Pedal Power

PARC Patrols in Shelby Farms!

2011-04-11T10:52:00.002-05:00

Anthony Siracusa: Volunteer patrols keep eyes, ears on Shelby Farms

By Anthony Siracusa

Monday, April 11, 2011

When Shelby Farms Park got longer with the Shelby Farms Greenline in October, the park staff became responsible for the upkeep, maintenance and security of the 7-mile stretch of trail.

But following the lead of trail groups like the International Mountain Bike Association, Shelby Farms Park staffers enlisted park users in the ongoing care of the park by creating Park and Recreation Committee Patrols.

Shelby Farms Park director of communications Jen Andrews describes them as "highly trained volunteers" with training in the basics of CPR and first aid. PARC Patrollers are also instructed in the basics of public relations and park history. Armed with these skills, patrol members serve as ambassadors of the park while they walk, bike or run.

"They serve the park by being our eyes and ears and by serving as resources for park users," Andrews says.
Lisa Overall, a local attorney and vice president of the Memphis Runners Track Club, describes her volunteer service to the patrol as "a meaningful experience. I have provided some basic first aid for a little boy who fell off of his bike, reminded users of park rules with regard to dogs running off leash outside of off-leash areas, and have offered general information and directions to park users."

Andrews says the diversity of PARC Patrollers is an asset. PARC Patrollers are on- and off-road bicyclists, runners, triathletes, dog walkers and kayakers. "The goal" says Andrews, "is for these volunteers to represent the diverse users of the park."

Whenever Overall goes out for a run in the park, for example, she calls the park and lets staff know.
"Because we have such a diverse team," Andrews says, "we always have someone in all parts of the park patrolling."

Patrollers are nominated to serve as stewards of the park by their peers in park-user groups. The Mid-South Trails Association, Mid-South Whitewater and the Mid South Frisbee Society have nominated individuals to serve on PARC Patrols. Volunteer patrollers commit a monthly minimum of five hours' service to the park, which Andrews says is easily met and often exceeded.

In the past six months, the park has trained nearly 40 patrollers with plans to launch another training course next fall.

For Overall, the patrol is "the perfect way to give back to the park for all of the pleasure it brings me."
In PARC Patrols, Shelby Farms Park has discovered a way to combine park maintenance and meaningful volunteer opportunities with a positive impact on communities surrounding the park.

"It's been really fun to get park users together," says Andrews. "The park is so big that folks in the off-leash dog park might not meet bicycle riders using the Wolf River trail, so to get these users in the same room has been very valuable for us."

This community building is the foundation for the user-based volunteer group caring for one of Memphis' greatest assets.

"Who can't be happy knowing they have so much space to run, walk, bike and skate without interference from vehicle traffic -- especially when that space also comes with information resources carrying first aid kits," Overall said.

For more information on the PARC Patrol send an e-mail to Sandee Daniels, volunteer coordinator, at sdaniels@shelbyfarmspark.org.

Anthony Siracusa, a native Memphian, is the community service coordinator at Rhodes College in Memphis. He serves on the board of the Memphis Hightailers, the Greater Memphis Greenline and Bike Walk Tennessee. He is a daily cycling commuter. Contact him through his blog at anthonysiracusa.blogspot.com.

Riding bike around world -- how's that for challenge?

2010-12-27T11:01:00.000-06:00

Like Forrest Gump's run across the United States, once Robert Hirsch began riding his bike, he just couldn't stop. "When I started in British Columbia, I had no idea how far I would go."

Now 5 1/2 years, 60 countries, and 3 Kona bicycle frames later -- Hirsch has returned to his hometown of Memphis to be with his mother for Christmas.

"When I finished college, I said maybe I should go to med school or law school. Not that those things aren't challenging, but I knew I could do them all."

Drawn to bigger, self-propelled challenges, Hirsch walked the entirety of the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada.

While walking the Pacific Crest trail, he received word that he'd been accepted into the Peace Corps to serve in Vanuatu in the South Pacific.

During his service in Vanuatu, Hirsch sent an e-mail to the Kona Bicycle Co. "I said I was a kid with a dream to ride my bike around the world, and they said, 'If you can get to Vancouver, we'll get you a bike and a trailer and a waterproof bag."

Immediately after he completed his Peace Corps commitment, Hirsch set out for Vancouver.

Read the Entire Story...

Bike to work: Two-wheeled commuters boast of lifestyle's benefits to themselves, community

2010-12-20T09:53:00.000-06:00

By Brent Manley - Special to the Commercial Appeal

Four years ago, Brent Barrett moved from Harbor Town to Germantown, increasing the distance from his home to work from about 6 miles to 20.

The 45-year-old owner of Bluff City Sports on South Cooper quickly discovered that getting to work by car was a tough job. The heavy traffic he encountered was a major annoyance.

Fortunately, Barrett is fit and healthy and, as a veteran triathlete, owns a good bicycle. Nowadays, he makes the 20-mile trip to work on two wheels just about every day.

Check out the entire story...

Memphis Stagnant? Hardly.

2010-12-15T13:11:00.000-06:00

Is Memphis really a stagnant urban area?

This Commercial Appeal headline is dubious at best. Case in point? The very first article linked to this "stagnancy" article is a piece about the new Electrolux plant headed to Memphis.

Memphis is far from stagnant, especially when it comes to quality of life issues and culture. The recent opening of the Shelby Farms Greenline, the opening of the new Wolf River Pedestrian Bridge, pledges of bicycle lanes most recently installed on Southern Avenue, and headlines for amazing local dance and art programs in the Washington Post and the New York Times prove that Memphis is far from "stagnant." Memphis Mayor AC Wharton's efforts to hold property owners presiding over blighted and neglected properties accountable for the negative impacts of such properties on our communities demonstrate that even amidst serious problems the response is far from "stagnant."

This headline is an excellent example of how many reporters have been reporting bad news for so long that they've lost their ability to provide nuance to their arguments to help Memphians understand why this era is so special in Memphis' history. They just assume they can report that Memphis is "stagnant" alongside some numbers from the past ten years and provide an accurate appraisal of the city's state of being. And that is just patently false. Not to mention this kind of press is headlong in the opposite direction from where we need to move with press coverage about the city.

With the exception of the building boom in the first 20 years of the 20th century, or maybe the post-war era, Memphis has never been further from stagnant than it is right now.

In addition to the great national press we've received and the local efforts to promote livability, Auto Zone recently reported big profits, we landed Pinnacle downtown, the Electorlux factory is coming, and economists boast that 2011 is expected to be an excellent year.

Stagnant? Hardly. Flood the Commercial Appeal with the "good news" about all the wonderful things happening in our city.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/letter-to-editor/

2010-12-13T09:07:00.000-06:00

Bicycle-shop owner sees momentum for lifestyle

By Anthony Siracusa

Monday, December 13, 2010

Memphian Hal Mabray's inspiration for a lifetime of bicycling was unexpected.

"My deranged friend, Jess, came screamin' up to the end of my driveway one afternoon wearing blue-jean cutoffs with a bandana around his head, and was spouting something about having just rolled about 10 feet on his front wheel trying to stop because a Memphis motorist had just cut him off. That seemed exciting and like something I wanted to do, so I asked my parents for a Sears road bike."

Mabray, now co-owner of the Peddler Bicycle Shop, grew up in the Oakhaven neighborhood near Memphis International Airport. He bought his second bike, a purple Gitane French racing bike, brand new from the Peddler Bike Shop on Southern Avenue. "I treated it with kid gloves," he remembers, "and did most of the work myself."

After a "truly horrible" day on the job at a plumbing supply warehouse here, Mabray reconsidered his life's work.

"I was picking up my Torpado racing bike from the Peddler one afternoon, and I asked, 'Are y'all hiring?' Within a week, I was sweeping floors and building new bikes for Dan Lamontagne (former owner of the Peddler). I told him I was going to be one of his managers within a year."

Mabray approached LaMontagne about buying the business in November 1990. "Dan was looking for a change when (my partner) John McCombs and I approached him about buying the business.

"I was fortunate to work side by side with Dan for the time leading up to the buyout, while John was growing the Germantown store. I learned a lot during that time."

Mabray has observed a number of changes for bicyclists in Memphis since that first driveway encounter.

The OPEC crisis of the 1970s generated what bicycle historians have called the "Bicycle Boom," a time when national bike sales skyrocketed from 5.5 million in 1970 to 14 million in 1972. Mabray recalls the gas shortage created such a demand for bicycles in the United States that "bike manufacturers couldn't keep up."

Street conditions have also changed as the Memphis region has expanded. "Historically," Mabray remembers, "you could leave Christian Brothers High School and see very few cars while riding out through Fayette County. Now with all the growth ... you have to go farther out or get up really early to get in a safe ride."

In business terms, Mabray notes that bikes now compete with "the XBox, golf clubs and jet skis. As a bike shop owner, I know we need to create more excitement and events for bike riding to get the novice out and on a bike."

And for the Peddler and others, the recent openings of the Shelby Farms Greenline and the Wolf River Greenway have been just the catalyst required for an increased interest in bicycling.

"These trails have been the best thing for our business since $4-per-gallon gas. People see how easy it is to access the bike paths using on-street bike lanes, and thanks to the efforts of A C Wharton, Memphis is becoming a destination for young people looking to start a new family or move with their company."

Mabray likened the grand opening of the new Wolf River Pedestrian Bridge to "the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The Greenline has had a direct influence on our bottom line."

And while Mabray says "it looks like a better world for bicyclists" in Memphis, he is also quick to point out that "cyclists have been riding the streets the whole time. You have good days and bad with motorists. Texting has created a new dilemma," he says, an observation confirmed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's data that shows distracted driving was responsible for more than 6,000 traffic deaths in 2008.

But Mabray believes the recent increase in trails and bike lanes will only continue to improve our city's quality of life. "If people decide to use the bicycle as alternative transportation, still the world's most efficient machine, this city will be a better place to live. People will not only want to stay here; they will choose Memphis over Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville or Little Rock.

"Bike parking racks in front of every large building and public facility would be a necessity, and it would take more cars off the streets and make it easier to park for the cars that are out there."

Mabray's dream for Memphis? "In a perfect world, I hope for medians that separate the cyclists from the automobiles." While Mabray is quick to concede that such protected bike lanes seem unlikely, the new separated bicycle lanes on Broad Avenue are a beacon of hope for others who share Mabray's dream.

Ultimately, for Mabray, the bicycle is more than a business venture. "I couldn't think of anything I would rather be doing. Making a livelihood out of something you love is taking a chance on heartbreak. But you still take the chance."

Anthony Siracusa, a native Memphian, is the community service coordinator at Rhodes College. He serves on the board of the Greater Memphis Greenline and is a daily cycling commuter. Contact Anthony through his blog at anthonysiracusa.blogspot.com

Anthony Siracusa: Broad Avenue facelift puts possibilities into reality

2010-11-08T11:47:00.000-06:00

You've probably seen the old water tower from East Parkway. Or maybe you've had a cocktail at The Cove after enjoying a slice at Broadway Pizza.

But have you heard about the protected bike lanes, the on-street landscaping or the art-centric pedestrian walk?

Broad Avenue, once known as home to the Beer Joint and a handful of building supply companies, is experiencing a rebirth. With the UrbanArt Commission and more than a dozen art studios, galleries and businesses now calling this old urban thoroughfare home, the Broad Avenue of today bears little resemblance to past incarnations -- unless you count the roadway itself.

On Nov. 19 and 20, the street itself will be transformed.

Walk Bike Memphis

2010-10-19T15:09:00.003-05:00

Livable Memphis has begun to beef up it's Walk Bike Memphis program. Part of that work includes a blog to cover bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure developments, policy improvements, and ongoing educational outreach into the greater Memphis community. Their latest post is about the new bike lanes on Southern Avenue.

********************************************

If you've been on Southern Avenue between Perkins and Cooper in the past month you probably had a bumpy ride. But soon enough Memphis bicyclists will enjoy some smooth sailing.

View Southern Avenue Bike Facility in a larger map

LiveStrong Helps Hightailers Help LeBonheur

2010-09-27T14:49:00.000-05:00

Life Cycles: Livestrong gives boost to 100-mile bicycle ride

By Anthony Siracusa

Monday, September 27, 2010

For nearly 15 years, the Memphis Hightailers have hosted an autumnal bicycle ride offering participants the chance to complete 100 miles in one day. Called a "century ride," the Bluff City Blues 100 is a staple for many recreational cyclists.

When plans for this year's event were announced in July, Memphis Hightailers president Paul Rubin received an unexpected phone call: "We planned the ride for Oct. 2, which by coincidence was the day Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer in 1996. Armstrong's Livestrong Foundation called and essentially asked if they could sponsor the event."

Rubin said, "Livestrong simply wanted to promote a ride that raises awareness of healthy living. So we were happy to accept their sponsorship."

Livestrong is sponsoring 462 events in 375 cities across 50 countries on Saturday. In Memphis, Livestrong will provide a support vehicle for riders and 100 onsite volunteers at the event.

Healthy living is the recurring theme of the Bluff City Blues 100.

Since 2007, Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center has been the beneficiary of the event. The Le Bonheur Club, originally a ladies sewing circle that created clothes for orphaned children in the 1920s, began tending to orphaned children's medical needs in the 1930s. In 1944, the Pediatric Society approached the women's club about raising money to build a children's hospital. Le Bonheur officially opened its doors in 1952, and has provided medical services to children since then.

"We've made the Bluff City Blues 100 our premier event of the year," Rubin said. While the club hosts two other major rides annually -- the Red, White and Blue 4th of July ride and the Charles Finney Fundraiser Ride for the Church Health Center -- the Bluff City Blues 100 is the cycling club's largest event, with an expected participation of 500 riders.

"Finishing a century ride is a significant accomplishment. The Hightailers want the Bluff City Blues 100 to be a celebration for those who accomplish such a tremendous personal feat. At the conclusion of the event, we'll recognize by name those who finish their first century and provide medals for each rider."

Rubin says interest in the long-distance cycling event is growing. Forty riders, most of whom had never ridden a century, signed up for the Le Bonheur 100 Team. Since July, Susan Struminger and Mitchell Lansky have led the team on training rides that increased in distance from 30 to 80 miles. Cycling coach Clark Butcher provided participants with tips on nutrition, stretching, endurance training and basic bicycle maintenance.

In addition to the 100-mile ride, a 20-mile ride, a 40-mile ride and a metric century event -- a 62-mile ride -- will be available to participants.

The club has asked a few special guests to kick things off. Grizz, the Memphis Grizzlies mascot, will start one of the shorter rides, while Memphis Mayor A C Wharton will launch one of the longer.

"We've never had a mayor come out and support a bike event," Rubin said. "Conditions for bicycling in Memphis seem to be improving."

Anthony Siracusa, a native Memphian and graduate of Rhodes College, has just completed a 12-month study of bicycle policy, advocacy and infrastructure across four continents. You can read about his travels at anthonysiracusa.blogspot.com and communitypoweredcycling.com.

Ride details
What: The Bluff City Blues 100, to encourage bicycle riding in Memphis and raise money for Le Bonheur Children's Hospital
Who: The Memphis Hightailers Bicycle Club
When: Saturday; 100-mile ride, 8 a.m.; 62-mile ride, 8:15 a.m.; 40-mile ride, 8:30 a.m; 20-mile ride, 8:45 a.m.
Where: All rides leave from Mud Island River Park at the Old Memphis Belle Pavilion, 101 Island Drive
Cost: $45 for non-Hightailers members, $35 for members; $10 T-shirt fee (in addition to registration)
Register: memphishightailers.com. Advance registration recommended, but participants can register day of event.

Mayor Wharton Speaking at Otherlands on September 20, 2010

2010-09-27T14:43:00.000-05:00

Wharton pedals better health as a life cycle

2010-09-22T10:53:00.000-05:00

Wharton pedals better health as a life cycle

Bike-friendly plan praised for greater access and appeal

By Tom Bailey, Tom Bailey Jr.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Mayor A C Wharton this week gave some political advice to dozens of cyclists who overfilled Otherland's coffee shop to thank him for his recent actions and pledges to make Memphis more bike friendly.

A member of the Memphis Hightailers bicycle club asked what cyclists can do to help Wharton make the streets more accessible for bikers. Wharton urged them to couch their advocacy in terms of wanting better health for themselves and the city instead of simply demanding more bike lanes.

Livable Memphis hosted the meeting to thank the mayor, who has just hired the city's first bicycle/pedestrian coordinator and pledged to add 55 miles of bike lanes over the next two years.

But Wharton said his ears were still ringing from criticism he received earlier Monday from city labor leaders for his hiring of a "high-priced" bike coordinator at a time when Wharton has ordered budget reductions.

Other constituents, he said, criticize him for caring "more for folks riding bikes than people getting a job."

Bicycle retailer Joe Royer of Outdoor Inc. told Wharton that bike-friendly streets are a critical piece for the city's growth "so we can pay union employees more. This is good for business."

Wharton agreed, saying safe, appealing streets for bikes and walkers make Memphis more appealing for the lifestyle choices they offer.

Besides, the city needs the exercise, he said. The economic and human costs of the city's obesity rate should pull at "your purse strings if it doesn't pull your heartstrings."

The city will focus on creating logical bicycle and pedestrian connections instead of just "chalking up" miles of striped bicycle lanes that may or may not be meaningful, Wharton said.

For example, cyclists should have good routes from Cooper-Young, through Overton Square, to Overton Park, he said.

The route from the University of Memphis to Tiger Lane west of Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium should offer a bike connection, Wharton said.

But don't expect him to create a bike lane down congested Union Avenue. "We're going to use common sense," he said.

Livable Memphis, the coalition for sustainable neighborhoods, gave Wharton some requests as well as support.

Program manager Sarah Newstok told Wharton the coalition would like to see police training on the new bike laws passed this year.

It also wants the city of Memphis to adopt a plan for providing better access for cyclists and pedestrians.

And the coalition wants more enforcement directed for the safety of pedestrians.

-- Tom Bailey Jr.: 529-2388

Victory Bicycle Studio Built on Founder's Passion for Bicycling

2010-09-13T13:28:00.000-05:00

Victory built on founder's passion for bicycling

By Anthony Siracusa

Monday, September 13, 2010

For Clark Butcher, a love of cycling started with hamburgers and hot dogs.

"I was a Boy Scout as a kid, and one weekend, I volunteered to serve food at a mountain bike race at Arkabutla Lake," he said.

After the inspiring event, Butcher began saving money for his first mountain bike.

Butcher, who completed his first triathlon at age 7, has been racing bicycles for 12 years. He is the city's only Category 1 racer, a class reserved for semi-pro riders, and he has coached cyclists of all skill levels across Memphis. He serves as a consultant for bicycle team training camps and organizes a handful of local races annually.

When Butcher's part-time interest in bicycle coaching began to blossom into a full-time commitment, he called his friend Robert Taylor -- a real estate agent with Raspberry CRE -- to ask about acquiring office space. Taylor, who had spent his 20s and 30s as the general manager and head buyer for a local outdoor retailer, was also looking to move his continued client base back into a brick-and-mortar

location.

"We started brainstorming and decided that, since I needed a space and Robert's maintenance and fittings needed to move from his house, it just made sense to get a little storefront."

The duo tapped professional bicycle mechanic Michael Crum, acquired a 500-square-foot storefront on Young Avenue near East Parkway, and decided to open a small shop in the heart of Midtown. They decided to call it Victory Bicycle Studio.

"Victory Bicycle Studio is a specialty retail store with a focus on cycling enthusiasts, weekend warriors and racers," says Butcher. "Our goal is to provide exceptional service, support and expedited maintenance time. Between Robert, Michael and myself, there is 30 years of experience in the bicycle industry. Our goal is to over-service people."

Beginning a bike-based business in the midst of difficult financial times may appear risky. According to the National Bicycle Dealers Association, total bike sales declined from 18.5 million in 2008 to 14.9 million in 2009. But specialty bike stores catering to a particular niche -- such as elite racers or daily commuters -- experienced a slight growth in market share during 2009. This is largely because specialty bike dealers provide a high volume of parts and accessories, a market niche not filled by big box retailers.

Still, the lifeblood of a locally owned bike shop is its service and maintenance commitment. This, Butcher says, is Victory Cycle Studio's No. 1 priority.

"We're doing so many fitness assessments and seeing folks not riding the right bikes. At Victory, we don't want to sell you a bike that we have on the floor. We want to see you on the absolute right bike. We want to be a sort of liaison for finding the best possible bicycle. If someone says, 'Hey, so and so online has the best bike for the best deal,' we'll sit down with them, take measurements and make sure that they have the best stem, the best handlebar and the best bike fit."

Butcher believes bicycling is growing in Memphis. "The opening of the Shelby Farms Park Greenline, the creation of designated bike lanes, the growing number of charity rides and races in town, the weekly group rides with as many as 80 people showing up ... there is just so much going that can cater to any level of cyclist in Memphis. I was the only kid racing in high school, but now there are all sorts of individuals riding bicycles in the same group. There is a student with two part-time jobs riding next to an orthopedic surgeon."

Butcher is particularly excited about the opening of the Shelby Farms Park Greenline on Oct. 9. "The greenline is what is attracting people who haven't ridden bikes before. They're dusting off their bikes and checking this out. The growing number of group rides keep people engaged. It's fun, it's a low-impact sport, it's social. It's cool."

Victory Bicycle Studio, 2294 Young Ave., 729-2229, victorybicyclestudio.com.
Anthony Siracusa, a native Memphian and graduate of Rhodes College, has just completed a 12-month study of bicycle policy, advocacy and infrastructure across four continents. You can read about his travels at anthonysiracusa.blogspot.com and communitypoweredcycling.com.

A City that Achieves

2010-08-22T14:30:00.006-05:00

This morning, I heard one of my friends was working at a Steak and Shake in New York City. He has taught Spanish at Rice College in Houston and, most recently, took a break in earning his Ph.D. at U. Penn. Now, he’s working at the Steak and Shake. He’s brilliant, charming, funny and ambitious. But I guess the real question is how good is he at making malts.

Meanwhile, here in Memphis it’s hot as Hades. The ambiance is thick--day after day—and only rarely in the last two months have we seen a break in the daytime heat. And by break I mean a drop from triple digits to lower nineties.

It’s amazing how unrelenting difficulty can enhance one’s appreciation for brief moments of ease.

It’s also an exciting time here in Memphis. This city appears to be on the verge of making sustainable infrastructure development a priority, and NGOS, non-profits, and the municipalities all appear to be falling in line—offering their political support and often financial support for the creation of bike facilities, sidewalks, and greenlines.

The City of Memphis will announce it’s new bike and pedestrian coordinator in the coming week; The Shelby Farms Greenline will open in October; Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton has committed to creating 60 miles of bike facilities within the next 18-24 months, and Walk Bike Memphis is working to fund bike paths through Overton Park, along Broad St., and on into the Shelby Farms Park Greenline.

The Greater Memphis Greenline will begin work on acquiring and developing three new greenlines while maintaining a long-term focus on the acquisition of right of way for more than 400 miles of MLGW utility easements. And The Wolf River Greenline is progressively heading west: the connector from Shady Grove to Walnut Grove is currently under construction.

A new bicycle shop, Victory Bicycle Studio, is set to open on Young Avenue September 1^st. The Peddler Bicycle Shop has become an exclusively Trek store while Outdoors Inc. and Midtown Bicycle Company continue to serve bicyclists between Highland and the River. Revolutions Community Bicycle Shop is continually growing in it’s ability to work with community partners: its latest project—in addition to its ongoing effort to help Memphians construct their own affordable bicycles—is a partnership with Leadership Memphis that will afford students in the leadership class the chance to work with youth to build a bike. Revolutions continues to inspire with its ability to build bicycles while building community.

It’s an exciting time to be a Memphian. And, considering the last 10 years spent working on these issues, it’s thrilling to see a very different city being built before our eyes. Southern Avenue has become my own personal symbol for this progress: I spent hundreds of hours speeding up and down Southern Ave. on my bicycle, navigating the narrow stretches of roadway with experience and caution.

But within the month Southern will have bicycle lanes.

It’s unclear just how much of the street will have bike lanes—we’re hoping the entire stretch from Cooper to Goodlett will receive lanes this month—but to have a dedicated bicycle facility on this critical corridor of connectivity between Midtown and the University lifts my heart.

Memphis is on the Move. And it reminds me of a speech the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered on the steps of the Alabama capital in 1965. Marchers had just trod from Selma to Montgomery to demonstrate support for the federal Voting Rights Bill that would be passed in August of that year. King could clearly see a break in the heat—it was that ebb of days in the low 90s amidst the sweltering oppression of ongoing racial injustice. And King knew that the freedom struggle was at its height; most importantly, he knew no-one could turn the movement around. He said:

We’ve come a long way since that travesty of justice was perpetrated upon the American mind. James Weldon Johnson put it eloquently. He said:

We have come over a way

That with tears hath been watered.

We have come treading our paths

Through the blood of the slaughtered.

Out of the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last

Where the white gleam
Of our bright star is cast.

Today I want to tell the city of Selma, today I want to say to the state of Alabama, today I want to say to the people of America and the nations of the world, that we are not about to turn around. We are on the move now.

Yes, we are on the move...Like an idea whose time has come, not even the marching of mighty armies can halt us. We are moving to the land of freedom.

The stakes were higher in the Civil Rights movement than they are in the movement to make our streets safe for bicycles and pedestrians.

But the stakes are equally as high for Memphis generally.

And maybe, even when seen in this broad way, our city is indeed on the move.

But questions persist: will we stave off poverty for a third of our population, end the brain drain, improve education, work with our homeless brothers and sisters, end the bloodshed in the streets, and build a sustainable city—a city that has a sense of destination in 10 years, a city that enjoys a reputation for being a forward thinking place that learns from the past and forges a bright future?

I think so. But, as with King, I’m a “prisoner of hope,” one bound to a commitment for a city that succeeds. So maybe I’m not the best judge.

An editorial in the Memphis Commercial Appeal last month boasted Memphis’ ability to effectively strive towards positive development, noting the inherent good resulting from this striving. King may have agreed. He claimed “unearned suffering is redemptive,” assuring freedom fighters enduring physical and emotional beatings that none of their efforts were in vain.

But Memphis ought to move from a city that strives to a city that achieves. It’s my contention that we’ll know we’re on our way—not just on the move, but on our way—when Memphis becomes a city of achievement.

As it is, I think I’m due to call my friend in New York. We need to catch up about our lives, sure. But as I seek to find my place in this forward movement for a city that still struggles to offer opportunities, I’m interested in what it’s like to work at the Steak and Shake.

Feds-and Memphis-Innovate on Bike Facilities

2010-08-11T11:24:00.001-05:00

For many years, municipal engineers and planners around the United States have been limited by outdated design standards for bicycle facilities in the United States.

Bike Portland sums up the problem:

Currently, due to outdated federal standards, many bikeway designs that are common in Europe and Canada -- like bike boxes, colored pavement markings, bike-only signals, and buffered bike lanes -- are still considered "experimental" in the U.S.

U.S. bikeway design guidelines are outlined in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), a document that, amongst other recommendations, specifies that bike facilities should *stop* 20 feet in advance of intersections (the place where 50-70% of all collisions occur) and specifically prohibits "separated" bike facilities (the design norm in cities where mode shares tower in the double digits).

One of the major problems with outdated federal standards, as cited by Bike Portland, is that municipalities can't use federal money for improvements if they're not in compliance with the MUTCD. Another problem is tort liability: many engineering divisions fear being held liable for accidents in facilities not specifically recommended by the MUTCD. While few municipalities have been sued, and even fewer held liable, the concern is oft cited.

But according to Bike Portland, these traditional American design standards could be changing. And soon.

Mike Wetter, Senior Advisor to Portland Metro Council President David Bragdon,

says that in part due to Metro's work in raising this issue to DOT Secretary Ray LaHood's office last fall, the US DOT may soon give 'interim approval' to (innovative) designs which would expedite their use across the country.

We here in Memphis have recently felt these waves of change welling out of Washington.

You may have read about Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton's 2010-2011 Bike Facilities Program announced a couple weeks ago, or read about the first installment in that campaign: The Horn Lake Bike Lanes. The kinds of recommendations in that article, painted stripes at high conflict points, are exactly the kinds of facilities that the DOT hopes to encourage.

Perhaps most excitingly for Memphians are plans currently under consideration to implement world class bike facilities in the heart of the city. In the past month, building on more than 2 years of work and innovation from community partners and business leaders, plans for a series of world class bicycle facilities have been proposed for Cooper St. in midtown Memphis.

The plans, which are far from finalized, are based on input from community residents, business owners, and bicycle riders. They propose implementing facilities which have been proven to increase the number of riders in the roadway while decreasing net injuries, and they have been reviewed by City Engineers and representatives of Mayor A.C. Wharton's staff. The Mayor's staff has continually emphasized the Mayor's interest in seeing innovative bicycle facilities implemented in Memphis.

Because the proposed facilities are still outside the jurisdiction of the MUTCD, a Request to Experiment (RTE) must be filed with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the facilities. The RTE also ensures the blessing of the Federal government.

City Engineers have expressed an interest in working with local advocates to assemble the RTE, and in an amazing demonstration of interest, the plans received attention from the FHWA. A call from the FHWA this week outlining their interest in working with Memphis to assemble an RTE was a sign that the federal government has a keen interest in implementing these innovative and effective bicycle facilities.

Bike Portland reports that standardization of bike boxes and painted bike lanes may be imminent. Portland transportation officials

want the US DOT to work in cooperation with the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO, the city version of AASHTO), provide interim approval for several new (in the U.S.) bikeway designs, work with NACTO to develop the forthcoming "Cities for Cycling Urban Bikeway Design Guide" and implement the findings of an FHWA-sponsored fact-finding mission to bike-friendly cities in Europe that took place in May 2009.

Finally Earl Blumenauer, an Oregonian congressman second in the pantheon of great congresspeople only to Memphis' very own Rep. Steve Cohen, has been in productive dialogue with Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood on advancing bike design standards. Blumenauer said

As the Secretary himself has noted, we’ll have to move beyond current design standards if we want to create truly livable communities, where people can walk and bicycle safely.

Things are happening fast now, fair readers. Stay tuned.

Momentum Building for a World Class Bike Culture in Memphis

2010-08-09T10:25:00.000-05:00

Memphis has long enjoyed a strong recreational bicycle culture with dozens of races throughout the year.

But in my journey studying bicycle communities across four continents this past year, I was inspired by the diverse qualities of urban bicycle cultures. The opportunity to visit cities replete with bike commuters, bike-based musical events and innovative bike sports illustrated that urban bike cultures are quickly growing across the world.

And Memphis', it seems, isn't so far behind the curve.

Minneapolis is on the Move

2010-07-27T10:37:00.001-05:00

This morning, the USA Today published an article about commutes to work in downtown Minneapolis. Inspired largely by the wait-time involved in car dense commuting corridors, the article focused on increasing incentives offered by employers whose commuters choose to bike, walk or bus to work. The accompanying video has a couple nice interviews with commuters, including a bike-powered attorney riding into the office:

Because congestion alone often isn't enough for many commuters to consider an alternative to the car, many companies are developing innovative incentives to get people thinking about using the bike or walking.

Merete Wells, 25, a senior associate with the Minneapolis public relations firm Carmichael Lynch, takes advantage of an unusually creative option offered by her company: a 'shoe incentive.' 'They will give you $50 toward the purchase of a new pair of shoes a couple of times a year if you walk to work,' Wells says. 'It's a nice little incentive.' She used to drive to work from St. Paul. However, when her old Volvo started to wear down, she decided to move closer to work instead of buying a new car. Now, instead of a 30- to 45-minute commute in summer, which stretched to 60 to 90 minutes in winter, she walks 10 minutes to work.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, a faith-based financial services organization, is providing commuter rebates for employees that don't use the car:

Almost all of its 1,200 Minneapolis employees participate in the incentive program, which offers $50- to $100-a-month credits in pre-tax dollars, which the employees can use to pay for parking, a transit pass, and carpool, motorcycle, biking or walking costs such as shoes.

Good work, Minne. Here in Memphis, we're aspiring to follow in your footsteps....quite literally.

Memphis Update: The Horn Lake Bike Lanes

2010-07-19T19:39:00.001-05:00

Well gentle readers, I've made it safely back to Memphis...my home...this strange southern town long-filled with potential that now appears appears to be in a process of actualization.

Part of this actualization includes creating more space for bicycles on public roads. A local advocacy committee, Walk Bike Memphis, has been working over this past year to update bicycle ordinances, create a bicycle pedestrian coordinator position within the municipality, and establish more on-street bicycle facilities. Each of theses three campaigns have come to fruition in the past months.

For a full explanation of how the advocacy community has influenced local politics in Memphis over these last few months, have a look at my new blog, Community Powered Cycling.

Today's update deals largely with the first project in Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton's 2010-2011 Bicycle Facilities Program: the Horn Lake Rd. bike lanes. On Friday of last week A.C. promised to begin striping bike lanes on Monday morning (today), and sure enough, a quick trip out to Horn Lake Rd. showed new facilities in-progress. Here the team is hard at work striping the new lanes--and being mighty friendly with courteous waves (which is something of a southern tradition, I might add. Seriously, in all my travels I've never met people as nice as southerners.)

By the time I arrived around 3 p.m. this afternoon, the lanes were almost complete--and in use.

This gentleman was pumped when he passed me--smiling broadly and enjoying the 95 degree heat saturated with 100% humidity. Welcome home indeed.

So how'd the City do? Is the facility good, bad, irrelevant? To find an answer we need to have a look at the lanes section by section.

First, the area we're dealing with is Horn Lake Rd. from the I-55 bridge on the north to Mitchell Rd. on the south. Have a look at this map:

View Horn Lake Rd. Bike Lanes in a larger map

(A shot of the factory on the West side of I-55, or a common sight in this part of the dirty dirty)

This shot was taken from the I-55 bridge facing north towards downtown. It's fairly representative of the bike facility generally: the bike lane contains frequent bike emblems with a directional arrow between a 6 inch white stripe on the traffic side and a raised curb on the right side. The bike lane is accompanied by signs that say, shockingly, "Bike Lane." Now, the lane is 6 feet wide throughout its entire length, which is a nice width...but there is small issue...

The 6 feet includes the gutter pan (the brownish color asphalt)...which is approximately 2 feet wide. So, there is actually only 4 or so feet of bike lane on the asphalt-proper. If two bikes attempt to ride two abreast in the lane, the far right rider will be forced to ride in the gutter pan.

The narrow width also produces a second difficulty: the outside lane of car traffic is between 14 and 18 feet wide, meaning the traffic calming that often emerges from creating bicycle facilities is much less likely to occur on this stretch of Horn Lake Rd. because the cars have an incredibly wide lane outside lane. If the bike lane had been made wider and the car lane reduced, its likely that significant traffic calming would have emerged.

This photo shows three facilities created specifically for bikes on Horn Lake Rd.: a bike lane sign, a bike friendly storm grate, and a stripe separating the bikes from auto-vehicle traffic. These are nice facilities, but there are a few places where more appropriate facilities should be added to the bike lane.

First, the junctures where auto-vehicle traffic merges from side streets onto Horn Lake--or primary conflict points between bikes and cars--currently has no facility.

The hashed line on the right of this photo represents the bike lane boundary with traffic. One easy way to improve the safety of this juncture is to hash the bike lane on the rider's right side and paint a colorful stripe to designate the bicycle's place in the juncture. This picture provides an example from Victoria, Canada that could be applied here:

The second place where the facility can be improved is at the intersections. Here, cars are expected to cross the bike lane when making right turns--as indicated by the hashed line.

Here again, a painted stripe in green or blue or red could be used to alert drivers to the presence of bicycle riders. This would also provide riders with a sense of comfort as they pass through a high-conflict juncture. This is an example of a painted intersection from Eugene, Oregon:

This is the intersection of Brooks Rd. and Horn Lake.

Here, the facility simply stops in advance of the intersection, the point with the highest potential for conflict between car drivers and and bicycle riders. And again, a painted bike lane could orient drivers and bike riders as they clear the juncture.

At this intersection we have a similar situation:

Finally, just before the intersection at Mitchell the bike lane just stops. Now, we can only anticipate that this facility is the beginning of a longer facility that will connect communities to....well, something. Anything.

But at the moment, the facility runs from the I-55 bridge to Mitchell Rd., meaning it provides no significant connectivity for community residents. Future facilities ought to be planned with a strong focus on how the facilities connect people to places. Otherwise, we'll simply end up with un-used bike lanes that go nowhere.

Here in Memphis we have an opportunity to make world-class bike facilities from the start, and though this is only phase one in Mayor Wharton's plan to develop bike facilities across the city, we ought to ensure that future lanes are developed with an eye to enabling the youngest, oldest and most vulnerable road users to comfortably utilize the bike lanes.

On a side note, I had a very Memphis moment on my way down south. I saw a car without wheels being towed with a iron link chain by a sorry looking red truck. Upon first encounter, the car was fishtailing out of control (as tends to happen on cars without wheels?). On my way back to downtown, I noticed the whole shenanigan had been abandoned--which provided me an opportunity to snap some photos. Welcome home indeed.

Smooth Riding For Memphis Cyclists

2010-07-17T12:36:00.000-05:00

Smooth Riding For Memphis Cyclists

Pecha Kucha from Velo City 2010

2010-07-08T07:31:00.001-05:00

The video begins in the midst of my opening comments, but its still a nice documentation of the Pecha Kucha presentation I delivered at Velo city Global 2010...which, for those of you wondering what the heck that is, Pecha Kucha presentation are presentations based on 20 slides designed to automatically change every 20 seconds. Essentially, the presenter carefully narrates a series of photographs. Enjoy!

Velo City Global 2010!

2010-06-23T08:04:00.001-05:00

If you haven't made it over to Community Powered Cycling yet to read about the conference, take a moment to catch up. The conference has been absolutely amazing, and there is a well of inspiration being developed on the site. The best part: there is only more to come in the next few days. Have a look, and be inspired!

A Month? Really?!

2010-06-21T06:45:00.001-05:00

Gentle readers, I apologize for the delay in recent posts. I like to keep the blog as tight as possible, with at least weekly updates despite being halfway around the world. In this regard, I have failed at Pedal Power these past few weeks.

Why? Well, preparing 700 bikes for the Velo-City Global 2010 Conference is one big reason. I blame Baisikeli. Check out this video to get a sense of why this might be so...and practice your Danish before you watch. If you just can't be bothered to watch all thirteen riveting minutes, there is a very silly interview with me at around minute 7.

På rundtur med Niels from Henrik Mortensen on Vimeo.

The bikes have been prepared, of course, for the Velo City Global 2010 conference, the largest conference on bicycling in the world. All of Copenhagen has been busy preparing the city for the largest influx of cycling experts in history.

Copenhagen is getting ready from Velo-city Global 2010 on Vimeo.

Finally, one of most exciting excuses for my recent lapse in posting is the creation of a new blog. It's called "Community Powered Cycling," and it's a joint effort between myself, Joshua Gorman, and Kyle "Wild Arms" Wagenschutz. As the Watson winds down (I will arrive back in Memphis in two weeks!), I will begin to post more and more to the CPC blog.

Finally, I have of course been engaged in a ridiculous amount of bicycle polo here in Copenhagen. This week, in conjunction with the Velo City Conference, we will play a polo tournament in the City Center to determine who in fact are the grand masters of the Copenhagen Polo Universe. Stay tuned for results, but in the meantime check out this video about CPH Bike Polo.

Se klippet "ASPHALT: Cykelpolo - en gentlemansport" på Pirat TV

Memphis' First Bike to Work Day a Success!

2010-05-24T11:11:00.003-05:00

Even the NBA was talking about Memphis' Bike to Work week, as two Memphis favorites pedaled around the city this past Friday: "(Memphis) Grizzlies Team Mascot (The) Grizz will escort Mayor AC Wharton by bike from City Hall down Main Street to Court Square for the National Bike to Work Day Rally at 11 a.m. on Friday, May 21."

At Court Square, Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton Jr. addressed a crowd with enthusiastic support for increased biking in Memphis. Later, he tweeted: "Great Bike-To-Work celebration in Court Sq! Memphis will have many more miles of bike lanes in the next year."

A commitment from the Mayor to improve the city for bikes on Bike to Work Day after he rode his bike from City Hall. Not too bad, Memphis.

The Commercial appeal noted that Bike to Work Day was a "pedal stroke in the right direction" for the city: "What these events could demonstrate is that the future of cycling in Memphis looks good."

(Picture care of Michael McMullan, Memphis Commercial Appeal)

On Friday, May 21 the CA shared the story of Tim Flack, a City Prosecutor who uses MATA buses--along with his bike--to commute each day. "Thanks to a newly completed program by the Memphis Area Transit Authority, almost every day for Flack is "Bike-To-Work Day" — as today is being observed nationally. MATA now has bike racks on all 150 of its fixed-route buses."

The Memphis Flyer published an article on its "In the Bluff" blog about the city's support support for Bike To Work Day. "We'd just like for people to get on their bikes," (Dawn) Vinson (of the Center City Commission) said. "You don't have to be on it every single day or give up your car in all kinds of weather. But if you just did it when it was convenient — errands in a two-mile radius — that would have such a significant impact. I'm not just talking on the environment, but on health and temperament, as well."

Memphis, it seems, is on the move. Will the River City, in the past called "the city of good abode," soon become a city of choice by including bikes and pedestrians in every aspect of its development?

Where it all Started

2010-05-23T14:46:00.000-05:00

It was London, actually. And this tournament in particular:

BFF 2009 Bike Polo Tournament Final from Iain Pate on Vimeo.

Well, more than just the tournament, it was the community and the people and the films and the city all combined into one that led me to love bicycle polo. The Bike Polo Tournament at the London Bicycle Film Festival in September 2009 was the beginning of my addiction to bicycle polo because the community was so strong and the people were kind. Plus the polo was amazing. People slaying and people playing some of their first games for hours and hours and hours at the Downham courts. The day before the tournament, we played all day. The day after, too.

Go London. Keep up the good work. I'll see you at the Worlds.

Bike Polo, Sacramento CA

2010-05-23T06:36:00.000-05:00

A nice film on Bike Polo in Sacramento, CA. It hits most of the high points about the culture: being with your friends, making new friends, playing across the world, enjoying the bicycle, having a drink (or two). Good stuff.

Bicycle Polo - Sacramento from Andrew Nixon on Vimeo.

The Bicimaquinas (Bike Machines)

2010-05-22T15:29:00.003-05:00

...And we're back.

Though I left Guatemala more than 3 weeks ago, I want to offer you one last post about Maya Pedal. In particular, my experience with the machines.

This picture kinda nails my experience with the machines at Maya Pedal (though its actually Nick in the picture). Because I was a new volunteer at MayaPedal, I spent my time working on the basic bits for the machines, or in this case, preparing the concrete foundation for a bicibomba.

But actually, gathering the materials to mix the cement may have been the most entertaining part of the process. Walking first to a small hardware store just a block or so from MayaPedal, we were told there was no cement mix in stock. En route to hardware store number 2 it became clear that we were leaving the neighborhood. Fortunately, HW Store number 2 had the cement. Unfortunately, we had to carry it back to the shop. Straining under the load Victor, Nick and I shared the bag for a good minute and a half. That was plenty of time for for us each to realize we weren't carrying a 50 kilo bag of concrete back up the hill to MayaPedal.

A white pick up was passing just as we had this collective revelation. We kinda hailed the truck (or more precisely the group in the truck offered us a ride when they saw our unfortunate situation), and we hitched a ride back to the shop. The mixing you saw above soon ensued.

We built these two frames to hold our cement soup. The bicycle is held in place by marco number one (featuring Victor) while marco number two sits atop the well opening and draws the water up through the plastic PVC pipe seen in the background (featuring the fabulous wool stuff maker, Don).

After preparing the bicibomba, we took a trip into the highlands around San Andres Itzapa, twisting and turning along the sides of major ridges in the countryside on our way to a small farm.

We unpacked, carried the two very heavy, very much solid concrete slabs to the well dug and prepared for installation.

Here, Victor checks the depth of the well.

Unfortunately, though, on this day, no bicycle water pump was installed in the Guatemalan countryside. The well was too dirty, which we found after sending our host into the depths in an effort to clean it out.

But if we had installed the well, it would have looked something like this:

The water pumps are a great idea, and they save heaps of time and effort on the part of Guatemalan farmers. The tough part is they're quite labor intensive to build...which means they're pricey to own. The rope seen in the front of the pump, for example, has nudos--or knots--that should all be tied by hand. Not to mention the welding of the frames, the construction of the bases and installation.

On a simpler note, one of the coolest machines around the shop was the bicimolino, or corn grinder.

This is receptacle for the unknowing corn, the place where said corn is ground to a hull while the useful corn drains off into a basket. The bicimolinos and the biciliquadora, seen below, are among the less expensive and more popular bicimaqunas.

Things became particularly exciting when the bicilavadora rolled into production in my third week at MayaPedal. Now we're talking: an incentive to wash clothes! For me, washing clothes is among the least fun things in the world. You've got to wait for the clothes to finish in the wash, then transfer them to the line or dryer, then fold them when after they're dry and finally put them away. Blaahhhh. I can't be bothered to do all that.

But I am keen to use a bicilavadroa to wash my clothes! Below you'll see the red metal barrel with a smaller blue plastic barrel on the inside. The blue barrel, driven by the bike, contains your clothes, and within it turns the red barrel. Pretty keen design!

While these machines are a fair representation of MayaPedal's production, the workshop is always near bursting with innovation. The small, electric powered welder is almost always fusing metal while the angle grinder is constantly grinding parts into ingenious and useful shapes.

I'll be giving a Pecha Kucha presentation on bike machines at this year's Velo City Global Conference, which I'll certainly post to this blog after it's completion. But in the meantime, have a stroll over to MayaPedal.org to have a read or look at some blueprints for bicimaqunias.

The Life at Maya Pedal

2010-04-27T10:27:00.003-05:00

The life at Maya Pedal is permeated by the life in Guatemala.

(A view from the front door of Maya Pedal)

Though the bike shop is filled with norteamericanos with all of their North American sensibilities, Guatemala creeps into our moods, our habits, and our best intentions. Take recycling. We love to recycle in North America. But in Itzapa, there isn’t a regular municipal trash service, much less a recycling program. So after weeks spent watching a pile of recycling grow in the kitchen, to which I contributed, I decided to ask my colleagues “Does someone pick this up?” They all scratched their heads. Nobody knew. Well as it turns out, nobody picks it up. And so, after weeks of seeing plastic bottles floating in the town stream, after almost a month spent with the knowledge that Itzapa doesn’t even have a town dump, we decided to throw the recycling away. Old habits die hard…and good intentions, it seems, die even harder.

(Itzapa from the roof at Maya Pedal)

Our life here is simple; while the culture is as profound and beautiful as the traditional Mayan tapestry, the day to day way of being is far cry from the thrills of big city life. Our space here at Maya Pedal is modest, reflecting the shared life: we have in common a kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms and one computer.

(The bano downstairs)

(The kitchen)

(Our beds)

(The Dining Room)

The shop at MayaPedal is perhaps the most vivid reflection of the people who work here and the place where it is located: filled with recycled bike tools from the United States hung on boards that feature the tool’s name alongside a giant bike centerpiece describing parts in both Spanish and English, the shop´s organization belies the educational focus of the community bike people who volunteer here.

(Metal working tools)

(Bike specific tools)

(Wrenches and spanners)

(The top view of the shop)

(The shop)

(The showroom)

The Metal bits, pieces of bicimaqunias, and complete bike machines strewn across the shop illustrate the focus of our leader Carlos and his staff.

But the sensibilities of North American volunteers in a relatively poor Guatemalan bicycle shop are often chafed. Two young mechanics, Victor and Carlito (Carlito being the son of founder and director, Carlos), do their best to repair bicycles…but without any training, a fifteen year old mechanic is left to make a lot of mistakes. And if these mistakes aren’t corrected by a thoughtful instructor or lead mechanic, they can continue un-noticed.

In our bike shops back home, we want bikes to leave the shop in good working order. But in Guatemala, most folks are content to make small repairs to their bike after they buy it. To deal with this seeming “problem,” a volunteer serving here has created a bike checklist that she hopes two mechanics will complete before bikes are sold. Will it work? Is it necessary?

With waves of volunteers serving for one month to six weeks, turnover is high while consistency is not. Systems are designed by a well-intentioned volunteer only to be lost on the next generation (arriving a month later), who lack an understanding of why it was created in the first place and how it works.

Again, MayaPedal is a reflection of the people who work here and the place where it is located: well intentioned, North American kids hope to create a well-organized community bike shop. But the reality beckons a greater understanding: a poor Guatemalan village with a unique bike shop gainfully employing a couple of kids while providing bicycle machines for local farmers stands on legs of its own, with goals and local sensibilities of its own.

Could it be better? Well sure! Will volunteering in the shop for four weeks with intermediate Spanish make the change you hope to see?

During my time here, I’ve tried to listen and observe, contributing where possible. I had a go at the wheel room. It went from this:

To this:

Will it stay this way?

In spite of the seemingly dissonant cultures at work in the shop, the life at MayaPedal has it’s own beautiful rhythm. We wake up, eat breakfast on our own, start work on our projects, cook up eggs and beans and rice to go with the tortillas purchased from down the street for lunch, get back to work for the afternoon, cook a shared meal, read books into the evening and maybe watch a 50 cent DVD movie purchased from down the way; go to bed, wake up, and repeat. On the weekends, we take trips to very close but seemingly far away lands; lakes and oceans and rivers and streams. Or water, as it were. And it’s there that we recharge our batteries to prepare for a week spent sorting innertubes, repairing broke down USA throwaways, and listening to one of our young colleagues use the angle grinder to create perfectly fashioned bike machine parts. And it´s in these places that our ability to function as a seamless whole, as a community bound by a love for the bike and an interest in this place, as a group that often literally moves as a whole body, begins to show itself.

(On a bus headed to the lake)

(Habitaciones Simples means really cramped and really hot rooms)

(Epic Volcanoes)

On Bicimaqunias and Community

2010-04-14T14:00:00.003-05:00

A country torn apart by more than a decade of civil war,

Guatemala

is a place of un-precedented beauty, mystery and pain.

With warnings from friends and strangers alike about the state of

Guatemala

’s security, I left

Guatemala

’s capital city as soon as possible. Arriving at 4:30 a.m. on a Friday morning, I did my best to cram everything I owned into my already overloaded backpack. Shoes, a sleeping bag, a thermarest and a camp pillow dangling precariously from my backpack, I navigated the strangely small Guatemala City airport in search of a cab, 3 bicycle polo mallets in tow.

I hit the ground running with my Spanish. Negotiating in Spanish the 60 km trip from the airport to MayaPedal was fairly easy, though the sum shall not be repeated here. In retrospect I’m quite grateful for that ride, though, having now experienced the raw insanity (yet also efficiency) that is the Guatemalan Chicken Bus System. My driver did manage to hit a dog on the highway out of the city, an event that alarmed me but didn’t seem to phase my driver. “He’s still walking,” he replied in Spanish.

Arriving at MayaPedal around 6:30 a.m., a jovial and handlebar moustached volunteer named Ian greeted me with more enthusiasm than befits such an hour. Eager to make me feel welcome, he put on the kettle (a busted tin pot) and began to show me around.

MayaPedal, founded in 1996, receives shipments of used bicycle parts from Bikes Not Bombs and the Working Bikes Collective in the

United States

. They use the bikes and parts for two purposes: 1) they repair the used bikes and sell them to locals for general use. 2) the build bicycle powered agricultural machines, bicimaqunias, for local farmers (campesinos).

Bikes Not Bombs had been a guiding light as I founded and ran Revolutions Community Bicycle Shop in Memphis. I had peripherally followed their international programs through their newsletter updates and websites, though I’ve always retained a certain amount of skepticism about international aid, in particular the distribution of American “stuff” in poor countries with the idea that our stuff might make their lives better.

But because a central component of my thesis for this year states that the bicycle retains the potential to bring people together into communities with a common passion and focus, MayaPedal—being a volunteer based organization—provides a unique opportunity to test the power of a bicycle based program to bind a small group of people into a collective infused with a purpose.

Self-motivation is critical at MayaPedal. Carlos, our leader, engineer, and bicimaqunia mastermind, always has his hands full with the affairs of the business. The nuts and bolts of MayaPedal, that is the day to day work of organizing parts, repairing bikes, and building the various components of the machines, is left largely to the individual volunteers. As a small group of norteamericanos, we work together to organize ourselves and the work. Which means, if the group is less than coherent or marred by a shiftless soul or two, things could get rough.

Amazingly, the group we’ve got here at MayaPedal works like a well-oiled bicimaqunia. My own perception of fluidity might be informed, in part, by the arrival of one of my oldest friends. My old friend Sarah and her boyfriend Nick were waiting outside the door of MayaPedal on my second afternoon here in Itzapa. Hugs and words of welcome were exchanged and I secretly marveled at life’s ability to bestow grace through a perpetual process of providence.

And so, almost two weeks into my stay in Guatemala, I’m learning again why History matters. It washes over people and places, the dusty roads and marvelous mountains of Guatemala, leaving it with a sheen of promise covered by a veneer of insecurity. I’m becoming re-acquainted with the energetic bicycle kids of North America, a group distinguished by their flailing ambition to use the bicycle to improve the quality of life for all people in the Americas. I’m learning about poverty…and role of the bicycle in the lives of a people who spend most of their day felling their own cooking fuel. And I’m glancing at my own country, closer now than it has been in more than 9 months, and I’m thinking hard about the changes it is going through; and where the bicycle might take us all.

Greetings from Guatemala

2010-04-09T12:10:00.001-05:00

As you´ve no doubt noticed, content on Pedal Power has been lacking over the last couple of weeks. Far from a lack of material, the problem is a lack of time. And computer space.

For the majority of my trip, I´ve had readily available wireless internet access. Carrying my trusty (and now quite dusty) standard MacBook around the world has meant I have access to internet hotspots. Wireless internet equals frequent updates. In my current capacity as a volunteer at MayaPedal, however, there is no wireless internet access. There is, in fact, only one computer for both business purposes and the personal needs of 7 vounteers. Internet time is thus at a premium here in Guatemala.

But take heart! I hope to upload some posts, composed off line, about the work here at MayaPedal, my final weeks in China, and some exciting plans for the future. So please stay tuned, gentle reader.

On another note, thanks for all the support, comments and questions that have been pouring in these last 12 months. Let´s continue to think and write and work and build infused with a vision for that day when the bicycle is chosen as often as the car.

Debate on LaHood's Decleration that Bikes and Peds be Treated as Eqauls in the Transportation Hierarchy

2010-03-25T02:34:00.002-05:00

This debate, which includes transport experts from around the nation, highlights both the challenges to increasing bicycling and walking in the US as well as some of the most popular--if sometimes ineffective--arguments used by advocates and opponents of walking and bicycling.

I've noticed a few broad themes:

1) Those less than pleased with LaHood's announcement argue that bicycles should pay for their road use. You will see pro-bike people arguing that the low-impact of bicycles combined with their public health savings more than outweigh the need to tax bicycles. According to the Alliance for Biking and Walking's latest benchmarking report, only 1.2% of federal funds are dedicated to bike/ped infrastructure.

On a related note, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and other congresspeople--including Steve Cohen (D-TN), my representative in Memphis!--have introduced a new bill that would allow a pool of federal transportation money to be dedicated to funding projects that improve the ability of people to walk or bike. See the bill, which has been sent to committee, here.

2) Pro-bicycle people point out that half of all trips in the U.S. are within a 20 minute bike ride. That is, these trips are less than 2 miles. Those arguing against strong federal bicycle policy wield this same argument to contend that all bicycle policy should be local; that the federal government should fund highway projects while allowing states, counties and cities to focus on the development of urban bikeways.

3) In the U.S., as Andy Clarke points out, only 15% of transport trips are to and from work. Thus, for bike advocates, broadening the focus of encouragement to include efforts to increase bike use on those trips of less than two miles appears promising.

4) The health argument will become the most important argument in favor of increasing funding for bicycling and walking. Almost every bike advocate in the debate mentions the health argument, and it's an argument that reaches across the aisle. It's fiscally conservative and as American as Apple Pie.

5) Finally, traffic congestion is growing worse, a fact acknowledged by both bike advocates and highway transport advocates alike. But as Andy Clarke points out, congestion will only increase as more people move into cities. Increased biking and walking has been proven to mitigate congestion.

What do you think about LaHood's new policy of making bikes and pedestrians equal to cars in the transport hierarchy?

Shanghai Bike Polo

2010-03-23T05:50:00.000-05:00

Last week, my English friend Yanis and I set out across Shanghai in search of a place to play a bit of pick-up polo. I was fiending for a game, even a game of one on one, as I hadn't had a chance to play since leaving Australia. So while Yanis had never even heard of bicycle polo before meeting me, much less played, he was still keen to have a go if we could find a place. So he on his ladies cruiser with a front basket and rear luggage carrier and me on my Giant ATX cheap Chinese mountain bike, we set out in search of a smooth, flat surface.

Heading north through the city, we reached the river before I realized I'd forgotten the ball. Unimpressed with what we saw heading north, I suggested we head south from the hostel. It turned out to be a great idea. With the tower of Isengard in the distance (see the pointy spire rising upwards into the sky), we found the perfect, rounded, recessed surface; a place seemingly made for bicycle polo.

The court, a public square (circle) in front of the Metropolitan Theatre, seemed an unlikely place to have a polo match. It was too open, too public. But as Yannis and I observed a half dozen skateboarders grinding the marble stairs we thought, all things considered, smashing a small rubber ball around and off the steps would be fairly harmless.

Turns out we were right...sort of. That day, as Yanis and I rode around playing one on one, the police and local security guards all passed us by. None of them gave us a thought, much less a look. The people who did give us a hard glance were mostly intrigued. And so it was with great joy that I texted Tyler with the news that I'd found a fantastic, central spot to play some polo.

Tyler created a post detailing the space and calling for a session on the upcoming Sunday. The stage was set for epic bike polo.

And then the police showed up.

Actually, it was the security guards who turned up first, blowing their whistles and speaking Shanghainese at me. I didn't have to pretend I didn't understand. But as more polo freaks turned up, polo freaks who could speak Shanghainese, it became clear that they wanted us gone.

It wasn't necessary to speak Mandarin or Shanghainese to understand that this guy wanted my bike off the court. Or maybe he just wanted to have a go at polo.

It worked out quite well that the skateboarders stuck around until the police turned up. I think it was their complicity in clearing the court that made it possible for us to stick around.

So while skateboarding is not a crime, it turns out bike polo is less of a crime.

At any rate, being the insolent non-conformists we are, us polo peeps didn't follow orders. We instead stuck around until the 5-0 buzzed off. Which meant we played some polo.

Tyler has a full re-cap of the day, complete with a couple videos here. In both videos you can watch as Rich, riding an orange fixed gear, takes me out. Legal contact? You decide.

Jue Hou also took some amazing photos of the day, the last two of the above set being a representative sample.

One of the best parts of bicycle polo, in my opinion, is its ability to appeal to a variety of people. When I turned up to polo in Melbourne, I saw a couple of older men--gray hairs, as it were (no offense, Pete!)--rolling around the court smashing the ball. It was amazing to see older and younger people enjoying the game in a healthy spirit of competition. When I arrived here in Shanghai, I was again pleased to see that one of the younger fellows, Nelson, had both his parent's turn up to the polo match. Chris, Nelson's father, is pictured below.

Chris was fantastic at polo. He rolled up to the polo match on his tricycle, which you can see on Tyler's blog, carrying the cones and assorted other polo equipment--along with his polo bike, of course. He had such a nice style of play, bumping shoulders when necessary and shooting through gaps where possible, and he heckled me with relentless enthusiasm. While bike polo is still primarily a sub-cultural realm dominated by bike messengers and bike freaks across the world, it's inspiring to see non-traditional bike people taking up the sport. Here's to more diversity on the court!

United States Radically Alters its Bicycle Policy

2010-03-22T06:17:00.005-05:00

"...Regardless of regional, climate, and population density differences, it is important that pedestrian and bicycle facilities be integrated into transportation systems."

Policy Statement on Bicycle and Pedestrian Accommodation Regulations and Recommendations, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, United States Department of Transportation.

Bicycling and Walking received an unprecedented boost at the National Bicycle Summit this past month. As reported by BikePortland.org, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood delivered a "table-top speech" to advocates and community leaders gathered in the Senate Chamber to push for federal dedication to walkable and bikeable communities. "What an effort a year makes," he said. "All of the work all of you have been doing for so long has paid huge huge dividends. People get it. People want to live in livable communities."

He praised the efforts of the advocates gathered in Washington, grateful for their push to create what he estimates most Americans desire: "I’ve been all over America, and where I’ve been in America I’ve been very proud to talk about the fact that people do want alternatives. They want out of their cars; they want out of congestion; they want to live in livable neighborhoods. And we would not be where we’re at today without you…. I’m very, very grateful!”

Hear the full speech here:

Just days after this rousing speech, LaHood posted a major transportation policy revision aimed at promoting bicycling and walking on his blog.

The entire policy memo can be viewed here, but the most significant parts of the new policy are outlined below.

The statement wastes no time in asserting the significance of bicycling and walking:

"Walking and bicycling foster safer, more livable, family-friendly communities; promote physical activity and health; and reduce vehicle emissions and fuel use....Accordingly, transportation agencies should plan, fund, and implement improvements to their walking and bicycling networks, including linkages to transit. In addition, DOT encourages transportation agencies to go beyond the minimum requirements, and proactively provide convenient, safe, and context-sensitive facilities that foster increased use by bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages and abilities, and utilize universal design characteristics when appropriate."

LaHood has done well to point out the need to go beyond "tokenism" in the inclusion of bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Too often a bike path/track/lane starts a mile from attractive spots, and ends two miles before you arrive at your destination. Such poorly designed, haphazard bike facilities are as bad at increasing bicycling as no facilities at all.

The document continues with an outright policy statement:

"The DOT policy is to incorporate safe and convenient walking and bicycling facilities into transportation projects. Every transportation agency, including DOT, has the responsibility to improve conditions and opportunities for walking and bicycling and to integrate walking and bicycling into their transportation systems. Because of the numerous individual and community benefits that walking and bicycling provide — including health, safety, environmental, transportation, and quality of life — transportation agencies are encouraged to go beyond minimum standards to provide safe and convenient facilities for these modes."

This means that federal projects which include bike/ped facilities will take precedence in the bidding process over those that do not. Then, nailing the major benefits of active transportation, LaHood again encourages localities to do their best to improve facilities for non-motorized transportation.

Now, in an era where the clarion call of "states rights!" appears to be making a comeback (if, in fact, it ever went away), some may scoff at the Transportation Secretary's following recommendation:

"The DOT encourages States, local governments, professional associations, community organizations, public transportation agencies, and other government agencies, to adopt similar policy statements on bicycle and pedestrian accommodation as an indication of their commitment to accommodating bicyclists and pedestrians as an integral element of the transportation system."

I, though, see this as wonderful federal support--the heavy artillery as it were--for local advocates looking to implement the increasing demand for active transportation in their communities.

Finally, the policy line that lit my face with glee. The Federal Government is now

Considering walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes...(and) because of the benefits they provide, transportation agencies should give the same priority to walking and bicycling as is given to other transportation modes. Walking and bicycling should not be an afterthought in roadway design.

The entire document is, of course, a historical call to action for transportation planners, municipal leaders, engineers, and active transportation advocates.

But this last bit especially tickles my fancy. At last, the bicycle is recognized as being equal with the car. Well done, Mr. LaHood.

Interview on Colombia National Public Radio

2010-03-19T22:49:00.007-05:00

A couple days back, I did an interview with the good people from Colombian National Public Radio. Among other things, we talked about bicycle use in China and the emergence of the Electric Bike. Have a listen and enjoy!

Stream it here

Download the Audio

Or, read some Text en espanol.

Melbourne Bicycle Polo Video

2010-03-18T23:44:00.000-05:00

This video was shot at the Australian Hardcourt Bicycle Polo Championships in November of 2009. Produced by a kid's television program called "Totally Wild," it's a nice effort at highlighting most of the "hows" and "whys" of Hardcourt Bicycle Polo. Not to mention, it features some of my favorite people, including Damon Rao.

Miss you guys.

The Reason We Didn't Play Bike Polo in Beijing

2010-03-16T01:48:00.001-05:00

A Journey through Hutong

2010-03-11T05:08:00.002-06:00

For the Love of Bicycle Polo

2010-03-10T02:53:00.000-06:00

This year I've developed a sort of un-healthy passion for Hardcourt Bicycle Polo. Unhealthy in the sense that it's possible I might have ignored the advice of doctors, surgeons, physios and osteos warning that continued competition might not bode well for my torn hip cartilage.

Living in Melbourne for four months provided me with an amazing opportunity to improve my game while building a community of life long friends. But perhaps more than any thing else, my time in Melbourne distilled within me a passion for sharing this game with others.

And so I arrived in Beijing 11 days ago with 3 pre-crafted polo mallets in a narrow cardboard box and 2 hockey balls stuffed into the bottom of my bag, armed with the intention of organizing a few polo games while in Beijing-town.

But starting up bike polo seems easier said than done in Beijing. For one, there are few public courts suitable for polo within the inner ring roads; there are some, sure, but it's hard to say whether the neighbors or police will tolerate regular games. In Shanghai, they rent out an athletic space.

Secondly, finding HDPE and ABS gas piping to create mallet heads has been near impossible. While most of the piping found on polo courts across the world is manufactured in China, there appears to be no store selling the pipe in Beijing proper.

So in a creative (desperate) moment, I decided to try something ingenious (rash). I bought a tea bottle, made of super hard plastic, with the intention of making a mallet head.

I know what you're thinking...you polo freaks, you. Doomed from the start, right? Well, you'd be right...but I had to try.

After sawing off the top bit of the water bottle, I started to drill through the sides to make space for the ski pole. The bottle didn't crack during this process, and actually, the holes turned out to be quite nicely. A good start.

Then it was time to attach the bottle to the mallet. The moment of truth:

The bottle cracked as I tightened down the bolt.

And so my hopes were dashed, my dreams deferred.

Without even a single game, the idea of a sippy-cup water bottle mallet fell to the wayside. Tragedy.

In brighter news, it appears we've located a source for the pipe. We've made the order and expect the pipe in two days. Here's hoping.

Tasmania Pt. 2

2010-03-08T03:24:00.005-06:00

After a night to remember in the cool, dewy grass of People's Park in Strahan...a night spent gazing at the stars and making massive speculation about the human condition, Chris and I said goodbye to the rest of our mates and headed for Queenstown.

I'd heard people describe the area around Queenstown as bare and desolate, a landscape poisoned by decades of unsustainable mining. Some told us the locals preferred to leave the barren brown mountainsides as a reminder...others said we could look closely and find emerging signs of life on the hills surrounding the town. But while we never got the full story of why, Queenstown looked and felt like like the place it was: a mining town on the wrong side of history.

Still, it was an amazing place. When we arrived in town, passing the hulking masses of rusting mining equipment dotting the hillside, Chris and I stopped off for a coffee on Main Street where we watched locals and visitors intermingle somewhat seamlessly. As with many old mining towns in Tassy, Queenstown nurtures a modest but healthy brand of tourism. The main street, emanating charm from another era, was a pleasant place to stop for a rest and recoup. After a flat white and a scone, the kind ladies at the coffee shop offered to fill up our water bladders. And boy were we gonna need it.

The day into and out of Queenstown turned out to be the hottest--and hilliest--day of the tour. The picture above shows the road up and out of Queenstown in the middle of a 10 kilometer climb. The picture below shows the town in the distance, the road cut into the side of the mountain.

The brown mountain side stands in stark contrast to the lush, rolling, green hills pictured below. Queenstown looked and felt old and desolate.

The day's ride out of Strahan and into Queenstown took us through to the Frankiln Gordon Wild Rivers National Park. With Pete staying near Strahan and Bec and Leigh bound for Melbourne on bus steered north towards a fairy aimed at Port Philip Bay, Chris and I hit the mountainous west coast interior as a duo. Below was our first bush camp as a duo, quaint quarters on a four wheel drive track that veered off the main road.

The camp space pictured here was almost forsaken for space next to the waterfall pictured below. Nelson Falls had an amazing little spot next to the creek meandering off and away from the falls, but it would have been far too chilly for us to camp directly beside the water in the rainforest. Not to mention we fielded questions from about 250 tourists in the hour we sat at the falls. Enough was enough, we decided. So we rode on to our bush camp, climbing up and through Victoria Pass.

Our second full day in the wilderness took us through the Surprise Valley, pictured below in all of it's expansive beauty.

We camped beside a small body of water called Bronte Lagoon in the midst of the middle highlands. On the lagoon we saw fisherman slowly making their way across the lake as we settled into camp. This was sunset from our campsite.

The road from Strahan out towards the interior of Tasmania, the road leading through the Western wilderness, across the western mountain ranges and into a tangle of wild rivers was (somewhat) appropriately called "The West Coast Road." Opened in 1932, the road provided access for Tasmanian governors to the remote mining towns on the west coast. It also provided a link to the Western settlement of Strahan for goods requiring movement inland. Strahan is 12k from the MacQuarie heads, which is the entrance to Strahan's port. Dubbed Hells Gates because of it's narrow, rocky opening, the MacQuarie Heads swallowed up many a ship intent on docking in Strahan.

The third day of the duo tour was a rough one. Starting out from Bronte Lagoon, Chris and I headed towards New Norfolk--more than 100k from the lagoon. The morning and early afternoon went well, a bit hot, but beautiful riding. We stopped for coffee in a small town called Hamilton, recharging our batteries and filling up our tanks with coffee and pastries. Climbing out of Hamilton in the heat of the day, the third straight day in the 30s, I began to feel a bit faint. Now on the days previous, Chris and I had taken every opportunity we had to enjoy a frosty adult beverage or a coffee...both of which are diuretics...and both of which will dehydrate you. So after hundreds of meters of climbing, it turned out to be a modest hill outside Hamilton that did me in. I pulled into the shade to take quick rest and realized something wasn't right. It wasn't long before I realized I had become dehydrated.

Pushing on for another 30 kilometers probably wasn't the best decision I've made in life. Nonetheless, near dark, I pedaled feebly into New Norfolk--a city just over 25 K north of Hobart. I could barely stand up.

Turns out, I had suffered a heatstroke. Intensely dehydrated and beaten by the sun, Chris and I decided to take a bus the last 25 k to Hobart. I made the decision to head back to Devonport on the next day while Chris went along to meet the rest of our friends for a tour of the east coast.

The tour was amazing...I saw some beautiful wilderness land and learned a few valuable lands. Perhaps best of all, before leaving Tassy I had the chance to see a sweet band:

This is how the route looks in its entirety:

View Tasmania tour in a larger map

Sharing a Warm Moment on a Cold Night

2010-03-06T10:10:00.001-06:00

It was near midnight. I'm speeding home along a Beijing bike track beside a broad roadway more than a football field wide. Full of homemade noodles, sauteed eggplant and basted tofu, I'm absorbing the cool night air, enjoying the feeling of my body slowly warming--one revolution at a time.

As I approach a construction zone, I can hear the sounds of jackhammers and generators. Flashing directional arrows and florescent clad roadworkers warn against the upcoming detour. Hugging the rightside curb, the pounding of concrete eating machines seems to be aimed perfectly at my brain. Passing through it all, grateful to be emerging from the madness, I tilt my head to have a look at the squeaky drive train approaching on my left.

A mid-twenties Chinese man, pedaling for his life, lines himself up beside me--bottom bracket to bottom bracket. He steals a look at me.

I stay focused on the road ahead, remaining politely disinterested. Then I think: this fella has ridden beside me for a good 500 meters. None of the Chinese folk ride this fast...I make a quick check on the make of his bike out the corner of my eye: Giant. Not entirely surprising; there are heaps of Giants in China. Still, most folk here ride no name jet black Flying Pigeons.

He steals another look at me. I look at my legs and think about my cadence: it's a bit slow. I'm pushing a hard gear, but pushing it too slowly. I increase my cadence. My new road partner has a look at me, and then steps up his own pace.

Then, I realize he's trying his hardest to keep up with me. And his looks are coming more quickly now, alternating between my thin road bike tires and my widening grin. Soon, I've got the biggest, goofiest grin on my face. I'm amazed that this guy is so unabashedly trying to keep up with me on his Giant cruiser bike with a front basket and rear rack. Then I see he's grinning too. Then I laugh. And can't stop. He laughs too. We speed up.

We catch two green lights in a row. Rolling at a steady clip now, I've got a mind to give him a thumbs up. As my turn approaches and I look to the left, I notice he's gone. With a speed matched only by his emergence my pedaling friend had disappeared.

The guy loved to pedal his bike. Maybe he felt keen to beat the Western dude in an all out two block sprint. Whatever. He was enjoying himself on that bike, and so was I. And for a couple Beijing blocks, we shared that love with the open night.

Bicycling in Beijing: Initial Observations

2010-03-03T06:27:00.003-06:00

Upon arriving in Beijing, it wasn't long before I saw the emerging insanity that is Chinese driving patterns.

In his new book, "A Journey Through China From Farm to Factory," Peter Hessler writes "It’s hard to imagine another place where people take such joy in driving so badly...They don’t mind if you tailgate, or pass on the right or drive on the sidewalk. You can back down a highway entrance ramp without anybody batting an eyelash. . . . People pass on hills; they pass on turns; they pass in tunnels..."

Indeed, as I took a taxi from the Beijing airport to my hostel on the eastern edge of the Forbidden City, I tried to make small talk with my driver as we sped down the interstate. "Brrrrr," I said, rubbing my hands on the tops of my arms to indicate that it was cold outside. He glared at me. "Cold," I said, repeating the gesture. "Colt," he said--moving to turn up the heater in the already overly hot taxi. Not exactly what I'd intended to achieve...I learned quickly that attempting to make small talk in a language that wasn't my own was pretty much useless.

Left with little to do but stare out the window, we passed a car backing-up on the interstate. As in moving backwards and against traffic. On the interstate. Yeesh.

As we neared the city center, passing each of the ring roads forming the outer perimeter of Beijing, I looked desperately for bikes. I was increasingly dissappointed. The Asian city crawling with bikes, the place that so many people instantly understood to be integral to my project, was consumed by cars. The bikes were outnumbered by cars in the Beijing streets leading from the airport to the city center by 10 to 1.

I'd learned from a friend in Melbourne, a friend who'd lived in Shanghai for years, that traffic patterns in China were fundamentally different than those in most western countries. "In China, the bigger you are the more right of way you have," he explained. "So the bikes must always yield to the cars, and the pedestrians must yield to the bikes. Stick with the motorized scooters," he said. "Because you'll be riding faster than the average Chinese, and because you want to be in a group as often as possible, stick with the motor scooters. The bigger the group, the more right of way you have."

Taking all this in from the relative traffic comfort of Melbourne was pretty easy. Sure, I get that. Just give way to the cars.

But after five days spent riding a bike in the streets of Beijing, the dog-eat-dog insanity of it all has been a bit harder for my western mind to comprehend. Cars turn right at all times and without regard for who or what may be in their way. Cars turning left across crosswalks and forward moving traffic are equally as dangerous. So, after you make it past the right turning traffic, you have to guard your life from left turning traffic. And that's to say nothing of the electric powered three wheel carts that fill the bike lanes. Or the motor scooters going backwards in the bike lane, looking up, down, left, right...every way but straight ahead....In spite of the fact that they are in fact heading the wrong way.

In Amsterdam, the madness that is traffic had a name amongst local bicycle riders: the dance. Everyone moved quickly--but carefully--around everyone else: bikes, peds, cars, scooters, skateboarders. In Beijing it is exactly the opposite. Each person moves as recklessly as possible in the general direction of each other person. And the person who stops is the person with the least nerve. Or the person with the least amount of metal around their precious human exterior.

This morning, to pass a bus that had pulled into the bike lane to deposit passengers, I followed about 6 other riders out into traffic on the left side of the bus.

Now, bus drivers are professional drivers--lest we forget.

As I neared the middle of the bus, the driver began to slowly merge back into traffic--pushing me farther out into the roadway gnarled with cars. Looking the driver directly in the eye using her rear-view mirror, I made sure she could see me. She could. I quickly passed the front of the bus with less than an inch to spare between her bumper and my rear wheel. A bully tactic. I'm bigger, you're smaller...Take that!

Stay tuned for more observations and community based bike tomfoolery...

For now, check the Flickr page for photos. As it is, I can't yet add photos to the posts. Blogspot is blocked in China, so my mate Josh has agreed to post some text until we can sort out a better solution.

Keep them wheels turnin'!

[Just so you know, Anthony is having some trouble with the Great Firewall and asked me to post for him - I'll be relaying these blog updates as they come - JMG]

More Photos from the First Annual Throw In, Throw Down

2010-02-24T18:30:00.001-06:00

Chris at HopSkid has done a great job using photos and narrative to capture the Bench Minor Hardcourt Polo Tourney held in Melbourne about a month ago. Have a look at the his post and pics!

Paris, 2009

2010-02-24T03:52:00.000-06:00

BFF POLO TOURNAMENT 2009 PARIS v.01 (low quality) from Uolmo on Vimeo.

Tasmania

2010-02-17T07:07:00.001-06:00

"If we can revise our attitudes towards the land under our feet; if we can accept a role of steward, and depart from the role of conqueror; if we can accept the view that (hu)man(ity) and nature are inseparable parts of the unified whole--then Tasmania can be a shining beacon in a dull, uniform, and largely artificial world." Olegas Truchnas, 1971

My idea for a bicycle tour in, around, or near Australia began with visions of New Zealand. But given my lack of luck with touring bikes, touring gear and airplanes, I decided it would be prudent to take a boat to some closer but equally exotic island. Thus, the 2010 Tour of Tasmania was born.

Initially planned as a solo adventure, talk of the tour attracted a lot of attention at Melbourne Bike Polo sessions. One became two; two became four...and eventually, four became six. And so, with visions of (not so) distant mountains fueling our aspirations, we got crackin' on the packin'.

I was fortunate to score a loaner bicycle from my friend Thorin, a Mongoose Randonneur outfitted with a Tubus rear carrier and Blackburn front rack. After installing a 12-32 8-speed rear cassette, the bike was ready to take on the Tasmanian terrain.

After sorting all my equipment the night before the tour, I packed up four panniers and a rear ruck sack with heaps of equipment. The final weight? Bike, bags, and gear combined to create a 50 kilo (110 pound) monstrosity. In all of it's glory:

I met Pete outside my house in Fitzroy North at 7 a.m. sharp, and we quickly set out for the Spirit of Tasmania Ferry stop in Port Melbourne.

Now, when I was young, I couldn't read and ride in a car. I suffered from motion sickness, but when I reached adolescence the tendency to become sick while reading in a car ebbed a bit. I thought I had, somehow, defeated motion sickness with pure will-power. In Denmark, I took a 40-minute fairy from the small island of Lolland to the center island of Fyn without any motion related issues...But after the Spirit of Tasmania pulled out from the well-protected confines of Port Philip into the infamously choppy waters of the Bass Strait, I knew my motion sickness was back with a vengeance.

Realizing I was about to lose my cookies, I headed to the deck for some fresh sea air. That didn't help. I wandered into the gift shop, green in the face, and a sales clerk just immediately passed me the sea sick pills. I quickly popped them into my mouth, and found a soft bench to stretch out on. Four hours later, I woke up to a view to see the island--and it's mountains--within sight.

Devonport
We rolled into the port town of Devonport at about half past 6. I carried a couple panniers for our friend Bec, who met us at the boat when we arrived. So, in total, I arrived with 6 panniers. Reduced to 4, we headed for the local watering hole for a stout meal and some adult beverages.

Deciding to camp beside the ocean just out of town, we began our hobo adventure.

Waking up we packed up camp (seen above) and prepared to head towards Boat Harbour, some 100 k down the road. As we ambled along, hitting multiple coffee shops in Devonport before actually deciding to leave, we ran into a European ex-pat out for his morning ride. Looking like he'd just emerged from 1987, Wolfgang showed as an alternate route out of Devonport. Turns out it was the hilly route.

Above, everyone recovers as Wolfgang tells stories of local cycling lore. Everything about him was 1987, including his Miyata triple butted racing frame with internally routed cable housing. Promising a wonderful fish and chip shop in Ulverstone, Wolfgang led us along a hillacious highway--and little did I know, it was only a sign of things to come.

As the first day of riding continued, we made it to the fabled town of Penguin, where everything seems to have a penguin--including the town square. Here's the lot of us, fully clad in touring gear and standing before a mighty (asbestos filled) penguin.

Because we were living like hobos, we would often rock up to a coffee shop, buy a coffee, and then pull out lunch makings from our panniers. As I made a cucumber, cheese and tomato sandwich in front of Penguin's finest coffee stop, I noticed a man glaring hard at me through the plate glass window. With stories of Tasmanian rednecks flashing through my mind, I figured it was best to just ignore the stare, focusing mostly on my mates and the thin slices of cucumber I was making.

Suddenly, the man emerges from the coffee shop and yells, "Hey Mate!" Pointing to the cucumber, he says, "you know you couldn't even shove that thing down a pig's throat." "Ha," I laughed, "I guess not." A bit shocked but mostly entertained, we all had a mighty laugh. Turns out pigs don't eat cucumbers.

After a tenacious first day, Leigh worried about his knee, losing two of our mates as they detoured to see the Table Cape, we descended down a massive hill into the surfing village of Boat Harbour. Meaning, the next morning a 12 percent, 3 kilometer climb would greet us. Good thing we ate our Wheaties.

The Road from Boat Harbor to Stanley

Excited about the second day of the tour, a hundred kilometers under our belt, we aimed for the not so distant coastal town of Stanley. Along the way we passed a cyclist heading the opposite direction. We stopped, of course, and had a chat about all things bike related. A touring cyclists from Sweden with excellent English (of course), he told us he'd gone as far as Stanley before deciding to head back the way he came. Speaking with a bit of McDonalds brown paper bag on his nose to guard the tip against the Tasmanian sun ('you find these everywhere, and they work so well,' he claimed), he told us he wasn't interested in going down the west coast. "The local's say there is nothing going on there." "True," I said. "Just wilderness. Which is exactly why we're heading that way." Really, he later confessed, he wanted to see the final match of the Australian Open. Fair enough. Passing good wishes, we went our separate ways.

A primary stop for tourists on the Tasmanian northwest coast, Stanley's big claim to fame is the Nut, a giant piece of rock at least 500 meters tall with one heck of a view. We had a climb, and enjoyed the view from a variety of angles.

Stanley, in all of it's expansive glory.

Once on top of the Nut, one can stroll on a path that winds all around it's edges and through its heart. From its windy, scrubby top we descended to a thickly wood bush filled with paddymellons (small marsupials). Unfortunately, they all hopped in mid-shot, so I've none to share here.

I was pretty excited about this giant lobster. Though it looks a bit menacing, I can assure you it was quite tame. The chips we had from inside the seafood shop were a bit deceptive...A medium turned out to be about a square meter of fried golden goodness. And being that each of us ordered a medium, the sea gulls ended up with quite a treat before it was all said and done. As we fed the seagulls, we came up with a record label: "Do a Record Bro, Recordings." We also came up with about two dozen album names, at least one hundred song titles, and about 20 B-sides. Unfortunately, Pete took notes on the madness--and he is in the middle of the Tasmanian bush as I type. Probably sleeping soundly, living the life most of us dream about. Can't wait to see that notebook.

Our third full day of touring took us through the little town of Smithton. We stopped at a supermarket for some provision and Leigh made friendly with the locals.

We passed an absolutely amazing river on day three with a strange and ironic name: Detention. Pictured below, the Detention River may have some of the most beautiful water I've ever seen.

As we prepared to depart Smithon, the beauty of the Detention contrasted with the plumes of smoke that slowly filled the horizon. The farther from Smithton we went, the thicker the smoke became. Soon we we're showered with soot and ash.

We quickly consulted the map as we decided whether or not to go on. Previously, we had stopped to talk with a local we met alongside the road. With a Boag's Draught in his hand, clearly not the first that day, he encouraged us to head on towards Marrawah--a city just south of Montagu--the town towards which we were heading and from where the smoke was emerging.

Ultimately, we decided to turn the troops around and head for brighter, less smoke clotted skies. Wise decision, I reckon. Sunny skies, thick woods and slow inclines greeted us as we got closer and closer to Marrawah.

Just in case there was any doubt, we left a reminder for our friends: the road stretched out onward and upward.

A notable photo from outside Marawah.

The Edge of the World

From Marawah, we headed towards the "Edge of the World," the northern-most tip of Tasmania's west coast, Arthur River. Tassy's west coast play's host to one edge of the longest un-interrupted expanse of ocean in the world: from South America to Tasmania, wind and waves can move uninhibited. Photos were definitely in order.

And photos of photos.

Here we have the complete crew, in all of our charismatic charm. From left to right we've got yours truly, Pete, Bec, Chuck, Leigh and Chris.

There were quite a few fisherman at the end of the world, a surprising fact for me. But this photo is quite typical of Tassy's west coast, amazing coast line with old, weather rocks amidst stunning bays.

The Tarkine Wilderness

Significant for more than one reason, Arthur River is the end of the road. Well, the paved road anyway.

The sign on the left reads "gravel road." Here, we're preparing to leave the comfort of asphalt for the contours of the Western Explorer, a 150 k stretch of un-sealed road through the Tarkine Wilderness.

By the end of the day, I was still smiling. But then again, we'd only done about 25k on the gravel. The best, or worst depending on your perspective, was yet to come.

The lot of us camped beside the Frankland River that evening on a four wheel drive track that veered off of the main road.

We set up barriers at the end of the trail just in case someone had a mind to barrel through the trail at 3:45 a.m.

Beginning the next day of the tour with a climb up from the Frankland and back into the Tarkine, we had a quick stop at a visitor's plaque by the side of the road.

Harsh indeed. Mostly, the Tarkine was extraordinarily exposed, wide open to the wind and sun. It was difficult to find shade. Impossible at times.

Our strategy was to follow the smoothed out sections of road created by car tires. You can see a couple good lines here. The only trouble with following the car tracks is the corrugation...over time the cars would created raised areas and ruts running perpendicular to the road. A smooth line could become hell in 5 meters.

Soon, we began to see cryptic messages from our mates in the gravel.

"Bro" quickly became a theme for the trip. Everyone was bro, including our female friend Bec.

SFS. Two four letter words, one sandwiched between the other, that became a sort of catch all phrase in troubling times.

Pete's bike leaned against a kilometer marker in the middle of the wilderness. The land takes back everything eventually, as seen here with the moss encroaching on the reflector.

A rest break on the Tarkine did not include shade. Just nuts and dried fruit in the middle of the road. That was about the best we could do. Here we're stopped close to the Balfour turn-off, a road leading to an abandoned mining town with hulks of rusted out equipment and boarded up store fronts.

We camped on the Donaldson River after our first full day in the Tarkine. I was knanckered--beyond comprehension tired, actually. I lost my favorite Cateye head light to all the bumps and ruts without even noticing.

I definitely drank un-treated water out of this river. And it was amazing. Best of all, I'm still alive! Most of the wild rivers in Tasmania are fine for drinking...or so my friends have explained.

Towards the end of our second day in the Tarkine, we approached the old mining town of Corrina. Expecting a small hole in the wall visitors center with little to no provisions, we were shocked to find a pub, restaurant and campground at Corrina, where it's necessary to take a barge across the expansive and fast-moving Pieman river. Enjoying a couple Guinness, I played ping pong with Chris until dinner. Setting up our stoves on a picnic table near the river, I don't think our hobo tactics won the goodwill of our friends in Corrina. Hoping to buy a bit of good will by paying for camping, we found ourselves consigned to a rocky slope unfit for tent pegs. Happily, we left Corrina in Pete's rear-view mirror.

Not so happily, we started the day with an 8 k climb up from the Pieman. Fueled by the fact that paved road lay ahead, we determinedly slogged up the hill, one pedal stroke at a time.

And indeed, the gravel met the asphalt some 12 k from Corrina. Beautiful...but bittersweet. Sensing a big piece of our adventure had come to an end, we turned our handlebars towards the silver mining town of Zeehan.

For some of us, though, it was a good thing we hit the asphalt.

The road was a bit tough on Leigh's Specialized Armadillo tires:

Here, the tire tread had torn completely away from the tire casing, leaving an exposed strip of Kevlar that quickly wore away. The road couldn't have come a moment too soon.

Emergin from the Tarkine: Zeehan

Arriving in Zeehan, Bec and Pete decided to head for the Henty Dunes, a section of hard-packed beach sand that was somewhat suitable for bicycle riding. Chris, Leigh and I headed for a spot close to Zeehan recommended by a fellow me met in town. After a couple games of pool at the Zeehan Central Hotel, we headed for the Spray Mine site.

Raining for the first time of the tour, we passed through this tunnel created to carry miners on a tram from the town to the mine entrance.

The exterior workings of the mine were still evident just beside our camp. Chris, the gentleman we met in town, told us he would often go with a group to explore the mines. Bound together as a group of three, if someone fell into a shaft covered by a meter of mud the others could pull him out. "All the rocks around here will be rusty when you get up in the morning," he said. "It's all ore." He was right.

We set up our hobo camp--and our hobo tarp in the shadow of a mountain.

Our last night together was spent camping (somewhat illegally) at People's Park in the oceanside town of Strahan. The night before we left included some amazing banter and insightful comments, alongside other behavior that will just have to left to the imaginations or experiences of those that understand last nights with best friends.

...And then there were two
Stay tuned for the conclusion of the Epic Tasmanian Tour....

Danger!

2010-02-15T04:07:00.000-06:00

A video from Paris illustrating the perils for cyclists....in spite of infrastructure.

Throw-In, Throw Down Results

2010-01-27T03:51:00.000-06:00

The downside of hosting a bicycle polo tournament is that instead of focusing on playing, or in my case playing at all, one has to focus their energy on doing stuff. Like making sure Vive doesn't drink all the beer. Or making sure Sam has first aid for his boo boo. Or telling people to stop acting like monkeys with mallets.

Or making hats for the MVPs.

Now sure, this hat-making nonsense happened the day before the tourney. But I bring it up, in the context of potential burdens for a tourney organizer, mostly because it's the only bit of the whole ordeal I managed to photograph.

This was the fabric, in a lump sum, that I picked up in op-shops early Monday morning. Old shirts, suits and dresses mostly.

This is Scott and Caff, my fearless colleagues in bike hat-manufacturing. You can see how the dynamic of this team goes...

Things did become a bit sweat-shoppy, as evidenced by this photograph of Scott feverishly at work. We labored the whole day through, 11 til 11.

Again, hard at work. This was our prototype, produced early in the day. I think it brings out my eyes.

In the end, I brought the hats from Scott's house back to my place to finish the work. My roommate Emily had a bit of expertise for finishing the hats and by 2:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning, they were ready for action.

Though I completely failed at taking shots of the tournament itself, I did manage to snap a quick photo of the players warming up on the court. Damon and a few others have some photos so stay tuned for the latest. I'll post them here as they become available.

Below are the tournament highlights along with a list of the rules (Adapted from our North American friends) which guided the tournament's structure.

Thanks to everyone who came out and played, barbecued, and shared a laugh!

These are the teams from yesterday’s tournament:
Team 1:
Scott, Melbourne, Captain
Leigh, Melbourne
Sam, Melbourne (Voted MVP)
Benny, Brisbane by way of Melbourne
Liam, Seaford OZ
Daryl, Seaford OZ
Bart, Melbourne
Simon, Seaford OZ

Team 2:
Damon, Melbourne, Captain
Niki, Belgium
Kez, Melbourne
Vive, Melbourne (Voted MVP)
Dan, U.K. by way of Melbourne
James, Seaford OZ
Caff, Melbourne
Thorin, Melbourne

Team 3:
Rob B., Melbourne, Captain
AJ, Melbourne
Rae, Melbourne (Voted MVP)
Tom, Belgium
Chris, Belgium
Maija, Toronto
Wade, Seaford
Will, Brisbane by way of Melbourne

The Day’s Highlights
The first game pitted team 1 against team 2 in a sixty minute bout of pure polo fury. After a fairly even first period, ending with team 2 leading by only two goals, team 2 quickly widened the gap and never looked back. At the end of game one, team 2 was victorious, winning 24 to 13. I would credit team 2’s victory to effective team play; namely, fluid substitutions and the ability to identify which players from their team were well suited to play specific players from team 1.

Game two saw the losing party from game one (team 1) taking on team 3. Again, the game stayed fairly close throughout the first period and a half, but then a lack of morale appeared to hinder team 1’s efforts. Having played polo for almost two straight hours, team 1 was undoubtedlyfatigued. But again, great team combinations from team 3’s bench led them to a 23 to 15 victory over team 1.

The final game saw team 2 and team 3, both victorious over team 1, squaring off in a very close, very exciting 60 minute polo match. The team play was quite good for both sides, and neither had a lead for very long at any point in the game. Defense was especially good, with heart-breaker shots being deflected or blocked at the last minute. The final minutes of the last (third) period were ferocious, with both teams putting forth their best efforts. Fast and carefully close physical play defined the closing minutes of the final match. With Team 2 behind by one goal in the final seconds of the game, a scuffle on Team 3’s end of the court led to a number of dabs and eventually a goal from Team 2. In the final seconds of the final match, Team 2 tied the game: 14 to 14. After a 5 minute break, the sudden death overtime match began: two on two, first goal wins.
Team 3 won the sudden death joust and immediately attacked. A fast and hard shot from team 3 was quickly deflected by team 2’s captain, Damon. After a bit of mid-court scuffling, team 2 took a shot and scored. Within 2 minutes of the start of sudden death, team 2 emerged victorious over team 3: 15 to 14.

Below you’ll find an adapted version of the rules for a Bench Tournament, adapted from the North American fellows preparing for a bench tourney in New York City.

If you have any photos from the day, please post a link in the comments section.

Rules and Regs

Teams
Teams will consist of between 6 and 8 players. Teams can switch players in and out on the fly as long as there are only 3 active on the court at any time.

Game format
There will be three periods of 20 minutes per game. There will be a 2 min break in between periods, during which time each team will change to defend the opposite goal. The clock will stop only when the referee calls a penalty and after goals are scored.
A tie will result in a game restart with standard
“joust,” but teams play 2 on 2 in sudden death. Whichever team scores first gets 2 points, losers get 1 point.

Mallets
Mallets and bikes must not have dangerous protrusions (bolts sticking out, jagged edges, etc), and must be capped on the handle/handlebars.

Helmets
Helmets are required. There’s also plenty of other safety equipment out there. So don’t complain about your little fingers getting booboos when you could be wearing
gloves.

Goals
Shots must come off the business end of the mallet, unless a defensive player shuffles (or deflects off their mallet) into their own goal. They can deflect off any number of wheels, bikes or walls. Shots that deflect off a teammate’s body are considered shuffles.
Shuffles do not count unless you are shuffling into your own net. That is an own-goal, and for this tournament you’ll have at least 5 other people pissed at you for doing this, instead of the standard 2.
After a goal is scored, both teams will have a chance to switch players. The referee will whistle to begin play.

Half court will be given to scored-on team: play starts when ball or scored-on player crosses half court.

If goal gets accidentally moved a referee will fix it. Play does not stop.

Rules and Penalties
The following section is set up to first present the rule, immediately followed by the penalty (along with a description of the penalty where necessary).

Rule: Footdown
Do not put your stupid foot on the ground. Also, touching the ball or your mallet with your foot while it’s not on your pedal is considered a footdown.

Penalty: Tapout
Hit your mallet on the cone at either midcourt location. If you miss it, you need to circle back and hit it right, or you will still be out. If you go back to bench instead of tapping out, you will not be required to tap in when re-entering game.

Rule: Delay of game
Remaining active after a foot down results in a delay of game penalty. Having too many active players on the court is also a delay of game.

Penalty: Ball turnover
For delay of game penalties, the ball is given to the non-offending team exactly the way possession is granted after a goal is scored. Both teams are allowed to switch players during this time. After the referee blows the whistle to signal
start of play, the penalized team will wait until the other team either crosses mid-court with a player or the ball.

Important: some penalties will result in either a one or two minute Power Play. A Power Play requires the offending team to play with only two players for either one or two minutes while the offended team can continue playing with three players. If the offending team within the current power play incurs a second penalty resulting in a second power play, the offending team will be required to play with only one player throughout the duration of the initial offense.

Power Play Penalties
The One Minute Power Play
This is for when players are intentionally breaking rules (slashing, roughing, interference) or accidentally being reckless (most hooking and high sticking). When the referee sees one of these rules broken and the offending team has possession of the ball, (s)he will whistle to stop play and call it immediately. Play will stop while that player exits to the bench (the penalized player cannot play for the entire minute, while the rest of the team can switch out players as necessary as long as they only have two players on the court). If the innocent team has the ball when the penalty occurs, the ref will raise his arm for a delayed call. He will wait until the rule-breaking team gets possession to blow the whistle and make the call (this is called a delayed penalty, it’s so the innocent team doesn’t have to slow their roll.

The only time the call will be waived off is if the innocent team has the ball while being say, slashed or roughed or whatever, and ends up scoring before the other team possesses the ball. After the call is made, the teams will be playing 3 on 2 for that whole minute unless the innocent team scores during the power play, at which time the rule-breaking team can go back to using 3 players (including the original rule-breaker).

Typically, a warning will precede a power play penalty call. Warnings will be issued only once.

Rule: Hooking or holding
This includes hooking an opponents bike or person with your mallet, or holding something you shouldn’t with your hand (handlebar, elbow, mallet etc.). “Chicken winging,”
or holding someone back with your elbow is a penalty. Hooking the crook of an opponents’ elbow with your own elbow while they are holding the handlebars may cause your opponent to crash. This will earn you a one-minute penalty.
Penalty: One Minute Power Play

Rule: Roughing
Hitting someone in the back, hitting someone above the shoulders, or punching or kicking someone pretty much anywhere is considered roughing. T-boning and just riding right into someone regardless of whether they have the ball is roughing. You big goon.
Penalty: One minute Power Play

Rule: Slashing
Please don’t hit anyone anywhere at anytime with your mallet. If it bumps into their legs or bike it’s fine, but if you take a swipe at the ball and it ends up on someone’s spokes or fingers, it will be called. Chopping mallets is allowed, however if you accidentally hit someone’s finger or bicycle a penalty will be called. You can defensively hook an opponent’s mallet, lift it, or hold their mallet down with your own mallet.
Penalty: One minute power play

Rule: Unsportsmanlike conduct
Throwing your mallet (or dropping it in a conveniently bad place), being an asshole to the referee, etc…
Penalty: One minute Power Play

Note: “The Two Minute Power Play Penalty” is saved for slashing that draws blood, roughing that causes substantial injury, or malleting that causes a lot of bike damage. Pretty much any call can be extended to 2 minutess if considered severe enough.

This is reserved for slashing or roughing calls that draw blood or otherwise serious injuries (up to the refs discretion- if you get little cuts on your leg or hand from random shit and you’re not wearing appropriate gloves or padding, you will be mocked for being a big baby). This will be served just like the one min penalty, but that player will have to be out for 2 minutes.

The Location of the Throw in, Throw Down Tourney

2010-01-19T19:14:00.000-06:00

View Fishmarket Arena in a larger map

A bridge has been built on Footscray Rd. just in front of the Fishmarket. We will play under this bridge.

New Pedal Power posts will appear beneath this post until after the tournament. Scroll down a bit for more bicycle musings.

Drop me a line for more info.

Passion

2010-01-18T19:15:00.001-06:00

I've spoken with a few people from Toronto in the past couple months and almost all of them know Igor Kenk. Some actually found a bike (at one time, their own) in the stacks of Kenk's pantheon of stolen rides.

What a strange combination of enthusiasm for the bike, twisted bike theft nightmare, and serious doco formality.

The video tells a compelling story about the love amongst people in North America for their bicycles, and the vision these bike freaks maintain in the face of increasing environmental concern. Oh, and it also describes a maniacal bike theft magnate who often employed the mentally ill to do his dirty work.

While I haven't found the whole film on line, you can view a snippet from "Pedal Power" here. This brief section details our Western European-bicycle-culture-crown-jewels.

Perhaps a problem with the approach to the bicycle in North America, as seen here in this Canadian documentary, is that it's an approach laced with evident passion. The average person does not and probably will not feel as passionate about riding a bicycle as the average North American bike nut. But that does not mean said average person is passionless about neighborhoods and cities that boast a hospitable bicycle culture.

So I'm not sure the last bit, about how, "the outburst over lost bikes (Igor Kenk stole them!) revealed just how passionate cyclists are about their rides. That passion is now fueling a global grassroots bike revolution, that's threatening a car, and will transform the future of transportation."

This "passion for our rides" may in fact be the sort of "fetishism" (to alter a phrase borrowed from Mikael Colville Andersen) with personal transport to which the average person is unlikely to relate.

For example, bike theft in Copenhagen or Amsterdam is a familiar part of life. In-convenient but often un-avoidable, bike theft plagues these bike culture capitals. But because bicycles are so common, it's easy to find another one...and few are deeply upset about losing their city bike. Because if the Danes and Dutch have a nice bike (and heaps of them do!), it lives inside and gets the double lock treatment when it ventures out.

A passion for bicycles will take us a long way. But can it in fact "fuel a grassroots bike revolution?"

Commitment

2010-01-14T19:50:00.000-06:00

Among the many things my travels have shown me, I have seen that a goodly number of my American bike friends simply don't believe the United States can create world class bicycle cultures.

Now, you may know I'm from Memphis. Memphis. The place where we travel 26 miles per day in a car (see page 4D-1); the town that didn't have a single mile of bike lane until three years ago...You know, it's that southern city voted among the three worst places for bicycling in the United States.

Memphis.

Now, my friends and family have remained steadfast in reminding me why the City of Memphis is so far behind for bikes, so I've become well-versed in the arguments about why we'll never be a world class bike city.

Bike lanes are expensive. Our cities are already strapped for cash, and in the current fiscal crisis why should we expect our political leaders to designate money for bicycle infrastructure? It simply costs too much.

Fortunately, this is a myth. Bicycles are always the winner in a cost benefit analysis, as our friends at Bicycle Victoria show us here.

Even the Copenhagen style lanes recently installed on Swanston St. in Melbourne, at a cost of $550,000 AUD for approximately 2 kilometers, is still a fraction of the cost required to create a similar stretch of car lane (see above link). Given that bicycle lanes have the capacity to accommodate up to 8 times more users per unit of land used than do car lanes, a simple cost/benefit analysis shows that bicycle infrastructure is the more fiscally prudent expenditure per person. And I didn't even mention the revenue generated by savings on public health costs.

But maybe you've heard this one: the distances are too great in the United States. We'll never be able to get where we need to go on a bike because we simply have too far to go. Actually, 40% of trips made in America are less than 2 miles, and 80% of these trips are done in a personal motor vehicle. Think about our Western world bicycle models, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Approximately 37% of all trips made in these cities each day are done on a bicycle. If Americans focused on taking the bike for the short trips--the trips of 2 miles or less--our cities might boast bicycle commuting numbers similar to those of Western Europe's bike culture crown jewels.

Now I know you've heard this one: it's the weather. It's too hot, or too cold, or too rainy to expect people will ever use the bicycle for a commute. I mean, you people in Memphis are freezing right now, right? 17 degrees Fahrenheit a couple days ago (-8 Celsius)? While it would be foolish to argue that the average person enjoys riding a bicycle in freeing rain, many studies conclude that weather has less of an impact on ridership than is speculated. None of the studies go so far as to say weather is not important. In fact, 33% of Copenhageners report that rainy days are the most influential factor in their decision to take the bus (see page 12). Still, weather is not an impenetrable barrier to the creation of bicycle cultures.

But still...it's dangerous to ride a bike in traffic. Those drivers out there--they're just out of control. And the drivers in (insert your city name here) are the absolute worst! How can I be expected to jeopardize life and limb just so I can ride a bike...and for God's sake it's 17 degrees Fahrenheit?!

Unfortunately, a large part of the problem in America is traffic safety. The average person does not feel safe riding their bicycle on an American roadway...even over a distance of 2 miles. As scholars John Pucher and Lewis Dijkstra report, "the neglect of pedestrian and bicycling safety in the United States has made these modes dangerous ways of getting around. Pedestrian fatalities are 36 times higher than car occupant fatalities per km traveled, and bicycling fatalities are 11 times higher than car occupant fatalities per km."

Perhaps at this point, we can call upon on an old Danish fisherman's adage to frame the way we might deal with this substantial barrier to bicycle riding: "there's no such thing as bad weather," the saying goes, "just bad clothes."

More than a cheeky, "suck-it up" catch phrase from some smarty-pants Dane, the phrase reflects a commitment and determination to find solutions to seemingly built-in barriers and contextual limitations.

The problem of safety, as with many of the other barriers listed above, is not a permanent feature of urbanized human civilization. It can, in fact, be overcome through a commitment to creating safe bicycle cities. In a paper released this past year, Pucher and his co-authors Jennifer Dill and Susan Handy report "Berlin, for example, almost quadrupled the number of bicycle trips between 1970 and 2001 and doubled the bicycle share of trips from 5% in 1990 to 10% in 2007. In spite of the sharp rise in bicycling, serious injuries in Berlin fell by 38% from 1992 to 2006. In only six years, the bicycle share of trips within the City of Paris more than doubled from 1% in 2001 to 2.5% in 2007. The bicycle share of trips in Bogota (Colombia) quadrupled from 0.8% in 1995 to 3.2% in 2006. The total number of bicycle trips in London doubled between 2000 and 2008, while bicyclist injuries fell by 12% over the same period. Amsterdam raised the bicycle share of trips from 25% in 1970 to 37% in 2005; serious bicyclist injuries fell by 40% between 1985 and 2005. From 1995 to 2003, the bicycle share of trips in Copenhagen rose from 25% to 38% among those aged 40 years and older. Yet, there was a 60% decline in serious injuries."

In short, not only is it possible to get more people on bicycles more often, but making bicycle travel a tenable possibility for the average person creates safer road conditions in urban areas. As for domestic numbers, this site shows us that Minneapolis, one of the coldest urban areas in the U.S., almost doubled it's mode share from 2007-2008.

So how did they do it? How did these cities across the globe, from a variety of cultures and over a slew of geographical landscapes, make bicycle use a tangible possibility for their populace?

Pucher's paper attempts to answer this question. He points to dozens of strategies from around the globe that have been used to increase bicycle travel. Have a look...I found it quite refreshing to see so many different kinds of strategies all presented together, explained in detail and evaluated empirically for their effectiveness.

His conclusions? It wasn't infrastructure, education, or marketing that made the difference. It was, in fact, all of these and none of these factors concurrently.

There can be no silver bullet for creating bicycle cultures, and Pucher warns us against blindly applying the same policy prescriptions in Copenhagen that you would use in Memphis: "the very same infrastructure provision, program, or policy might have different impacts on bicycling in different contexts, making it risky to generalize about the effectiveness of any individual measure."

Pucher confirms what most of us know on a gut level: it's neither bike lanes nor bike tracks nor ride to school programs alone that promise to increase the overall level of bicycling in a city. Rather, it's a commitment to pursuing a variety of context sensitive strategies aimed at making bicycling a possibility for the average person.

It's commitment. And commitment means finding the opportunities within each barrier rather than simply focusing on the barrier itself. Weather, for example, changes. Some days are beautiful for riding a bike while others are abysmal. In Melbourne two days ago it was 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit). Today, it's 19 (66.2).

The point then, and ironically this is perhaps why my American friends have felt challenged by models around the world, is that a commitment to identifying barriers to bike culture growth is perhaps the most important step in sparking that growth.

Educating ourselves about how cities across the globe have used bike tracks, environmental concerns, sharrows, cycling education and bike design manuals to effectively overcome weather patterns, geography, lethargic lifestyles and cultural intolerance to bicycle travel holds the key to the future of bicycle cultures in America.

So while it's important to debate which kinds of interventions work best, I'm contending that it is un-helpful to argue that *some* kind of intervention can create the same kinds of world class bicycle cultures in America found in Copenhagen and Amsterdam.

This differentiation, this distinction between innovation and stagnation, is the difference between cities that have and have not committed to moving by bike.

Milwaukee Bike Polo--Arrested!

2010-01-14T04:14:00.002-06:00

The culprits....

I've really got very little commentary to add to this...just read the stories and enjoy the sheer ridiculous nature of the whole ordeal.

From the MKE Bike Polo site

From the Milwaukee World Blog

A local Fox news story about the arrests:

A fantastic video illustrating the beautiful tragedy of the whole thing:

Polo Badasses from Mr.Do on Vimeo.

The thread from bikepolo.ca

Hilarious.

Throw in, Throw Down

2010-01-06T04:56:00.001-06:00

Get ready, Melbourne.

Dedicated to Hurting Cyclists

2010-01-06T01:12:00.001-06:00

We still have a long way to go, folks.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Theres-a-perfectly-good-path-right-next-to-the-road-you-stupid-cyclist/190080667052?ref=nf

It's disturbing that this page exists in the first place, but it's more disturbing that more than 20,000 people have become fans. Take a second and report the page to the Facebook authorities.

This, for me, reinforces the need for good bicycle infrastructure. When space is designated for bicycles in the roadway, both bikes and cars are encouraged to stay in their place--which means it's less fashionable to tell them to get on the sidewalk or on a shared-use path. And as the bike lanes pile up, drivers become increasingly aware of both the need to drive safely around bicycles and the strategies required to maintain road safety. Still, an increase in bicycle facilities doesn't necessarily mean motorists become more tolerant...In Amsterdam, there were heaps of drivers publicly hating on the bicycle riders.

Another thing also becomes a bit more clear when bicycle infrastructure is created: who is at fault in bike/car collisions. Unless of course you're riding through an intersection in Portland which doesn't have a dashed line that signifies the continuation of a bike lane.

Keep those wheels turning...and don't forget to shake them haters off.

Polo Manual

2009-12-25T19:57:00.003-06:00

I think this film nails the beauty of bike polo cultures and polo people. I had the great pleasure of spending time in London playing polo with many of these fine folks. Cheers to them!

Enjoy:

polo manual from blunt films on Vimeo.

Critical Mass, Melbourne

2009-12-17T05:33:00.001-06:00

One of the more interesting parts of my trip has been looking for the ties that bind bicycle cultures. The differences between bike cultures are often quite clear: the Dutch and Danish often use single speed bikes with 28" wheels, while Australians tend to prefer the more sporty road and mountain bikes. In Denmark, people follow the traffic rules. In the Netherlands, they tend to be a bit more lawless. Australia has bike lanes, Europe has separated bike paths.

But in all of these places you will find a truly global phenomenon, a piece of cycling culture whose birth is attributed to San Francisco; it's a slice of bicycle life that is almost always sure to raise people's blood pressure...Whether they're arguing its merits or liabilities, Critical Mass is known and practiced in countries around the world.

In my experience, cyclists tend to love the mass or they hate it. A generalization? Sure. But it's worth taking an informal poll amongst both your cycling and non-cycling friends. My guess is you probably won't find many people riding the fence.

What happened in New York in 2004 is helpful in explaining why cyclists are so divided on the Mass. In August of 2004, New York bicyclists took to the streets on the last Friday of that month--as they had for six years before--but this time the reaction from police was different. The Republican National Convention was being held in New York over that weekend, and the police were instructed to maintain higher than normal levels of security. What followed was nothing short of a small riot.

I found a few videos documenting the events of 24 August, 2004. This first video is a bit slow, but if you scroll to 5 minutes you can see immediately why this particular Mass became critical.

This second video is a bit intense, but it captures a poignant few minutes of what would prove to be years of drama.

Finally, a movie was made about the August 2004 mass and the ensuing court battles:

http://www.stillweridethemovie.com/

You can watch the whole movie on You Tube. It lasts about 37 minutes, but you've got to take it 10 minutes at a time.

Jeff Mapes spends a considerable amount of time talking about New York and it's significance in his book, Pedaling Revolution. I sent the book back home months ago, so I'll leave it to you, Gentle Reader, to read his interviews with participants and police. He presents a very balanced perspective on what happened, why it happened, and what it means for riders across the United States.

My own experiences with the Mass in Memphis included more police than I cared to meet. In the summer of 2002, we staged what I think was Memphis' first critical mass ride. We had roughly 30 riders on the road--one actually had a bike dressed as a dinosaur!--but before we'd been riding half an hour the police had descended upon us. I, and about a half dozen others, were rounded up and put into squad cars while the officers scanned their law books frantically looking for a charge. In the end, no charges were filed and we were released on our own recognizance. That was the last Critical Mass I helped to organize.

I rode in a couple of mass rides in Memphis in 2008, but they were neither critical nor massive. The rides topped out at 8 riders.

So when talk of the Melbourne mass began swirling around in Mid-November, I was intrigued. I wondered how the mass here might be different than the mass back home.

In a sort of freak coincidence, I took an unusual route home from downtown (where I had just had a MRI on my hip, no less!) and ran smack into a crew of Critical Mass promoters. I went along with them as they hung up fliers and scratched advertisements onto the pavement with sidewalk chalk.

Soon the Mass itself was upon us. I rolled up to the library to find hundreds and hundreds of people gathered in front of the Melbourne library on a fine spring afternoon. They were gathering for what would be one of the biggest bicycle rides I would ever be a part of.

We rode through most of the main streets in Melbourne's Central Business District, corking intersections, raising a raucous and thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

Cyclists were spread out in a long line as far as I could see--both to the front and the back.

When we got to Flinders St., a main thoroughfare through the heart of downtown, the riders all held their bikes high above their heads and cheered. It was a glorious moment. Motorized traffic waited while cyclists had their moment in the sun. Literally.

Now, typically the mass doesn't stop for lights. Bicyclists plug the intersections with their bikes and bodies, blocking all on-coming traffic with nothing but sheer trust and, well, mass. This mass, however, did stop at a number of lights. I later found out that a gentleman named Morgan--from San Francisco no less!--took an impromptu leadership role on the ride. When another rider later asked Morgan why he stopped at the lights, he said "I don't want to piss off motorists. If we're traffic, we should stop at traffic lights and obey the traffic laws." Fair enough. I tend to agree with Morgan. But is the mass still critical if you're obeying all the laws?

I soon learned that this mass was no regular monthly meet-up...this was the 14th birthday of the Melbourne mass! Heaps of riders decorated their bikes with birthday fanfare, some wearing birthday hats on top of their helmets.

As the sun set, the ride's numbers began to taper off. We also gained a police escort...which typically does not happen on Critical Mass rides. My guess is that our complete shutdown of a main intersection on Flinders St. prompted more than one phone call to Johnny law.

As we took the turn of the mass, back south with the City looming on the horizon, I happened upon a tall bike built for six. Yup, s-i-x. The mass is often dubbed "a party on wheels," and I suppose its hard to imagine anything more like a party on wheels than a bike built for six. It had fun just watching them ride it.

So what's the verdict? Is the mass good or bad? For this blogger, it depends on the city. Relations between the police and bicyclists ought to be amicable, certainly, and riders should be aware that critical mass is about fun--not advocacy. The argument has been made that the mass is actually detrimental to the creation of bicycle infrastructure. It often antagonizes policy makers and the public rather than winning the hearts and minds. I found this out when a rider forced me into a parked car, where my rubber grip just barely grazed a driver's side door. "You mut...." was all I heard before we had moved on, but I'm almost certain he was going to use adult language.

Frankly, I'm not sure everyone appreciates the general feeling of liberation and (sometimes) lawlessness exuded by Critical Massers. In fact, I think some resent the idea that anyone in society can be allowed to disrupt what appears to be the orderly nature of civic life. Critical Mass, for Suzie Housecoat, is one step away from total chaos, a world where dogs and cats are sleeping together....

But for others, it's an amazing experience on two wheels, a spontaneous instance of community perhaps un-matched by almost anything else in Modern life.

What is Critical Mass for you?