Winterize Your Bike Workshop TONIGHT!

Just got this, looks like it could be a good time:

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Bike Super Powers: Transforming Into A Pedestrian

Bicycles have many super powers, but every morning I use one of the little known ones, the ability to become a pedestrian at will!

A cyclist walking their bike is a pedestrian. Totally separate set of laws, totally separate set of road use conditions. SUPER USEFUL SUPERPOWER!

Before I tell you how I used that super power this morning here are some general uses:

• If you have trouble making left hand turns, get off your bike and use the cross walk.
• Bypassing road construction by walking on the sidewalk.
• Walking over footbridges as a shortcut.
• Walking up and down steps as a shortcut.
• Walking through buildings as a shortcut (very useful on some campuses).
• This list could go on forever, feel free to add any to the comments, but you get the idea.

Near my house is a school for little ones, and every morning there is a line of cars waiting for the “school bus” (its just a van with lights on it) to drop off the kids. There is also always a cop sitting there who LOVES to give out tickets to people (including cyclists) who drive past the blinking “illegal to pass when these lights are flashing” sign on the back of the “bus.”

Every morning I see impatient drivers/cyclists get in trouble by Johnny law for breaking the simplest of laws (don’t be bad in front of cops…duh), and every morning I do the following.

I ride up to the start of the wait line. Get off my bike. Walk past the school bus on the side walk. The get back on my bike. Whole thing takes about 30 seconds. I am literally walking past a single van.

The cops love it, they smile at me every morning. I am following the law TO THE LETTER, and it allows me to keep my commute speedy and safe.

What bike super powers do you use on a regular basis? Let us know in the comments.

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Weekend Reading: How To Buy Your First Bike From The Bike Shop

So good! (Thanks Marianna For the heads up) Read the rest here:

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In 2003 I walked into my local bike shop and bought my first new bike. It was exciting, exhilarating, and even a little scary. Dozens of bikes and 10 years later, I have found myself in a place where I can help others through their first new bike buying experience at the bike shop. I have worked as a bicycle sales associate for almost 8 years, and I have been a professional bike fit specialist since 2007. I have heard and seen just about everything in the bike shop.

You have decided that it’s time to head to the bike shop because you need a new bike. Whether it is your first new bike ever, or you’re buying the bike to try a few sprint triathlons or even to participate in the Pan Mass Challenge, there are a few things with which you’ll need to get familiar before busting down the door of your local bike shop.

“I’m not a serious biker” was usually one of the two most popular opening statements I heard when working with someone at the bike shop. First off, YES YOU ARE! Don’t undervalue yourself during our first interaction (or ever, for that matter). I already think that you are a serious biker because you are here at the bike shop to buy a new bike, one of the greatest investments that you will ever make and never regret. Don’t worry–I am not going to judge you because you can’t name the entire Shimano component family. I’ve been there. New bike shopping is exciting and it is a learning experience.

Continue Reading

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Weekend Reading: Bikes And Gender

I LOVED this:

The Gender Candy Store: Biking While Genderqueer

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I got a big dick swagger to me. I sit with my knees too wide. One of my favorite activities is listening to punk rock, drinking cheap beer, and performing bike maintenance squatting on my kitchen’s dirty linoleum.

I’ve wanted to be one of the boys forever, and sometimes I feel like I am one. I have boy days. I don’t flash friendly smiles, I don’t show off my jigglier body parts. I throw on a loose Cadence t-shirt and some cut off jean shorts that need a laundering, I get drunk on malt liquor half-sleeping in the sun in Humboldt Park, I jerk off to porn & take a blunt nap, I wake up and go to the bar and sneak in the men’s restroom because why do girls always take so long to pee, anyway?

I have my girl days, too, where I watch Earth Girls Are Easy and do my nails and sing elaborate parodies of 1960s girl group ballads to my dog. I mean, twenty percent of my wardrobe comes from the Target Little Girls section, and I read Japanese fashion magazines for teenage girls in the bathroom obsessively. I even had the cutest Hello Kitty Kawaii Town of all time.

….

There’s incredible diversity out there. It’s my favorite thing about the human race. There are people out there who were born intersex, or who were born with a brain that doesn’t match the sex of their body, people who choose to present themselves androgynously and fuck you very much if you want to know if they’re a boy or a girl. When we try to fit every person into a specific little blue or pink box, it discriminates against everyone who can never possibly fit in those little boxes, and everyone who doesn’t even want to.

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Bike Art Salon Wed The 27th

Got this in the email, looks awesome!

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March 2013 Salon: The Intersection of Bikes and Art

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