PGH.alt.TRANS

The Danish are on to something than colorful interlocking blocks.

This blog, Copenhagen Cycle Chic, is proof that anyone can bike.  It offers day to day photographic documentation of “normal people in normal clothes on normal bikes”.  May sound boring, but take a look, it’s nothing like Pittsburgh. This may be why Monocle listed Copenhagen as “The Most Livable City”.

Cycling has increased in Pittsburgh, but I don’t think anyone would complain about seing some fashionable females jump on to wheels.  Might just be me, but I think everyone looks better on a bike.

You may be picturing some crazed biker attacking people mounted on two wheels, but that’s not what I mean by “Attacking Cyclists”.

In a recent thread on the Bike Pittsburgh message board, someone posted to alert others of an incedent that occured on Butler Street in the Lawrenceville area of the city.  This opened up to the topic of hecklers and more extreme, attackers that attempt to bother and even hurt cyclists.

I can’t understand why people do this, but I have had this happen to me too many time to count.  For me, it’s college guys lunging at me riding in South/Central Oakland at night.  I think they try to display their masculinity in front of friends, but to me they just make themselves vulnerable to getting knocked down by someone on a bike [see momentum].

I think the heckling roots from the adolescent mindset that “Bikes aren’t cool, because we can drive cars now”.   I can see how a man in his mid-40’s in tights riding may not be seen as cool, but the urban cycling scene is far from an old guy in tights.

All kinds of people ride bikes, and many of them for every different  reasons, but for me and a lot of my friends, it’s for the rush.  A lot of riders I know, particularly fixed gear riders came from background including; BMW, downhill, skateboarding, aggressive inline skating, snowboarding, and other “extreme” sports.

I know there isn’t much that can be done about hecklers- some people need to try to tear others down to try to lift themselves, but it may change as more and more people jump on two wheels.

Check out the thread HERE, and throw down your $0.02.

This article posted back in June of this year on a Los Angeles Times Blog features a picture of Senator Barack Obama Riding the streets on Chicago.  The article, titled “No Break Away From Barack Obama’s Bicycle Picture” talks about how the picture “isn’t pretty” due to his less than fashionable attire, and how it isn’t doing anything positive for his campaign.

To me,  I think this pictures says a lot.  It is said to be taken of him on a family outing.  If you look close you can see the end of a kiddie trailer or trail-a-bike hooked up to his seatpost. It shows Obama is a family man, bike rider, and he even wears a helmet.

There is still 15 minutes until the first polls close, but if he is the next president I am going to find a way to get him on a fixie.

Well, it may not be raining right now, but I can assure you it will be sometime soon.  This is huge deturrent for bike riders- just look a bike racks on days it rains versus dry days.  This understandable considering how wet you get when you ride a bike in the rain.  Not only do you get the same amount of gavitational precepitation, but you get water being spraying at your legs, chest, and face from the front wheel, and even more road spray coming up your back.

I love riding and have been riding for years, and usually I ride when it rains and just get drenched, but there are some very simple solutions to the water issue- a rain jacket and a set of fenders.

Fenders cost as little as $25 a set, and rain jackets can be had for under $30.

I finally invested in both of these, and I don’t knwo how I went so long without them.  I got a Briko jacket that folds up into a large pocket in the back of the jacket.  This makes it easy to keep the jacket in my bag anytime I’m riding.

I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but most of my blog has been focusing on bicycles and very little on scooters and motorcycles like I orginally inteneded.  There is a very good reason for this, my Aprilia SR50R broke down.

It is up at Mosites Motorsports in N. Huntington, PA as I write this being diagnosed.  [ My friend Ian, pictured above, was nice enough to trailer it up there.]  The problem is the fuel pump only works intermitedly, and this is quite a problem.

Due to the fact that the part may have to be ordered straight from Italy, it could be a while until I get it back, and by that time it will be snowing.  So, I don’t think I will be writing much concerning motorized two wheel transportation.

Cycling is more interesting anyways…..