A little worried about this guy

I truly hope he gets some good counsel and doesn't do something tragically stupid in the next few days.

Fat tires and float

I'm having a lot of fun trying the Urbana Bike bicycle. I hope to have an initial review on Commute By Bike in the next day or two.

Those ultra fat 2.6 inch tires on the Urbana suggest to me that they might "float" wonderfully on the snow, and Urbana confirmed for me that the tire was designed with the year round, all weather commuter in mind. Urbana is based in Montreal, Quebec, and Montreal this time of year means snow.

I want to test this out, but we don't exactly have an abundance of snow in Santa Cruz. I tried a reasonable analog: Beach Sand. Conditions this last weekend were 70 degrees and sunny at the beach, a perfect opportunity to test these tires.



As you can see, the blue waters of Monterey Bay look very inviting. Furthermore, the tire "floats" over the sand just fine. I didn't photograph myself on the dry, less compact sand away from the water because I was more concerned about keeping in control, but I can still ride and control the bike in the soft sand.

Unfortunately, for my return trip home, I discovered another type of float these tires excel at - the tires are too fat to fit into the tire slot on bus bike racks, so they sit right on top of the slot!



The bus driver won't let me mount the bike like this, but I eventually found a solution to this problem. If I deflate the tires partially down to about 10 PSI (recommended minimum is 20 PSI), I can jam the tires into place. They're wedged in pretty good, so some effort is required to pull them back out at your destination.



At 10 PSI, these balloon tires are still ridable, though you risk pinching the tube on curbs and bumps and the front tire squirms like crazy. You also need noticeably more effort to make the bike go with the tires so squishy.

If you frequently bring your bike on the bus, you might consider swapping out to a skinnier tire. The Nid De Poule tires otherwise perform surprisingly well, with good rolling resistance and superior shock absorption because of their big air volume.

I discovered another cool feature in Santa Cruz last weekend -- a pair of pedestrians crossed against the light directly in front of me, so I squeezed brakes and the rear tire emitted a satisfyingly loud heart stopping screech. The walkers yelped in fear and clutched their chests in response as they jumped back to the sidewalk. I really hate the idea of generating fear like a car, but I have to admit to a certain visceral satisfaction when I saw the look of terror on their faces. I'll repent of that later.

If you want the Nid De Poule, you have to buy the bike from Urbana -- it's not available for sale individually. Steve tells me, though, that Schwalbe's Fat Frank tire might be similar.

Bike ride with Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn

Streetfilms Clarence Eckerson joins Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn on his morning commute.

Video: NYC Ice Biking

Sydney and Pat riding their bikes (on road slicks while holding a camera!) on snow covered streets in Brooklyn. Good times!



How much icebiking did you try during last week's Snowmageddon?

Speaking of winter, Byron of Bike Hugger is up in Vancouver for the Winter Olympics, where he's snapping photos of bikes on the street while trying hard not to be too snarky with the Canadian border control officials.

SLO man recovers stolen bike in Santa Cruz

A San Luis Obipso man who had two high-end mountain bikes stolen did a little detective work of his own and found one of the missing bicycles listed for sale on craigslist by a Santa Cruz man.

21-year-old Jordan Scott of Santa Cruz was allegedly offering the stolen Specialized SX 9-speed red mountain bike on craigslist for $1,100. It's valued at $4,000.

More in the Santa Cruz Sentinel: A stolen bike, a sketchy ad, a police sting, an arrest.

Katie Holden

Katie Holden races mountain bikes for a living. When she's not racing bikes or attending college or working at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, she lives just a couple of doors down from me.

That is all. More about Katie here. Her Bio, where she explains how she got into cyclist, is pretty cool.

Bike theft and vigilantism

Don't steal bikes, Bro.

Some bike messengers last month took justice into their own hands when they caught two suspected thieves, teenage boys who attended a local Catholic high school. According to police, the messengers stripped down the teens to their boxer shorts before taking their cellphones, backpacks and clothes.

More in LA Times Blog: L.A. sees big jump in bike thefts, prompting some vigilante justice.

Four train wrecks per day

A reminder for you that the scale of the tragedy in Belgium occurs four times a day, every single day of the year, on U.S. roads and highways. I'm not denying that this isn't newsworthy and that mass transportation shouldn't be safer, but I would like to inject a little perspective into it.

Elsewhere

Bicleta Bandita takes the lane on Mission Street Santa Cruz and discovers it's not so bad.

Jim Langley reviews a new book about Major Taylor. Biking Bis also looked at this book a short time back.

Fruitvale BART: Tour de Taco, Saturday, February 20th at 11:00.

Bay Guardian: "$840 a year to ride Muni? Save your cash -- buy a bike!"

Riding Pretty Tweed Limerick.

Take the lane legal victory in Columbus, Ohio.

Nitwit Illinois politician protests safe driving and saving lives.

Kate Hudson, yet again, on a bicycle.

Blue bike in Little China

Grant Street, San Francisco, California. My family and I wandered around Chinatown last weekend.



The Chinese New Year began yesterday and celebrations will continue through the end of February. This east Asian Lunar festival is also celebrated by the Vietnamese as Tet, and also by the Koreans, Mongolians, Tibetans and Bhutanese. The Japanese celebrate the Western New Year on January 1.

Happy New Year, Happy Presidents Day, and a belated Happy Valentines Day.

How to make miso soup

You need these ingredients.

• Miso paste. Unless you live near an Asian market or a well stocked organic foods store (e.g. Trader Joe's or Whole Foods), miso paste can be difficult to find. Miso paste is available for ordering online, but because the product is perishable it must be shipped overnight.
  
  
• Fresh Japanese style tofu. Chinese tofu doesn't taste "right" to me in miso soup, but if that's what you prefer then go for it. Use "firm" or "extra firm" tofu. Some of the freeze dried tofu can work in a pinch, but fresh is much better. Fresh tofu seems to be pretty widely available in the United States. Some tofu I've bought in the Midwest has an "off" flavor to me; YMMV.
  
  
• Wakame seaweed. This comes dried in plastic bags and is marked in English as "WAKAME SEAWEED." If you go to the really ethnic place you might need to look at the English language sticker placed by the importer on the back of the bag. You can buy online if there's no Asian grocery nearby and you don't mind paying the outrageous prices. A little dab will do you -- a tiny shriveled piece expands in water to about five times in size. Just add three or four pieces per serving.
  
  Wakame isn't strictly necessary, but it's nice to have for texture and traditional miso generally uses it. Other dried seaweeds can also be used. Just don't use nori (sushi seaweed).
  
  
• Dashi. Dashi is the dead fish broth that gives Japanese food its distinctive flavor. I and pretty much the entire population of Japan use instant Hon Dashi which is in the red capped jar in the above photo. Many American object to the MSG content of instant dashi, however (it's the number 2 ingredient, right behind salt), so you can also roll your own the old fashioned way by boiling kombu (kelp) and moldy sardines like my grandmother used to do, and get your monosodium glutamate the all natural way.
  
  My hands down favorite soup stock for miso soup was when my grandmother boiled up a mess of clams in her kitchen and used the juice for the soup. That was wonderful. For the vegans, another soup stock I really like comes from simmering dried shiitake mushrooms.

Optional ingredients might include chopped scallions (green onion), chopped mushrooms, different kinds of seaweeds, and even meat, fish and shellfish chunks.

---

To make miso soup, start some water (or your homemade dashi stock) simmering in a sauce pan and add cubed tofu, wakame seaweed and instant dashi - I use a scant 1 tsp of powdered dash for 2 cups of water. Add the other optional ingredients such as vegetables and meats, but reserve the miso paste for last.

After the soup is heated through and the dried ingredients are reconstituted (2 or 3 minutes), remove from heat and stir the miso paste in -- about 1 Tablespoon for each 2 cups of water. Miso paste is added last because the delicate flavor can dissipate with prolonged exposure to heat. Serve the soup as soon as the paste has dissolved.

Miso soup is so simple to make I don't know why instant miso soup is even available. I'll toss the ingredients in a little baggy and bring it to work, where I'll add hot water and mix in a bowl for a quick and inexpensive "instant" lunch.

SF2G in the news

SF2G is the group of cyclists who ride the 42 miles from San Francisco to the Google campus in Mountain View.

Murph mentioned this the other day, that somebody from the Examiner talked to a few SF2G riders. You can see the infamous bikes-on-sidewalk photo in the Examiner article about SF2G.

P.S. Happy Valentines Day.

P.P.S. Happy Chinese New Year.

Ed van der Elsken and bicycles

Ed van der Elsken was a Dutch photographer and film maker. Naturally, one of his favorite subjects was of people riding bicycles (and motorcycles) in Amsterdam.



Translated from Rad Spannerei:

Ed van der Elsken (March 10, 1925 in Amsterdam, † December 28, 1990 in Edam) was a Dutch photographer and filmmaker.

His work was exhibited in the early 1950s at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. Throughout his life he used the city streets as his stage, and photographed the lives played out there. He was interested in the interaction between humans and the environment. He began his professional training as a sculptor, but he turned to photography after the Second World War.

The black and white film from 1965 shows Fietsen cyclists from Amsterdam.

Nid de poule

Montreal's Urbana Bikes comes stock with these huge 2.6 inch "Nid de poule" balloon tires.



My French is very weak, so I translated this literally: "chicken's nest." I asked the folks at Urbana (they're in Montreal) what it means, and it's the French idiom for pothole. The idea is that tire effortlessly rolls through potholes; the design and name of this tire was "inspired by our crumling infrastrucure here in Monteal," according to Urbana.

The recommended pressure for this tire ranges from 20 to 40 psi. At a low PSI these look like they would float fairly well on deep snow, though the slicks might be less than ideal. I'll try these on the beach in Santa Cruz to see how well they roll.

Watch for a first look of the Urbana bicycle coming soon at Commute By Bike.

Free road side assistance with bike rental

Props to NY Times travel writer Tanya Mohn for this news...

Rent A Bike Now, a bicycle rental network in the United States and Canada, has partnered with the Better World Club for free bicycle roadside assistance when you rent a bike for more than a day through the RentABikeNow website. The free roadside assistance is a limited time offer.

RentABikeNow partners with local bike shops in over 200 North American cities to provide a single point of contact to find bike rental information. The Better World Club is an auto service club that also offers "towing" assistance to cyclists by transporting them up to 30 miles.

See details here.

Texting, driving, and Lake Wobegon

Do you have a story of a near hit by a texting driver? Please post it in the comments.

If you're an above average driver, this is for you.

Yesterday on KGO Radio (a San Francisco AM talk radio station), the mid morning talk show took listener calls for their thoughts on Oprah Winfrey's crusade to discourage texting while driving.

The phoned in comments were an eye opener for me, to say the least. The first call came from a 24 year old in Woodside (natch). "I grew up with all this amazing technology, and because these old people can't handle it I am not allowed to use it!" he whined. ( ...and they say cyclists are entitled.... ) "I text while driving and I've never had an accident," he continued.

Caller after caller complained about California's anti-texting law. Even those who acknowledged the danger of texting while driving confessed they wouldn't sign Oprah's no texting pledge because they don't plan to give it up. "I'm perfectly safe texting while driving," was a common sentiment. "Just because those other idiots can't handle the technology doesn't mean I'm dangerous."

Let me clue you in on a little known fact: Almost every driver considers themselves above average, but we clearly cannot all be above average. Just like the above average children of Lake Wobegon, your superior driving skills and mine are fiction.

Overestimating our driving skills results in less caution and awareness on the roads, and the callers who claim to drive safely while texting are a perfect example of this lack of caution. It reminds me so much of some of my college pals who claimed they were safer driving drunk than they were driving sober. The truth is they just didn't realize how dangerous their driving was because they were so out of it!

People who text and drive are not aware of how dangerous their driving is because they're not even paying attention! You don't notice that you just ran a red light, because everybody else in the cross street slammed on their brakes as you plowed on through. You don't notice that you've drifted halfway into the next lane over, and the driver in that lane had to take evasive action to avoid the collision.

I see this stuff all the time in the Bay Area - drivers (all of them above average, I'm sure) who barely avoid killing somebody and don't even realize that they were just inches from a major accident. I wonder how many of these hit and runs of cyclists and pedestrians are motorists who blithely run over somebody without realizing it and then puzzle over the body damage on their car a week later. They probably assume they were the victim of a parking lot scrape.

In case you haven't heard, studies reveal that texting is at least as dangerous as driving drunk.

• Car & Driver did a comparison, and saw reaction times while texting are worse than driving over the limit.
  
• University of Utah found texting is more dangerous than DUI. And that same study shows that texting is even more dangerous than talking.
  
• Motorists who text while driving are six times more likely to crash than those who don't. If you believe you're a safe driver while texting, you're lying to yourself.
  
• If you believe your youth is an advantage, watch this video of teens, "very experienced texters," who crashed their cars in a driving simulator. Sadly, the teens participating in the study still believe they can get away with text while driving. "Usually I have enough time to react, so I'm not worried about it."
  
  
  
  
• Here's a bus driver in San Antonio who rear ended an SUV while texting. [Caution: He says a lot of very naughty words.] I don't know how old driver Adrian Perez is, but I'm guessing he's under 30. Adrian is the reason truck and bus drivers are now banned from texting while on the job.
  
  
  
  
• I know graphic "scared straight" presentations are ineffective -- the people (and by "the people" what I really mean is "you") who this is targeted to don't think this applies to them (when I write "them" what I really mean is "you") -- but I'll post this one from the UK anyway. This isn't the complete video but I can't find the rest of the series at the moment.
  
  

Summary:

• You probably are not an above average driver.
  
• You are not as safe as you think you are when you text

HTH. I need to run and cook dinner now (I'm typing this up on Thursday night) so I don't have time to elaborate on why this is so important to cyclists. Please feel free to comment with your own thoughts, experiences with near hits, and news local to you where a cyclist was killed or maimed by a texting driver.

Health insurance choices and cycling

I begin new employment next Monday, and my my new employer offers a choice of health plans through three different providers: Health Net, United Healthcare, and Kaiser Permanente.

Each of these health insurance companies have slightly different features: HMO vs PPO, physician and facility locations, my out of pocket expense (premiums, copays and deductibles) and so forth. I'll pretend that corporate sponsorship of professional cycling will also fit into my decision.

Health Net sponsored a U.S. professional cycling team for six years with Maxxis, supporting a number of young American (US and Canadian) cyclists. Tyler Farrar got his professional start with Health Net. Other familiar names who raced for this team include John Murphy, Rory Sutherland, Jeff Louder and Ryder Jesjedal. The team consistently won races in the USA Cycling race calendar.


When Health Net dropped out of cycling in 2008, their team became Teach OUCH for a while, and this year United Healthcare picked up sponsorship. The 2010 UHC-Maxxis team are Rory Sutherland, Bradley White, Roman Kilun, Karl Menzies, Andrew Pinfold, Tim Johnson and Chris Baldwin. Besides a number of USA Cycling Races throughout North America, UHC will race in the Tour of California coming up this May.

Kaiser Permanente seems to be a little more low key and local in their sponsorship, supporting a handful of club and shop teams such as Team Oakland and local community events like the The Moonlight Classic night time bike ride coming up this July in Denver, Colorado. Besides that, I think their advertising showing cycling as a positive, mainstream activity and mode of transportation absolutely rules.



If all other things are equal (and they're not at all), which corporate sponsorship do you like the best? Health Net's record of professional cycling in the past, UHC's current sponsorship, or Kaiser Permanente's "feel good" local support of events and clubs?

Bicycle Philosophy

If this isn't on that list of pithy quotes about bicycles by famous people, it should be.

"Nothing motivates me to ride like a new set of wheels."

That, and a cool new jersey. I'll see you after lunch.

Dear Kate: Use a skirt clip

Actress Kate Hudson struggles to stay covered as her dress billows while she rides an Electra Super Deluxe bicycle.



She needs to take a tip from my pal Reese and use a garter with a clip to keep her skirt in place.

The big pole sticking out front holds a camera that's pointed right at her face. She was filming a cycling scene for a new movie "Earthbound" in New Orleans the other week. The Daily Mail has more photos and commentary.

Kate also appears riding this Electra bicycle in the February 8 issue of Star magazine.

2010 Tour of California: Tunitas Creek, La Honda, and Bonny Doon

Stage 3 Route: San Francisco to Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz race to end at Beach Boardwalk.

The pro cyclists racing in the 2010 Tour of California will enjoy some of the best road cycling in the Bay Area when they ride the signature climbs of San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties on May 12.

The race will start at 11:15 AM on Ocean Beach in San Francisco. Assuming the highway hasn't washed into the Pacific Ocean by then, the racers cycle south on Highway 1, hanging a left after Half Moon Bay to climb Tunitas Creek Road and past the Tunitas Creek Bike Hut in a near carbon copy of the 2009 Stage 2. After skirting past the bicycle friendly community of Woodside, they ride past La Honda and Pescadero as they return to the Coast Highway.

Another climb up Bonny Doon Road south of Davenport takes the cyclists into the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains, before the cyclists turn onto Empire Grade Road for the thrilling, 60+ mph descent past the UCSC campus into Santa Cruz. Here's the view coming down Empire Grade.



Unlike last year, the racers will continue straight on Bay Street to West Cliff Drive for a finish at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, which will be really cool, I think. Local Santa Cruz organizers were concerned about the railroad tracks in the street next to the Boardwalk, so I'm glad they have something worked out for this.

Elsewhere:

• Amgen Tour of California Stage 3 details and description.
  
• 2010 Stage 3 Map.
  
• 2010 Stage 3 Elevation Profile.
  
• Santa Cruz viewing locations.
  
• Tour of California Santa Cruz organizing committee.
  
• Santa Cruz Organizing Committee Twitter.
  
• Santa Cruz Organizing Committee Facebook.

Fort Worth Bike Plan approved

Ft Worth bicycle advocates are excited about the city council's unanimous approval of a bike plan that will radically expand the bike infrastructure. This north central Texas city of 700,000 sprawled over 300 square miles in Tarrant, Wise, Parker and Denton Counties plans to expand the bike network 10 fold and otherwise work to encourage bike use.

As Kevin Buchanan of Forthworthology reports:

At last night’s Fort Worth City Council meeting, a mass of bicyclists turned out in support of the Bike Fort Worth plan, which the council would be voting on adopting and implementing. Groups from the newly formed Bike Friendly Fort Worth, the Fort Worth Bicycling Association, and the LMRA Bicycle Club joined individual supporters to express their enthusiasm over the proposal. Supporters took many forms, male and female, from the hipsters to the sports riders to daily commuters to families with kids.

The plan received enthusiastic endorsement from the council, especially Councilmembers Joel Burns and Carter Burdette. Finally, Mayor Moncrief also spoke out strongly in favor of the plan, saying that Fort Worth deserves real transportation alternatives.

The Fort Worth City Council unanimously voted to approve and implement the ambitious Bike Fort Worth bicycle transportation plan. After the vote, there was a standing ovation from the entire council chamber.

Read the details at Forthworthology: City Council unanimously approves Bike Fort Worth plan.

Besides radically expanding the miles of bike lanes and bike paths, some of the more important and useful aspects of the new Ft Worth Bike Plan include:

• Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Program will be created in city government to manage implementation of the bike plan. The city will also designate a Bicycle Coordinator. A citizen Bicycle Advisory Committee will be the liaison providing input to city government on cyclist needs.
  
• Bike Fort Worth website will be created for a one stop shop on bicycling resources in Ft Worth.
  
• Plan performance will be measured through bicycle traffic counts, opinion surveys, and counting miles of paint and pavement.
  
• Bicycle crash data: Bike Plan planners received data from the Ft Worth police on bike crashes, but discovered the data was incomplete and useless for planning purposes. Policies will be changed to provide better, more complete information on bicycle street safety.
  
• Traffic signals: Calibrate signals to detect bikes, road markings directing cyclists to the location of loop detectors, and green phase timing lengthened to give cyclists enough time to cross an intersection.
  
• Bridge design guidelines requiring wide outside lanes when the bridge is one "a proposed bikeway."
  
• Bicycle Parking: Bike racks should accommodate "U" locks and provide two points of contact for a bike frame. Ribbon racks are discouraged. New city government office construction will incorporate bike parking in the design, and showers & lockers will also be designed into new government buildings. Planning & Zoning codes will be modified to include requirements for bike parking in new developments (currently, Ft Worth has no bike parking requirements in the city code).
  
• Bicycle safety education: The city will encourage the school districts serving city residents to provide bike safety education for children. Safe Routes to School program participation will be expanded. A bike map with safety information will be printed. The city will promote bicycling for transportation through events. (Sadly, the onus seems to be on the cyclists to stay safe; there's no mention in the plan on educating motorists on their responsbilities.)
  
• Enforcement: Better enforcement of speed limits, red lights, wrong way riding, and reckless driving & riding. Police will be trained on "the rights and responsibilities of cyclists and motorists." Police will also receive training on common bike / car crash types, and given guidance on crash reports so more detailed data analysis can be done.
  
• Proposed new traffic ordinances include 3 foot passing law, anti dooring law (What?! Texas already doesn't have a law like this? It's in the Uniform Vehicle Code.) No parking in bike lanes. Specific prohibitions on right hook and left cross crashes. Ban sidewalk riding in high pedestrian traffic zones.
  
• Bike fleet for city staff use.

You can read the entire Forth Worth Bike Plan here.