountain bikes
3. Ride to the trail, ride home
4. You will descend slower and more carefully, enjoying the terrain and the view
5. Smugness

Underbiking on a wagon trail in Redlands, CA

Santa Monica Mountains

Riding gravel on Dirt Mulholland in Los Angeles

Picking up speed in Telegraph Canyon, Chino Hills State Park. Photo by cyclotourist

My underbike: Rivendell Romulus with 35mm Panaracer Paselas

Prototypical and cheap underbiking tire: Panaracr Pasela 35mm