The 40 Year Old Biker

So I just saw "The 40 Year Old Virgin" (so, I'm a little behind the times).

Very funny movie. I laughed. I cried...

I cried because I've seen such an anti-bike movie in my life.

Not only is biking for losers and nerds, it epitomizes loser and nerd!

And then, because of course the hero is a decent guy, they give him a new bike and it's the dumbest modern mountain bike in world. Perfectly nonsensical for biking on the streets of LA (plus, it probably wasn't easy for him to get used to not having those rear-view mirrors). I guess the switch to dumb mountain bike was supposed to make him just a little less nerdy. And for that he gave up a perfectly nice city bike.

They don't generally show smoking in a good light in movies anymore. Isn't it time we stamp out negative portrayals of riding a bike?


Then last night I was out drinking at Sparrow and Club 21 (man, I have never seen a place so packed with Czech pheromones!). A friend of a friend couldn't believe I was getting around on bike. I felt like a 40-year-old virgin. And the worst part is that I had to wait in the cold for him to arrive and tell me this. Of course I got there first because he was driving.

Bike seats and the wet ass

Nobody should have a wet ass from biking. Ever. The bike seat on the bike I leave outside got ripped from sun and use and old age and started absorbing water. I would get a wet butt after it rained. Not acceptable.

So I went to my bike store and bought another seat (and it wasn't cheap). The seat looked waterproof but wasn't, as water would get in (and out) at the seams. And wet bike seats never really dry out. And putting all your weight on a seat is a pretty good way to squeeze out another few drops of water onto the ass of your pants.

While biking by the bike store on 28th Ave, I thought what the hell, I haven't been in there in ages, maybe they have a seat that doesn't suck up water. They don't. Not one! At least not in the non-racing-hard-and-skinny variety.

[A note on seat size: Here's the thing with seat width most people don't get. In generally, wider is more comfortable. That's what you would expect. But the lower your handlebars are, the less comfortable wide seats are. You can have a wider seat if you sit upright and don't peddle too aggressively. Racers use skinny seats because when you sit on a wide seat, you're actually sitting on butt muscles you could be using for peddling hard and fast. Skinny seats rest under the butt bone, and they're not actually uncomfortable at all if you're hunched over drop handlebars.]

The end of the story is that I went back to the better bike store on 35th Ave and he had one seat that doesn't suck up water (it's also a wide as a tractor seat--looks cool, but it's actually too wide). Next time I'm in Amsterdam, I'm picking up their standard $10 seat. Works great. Waterproof. Comfortable. Why they're not sold here, I don't know. I guess they're too inexpensive.

What does it say about the health of our bike "culture" if you can't buy a bike seat that doesn't act as a sponge? Biking with a wet ass is not an option. No fucking wonder people don't want to bike!

Vacation

Astoria Bike is on vacation for January. Happy Biking!

Naked Ride for Bedford Ave Bike Lane

From the Gothamist. Saturday.

30th Ave Bike Shelter: use it or lose it!

I didn't know that was an option.

Paint, goddamnit, paint!

Bike vigilantes are repainting bike lanes in Williamsburg. Somebody has got to do it.

The Post reports:

Cyclists ... made it difficult, the Hasids said, to obey religious laws forbidding them from staring at members of the opposite sex.
...
A source close to Mayor Bloomberg said removing the lanes was an effort to appease the Hasidic community just before last month's election.

Driver convicted of bike crash

That headline is as rare as "man bites dog"!

Of course it took the driver, Christopher Thomas Thompson, a medical doctor, to tell police that he wanted to "teach them a lesson." And it wasn't the first time he tried to kill bicyclists. His M.O. is to pass the bikes--who were, in this case, actually going the speed limit--pull in front of the bikes, and then slam on the brakes.

Of course if he had just said, "It was an accident," probably nothing would have happened to him. Or the bikes would been at fault for rear-ending the car.


NPR has the story from L.A. I love the guy who complains that, "These bicyclists ... take up the road — four, five people at a time." Thus preventing him, one asshole in a car, from driving just a little faster.

The story also points out, "It's actually legal to ride side by side in the streets of L.A."

More in Velonews.

British Trains

Trains in the UK, at least some of them, are very bike friendly. Inside the door are little bike stalls, like the train car is a bike stable!

30th Ave Bike Shelter

I don't know what was sadder: me locking my bike with a flat tire and having to pay for a car to get me to work on time or seeing this, a cut chain where a bike used to be:

Shame!

Bike lane removal in Hasidic Williamsburg! Shame!

This city belongs to everybody! And Bedford Ave is an essential part of what a limited bike network we have.

I encourage all women to drive through these streets in the tighten, most revealing outfits they have.

Update: But... if this were a trade for a dedicated two-way bike path in the crappy part by the freeway and the Hassidic bus stop... I'd take it.

Speaking of which, does anybody know if it's allowed/possible to bike through the Brooklyn Navy Yard? That would shave a good chunk off that trip.

Personally, I advocate a large bridge over the Brooklyn Navy Yard. From the corner of Kent and Division to Navy and Flushing would cut a 1.75 mile trip in half. And think of the view!

A bit odd... but aren't we all?

My friend in Pittsburgh sends me this:


He put a bumper on his bike so that he could "take up as much room as a car." He's a bit odd -- aren’t we all?

For every ass the right bike

Damn you Port Authority

I had such hope. A year of construction on the non-bike path going over the formerly Triborough now RFK Bridge. I thought they were taking out the steps. But no. It's still not done. But the new staircase is there. Why couldn't they just have ramped it out?

Because they don't care.

Oh, and yeah, it's not just bike riding that is technically prohibited on the bike path over the bridge. It's "bike riders." So don't even think of going there.

Vote

Don't forget!

Broken Streets

I like the application of Broken Windows to traffic enforcement.