Life could be so car-free
A great little bit of anarchy hear in Los Angeles.
Yes, it’s illegal to ride your bike on most freeways, including the stretches of the 405 and the 101 these folks are riding, but what a fine piece of subversion this is. And truth be told, when traffic is that thick, what they’re doing is safer than riding surface streets.. Intersections are where the vast majority of accidents occur with any vehicles. With bicycles, the most common collisions involve a car turning right or left into a rider’s path. Freeways remove that problem and, considering that traffic is at a virtual standstill, problems from differences in speed are also negated.
A bicycle “freeway” could be just the thing the city needs to make bike commuting a viable alternative for many - and I don’t mean bike paths and trails that meander through parks and beaches or hug the Los Angeles river with casual riders ambling along at 10 miles per hour, but something that actually moves commuters quickly and safely to useful destinations. Someone cycling from Santa Monica to downtown could probably shorten their ride by a good half hour if they rode on the 101 and didn’t have to contend with stop lights and intersections. In rush hour I can assure you they’d do it faster than a car making the same trip.
At the start of the 20th century, Los Angeles had the right idea with the beginnings of an elevated wooden bikeway from downtown to Pasadena. Unfortunately that was scrapped as the automobile rapidly gained in popularity, but imagine how things would have been different if cars had come along a bit later, and a bikeway infrastructure was already in place and proven to be a viable method of transportation. How many people would opt for the car then?
I’m not saying cars don’t have their place, but would we really still need to build 8-lane freeways? Just imagine how many thousands of acres of land could be used for things other than asphalt. This photo from Germany is a pretty good illustration of that. It shows the amount of space required to move the same number of people by car, bus, and bicycle.
Tomorrow is Earth Day, and in honor of that, a portion of Wilshire Boulevard between Western and Harvard is declaring itself car-free for the day. While that doesn’t affect my usual commute at all (I work on Wilshire but ride on Melrose), I’ll be swinging by during my lunch break to check it out and support the gesture as it’s a really great thing to see this kind of support coming from the city.
Filed under Bicycles & Scooters, Los Angeles, Politics & Activism | Comments (4)New Bike Day!
More like New Bike Week, rather. I won the frame off of eBay and finished building her up last Friday and have been riding her non-stop since. It’s a Rivendell Rambouillet, which has pretty much been one of my dream bikes since I found out about Rivendell’s existance, so I am very excited.
Meet Starbuck.
This is essentially an upgrade from my Bridgestone RB-2 for long distance, brevets, and light touring, and I moved nearly all my parts from the RB-2 onto this one. The only new things I needed were a seatpost and some standard-reach brakes. Meanwhile, I had enough parts in my garage to build back up my RB-2. I was thinking of selling it, but truth is I really love the frame so now I’m thinking I’m going to keep it as my “go fast” bike.
Anyways, here’s the details:
Frameset: 56cm* Rivendell Rambouillet
Wheels: 32h Mavic Open Pro rims laced to White Industries Tracker Ti hubs, Salsa skewers
Tires: 700×28mm Rivendell Ruffy Tuffy’s
Brake levers: Cane Creek SCR-5
Brakes: Tektro 521AG
Handlebars: 44cm Nitto Noodle
Bar tape: Brooks (this is the fourth set of handlebars they’ve been wrapped on, hence the dirtiness)
Stem: 100mm Nitto Pearl
Headset: Shimano Ultegra 1″ threaded
Cranks: Sugino XD 48/34 170mm compact crankset
Bottom Bracket: TH Industries, I think? 68×110.5
Front Derailleur: Shimano 600 FD-6207
Rear Derailleur: Shimano Dura Ace RD-7800 SS
Shifters: Shimano Dura Ace 9-speed bar ends
Cassette: Shimano Ultegra 12-27
Seatpost: Nitto Dynamic 626
Saddle: Brooks Pro
Fenders: 40mm Gilles Berthoud, with a Sheldon fender nut and some Honjo fender hardware used to get the right fit
Rack: Tubus Luna
*Rivendell’s recommended sizing would put me on a 58 or 60cm frame for me, but I don’t ride with my handlebars level with my saddle as they also recommend, so I went with the same sizing as my RB-2 and it fits wonderfully.
I’m pretty satisfied with the build. Since all the parts were previously hanging off of my RB-2, I had already had all the bits I wanted worked out. The only thing I still want is a dynamo hub and lighting setup that I can pop in for brevets. In the meantime, I’ll make do with battery-powered lights. I also want to swap out the bottle cages for some Velo Orange ones whenever those become available.
A “would be nice” upgrade is the brakes. The 521AG have the right reach, but the arch clearance isn’t quite right and the calipers still squeeze the fenders a bit when applied, if that makes sense. However, they don’t move the fenders around enough to actually push them into the tire, so still totally usable, though not ideal. Apparently, Tektro just put out a new standard-reach brake model, the R538, which has a better arch profile and might solve the fender squeeze problem, so that’s something I might consider later.
As for “maybe” upgrades, I’d be interested in finding wider gearing up front. The FD-6207 has an 18-tooth capacity, which means it can probably handle a 20-tooth difference just fine. So I’d consider getting a wide-range double, like a 46/26, which would be achievable with something like the Sugino PX or TA Pro 5 Vis crank. Problem is those are both out of production and retardedly expensive (but at least the rings are still being made). Alternately, I could go with a triple - 46/36/26, or even a kooky 46/44/26 half-step plus granny setup that way I could still get the tight shifting steps of a 12-23 cassette while still having a wide gearing range. Either way, I would need to get a new rear derailleur and possibly bottom bracket depending on the cranks, and it’s really not that big of a deal to me yet so no rush there.
Also, I’m debating between racks. I really like the minimalism of the Tubus Luna rack, but I also have a Nitto R-15 (this one) that almost seems more appropriate in terms of style and finish.
About the name. You’ll note I’ve been saying “her” a lot. The bike is named after Starbuck of Battlestar Galactica, not Moby Dick, and not of the coffee chain (though if you want to make the coffee connection, the bike is green, like the logo). Reasons being, like Starbuck, the bike is pretty but can take a beating. While I don’t have any plans on abusing the bike, I’m also not going pamper it to the point that I’m too afraid to take it out and put it through its paces. The best way to show a bike love is to ride the crap out of it, and that’s what I plan to do.
Also, like Starbuck, this bike will either lead me to my destiny, or to the destruction of mankind.
Filed under Bicycles & Scooters | Comments (4)
