Posts Tagged ‘Tennessee’

My Miles (estimate):

1. To Work: 17mi/day*260days= 4420mi
2. Farmer’s Market: 13mi*20 = 260

3. Misc. rides to store:  52*10= 520

4. Critical Mass:  10*13= 130

Total Mileage:  5330

My Bikes:

1.  Circa 1997 Schwinn Homegrown converted to single speed with knobby street tires (work commuter)

2. 2005 Breezer Citizen 3-speed with trailer bike and child-car attachments (grocery getter)

Things I Bought for Biking (that I can remember)*:

2 pairs of shorts (baggies), Two poly shirts, 3 pairs of socks, 2 chains, 2 pairs of pedals, numerous tubes and patch kits, 1 pair cranks, 1 bottom bracket, one rigid fork (the suspension was warn out), 2 rear tires (my front tire is about 5 years old and has about 8000 miles), 1 saddle, 2 rear lights, 2 front lights, two boxes gauze pads, 2 boxes band aids, two rolls medical tape, 1 tube of triple antibiotic goo, 1 pump, 1 rear hub rebuild kit, 1 single speed conversion kit, 1 brake cable kit, 2 sets of brake pads, 1 set of brake levers, repair of internal hub (I messed it up trying to adjust it), one rear fender, reflective tape, 1 pair shoes (my others were 6 years old)

Keep in mind that this was not my first year of commuting.  Most of these purchases were required just to maintain the bikes.

* Does not include cash purchases

Total Cost:  $1358.49

I recently began converting an old Peugot Monaco frame into a fixie. While very familiar with most aspects of bike repair, the old frame represented new challenges. Before I began buying a bunch of replacement parts (I found the frame without a seat and seatpost, wheels, brakes, chain. While also having a loose bottom bracket), I headed to Outdoors, Inc. Fortunately, I found Jason there and he demonstrated how to remove the bottom bracket and he set me up with some new bearings and a lockring tool (not something found commonly in stock at other shops). Jason also understood — without me saying directly — that I wanted to do the repairs myself. He removed the components of the bottom bracket and got me what I needed and threw it into a ziplock bag — ready for the work in my garage. The staff then helped me measure and order all of the components I needed to make the conversion. When the components came in I had some problems with the seatpost sizing, since the Peugot has an odd size seatpost. Mike (who also builds his own frames (Magnolia, if I remember correctly)) took the time to describe what I should do to shim a post in order to make it fit.

Furthermore, since I use bicycles as my primary form of transportation, Isaiah has been more than helpful and diligent in making sure that I was aware that parts I order were in and ready for pickup.

The bike repair staff at Outdoors, Inc. is knowledgeable, helpful and organized. With that being said, they need to make sure they continue to help bikers learn how to fix their rigs. After all, there aren’t bike repair schools readily available to teach repair techniques. And, if you hadn’t accommodated my needs for instruction, I would have gone elsewhere.

Outdoors, Inc. Midtown receives a 5 Broken Down Car rating. Cheers to you!

A lot of people, when becoming aware that I bike commute, say, “How do you bike commute in Memphis!? Drivers here are terrible and the roads are busy.” Until recently, I couldn’t understand why they would say that, other than they haven’t been on a bike in the past 10-20 years. Then I realized, “They only know the roads that they travel by undesirable vehicle to get from point A to B.” Now I know why they think I’m crazy. They think I ride my bike on the busiest roads in Memphis.

The fact is, I rarely get passed by cars with less than ten feet of distance between me and them. Okay, the distances are closer towards intersections but the passing cars are traveling slowly. I take a wide range of streets to get to and from work. Some are always lightly traveled, some are heavily traveled and some are walks (or rides) in the park. I know what the busy streets are. My friends who drive to work take them. I take the back streets. In town, that’s easy. There’s a thousand different ways to get to work, many of the ways on back streets. I also ride through a local and very historical park. On the one busy road I have to take, I utilize the sidewalk. First, it’s my understanding that in Memphis you can legally do that and second, since no one else is using it (they’re sitting inside watching tv or driving their undesirable vehicle), I might as well.

It’s taken me a while to find the best route to work. Just two weeks ago, after commuting for almost two years, I found a small but very meaningful shortcut through an abandoned airport parking lot, over a small wooden walking bridge and through the parking lot of a career college. I couldn’t believe I had just found such an obvious short cut after more than two years. But finding the right route has been a progression. When I first tried out the commute on a Sunday morning to determine it’s ‘doability,’ I took all of the major roads. That’s fine for Sunday morning but spine-tingling on a Monday morning or Friday night. As I’ve learned the streets of Memphis more and more, I’ve change my route. My route evolved twice within the last two months, each time becoming more safe.

So what do I recommend? Well since even people living in the areas you intend ride through probably don’t know all of the streets and won’t know how to connect them for a safe and comfortable commute, I recommend this: Take several weekend scouting trips, each time selecting different routes. Don’t select roads you know will be heavily traveled during the week. Stick to the parks and small neighborhood roads. If your only option for one section of the commute is the sidewalk, I recommend taking it — at least someone will be using it then. Select your final route based on low traffic or smaller hills or just by areas you enjoy seeing. And, your route to and from work may be different based on traffic flow.

Starting a bike commute, if you haven’t done it before, needs to feel safe and comfortable. To achieve this feeling, good preparation and a little weekend scouting will not only be enjoyable but ensure your commute will get you to work in one piece.

Note for web developers: If it hasn’t been done already, a Mapquest-like search tool that not only eliminates the highways from the search but also allows the searcher to identify very lightly traveled streets would be an excellent tool for bike commuters. (Remember, it’s taken me two years to develop my current route, and I can’t be sure it won’t change again.)

It started a bit dreary but turned out beautiful.  Come join us.

I may be jaded.  I live Memphis which has more road cacti than a mountain track in the Mohave dessert.  I patch flats and replace tubes all of the time.  When I was riding my road bike, I was fixing flats 1-3 times per week on my 16 mile round-trip commute.  I have since gone to my mountain bike mostly because the route I now take but also very much because I have fewer flats.  I tried slicks when I first switched to the mountain bike but was having the same number of flats as I had with the road bike.  Now, I ride street nobbies and only suffer a flat about once a month.

The neighborhood kids recently started coming around as my family and I are outside our home every chance we get.  Both of my young children have bikes they ride around the driveway and this attracts the other kids.  The neighborhood kids have bikes and probably not a whole lot else.  The bikes are village bikes, meaning everyone rides them, so they are, of course, not well maintained.  I regularly pump up flats and tighten axles.  I recently purchased some replacement tubes as one of the kids, who goes by Snuggles, couldn’t ride his bike anymore because of a flat.  I told him I would sell a tube to him for $2, but his mom wouldn’t give him the money.  Undoubtedly, she found it weird that I was trying to sell him a tube.  With all of the maintenance I do for the neighborhood kids, let alone what I have to do to upkeep my own rides, no wonder bikes don’t work for the general public.

Bike maintenance is a pain in the ass.   Most bike parts are finicky, poorly designed or require a lot of maintenance.  I liked bike maintenance when I was younger but now with a wife and two kids, it’s just time consuming.  It’s also expensive but I’ll go into that in my next blog.  Bike maintenance is also not easy.  Bike maintenance requires numerous different specialized bike tools, none of which come with the bike, and substantial know-how.  Bike shops are typically not that helpful.  They’re usually not that close, won’t work with you to fix your bike and likely don’t have the parts you need in stock.  But back to the flats.  Fixing flats or even just pumping up tires is beyond the domain of most laypeople.   It’s hard to find people that will put a donut on their undesirable vehicle to get it to the station.  They just call in roadside assistance.   Given the finicky nature of bike tires – they lose pressure easily and flats are fairly common – bikes don’t work for the general public.  I haven’t held a poll but I’m pretty sure that most people that have a bike have no idea what to do to fix a flat let alone have the equipment to do it.  I’m willing to bet that a single flat has ended the life of many a bike for that owner.  They get a flat, throw the bike in the garage and it collects dust for the next ten years until they sell it at a garage sale for $20.

While the bike industry is continually trying to make more bicycles (like coasting and cruisers) to attract more of the general public to bicycling, I think they’re missing the point.  It’s my contention that until you make bikes with tires that travel ~5000 miles without out a flat or need for repressurization, bikes won’t work for the general public.