*Last February, I sold my car!
*I turn 40 in a matter of DAYS from this post!
*I’ve missed my bicycle adventures, and I want to explore the North Shore of MN and other places on my bike once again!
*Oh, and I finally got a new bike! (2007 Gary Fisher Zebrano!)
This week I’m in Madison, WI - just on a “working vacation” where I’m designing websites, blogging, and bicycling around new trails that I missed last year.
Today, I traveled the 18.1 mile Capitol City State Trail, which loops around the south side of the Madison Metro area. A wonderful ride! If you try it yourself, be aware that a portion of it is a fee area, and you will need to pay $4 for the day (or $20 for a yearly pass). It is well worth it!
I thought I’d share this very inspiring video from India. 14 friends set off on a learning journey on bicycles. The film is part of a film festival and project of Shikshantar: The People’s Institute for Rethinking Education and Development. I hope it inspires you to get on your bike and start an adventure - whatever it may be.
In other news (coming soon), I bought a new bike! Pictures and a post shall be forthcoming!
As I promised, I have placed two new pages to the site where folks can download a few free items! Two of my class assignments were to create a photo booklet and a resource guide for bicycling resources in the cities of Minneapolis, Madison, and Portland.
I created the “What I found on my bike” photo booklet with Apple’s iPhoto, originally as a fundraising tool. Folks who contributed $50 to my transportation costs (Amtrak to Portland, OR) received their very own printed copy of this booklet. Now that my class is over, and there are only a few more weeks of warm weather, I thought I’d put it on the web for download. It will hopefully spark some interest in folks getting out and enjoying October on their bicycle! You can download the booklet from the Photo Booklet page listed on the sidebar.
The “Great Bicycle Towns” resource guide will hopefully be a living and growing document. For now, it includes some helpful hints on bicycle travel, and bicycle resources for Minneapolis, Portland, and Madison. I’ve also added links to farmers markets, local activities of interest, where to stay on a budget, and links to public transit resources. You can download the resource guide from the Bicycle Towns Resource Guide page link in the sidebar.
I’ll admit - with fall creeping in, I’ve been biking less and have been taking transit more. Over the weekend I did get a chance to bike up to almost Fridley to meet Michael on his bike home from Brooklyn Park (where he visited his parents).
I am planning on posting some things to this blog soon however! I should have a bibliography of books and readings, my own resource guide that I put together while biking around Minneapolis, Madison and Portland, and exerpts from a 15-page paper I submitted at the end of my class recently. There are some observations about biking and bicyclists as “the other” in society that I talked about, and some of you may find it fascinating.
So, the blog here will be slowing down a bit. I do hope to try some winter biking as we get closer to the snowy period of Minnesota. As well, I want to ride down the Minnehaha Creek trail one more time before winter, as I found it to be one of the most beautiful trails in Minneapolis.
This past Friday’s Critical Mass was just a fun and enjoyable bike ride through Minneapolis. No one was hurt, arrested, or otherwise unhappy. Some great moments included a very distinguished looking man on the street interacting with us:
Man: “Critical Mass? What’s a Critical Mass?”
Bicyclist: “It’s kind of a bicycle celebration.”
Man: “Oh! Very good!”
I thought I’d give you all a taste of the Bike-In at the Bell event that I went to on August 12. The event was held at the Bell Museum on the campus of The University of Minnesota. Click the image above for a small video (2 min, 10MB) of Dreamland Faces and their musical merriment. Sit back and enjoy while you browse photos on Flickr.
All in all it was a pleasant gathering of bike shops, a “fix-your-bike” station, organizations tabling information, and great entertainment. I’m considering doing the Tour de Sprawl bike ride from Woodbury to Hastings, MN with the Sierra Club. $15 gets you a great meal featuring local foods, and a tour of what good suburban, bike-friendly development looks like.
I want to say a huge thank you to everyone reading my blog! This is the very first time that any website I have designed and posted to has cleared the hurdles of 1000 unique visitors and 10,000 hits for a month!
The big days were those when I reported about the Minneapolis Critical Mass on June 30. I posted to a few lists and other independent media sites, plus sent out emails about the photos I captured.
It seems to me as if the progression of the site, my life in general, and the dramas of my cycling are paralleling each other as I approach my departure date for the trip. My legs may not be racing right now, but I’m steeped in planning and coordination. How do I travel from the Amtrak station to the Hostel I’ll stay at. How do I take public transit in an unfamiliar city? Should I stay at the hostel or with my friend Nancy who lives in Portland for my extra night?
All of it is coming together very quickly.
While I’m on the trip I will be posting some voice posts to my LiveJournal. My wonderful partner, Michael, will be putting links to the voice posts into this blog during my trip. Since I won’t have my laptop with me, nor will I have access to the internet, I will need to make some voice posts with either my cell phone or public phones along the way. I’m hoping that I will have opportunities to do that!
After the trip, I’ll be posting photos galore, and sharing my impressions I’m sure! Stay tuned, and thank you all for being a part of this journey with me.
Actually, it’s been a venture into bicycle repair for me lately. Not only did I get new pedals, but since my tune-up, I had to have my front bracket tightened, and my rear wheel re-aligned. No more click-click-click in my left pedal, and no more squeaking of my back tire rubbing against the brake!
I celebrated my good fortune of warrantee repair by taking an extended bike ride around town, of course. After eating my dinner in Boom Island Park, I headed across the Stone Arch Bridge to find a slew of people riding on Segways! These machines still look a little funny to me for some reason, even though I think they are kindof cool!
I also snapped a photo of a sign that I found somewhat humorous from a language perspective. It exemplifies a danger I had never imagined! LOL.
It’s been an interesting week biking. I feel like I’ve crossed into another level of riding. Maybe it’s me getting to know my bike and feeling the body mechanics of bicycling, but I’ve noticed that I like to bike much faster these days.
It’s been great learning to grip the handlebars with my fingertips more underneath, so I can feel more like I’m “lifting up” rather than pushing down. This has completely made a difference in balance and agility when leaning forward to really push to climb hills. Last night the hill on 6th Avenue to University (right after the Stone Arch Bridge) felt great. I was able to just lean into the hill climb and attack it rather than shifting to easier gears! Things are progressing!
I’m falling in love with my Breezer once again too, which is good! It’s turning into a very very good companion indeed! Still considering a second bike sometime down the road, but I don’t have to do it now.
Tomorrow I take my bike in for its 90-day tune up at The Hub, where I bought it. I’ll be lonely for it over the weekend…
Yesterday I felt compelled to try to check out some other bikes at a few bike shops in town. After riding a great Fisher Zebrano S hybrid bike in Madison, I was wondering if I should think about trading in or selling my Breezer. I went to three bike shops, and none of them had the Zebrano. One had a great Marin Larkspur bike that rode well enough. One shop was so busy that nobody could help me, and another didn’t have a bike my size in a street hybrid. I guess summer gets busy.
The more I rode around on my Breezer, the more I realized that I did like it for these kinds of trips - going around town to do errands, shopping, etc. The lights, the fenders, the back rack and the front basket attachment, and it’s ease is just really nice for my day to day biking. I don’t have to pay attention to the weather, can wear anything I want on it, and it’s just simple. After some deliberating, I decided I wasn’t going to get rid of it.
However, I think I will begin saving money to put towards a 24-speed hybrid bike that is more suited for longer distances. I just won’t buy it right now. Perhaps after the trip I’ll have a need!
Much of my deliberation, I’ve now realized, was part of my “coming back mentally” from Madison. I’m so glad I took the trip in the way I did. It really stretched my perception and experience of the city. As well, it helped to plant new thoughts in my mind about my bicycle choices. Part of it was just missing the experience. Coming back to home takes a little longer emotionally sometimes. This really makes me wonder how I’ll feel after coming back from the Oregon coast in August.
I took my Breezer out at about midnight last night for a ride to downtown Minneapolis. Unfortunately, I felt like this was probably the safest time to travel by bike downtown. Traffic was almost non-existent on some streets. At this hour, no traffic, cool weather, and darker buildings, I felt so much more connected again to the city. And - once again, my bike felt much more of a natural ride. I’m thinking that my body just becomes adapted to whatever bike I may be riding after a time.
Since I rode about 15 miles yesterday and late last night, it felt great to sleep in until about 10am this morning. Even in Madison I woke at about 8am daily. The sleep helped a lot. Today is a bit overcast, so I’ve decided to rest, do other projects, and to write.
So, if anyone out there is savvy at finding deals, keep a lookout for me on good prices for the following bikes in a 19 or 20 inch frame.
