Not that there are penalties for non-compliance, and there a ton of holes in this ordinance proposal, but it’s a start. Realistically, providing bike parking in every building is very onerous, much like mandated seismic retrofit. The latter threatens to bankrupt some building owners, and the former has it’s own issues: real estate in SF is such that there isn’t a broomcloset unspoken for in most buildings downtown. But we’ll get there. Lots of substitutions in the ordinance already.
Beats street parking, I says!

http://sfappeal.com/news/2012/03/supes- … ldings.php

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my initial thoughts on this pack were in a POST in a more general forum category, but this review is very cycling-specific, so i’m putting it here in team lope.

this past weekend, i rode 70 miles from the pittsburg/bayPoint BART station to sacramento for the north american handmade bicycle show. there’s a ride report and a bunch of image dumps for that stuff that i’m not gonna bother linking to. the point is, i needed to have a pack that i could ride that distance with. the distance wasn’t far, and it had next to no climbs on it, but when you’re fully geared down with a pack, it’s an entirely different story, as i would come to find out.

however, the pack itself was AMAZING. first of all, my cargo…

/ 3 pr socks
/ 3 underwear
/ 2 longsleeve tees
/ 2 shortsleeve tees
/ 1 button up shirt
/ 1 tie
/ 1 sweater/jacket thing
/ 1 jacket
/ 1 jean
/ 1 pr sneaks
/ 1 knit cap
/ extra short
/ knee brace
/ bike pump
/ tool pouch
/ tyre
/ headlight
/ flat fender
/ shoe covers
/ TLTC flask, filled with jameson
/ 15" macbook pro, plus power block/cord
/ wacom bamboo tablet and stylus
/ phone charging cord
/ headlight charging cord
/ various small gifts (knife, pens)
/ toothbrush/toothpaste
/ salt/electrolyte pills

that’s actually a lot of shit, but i was there for 4 days and that was packing slim. in fact, the only two things on that whole list that i didn’t use were the knit cap, the button up shirt, the tie, and the knee brace. and those were just in case things anyway. i could have also done without the extra short because i washed the kit i wore and could have worn it back had i not been sick enough to warrant an amtrak trip instead.

so all that shit fit, albeit with only inches to spare, which was the first huge win. and despite the fact that it musta weighed 30 or 40 pounds, it wasn’t really all that uncomfortable. to be honest, i was fucking amazed at that. i thought for sure that with an MBP directly against my back (plenty of padding, but you get my point), and with the time it would take to make the trip, i would be in agony. and while my ass was, my shoulders and back were NOT. it also never threw me off balance, nor did it impede my over-the-shoulder vision, nor did it interfere (too much) with the back of my helmet. to be honest, it wasn’t that big of a deal at all!

now granted, if this had been a trip with climbs, i’m sure i’d feel entirely differently about it. in fact, the weight of the pack and the effort it takes to muscle it through headwinds makes me think that when i go on my solo camping trip, i’m going to need to gear way down. what i’ll likely do is run my standard 77.2 gear inch on the unused side of my hub and kick the used side way down to the high 60s. cause the route i intend to take has a couple of no-bullshit climbs and i don’t want to punk out.

but my point is, this is the first time i’ve ever taken a ride of any significance with actual cargo and i fuckin ROCKED IT thanks to this bag. spacious enough for all you need for a 4-day trip to another city, slim enough to not impede your vision when you turn your head, well-designed enough to not be smacking your helmet against it all the time, and actually quite comfortable. oh, and side note, i can reach around to retrieve and replace the u-lock that it holds (i use a second u-lock for securing my front wheel to my frame these days and that’s what was there – my primary lock is still on my belt).

10/10 CLANKS!

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pretty long one for what it is, but i’m in a hotel room kinda bored and extremely worn out, so there you go.

mid-last year, i found out that the NORTH AMERICAN HANDMADE BICYCLE SHOW was going to be held in sacramento, which is about 100 miles from san francisco, and i immediately decided to go. then about 3 months ago – i decided to RIDE there.

it’s impossible to do the ride directly from san francisco without going such an indirect route that it becomes something like 150 or 200 miles. but you can take BART and do it from anywhere in the east bay. when i first plotted the course, it was from the richmond BART station, and was going to be about 80 miles. but then i found out about another route, from the pittsburg/bayPoint station, which was 10 miles shorter and had far less climbs. now anyone who knows me knows that a 10 mile difference isn’t enough to make me change my mind about a route, nor is a few hundred feet difference in elevation. but a couple things came to mind. one, i was doing this unsupported. and as a result of that, two, i was gonna be carrying all my gear. an 80 mile ride is one thing. an 80 mile ride with a 30 pound pack on is a WHOLE other story. so i opted for the shorter ride.

i posted on my facebook page that myself and a buddy of mine were planning the ride and offered people to join. a friend of mine that i hadn’t seen in several years and her boyfriend wanted to get in, so now we were up to 4. but then my friend who originally helped me plan the trip bailed out in order to do the MASHSF time trial race to NAHBS, which was on saturday. fuck that noise, i don’t ride to compete, and i wanted to stay more than one day. so now we were down to three. and we finished all the planning and got everything sorted and met at the BART station this morning. but when we got there, we found that there was a facebook group who’d also planned to take the ride together – about a dozen of them – and they were all SO fucking cool that we decided to do the ride together.

the group was made up of a number of different types of cyclists. randonneurs, roadies, commuters — just people who really like bikes. there was no attitude, no competition, they were just fun-loving people. some were kitted up, some rocked street clothes, and some rolled as i do — street clothes over top of kits. some had racks and panniers, some had backpacks. some were women and some were men. some were friends and some were strangers. it was amazing. and what was really cool was that MANY of them either currently worked in, or used to work in bike shops. so these were people who knew what the fuck was up with tech, too. VERY fucking cool.

when our trip started, i thought it was going to be the easiest goddamn thing ever. we were on an off-street path for something like 10 miles, no other bicycle traffic, very little people traffic, zero cars, and it rolled and twisted throughout.

it was awesome, except that 5 minutes in, i heard ssISSssISSssISSssISSss… fuck. flat. i wasn’t taking any chances so i changed my tube AND tyre in the fastest tyre change you have EVER seen and we were back on the road.

after that 10 miles or whatever it was, we were on a road alongside traffic and it was still pretty mellow. no climbs, smooth road, wide shoulder, very good for city-to-city distance rides. this lasted about 2 miles or so and then we saw it rising in front of us — the antioch bridge. now this bridge looks pretty ominous, almost like the first hill of a roller coaster, which you clack-clack-clack up until being pitched over the precipice.

(this is the backside of the bridge, after crossing, but you get the point.)

but i quickly noticed something. the antioch bridge is one lane in each direction, with a shoulder that’s got sleeper strips on one side and grates on the other, and the lanes are separated from each other by a 4-foot wall or so — same as what’s on the outside of the shoulder. you’re essentially in a slot-car track, trapped into a 2-foot-wide section of shoulder, and constantly battered by the blasts of wind coming off the semis that are whipping by at 70. inside those walls, those wind blasts are no bullshit. they push you out one second and pull you back in the next. oh wait, did i mention the headwinds? yeah, as you start climbing up the bridge (which isn’t a super significant climb, maybe about 10% or less), you start noticing that as you get out over the water and away from the trees and buildings, the wind is getting greater and greater. by the time you’re midway up, it’s coming at you like you’ve never felt before. everyone was downshifting. everyone but the only person who couldn’t — me. i had no choice. i had to speed up. i pushed and pushed and pushed, sucking wind and struggling as the headwinds held my backpack like i was attached to my starting point with an elastic cord. as i got to the top, i thought i was set. i was going to descend. hahahaha, nope. the headwind was just as bad on the other side. so you know how on a fixed-gear, you have to pedal when you descend cause you can’t coast? well, even the geared people had to pedal down the other side because if you coasted, the headwind would, i shit you not, stop you. you were pedaling DOWNHILL, just to move. and don’t forget, you’re SCARED. you’re trapped and being blasted around and you don’t have much room to move and FUCK THAT. it is NOT for babies. i was out in the front this whole time because i had to be — i have only one speed. when i got to the bottom, i pulled over and turned around and the next nearest person was like 100 yards behind me. and when he pulled over, the next nearest person was 50 yards behind him. we all pulled over and chilled for about 10 minutes, laughing and sharing stories of fear before we moved on. but that headwind was it now. that would be our companion for the next 40 miles.

as we continued along, despite the headwind, we all started to get to know a bit about each other, to goof around, just having a good time. but the road conditions were OBSCENE. there was glass and gravel everywhere. there were sections of shoulder that had started to tear away, leaving 8-inch-wide jagged tears that were up to 20 feet long. there were sleeper strips and foliage and roadkill and just so much shit it was ridiculous.

eventually, we got to roughly the halfway point, where there lies a small frontier town called isleton. i say "frontier town" because it really was. one main street with buildings lining each side that looked as if they were straight out of the 1800s.

we’d heard from one of the town’s AMAZINGLY friendly locals that there was a cafe on the street that made good sammies, so we were in. (i’ve since come to find out from someone else who knows the town that there’s some bomb tamales [bombales?] in the back of the bodega across the way, too, so i’ll be keeping that in mind.) but yeah, seriously, large sandwiches for $5 a piece, made the way you want em, and ice cream for $0.50 a scoop, from one of sacramento’s most famous ice creameries, whose name i don’t recall right now. anyway, we intended to be there long enough to eat and digest, maybe an hour.

and right about 3 minutes before that time, one of the guys’ bikes’ rear tyre just exploded. no warning, it wasn’t even on it’s wheels, it was on it’s side. it just … blew up. so he pulled it off and discovered a missing section of rim tape right over a metal burr. he remedied that and patched the tube and the patch didn’t hold. he replaced the tube and put that on and that exploded. he patched it again and when he was pumping it up, the valve just sheared off. it was the craziest thing any of us had ever seen. FINALLY it was remedied, but this was now two hours of fucking around with it, so we’re now three hours down. NOT COOL. and during this time, i noticed a quarter-inch cut in the sidewall of my tyre. my tyre that i just put on brand new about 30 miles ago. i was getting ready to cut a boot out of the tyre i’d replaced, when one of the guys said he had a $0.25 BART card that i was welcome to, and those things are like kevlar, so i quicky booted my tyre. after all this, we headed off into the last 35 miles and we were pleasantly surprised to find that despite no shoulder, the road conditions were much improved and while there was still headwind, we were able to go at a good clip and knock it out.

by this time, my gear bag was starting to weigh heavy, and my legs were starting to feel the burn. over the next couple hours, i was really in a zone, just turning off the pain and turning over the cranks. at one point, i was ready to call it for 10 minutes and just rest, but i managed to HARDEN THE FUCK UP and make it through. our group had split apart into 3 factions at this point, as the less strong cyclists fell back, the experts shot ahead, and the intermediates … well, fell in the middle. as one of three of the people out front, myself and the two cyclists i was with were able to pull over and have a NICE rest while we waited for the intermediates to catch up. when they did, they said that one of the novices was bonking and another had a flat, and that they had said we should all go ahead. so we did. and as we pulled into sacramento, finally, at 6:15PM, we split off our separate ways to our separate hotels. a funny moment when i checked in was the desk grrl, noting my bike, says, "where did you ride from?" and even though it wasn’t ENTIRELY true, i said "san francisco." and her jaw drops and she looks at me and goes, "really?" "yeah." "WOW." then she checks the computer and goes, "i have a room on the ground floor if you’d like." hahahahahahaha, i thought that shit was awesome. "yes. yes, i’d like that room very much, thank you." so i took a long hot shower, ran to the nearest market and picked up some food for my room’s fridge, and got settled in. i had high hopes of going out tonight, but that’s SO not gonna happen. i’m really beat.

now when you do a point-a-to-point-b ride (as opposed to a point-a-to-point-a LOOP), there are some distinct differences. as such, i was looking at this ride as very akin to a day on ALC, which is also a point-a-to-point-b ride. but there were a few key differences, and they were REALLY big because you’re unsupported except by your own group. here are some.

/ no SAG. i don’t SAG, but that’s just cause i’ve never needed too. if i needed to, if i was hurt or needed help, SAG would be a knight in shining armor. on a ride you do yourself, you get hurt? you better heal up, son. or call an ambulance. cause ain’t nobody coming to get you.
/ no maintenance. you have a mechanical, and you better hope you have the parts and the tools to fix it cause guess what? if you can’t, you’re walking it or you’re hitchhiking.
/ no rest stops. sure you can pull over for some grundle suffrage or some shade, but for the most part, when you run out of water and food, or when you need lunch, you better be near a town or at least a gas station cause guess what? you’re fucked otherwise.
/ NO GEAR TRUCKS. this was the biggest one for me because i don’t SAG, i always have enough tools and often have enough parts, and we had plenty of opportunity for food and water. but carrying your own gear is a fucking HUGE deal. every pedal stroke is twice as hard. climbs (even though there was really only one on this ride) are BRUTAL. grundle suffrage happens faster and is more painful. you run out of water faster cause you need to hydrate more. you’re less aerodynamic, so headwinds are even more of a big deal. it’s absolute hell.

overall, this ride was incredibly difficult and a generally flat 70 mile ride should not qualify as "incredibly difficult." it certainly shouldn’t qualify as "absolute hell." but listen, i had a great fucking time, don’t get me wrong. i met a ton of great people. i rode with a friend that i hadn’t seen in years and who i’ve never ridden with before. i commuted to a city 100 miles away from where i live. i carried my own shit and supported myself. i’m on a 4-day vacation from work. the weather was wonderful. i didn’t bonk or cramp.

in fact, i have to say that the only negatives (and i separate "negatives" from "challenges") were that i got sunburn on my calves (i started shaving my legs, so they’re less protected), i got a flat, found a sidewall tear, and at one point had to tighten my left cleat. not a bad haul!

in the end, i saluted sacramento the only way lope knows how — with special lubricants.

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Please note the number of exhausts.

http://www.retronaut.co/2012/01/vintage … 1929-1951/

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THIS is supremely interesting to me. not in the "i want it" sense, but in the mere sense that it exists at all. i think it would be cool as hell on a cute grrl’s townie bike, though.

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Dig this Kickstarter project. Big aluminum bike light that is waterproof, theft-proof thanks to a special tool a la security skewers, and best of all, shaped like a revolver, for symbolism.

Details here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/got … n?ref=card

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typically when WR and i go out for a ride, it’s in marin because in addition to affording us long, looping miles, it’s more convenient to his hectic family schedule. but yesterday we had the rare (sole, in fact) opportunity to take a ride here in the city thanks to his wifebot(tm)’s schedule including a baby shower. she took their son with her and he brought zoe with him and the three of us did a slow, noodley little run from fort point down to the wave organ.

our starting point was the southernmost red dot on that map, and the point where we split off at the end of our day was the "X." arrows indicate direction.

the day started with their family having pancakes and me having a hangover at the iHop, where i gave zoe a gift i’d picked up (unkablair has started the practice of bringing gifts to her every time i see her, which is going to prove interesting in her selfish years and expensive in her teen years). we all hung out and caught up and then WR and zoe and i headed out. our first stop was fort point, the northwest red dot.

FORT POINT was completed just before the american civil war, to defend san francisco bay against hostile warships, and is now a united states national historic site administered by the national park service. it’s a wonderful, spot just under the GGB, and has many old cannons on display, along with some rooms that are done up with mannequins and furniture to represent what life at the fort would have been like.

we wandered around there for a while and went up on to the roof where zoe fell down and bounced off a giant concrete cannon mount, cried for 3 minutes, and then went right back to climbing all around like a spider monkey.

from here, we went to get some hot chocolate for her (and me), and sat for a while just BS’ing.

zoe drank her hot chocolate with a spoon, turning the front of her jacket into a murder scene, and i popped open my ankle brace and let it rest a while. afterwards, we headed east, and ended up at the wave organ.

THE WAVE ORGAN is a quirky and wonderful little installation on a spit of land out past the SF yacht club. it’s an acoustic sculpture, and at a number of listening portals on the site which are connected to tubes that go out into the water, people can hear the sounds of the bay. it’s more active at high tide and we were there at low tide, so there was next to nothing to hear, but it was still great to be there.

zoe was completely conked out at this point and as we were headed out, i noticed a crazy mechanical issue with WR’s drivetrain — his left bottom bracket cup had come almost completely unthreaded. i first started tinkering on bicycles when i was about 10 years old and i have NEVER seen this. so with zoe sleeping soundly (and seemingly uncomfortably), i stabilized his bike and he set to work with some of my tools to remedy the issue.

from here we headed back to the marina green, where we parted ways, as his wifebot(tm) was on her way back to pick he and their little grrl up to return home.

it was a kind of touristy day and i bet we didn’t even cover 3 miles all told, but it was as wonderful as any other ride we get to take. it’s interesting being the kind of cyclists who ride for the pure joy of it. we can smash out 60 fixed miles in the headlands or noodle for 3 miles between sights and each ride is just as fun. zoe makes it more fun cause she’s still exploring and learning and being a funny and smart kid, but you get my point — there’s no such thing as junk miles.

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Well, I hesitated to post about it until today, but after about a week’s practice (and after about a year’s delay from when I started trying, thanks to that back injury) I can officially say I can skid stop when desired. Not that this precludes riding with a break-I-mean-brake, at least on my bikes.

I spent a few days trying to get the sequencing right on the foot positioning (9 and 3 o clock) which is surprisingly hard to do when you haven’t all your life. Then it was about focusing on the up pull on the weak leg while leaning, as that is all very alien to an experienced road rider. You don’t generally pull UP on a cleated pedal going forward, and you don’t generally lean over the front of the bars. Anyway, I started getting little hiccup hops. Step 1.

Then I had some rain, which helped immensely sort out the way you want the bike to behave in otherwise dry conditions. Same again on gravely/sandy patches of roadway, which used to be the enemy. I got a few 3" skids here and there, and a few days of extreme soreness from fatiguing all these muscles. Then it was 6" skids.

Last night and today I had a breakthrough that, hearing it in my head, sounds like the kind of thing Lung would have done (and probably DID do) that I would cluck at: I just started sending myself into stop signs and intersections, hands in the drops of the bulls, and forced myself to do or die. And lo, the skids got longer. HA.

I’m still not skidding for any great length, no more than about 2 feet I’d say, and I have a lot of hopping, because I’m too far back, so I’m actually getting very efficient skid hop skid hop actions that stop me pretty well… so now, ironically, I have to work on leaning farther so I can stop less efficiently, but more enjoyably.

The tipping point (so to speak) that warranted my post was that last night and today I was able to roll up to lights and skid rather than break. Nothing elaborate, just baby stuff. But stopped.

So, yay! Almost 39 years old. HA

Carry on.

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Hmmmm…. while I 100% agree that riders should not be riding at light speed around pedestrians or tourist bikes… the introduction of speed sensors seems a little suspicious, just after the attempt to steamroll a speed limit and ticket enforcement on the pedestrian/bike lanes was defeated… right now bikes and pedestrians are pooled to one side of the bridge in an extremely dangerous configuration even at very slow speeds. But when the renovation work is theoretically completed and the other side opens to bikes again, it will be interesting to see if they change their tune.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/transpo … s-bicycles

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But dig this: bike powered METH LAB.
Oops.

http://www.abc57.com/news/local/Police- … 35679.html

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