Bicycle Anarchy

Y.N.Rich Kids - “My Bike” - The kids responsible for...

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:51:17 -0400

Y.N.Rich Kids - “My Bike” - The kids responsible for “Hot Cheetos and Takis” are back with the greatest thing ever.

Our bike snob tests out the CitiBike — and finds it a weighty chore

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:44:00 -0400

Our bike snob tests out the CitiBike — and finds it a weighty chore :

Does anyone have a back brace with a side of codeine?

Spending 30 minutes pedaling around the Brooklyn Navy Yard Sunday afternoon testing out one of the city’s new bike-share bikes was an aching adventure.

Department of Transportation officials invited the media to preview the controversial CitiBike program which hits the streets May 27.

As a proud bike snob, who is rarely without her her SE Draft steel-frame fixie, I leaped at the chance to test the bright blue CitiBike.

But a tough 110-pound Brooklyn chick is no match for this 45-pound cruiser.

My handbag could barley fit into the metal basket. The bungee rope, connected to the bike, took manly might to safely secure the purse.

Once that hellish task was achieved, I put in the CitiBike swipe card into a slot next to the bike’s handlebars. Beep. A light flickered green indicting it was time to pull out the bike.

But the thing wouldn’t move. I kept yanking on the handlebars. Nothing.

It was time to get dirty. Squatting my knees, I needed all of my power to tug the bike out of its holder.

Finally, it was mine to ride.

This isn’t a bike. It’s an SUV. The seat is wide and spongy. The handlebars are extra wide. The tires are fat.

Determined to show the bike who’s boss, I clicked the gear to the highest level and finally got going.

But exerting all my energy got me to about 7 mph. Joggers go faster than that. Yawn. CitiBikes are too slow to survive a New York minute.

Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan had warned me.

“These bikes are very sturdy. They are heavy. They go slow,” she said.

City officials and CitiBike workers also shot down any hopes of cycling all over town after shelling out $9.95 for a day-pass which allows unlimited 30-minute trips over a 24-hour period.

CitiBikes aren’t supposed to be locked up on light poles and street racks like normal cycles. They’re for short hops from rental kiosk to rental kiosk. There will be 330 in Manhattan below 59th St. and in the neighborhoods around downtown Brooklyn.

“You are not going to take these bikes long distances,” Sadik-Khan chided.

If you don’t return the bike after 24 hours — 48 hours for those who pay $95 for annual membership for unlimited 45 minutes trips — CitiBike will call the cops.

Stealing is a crime after all.

Frustrated by the lethargic ride, I was ready to return my CitiBike. Yikes — I could barely lift it back into the locking bay. Luckily, a strapping young man was to my right.

He finished the job, lifting the bike and rolling it back into its dock.

CitiBike? Never again.

simonew@nydailynews.com

vontadededoce: Bicycle cake

Sun, 12 May 2013 12:41:40 -0400

vontadededoce:

Bicycle cake

photorega: bicyclers at HaCarmel Merket, Tel Aviv

Sun, 12 May 2013 12:41:00 -0400

photorega:

bicyclers at HaCarmel Merket, Tel Aviv

LIKE BICYCLE ANARCHY ON FAKEBOOK

Sun, 12 May 2013 12:33:41 -0400

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New Yorkers get pumped up for bike sharing

Sun, 12 May 2013 12:29:41 -0400

New Yorkers get pumped up for bike sharing:

In a parking lot near the East River in Manhattan, Adriana Alltari gathers her courage, lifts her feet off the ground and wobbles away on New York’s latest mode of transport: a bicycle.

Alltari, a 32-year-old engineer, was taking part in free bike riding classes as the Big Apple makes final preparations for a program that will revolutionize a city known more for traffic jams of yellow cabs and other vehicles of the four-wheeled variety.

On May 27, thousands of blue “Citi Bikes,” named after their sponsor CitiBank, will appear in high-tech stations around the city in a sharing program modeled on successful projects in Paris and other cities around the world.

For Alltari, who got turned off cycling by a series of crashes when she was eight years old, the road to bicycle heaven is shaky. Taking her lesson against a backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge, she zigzagged, but found herself steadily improving.

The class of about 20 adults, mostly women, was busy ahead of the roll-out for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s twice-postponed project. Alltari said classes were booked solid in March and April.

“It is scary, but fun,” she said. “I fell so many times when I was a kid, I decided I will never ever get on a bike. But here I am.”

City officials said Thursday the launch date will be the big Memorial Day holiday on May 27. However, at first, only annual pass holders will get to ride, while everyone else, including those looking for the free quick rides, joins in on June 2.

Already, nearly 300 stations have been installed and more than 8,000 people have paid the approximately $100 rider’s annual fee.

Initially, New York will get some 6,000 bicycles. The target is 10,000 spread across 600 stations, which will leave only China’s Hangzhou, with 60,000 bicycles, and Paris with 20,000 “velibs,” boasting more.

The New York program will give cyclists free-of-charge rides lasting up to 45 minutes, but make them pay for any more, with daily and weekly tickets on offer, as well as the annual passes.

After trying a demonstration model of one of the blue bikes, David Dartley, a 38-year-old artist, was sold on the idea.

“I expect to ride them a lot to go to meetings in the middle of the day to go to other offices. It will be better than the subway or a taxi, or walking,” he said.

“I’ll be able to go to a bar and have some drinks at night and I won’t have to worry about biking myself home after: I can leave the bike.”

New York has gradually come to embrace the bicycle under health-conscious Bloomberg. But the crowded and sometimes traffic-clogged streets are often considered a hazardous environment for the cyclist.

Dartley said he wasn’t worried. “Once these bikes are on the streets, drivers are going to calm down and I think everyone is going to be safer,” he said.

Elizabeth Haddad, a 26-year old writer, said “biking in New York is scary and can be dangerous.”

But with a helmet, “it is a really good option,” she said of the Citi Bike effort. “I’ve done it in France. They’re great.”

So far, the New York bikes have only one thing missing, Haddad said: “the basket.”

LIKE SAVING MONEY?

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:24:19 -0400

LIKE SAVING MONEY?

BICYCLE>TRAIN>BICYCLE>TRAIN>BICYCLE>TRAIN>BICYC...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:22:43 -0400

BICYCLE>TRAIN>BICYCLE>TRAIN>BICYCLE>TRAIN>BICYCLE.

Five Boro Bike Tour may not have to pay $1M police fee: Judge

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:32:45 -0400

Five Boro Bike Tour may not have to pay $1M police fee: Judge :

The city had argued that Bike New York, the operator of the popular 40-mile car-free ride, did not meet its definition of a charitable organization, noting that the $86 entry fee goes toward its own cycling programs.

The Five Boro Bike Tour scored a huge victory in court Wednesday, when a judge ruled organizers don’t have to pay the New York City Police Department a nearly $1 million fee for traffic control.

Ride on!

The Five Boro Bike Tour will take place on May 5 without the operators having to pay nearly $1 million to cover traffic control costs to the NYPD, a Manhattan judge signaled Wednesday.

The city had argued Bike New York, the operator of the popular 40-mile car-free ride, did not meet its definition of a charitable organization, noting that the $86 entry fee goes toward its own cycling programs.

“They’re saying let us use 40 miles of traffic-free streets to sustain our organization,” said city lawyer Sheryl Neufeld.

But Manhattan judge Margaret Chan wasn’t buying that argument.

“Some issues in promoting this tour may be questions for the IRS, but I don’t think it’s a question for the police department,” she said.

“Bike New York does charitable work … The way they’re raising money isn’t to your liking.”

Chan also tweaked city lawyers, pointing out Mayor Bloomberg’s longstanding affinity for cycling, which resulted in expanded bike lanes and the upcoming Citi Bike share program.

“Isn’t (cycling) something the city wants to promote?” Chan said.

Bike New York had sued last week to have the $967,534 fee waived, arguing the city wrongly claimed the ride is “non-charitable” because the net proceeds fund the non-profit that organizes the event.

Charities don’t have to pay the fee to have the NYPD clear the streets. Bike New York CEO Kenneth Podziba had said the charge could have bankrupted his company and stalled the ride featuring over 32,000 cyclists.

On Wednesday he was as happy as a kid with a new bicycle .

“I think the judge is absolutely leaning in the right direction,” he said. “It shouldn’t have had to come to this.”

The judge’s apparent lean relieved Masha Girshin, the executive director of the Blue Card, a non-profit dedicated to helping impoverished Holocaust survivors.

The non-profit has raised over $40,000 through participation in the two previous Five Boro Bike Tours.

“We really count on the funds raised by our team to fulfill our mission,” said Girshin, 28.

But a statement from Neufeld signaled the city was not about to back down.

“It costs the Police Department over $960,000 to control traffic for Bike New York’s 40-mile ride. While we understand the court’s concerns, we believe that the decision to charge a fee is reasonable — and that it will ultimately be sustained,” she said.

CAN’T STOP WON’T STOP

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:49:43 -0400

CAN’T STOP WON’T STOP

BLING BLING

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:48:38 -0400

BLING BLING

LIKE BICYCLE ANARCHY ON FAKEBOOK

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:43:15 -0400

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Bike-repair rooms popping up in new apartment complexes in Denver

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:42:31 -0400

Bike-repair rooms popping up in new apartment complexes in Denver :

Apartment complexes are sprouting up all over the Denver metro area, many of them featuring a new amenity: bicycle-maintenance rooms.

A nod to the growing popularity of two-wheelers in urban settings, bike rooms have been built at two downtown apartment buildings — Solera, which opened in 2010 at 1956 Lawrence St., and Skyline 1801, a renovated building at 18th and Arapahoe streets, which expects its first new tenants to move in late this month.

Bike maintenance and repair rooms also are planned for at least six other apartment buildings under construction or planned for the area, including two projects by Zocalo Community Development: Cadence, at 17th Street and Chestnut Place, and 2020 Lawrence Apartments.

Bike rooms are also in the blueprints for two Nichols Partnership projects: Cruise, a renovation at 1899 Gaylord Street in City Park West, and a planned 314-unit apartment complex above an urban grocery store at 20th Street and Chestnut. And they’re planned for Riverfront Park, 1900 Little Raven St., and The Retreat at Flatirons, in the Broomfield Business Center.

In addition, bike rooms are featured in at least four other complexes across the country.

“More and more, we see a biking culture taking hold here,” said David Zucker, a principal and development manager at Zocalo. Zocalo pioneered the bike-room concept locally — the company calls it a “Velo Room” — at Solera.

“We will be doing it at 2020 Lawrence and at Cadence, and we take bigger steps at each project,” Zucker said. “Whether you have an expensive bike or a beat-up old cruiser, people like to ride.”

Susan Maxwell, director of real estate for Zocalo, said the Velo Room at Solera includes “all the tools that you might need — Park brand tools, a stand to put your bike on while you work on it, a workbench, aprons, air pumps, tubes and lube, and other supplies. Also, consumables such as gel packs and energy bars, as well as maps on the wall for the more than 800 miles of bike trails in the Denver area.”

Skyline 1801 has a bike room as well as wall-mounted bike racks in each unit.

Meanwhile, developer Dan Schuetz of the Nichols Partnership is taking the bike-room concept a step further with Cruise.

The entire 61-unit building — currently being preleased by Boutique Apartments and scheduled for occupancy Jan. 1 — has a bicycle motif.

“We have a ton of bike storage and a complete bicycle-repair station,” Schuetz said. “David Zucker has a nice bike station at Solera, and I’m not ashamed to say I’m copying the idea from him.”

Cruise also will display the bicycle-themed artwork of local artists, and for every renter who signs a one-year lease, ownership is giving away an Electra cruiser bike.

“There’s quite a community of people who enjoy cycling here, and we want to tie in to it,” Schuetz said.

Not surprisingly, BikeDenver, a bicycle advocacy group, is excited about the proliferation of bike rooms.

“Bicycling is booming right now in Denver, and adding bike amenities in downtown properties is more than just clever marketing,” said BikeDenver executive director Piep van Heuven. “This is a response to demand.”

John Mossman: 303-954-1479, jmossman@denverpost.com

From the book; Portlandia, A Guide for Visitors

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:33:39 -0400

From the book; Portlandia, A Guide for Visitors

SHARK BIKE

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:31:34 -0400

SHARK BIKE

DIY: How to True a Bent Wheel

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 17:37:22 -0400

DIY: How to True a Bent Wheel:

“Ksh ksh ksh” goes your wheel as your ride. This is the sound of a bent rim. Bent rims are frustrating because they slow you down, but they are usually easy to fix if you know how.

Rims can get bent out of shape from hitting a big pothole, by getting twisted when you try to wedge your bike in or out of a rack and when a spoke breaks. When the bend in the rim is large enough, it will hit your brake pad every time it goes around, causing the characteristic “thwp” or “ksh” sound, and slowing you down.

Fixing a moderately bent rim yourself is easily accomplished with a spoke wrench, which comes in several sizes. Most multi-tools will have two to four sizes of spoke wrench to fit the different sizes of spokes available on the market. Pro mechanics remove a bent wheel from the bike and put it on a special truing stand, but this is not needed unless you want to get a racing bike in tip-top shape. For a regular bike, you can true it quite nicely without even removing your wheel from your bike.

Checking the rim and spokes

Flip over your bike so you can spin the wheel easily. First check if you have any broken spokes. If so, you can follow the same process to straighten out your rim, but you will want to get that spoke replaced soon. Lighten the load on your bike as much as possible if you have a long way to go with a broken spoke. Next, check that your axle is fully seated in your dropouts. If you have a quick-release wheel, it might not be. You don’t want to re-true the rim if the only problem is that the axle is not sitting straight. Same thing with your brakes – first check that they didn’t get bashed to the side or the brake cable isn’t hung up on something.

Checking the alignment

Slowly rotate your wheel while you look at the size of the gap between it and your brake pad. As the wheel turns, you will notice that in some places it is closer to the pad and in some places farther away. With a perfectly true wheel, the gap will be even all around. You don’t need it to be perfect.

Finding the problem spots

Slowly rotate to the part of the rim where it is hitting the brake pad. Here my rim is bent to the left. To fix it, I tighten the spoke opposite the bend: the spoke circled in green. Tightening this spoke pulls the rim to the right. If the bend was going in the opposite direction, I’d instead tighten the spoke circled in blue.

Tightening spokes

To tighten a spoke, place the spoke nipple into the notch in the wrench. Check that you have the right size of wrench. Turn COUNTERCLOCKWISE to TIGHTEN. If you have any doubt, first “pluck” the spoke like a guitar string to make a sound. Tighten one full turn and pluck again. If the pitch is higher you are tightening the spoke; if it’s lower, you are loosening it.

Getting it true

The ding in your rim might be a couple of inches long. Start by evenly tightening the two spokes opposite the ding by a half turn of the spoke wrench. Then recheck the gap. Repeat until the ding is mostly straightened out. If you have a larger dinged area, you might end up tightening three or four spokes opposite to it. If the nipples are corroded, put a drop of oil on them so they are easier to turn.

Finishing up

After the wheel spins freely and the gap looks reasonably even all around, go around the rim squeezing each pair of spokes. This will even out any stresses in the rim. Recheck your truing after this.

Tips

You can also loosen the spokes opposite the ones you are tightening, which is particularly helpful if you would otherwise need to tighten by a lot of turns in one area.
If your rim has several dings in various directions, start with the largest one.
A less common, but fixable problem: you might get an area where the rim is farther away from the hub than the other areas. This can be improved by tightening all the spokes in that area evenly.
Pluck spokes to gauge their relative tightness.
If you have to tighten by more than five turns of the spoke wrench, your wheel is probably in bad shape. Rims can become too damaged to be re-trued – after enough dings, you’ll need a new one.

Want more?

You can find this article with extra photos at: instructables.com/group/momentum

Dan develops bike accessories with MonkeyLectric. Previously, he co-founded instructables.com, was a scientist at MIT and developed microchips at Intel.

dan@monkeylectric.com

facebook.com/Monkeylectric

CUZ WHY NOT.

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 17:32:48 -0400

CUZ WHY NOT.

DEER HUNTING SEASON 2013 IS LOOKIN’ PRETTY COOL

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 17:31:57 -0400

DEER HUNTING SEASON 2013 IS LOOKIN’ PRETTY COOL

Beloved Cyclist "Chuey" Munkanta Beaten Unconscious and Arrested By Police

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 13:51:00 -0400

Beloved Cyclist "Chuey" Munkanta Beaten Unconscious and Arrested By Police :

This happened last October:

Kachusha “Chuey” Munkanta is one of the most beloved figures in the San Francisco cycling community. He’s known internationally for his hand-made cycling caps, made and sold right here in the Mission. And everyone, from MASH to PD Bird, know him to be a “peaceful” and “non-violent” person. He even delivers coffee, by bike, for De La Paz Coffee Roasters—a company undeniably of peace.

So it’s with great shock and disgust that we learn of his arrest and police beating while trying to monitor SFPD’s treatment of Latinos. A close friend of his forwarded along his story:

Thursday night/ Friday morning Chuey stopped on the side of the street in the Mission when he saw the cops having 4 Latinos lined up against a gate. He stopped to make sure the youth were being fairly treated.

The cops then asked him to cross the street, when Chuey said he couldn’t observe from across the street. They (2-3 cops) jumped him as he was hugging his bike. They wrestled him to the ground then continued to push him into the ground, twisting his arm, slamming his head into the ground. He was in jail for almost 24 hours and released after his family paid bail. They charged him with 3 felonies for assaulting 3 cops with enough force to cause grave bodily harm and 2 misdemeanors for resisting arrest.

Chuey was released on $150,000 bail and arraigned yesterday afternoon at the Superior Court of California, where he was issued a public defender. Chuey is also faced with steep medical costs after having to visit the ER for his injuries, where doctors advised him to have a cat scan.

Currently, there is no fundraiser planned to aid in his defense, but friends are encouraging people to purchase his caps, helping support him financially in any way possible. You can get his caps online at Mission Bicycle or MASH (who will donate all proceeds to his defense), or in person at Box Dog Bikes or Pushbike.

Update: Roaring Mouse Cycles are also donating their cut of Chuey caps to his legal aid. All Hail the Black Market is also donating proceeds from certain t-shirt sales.

Update II: Because people are questioning the accuracy and “bias” of this post, we feel we must remind readers that SFPD does not comment on “ongoing investigations.”

Update III: Stevil writes in letting us know that friends have begun raising money to aid in his defense on Indiegogo.

Video

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 13:40:30 -0400