So, there's rain in the forecast

I really hate biking in the rain. Really hate it.

Cody also hates it, but occasionally wants to ride his bike even though there's a high likelihood of rain. This week there were a couple of days when storms were sure to hit us any moment, but Cody couldn't resist.

He used his leather frame cinch to take his enormous umbrella with him to work. Since our house is within walking distance, he decided to just walk home if it started storming.

Good thinking.

Repurposing My 6-Pack Carrier

A while back my wife bought me a pretty sweet leather frame cinch from Walnut Studio. According to the website, it was originally designed to carry a bike polo mallet. But the item description indicates that the cinch is useful for carrying a 6-pack from the top tube. The very first time I used the frame cinch, it was to carry a 6-pack of beer across town. This was before I had accessorized my bike with a rear rack and panniers, so it was really my only way of carrying beer. With that said, carrying beer with the frame cinch is a bit of a pain in the ass; the 6-pack has a tendency of swinging back and forth and hitting my knees while I ride. For short rides, it's not such a big deal. For longer rides, it could become a problem. So since putting the rear rack and panniers on my bike, the frame cinch hasn't gotten much use. Until now.

I've been leaving my bike locked up to the rack in front of the building every day at work. I can bring it in to my office if I so choose, but I like to leave it outside where my coworkers can see it, in the hopes that maybe I'll inspire someone else to start riding to work. The problem is that the bike rack in front of the building is somehow scraping the paint off a section of my top tube.

Ginger suggested that I cover that area of my top tube with something, like bar tape, to protect it and keep it from getting worse. And then I remembered the leather frame cinch. I strapped the cinch on to the top tube of my frame and it looks pretty good. Even better, after using it for a full week, it seems to be doing a great job of protecting my frame while the bike is locked to the rack.

Fancy Handlebars

I came across this today and just had to share:

http://asia.cnet.com/smart-bike-handlebars-have-turn-signals-gps-speedometer-62221465.htm

First, a few notes about the article itself. I take issue with a few points in the very first passage:

In general, bicycles haven't adopted the same high-tech features as many cars. Turn signals are done by hand, and GPS equates to using good old-fashioned brain power or the information you have on your phone.

Bicycles haven't adopted the same high-tech features as many cars? So state-of-the-art tire and braking compounds, super lightweight materials, automatic transmissions, and wind tunnel-tested designs don't count? And is the author really referring to turn signals as 'high tech?' Because I had turn signals on my 1957 GMC pickup truck, and I never really thought of that old rig as 'high tech.' I could go along with the author in considering GPS to be 'high tech,' but if you think bicycle-based GPS is confined to your phone, then you've been living under a rock for pretty much the last two decades. Garmin alone has 5 bicycle-specific GPS models. So there's that.

With that said, I have to admit that the proposed electrified handlebars are pretty cool. The built-in headlamp is tantalizingly Iron Man-esque, with its chest-piece location and integrated proximity sensor that fires the thing up when you approach. The idea of the speedometer is pretty cool, but I don't get the impression that it provides the rider with their actual speed; rather, it sounds as if a color is shown that corresponds vaguely to the speed the bicycle is traveling. I very much like the GPS tracking function that allows you to find your bike if it's stolen, although the pay-as-you-go requirement is pretty lame. And the turn-by-turn directions might be kind of nifty, though I must say that I'm a visual aid kind of guy myself and have a tendency of getting confused by turn-by-turn when I don't have a good overall sense of the route. I think the rear-facing lights and the turn signals are just plain useless and probably difficult for a motorist to see, depending on their position relative to the bicycle.

I guess the question of the day is, would I pay $200 for a set of fancy handlebars. The answer? I might.

An Especially Special Stringer Bicycle

My Dad brought his 1975 Raleigh Sports into town last weekend to pedal around downtown for Bikes & Brews. He ended up leaving the bike with me so that I could tune it up, as it's been in storage for quite some time. Last night, I poured myself a gin & tonic and hauled the old girl down to the basement. It's really a beautiful bike: a classic English roadster with a copper color frame. It even has the original leather saddle (my old man bought the bike new in 1975).

I put a couple coats of leather conditioner on the saddle and tensioned it a bit to reduce some sagging that was beginning to occur. Next, I ripped out all of the old cables and housing and ran new cables, including a new shift cable kit for the Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub. Once I had all of the cables adjusted properly, I added a few drops of Tenacious Oil to the rear hub and pulled the machine out of the repair stand.

The bike is now functioning great. It could stand to have a few parts replaced in the near future; a new chain, new brake pads, new tires and tubes, etc. There are also some areas that are beginning to show some surface rust, so a heavy cleaning and rust removal might be in order. But other than that, it's in great shape and is an exquisite specimen. Maybe I can talk him into letting me hold on to it next winter so I can give it a full overhaul and polish.

Biking to Work, or not

My plans for Bike to Work Week were, er, derailed by a bout of pink eye.

The kid's eye looked a little red Monday morning so we rushed him over to the doctor, who confirmed that he did, indeed, have pink eye. She then looked at me and told me my eye looked red, too.

Gross!

Anyway, we stayed in a couple of days this week while we were contagious and really hit the road once we were better.

I walked to work one day when I thought it was so pretty and wanted to stay outside longer.

Know who avoided the malady and rode his bike like crazy? This guy:

Red lights

I was out with Cody, waiting in the left-turn lane at a red light, wearing this getup, when a lady in a car pulled up in the going-straight lane next to us. She rolled down her window and said, "Hey! I like your dress!"

Whoa.

I was so flattered that I immediately made Cody pull over and take my picture to commemorate the occasion.

And last weekend at Bicycles and Brews, I was in the middle of a pack of riders at the beginning of our 17-miler when we stopped for a red light. Rather than wait behind the pack, a city bus scooted up the lane of oncoming traffic and waited there to pass us. 

I sometimes drive, too, and can certainly understand the desire to pass slower-moving vehicles safely, but blocking oncoming traffic at an intersection just seems...less than safe.

Am I wrong? What's a driver supposed to do in this situation?

Stringers on the move

Remember when Cody filmed a commercial? Well, it's finished, and it's awesome. Take a gander. We hear it might be among the previews at the Bicycle Film Festival that is part of Bicycles and Brews.

We knew we wanted to participate in Bicycles and Brews as soon as the event was announced, but got super pumped when we saw the shirts.

How awesome are these?

We hear there was a surge in registrations at the last minute so late registrants to the morning rides have to wait about a week to get their shirts.

Lucky us. We registered just in time.

Anyway, we're pretty pumped. We're doing the 17-mile ride. Since we registered, we found out a few of our friends signed up for the same ride. Yay! We typically only ride a few miles at a time so this is sure to be challenging, but really enjoyable.

Also, ICYMI, I got to write a little thing about biking to work for the newspaper (full disclosure: I work there, too). They also let me produce a little video about my commute.



I talked the people in charge at my office into registering my company for Bike to Work Week, and five people were signed up the last time I checked! Typically I'm the only person who bikes to work so I'll be really happy to see more fellow commuters.

Mine wasn't the only thing about cycling published in the paper this week.

• There's this kid-friendly guide to city cycling
• This general overview of the Bike to Work Week Challenge
• This little thingy about bike lanes

Good folks: The Healthy Living Alliance

We are all out of new family pictures so you get an outtake from our ride a couple of weeks ago.

Big news in Stringer land!

We've teamed up with Springfield's Healthy Living Alliance to blog about getting around Springfield by bike. You'll see us over there a couple of times a month. Here's our first post.

HLA is a collection of community organizations that all want to make Springfield a healthier place by fostering healthy eating, active living and preventing tobacco use. It's a lovely group with enthusiastic people, and we are so thrilled to partner with them.

Cody's Bicycle Buying Guide

In the past few weeks, I've had a couple different conversations with friends who were shopping for their first bicycle to begin commuting and doing some light recreational riding. I had a bit of difficulty really giving clear advice on this issue, so I thought I'd readdress it here to help me firm up my own thoughts and recommendations.

The most important thing to keep in mind when shopping for a new ride is comfort. I recently had a good friend who was in the market for a bike to do some utility riding around town and also some light recreational riding - mostly on the Katy Trail. The guy at his LBS told him he should start off with a Trek 7.1 hybrid bike. But my friend was more interested in dropping the cash on a much more expensive cyclocross bike. While the dude at the shop wasn't wrong to recommend the hybrid, if a $2,000 cyclocross bike is what's going to feel most comfortable, then so be it.

That brings me to a second recommendation: keep theft in mind. If your rig will rarely be locked up outside, especially overnight, then this isn't much of an issue. But if you're going to be locking up to an unmonitored bike rack in a shady part of town for 12 hours a day, then this may be pretty important. You can invest in a very good lock, but if someone really wants your bike and they're given ample opportunity to steal it, then its theirs. High end road, mountain, and cyclocross bikes have a tendency of eliciting this type of desire. Unless you can count on almost always storing your bike indoors in a secure location, don't use a Trek Madone as your daily commuter.

Another reason that high end racing bikes may not be the best choice for utility cycling is that it is often difficult, if not impossible, to add accessories like racks and fenders to them. If you plan on consistently travelling around town by bicycle or using your machine as your primary mode of transportation, a decent set of fenders and some cargo capacity can quickly become a priority.

I hesitate to make specific recommendations on particular bicycle models, because there's no way I can be comprehensive. But I can make some recommendations on styles of bicycle that I've found to be ideal for around-town utility use and light recreational/trail riding. Hybrid bicycles are designed with casual riders in mind, so these are often the best choice - especially for inexperienced commuters. These bicycles have become very popular in recent years and nearly all manufacturers are now producing entire catalogues of hybrid/comfort bikes. Lower end mountain bikes are also often designed with a more casual rider in mind, so these can be a great option too.

If you plan to put in heavy duty mileage, a touring bike, or even a cyclocross bike, can have some benefits. Touring bikes will have a relatively comfortable geometry, will often be made with lighter weight components and materials, and normally come with drop bars, which give you a number of different hand positions that can make longer rides more bearable. However, these bikes will generally be quite a bit more expensive than the other types that I've mentioned.

If you're somewhat handy or interested in learning how to work on bikes, an old road bike or cruiser can be a lot of fun. Going the vintage route is often pretty inexpensive initially, but older bikes require continual upkeep and maintenance that can bring the overall cost up substantially over time. I should also mention that there are a number of manufacturers that are making bikes that have a classic look and feel, but are made with modern materials and components. Dutch-style bikes, in particular, have become fairly popular and these bikes can give you the styling of a vintage roadster without the constant upkeep of an actual vintage machine.

I've based these recommendations on my personal experiences and those of my friends, but I'm in no way an expert. As I said, comfort is the key rule. If you feel most comfortable riding an S-Works Epic to and from the grocery store, then by all means, do it. The most important thing is getting out there and riding. So grab your rig and get out there and ride.