Continental Gatorskin 28s.

After weeks of looking into Grand Bois and Panaracers at Jitensha and elsewhere, I gave up and bought Continental Gatorskins @ 700x28.

So far, far better than I'd hoped. The well-revered Grand Bois will have to wait for another day. And I'll likely be giving up on Panaracer, since the Compe is gone.

it's called iDeath

Don't listen to your iPod and ride your bike at the same time like these people.

It's illegal, but it's also dangerous.

whole family on Iron Horse Trail

The four of us did Iron Horse Trail (철마길) from Walnut Creek to Dublin last Friday. We only got started around 4:30pm, and as expected it was dark by the time we arrived at Dublin/Pleasanton BART.

Bamboo bikes. Nice, but how do they feel?

So there's a story in the NYT about bamboo frames, and even wheels.

Given the ugly fixies you see people riding along Telegraph and the interesting scraper bikes you see kids riding in East Oakland, I can't say I'm shocked.

Not really impressed, except that bamboo bikes might actually be helpful in some areas of the world, and the Bamboo Bike Project looks like a worthy cause indeed.

My first question before I'd ever want one would be: How do they feel to ride? Do they scream like aluminum? Flex like steel? I'm thinking not, so these wouldn't be something you'd want to ride more than a couple miles on.

In the meantime I'm still trying to get used to bamboo cutting boards.

Wal-Mart scraper bike

A much-loved scraper bike in the lot at Wal-Mart at Edgewater & Hegenberger in Oakland.

BTW, don't miss "scraper bike summer camp."

MLK Regional Shoreline

Riding to the 한국일보 and back for work several days a week is nicer when getting there by way of the MLK Regional Shoreline, and not just because I love all East Bay Regional Parks, just out of principle. MLK is a special area because it surrounds the San Leandro Bay and is a well-hidden surprise if you're driving to and fro the Oakland Airport. I would never go there just to ride, but it makes being surrounded by office parks a little more bearable.

kids road bike recommendation

So as seen in a picture in an earlier post, we bought 빛결이 a road bike. There really is a thirst out there for a kids road bike at any price, since they're hard to find in the first place, but especially one that's affordable. The branding is a big strange and we get a lot of questions about it. but if you don't mind the GMC name, we'd like to recommend this one.

As is often the case with 10-ish year-old on road bikes, the lack of adequate hand strength is indeed a bit of a problem. It's hard for her to reach forward that far for that long and hold on that tight to levers that are, having tried them myself, aren't that easy to pull. So I'm considering "interrupter" levers, inexpensive ones of course, and would even if her having to stretch so far forward wasn't a problem.

Thorndale Drive, Oakland

View Larger Map
I went down Thorndale from Skyline the other night. This brought back memories of one of the few things I enjoyed during high school. Good stuff.

빛결이랑 철마길 완주

토요일인 3일 딸 빛결이랑 철마길(Iron Horse Trail), Concord에서 Dublin까지 달렸다. 결이는 아빠한테 새로 선물 받은 싸이클을 처음으로 탔는데 아주 마음에 든다고 해서 아빠도 기쁘다. 22마일을 가는 데 4시간 정도 걸렸다. 결이는 종점인 더블린에 너무 늦게 도착하면 집으로 가는 지하철을 놓칠까봐 하도 걱정해서 빨리 다니자고 재촉할 필요가 없었다. 신나는 하루였다.

bike theft a good sign...

Bike theft is bad. Very bad.

But it's an inescapable fact that bike theft is a serious problem only in cities that have a great bicycle culture.

If your city doesn't have a problem with bike theft, it's probably not a very desirable place to ride.

Such are my thoughts upon reading an article on preventing bike theft in the NYT.

porched bike for Scraper Bike King

Childhood church and school friend Brent Loo had me remove this bike from his garage to make space for thirteen lacrosse sticks and uniforms. Or something like that. We had it in our garage for months, and I've finally done something with it. After considerable email tag with the legendary Scraper Bike King, I just left it on his porch this morning, tying it with a ribbon for extra measure.

Scraper Bike King and scraper bikes have been featured in the mainstream media for some time now. See: NPR, Bay Citizen, and then also this, Scraper Bike King about gang wars in Oakland.

2nd degree murder, well deserved

A sous chief at Google has killed a total of four people while driving recklessly, and for the most recent two he's getting a 2nd degree murder rap.

Bucci was also found guilty of causing great bodily injury to Immanuel's mother, 47-year-old Regina Jackson of Suisun City, who was driving the Toyota, and to another son, Jordan Callison, now 14, who was paralyzed from the waist down.

[...]

A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeal unanimously rejected a series of appeal arguments raised by Bucci, including his contention that he lacked the implied malice or intentional recklessness needed to support a second-degree murder conviction.

The panel said there was substantial evidence for a finding of implied malice.

"Bucci was speeding up a hill going the wrong direction in a no-passing zone on a highway, where he could not see oncoming traffic on the other side of the hill and could not return to his correct lane because of the semi-trailers he was trying to pass," Justice Henry Needham wrote.

"Certainly a reasonable juror could conclude that the natural consequences of his conduct were dangerous to life and that his conduct endangered the lives of others - such as the occupants of any vehicle approaching from the other side of the crest of the hill," he wrote.

Not to miss this from the Chronicle:

A motorist who approached the burning car said she had asked Bucci to help her pull out the driver, but that he had raised his hands in a gesture of futility and walked away.

Remember people like this guy when you're on country highways.

why cables aren't enough

The golden rule is that if you are going to park your bike in public and expect it to be secure, lock it up with two locks. And if you're only going to use one lock, don't use just a cable and a padlock. If I'm parking my best ride somewheres, especially a high-theft area like SF Civic Center, I use a quality U-lock on the frame, then a padlock and a cable for extra measure.

I saw the tragedy you see in this picture on Shattuck Ave in Berkeley on Sunday, June 20th.

A joke from Leiden. A student finds that his bike has been stolen. He sees a cop and says, "Someone stole my bike!" The cop's response: "Well then go steal another one!"

유빛결양, 오십킬로 달리다

최근 딸과 함께 매년 데이비스에서 하는 Foxy's Fall Century에 다녀왔다. 만 여덟살인 빛결이가 50k 달리는 동안 엉덩이가 약간 아프다고 호소한 것 외에는 불평해 하지 않았다. 오랜만에 딸과 단 둘이 보내는 아주 즐거운 시간이었단. 처음으로 그렇게 먼 거리를 다닌 것을 축하하는 의미로 종점에 있었던 자전거용품 벼룩시장에서 노랑색 자전거 옷(상의)를 사줬다.




Eight year old Sabine does the 50K (actually 32.5 miles) Foxy's Fall Century in Davis.

the homeless man and the bike commuter

From the New York Times Metropolitan Diary section.

New York Times
Published: December 8, 2008

Dear diary,

I bicycle along the East River bike path every morning before dawn. I often see the same homeless people just north of East River Park between the F.D.R. Drive and the river. Since it is usually dark, I never make any contact with them and I assume they are sleeping. They never say a word.

Between some vacation time and needing a break, I recently did not ride for a two-week period. On my first predawn ride after returning, I rode past a man wrapped on a blanket, slumped on a bench.

Just as I was about to pass him, a loud voice boomed out, "Hey man, where you been? I was worried about you."

I said I had been on vacation, and he simply said, "O.K., glad you didn't get hurt."

The next morning I rode past the same person; he said nothing and has said nothing since.

Forest Markowitz

NYT on cycling in Portland

Anyone who happens along this blog will already have seen this, but how else to find this material myself months from now?

New York Times video titled "The Business of Biking" and the NYT story that comes with it.

favourite colours

My favourite colours (incomplete list):

Molteni orange
British racing green
Bianchi celeste

bike thief

Originally uploaded by schroepfer

This little rascal of mine took a little something from Jitensha Studio. Click picture for more details.

dunlop valve

dunlop valve
Originally uploaded by schroepfer

Because of the nature of dunlop (woods) valves, bike stores in countries where you find these things actually sell parts to them. I knew an American who bought a mamachari. When he loosened the part that holds the valve in (second from right at top, second from top at lower right), the valve doohickey shot out and hit the roof. He found it, but what if he hadn't? In my own experience I've had the rubber part that goes over the valve doohickey (see fingers) dry out like the eraser on an old pencil. It holds air until you loosen the valve to add more air, because the dry rubber won't block the air when the valve is back in place. So it's always good to have a spare little strip of rubber tube like the one in the upper left corner at the ready whenever you're putting air in a tyre that hasn't been ridden in a long time. (And oh yes, the only thing my daughter swallowed as a baby was that little valve doohickey, which perhaps is the reason I scanned this image back at around that time.)

I suppose it's not even ironic that the type of valve probably most common the world over, from Shanghai commuters to Taliban couriers, isn't even known about by avid cyclists in the United States. I've also seen them on sale in the U.K. The store Bicycle Workshop has a setup on the counter with three valves (dunlop, schrader, and presta) so customers can point to them if they don't know their names. Dunlop valves originated in England so I suppose there's still a lot of them around.

[about] Record of a Bicycle Midlife

I've several blogs. I'm known best the internet for one in English about Korean politics, my misadventures and, more often than not - especially since sneaking around was getting old - just commentary. Another is mostly for family overseas, mostly in English. I operate two others, exclusively in Korean.

I do not usually think of myself as a bike freak. Indeed, to some degree I ride bicycles like I use computers. I do not know all the technical stats about my computer(s), but I do like to go places on the internet. Likewise, while I do have several bicycles and have built up a few over the years, I often forget a lot of their technical characteristics. The other day someone asked me how many spokes are in the wheels I usually run on my Bianchi and I had to count them to answer, though I could tell you how to get to TOEI on the Tokyo underground and why wool and lugs go well together. I don't have any "bike buddies," at least not in the U.S. (where I've only lived for 10 months since turning 18), though I do sporadically follow the random doings of a certain set of characters on the internet, particularly on the iBOB list and some of the virtual locales frequented by many who lurk there.

That said, I do talk about bicycles quite a lot and, in the views of those who have been brainwashed by popular culture images of them, am highly opinionated. Between two children, a phd dissertation (premodern Korean fiction), and "work," I very rarely go on "rides," even by myself, though I do often find a scenic and roundabout way to get where everyday life dictates I must go. Perhaps if I got to actually ride more I'd think about bicycles less, but if I'm going to spend time thinking about them I might as well have some place to scribble. Hence the present little bloggie.

About the title. '自転車中年期' (kr. 자전거중년기) might be translated as "record of a midlife on bicycles." The idea came from a recent Japanese novel by the title '自転車少年記' (Jitensha Shōnenki), one interpretation of which could be "record of a boyhood on bicycles." You see the hardcover edition at the top of this post. It was followed by a paperback edition and TV movie that just became available on DVD. I am still thirtysomething, btw, but there wasn't anything between "childhood" and "midlife" that worked with "record of..." in a kanji title.

I have purchased the novel but haven't had a chance to read it yet. It is about two young male friends growing up together, spending much their time on bicycles. Actually, "had a chance to read it" is not so accurate. I can only read Japanese, and just barely, because the word order is similar to Korean and because I know a lot of Chinese characters, not terribly unlike how an English speaker who knows Latin can struggle through the written form of a Romance language. The reason I haven't read the whole novel in one sitting is because each sentence is painstakingly slow, and reading it is what is finally going to get my Japanese somewhat up to speed. There is a whole world of fiction (incl. manga), non-fiction, photography, and more in Japanese that appears to be entirely unknown outside Japan. In a way it's harder for me because I know what I'm missing. At any rate, expect more content about the culture and sociology of bicycles here than about technical matters. Thanks for reading.