Happy 4th of July.

From your friends at NBBB. See ya’ll soon, with a few new members! (Never too late to sign up!)

NBBB WANTS YOU!

Dan says, “WE WANT YOU!!“

WANNA WRITE FOR THE NORTH BALTIMORE BIKE BLOG?!

We used to maintain the practice that one could blog on the site after we all met and rode together and all that. There are actually a number of contributors to this site. With new babies, Johnny’s accident and, well, LIFE, we haven’t gotten together to ride in ages – not since winter. So we have decided to open up blog membership to all comrades who pedal around the mean and hilly streets of North Baltimore City. Do you ride in North Baltimore? Do you ride through it from North of the City on your way to work? Do you never get anywhere near it but instead tear up the sharrows in your own part of the City? In short, are you a “Baltimore” cyclist?

Then this means YOU.

There are a small list of rules you might think about before signing up, which are subject to change:

1) Please write about cycling, not your new cat.
2) Feel free to moderately swear and cuss, but don’t get too Kevin Smith on us. There are some families who read this. They’ve probably heard the Sh-word and maybe even the F-word before, but there are other…dirtier things best left to your personal blog.
3) Please post some kind of image with your blog posts. All of them, as far as this is possible. Blogging is a visual medium. Images are not to exceed 500 pixels wide or high, or the blog format may get messed up. If you can’t resize, try GIMP (it’s free and easy to learn!). No nudity please. Please abide by fair-use, and don’t hyperlink photos from other websites, stealing their bandwidth.
4) Please try to be positive. Drivers often suck, and we all know it. But reading about that isn’t going to make the folks who read this site wanna cycle in this city, or any city.
5) We really do not want to have to censor people, but we reserve the right to remove inflammatory posts, naked pictures of your dad coming out of the tub, etc.
6) Please don’t sign up and never post at all. While posting quotas are stupid because everyone has a life, if you sign up and don’t post something in your first 30 days, you’re membership will be canceled. Sorry.
7) Oh, yeah. You have to, you know, be a cyclist. Not something who likes bikes or owns a bike. But if you’re not a cyclist, you probably wouldn’t want to sign up anyway.

If you think these rules are fair and want to blog with us, please email northbaltimorebikebrigadeATyahooDOTcom (with appropriate symbols, of course) with your email address, where you live, why you wanna join, your blogging experience, etc. Or, leave a comment to THIS post. We never share personal information, and we will get in touch with you and get you signed up.

Thanks for your continued support!

Dan and Johnny
Co-Founders, North Baltimore Bike Brigade.

Two recent cycling deaths in Maryland.

After writing about how long it’s been since there was a cycling death in Baltimore City, last week, two cyclists were killed in Ocean City in one week.

The first, Kristin Anne Stormer (23), of Hollidaysburg, PA, was reportedly crossing in the crosswalk against the traffic signal. Witnesses report that she was wearing headphones. This was in broad daylight.  The driver is not being charged. (Source.)

Then on 2:30 Friday morning, Daniel Bren (like the machine gun) struck Edward Zisk (41) and Maxim Matuzov (20), both of Ocean City, Maryland. The two were cycling on the Route 50 bridge when a drunk driver struck them both and left the scene. Thanks are due to the witness who followed the truck and helped identify the driver. Daniel Bren, this “dirty pig of filth“* is being charged with a list of offenses, including negligent homicide by vehicle while under the influence. Homicide, when you kill a cyclist. That’s what you should be charged with. The authorities got it right this time. (Source.)

Our condolances and well-wishes go out to everyone affected by these tragedies.

*[Maybe he's a "nice" guy, but he hit two people with his truck and left the scene, killing a man -- after being irresponsible enough to drive drunk in the first place. Even if he's a saint who drove drunk for the first time last week, it's hard to feel badly for his plight. Not with a life cut short. Cut short by his behavior.]

Ghost Bikes in New York.

Two weeks ago in New York, we spotted two Ghost Bikes on our way from Midtown to The Village on foot.  These are not a common feature of Baltimore City.  In the City Paper’s bike issue this spring, they interviewed Nate Evans, the City government’s top bike gent:

CP: How does the cycling fatality rate in Baltimore compare to other big cities?

NE: We are actually very low. From 2002 to 2008, we had maybe four fatalities. I think the last one we had was two years ago. The Police Department and DOT share their crash statistics, so we can kind of track where that’s happening. Even New York City, which has a very high number of cyclists, has a very high percentage of bike deaths compared to us.

I should not type this (KNOCK ON WOOD! KNOCK ON WOOD! KNOCK ON WOOD!!!!), but since we have not had a cycling death in Baltimore in like two years (read this article for the rest), I had never seen a Ghost Bike in person before.

You see pictures on the internet or Yehuda Moon, and some of the photos are fantastic and all that. But you have to see people looking at it on their lunch break wondering what the hell it means to appreciate what a startling and…powerful image it is.  I could not stop looking at either one, and I really totally and actually felt a tinge of guilt for photographing them.

Despite their message that can really only be conveyed in person, I can’t say I’m an ANY rush to see one around Baltimore — ever. But is it an inevitability? I don’t know.  On good days, I think the about the great work that the City government and local activists are doing and that riding in Baltimore gets one very skilled in urban cycling very quickly and so that a cycling death may be another two years off.  On other days, I see the way people in general and people in Baltimore drive, and I don’t feel so nicely about our odds as a cycling city and as cyclists who are living beings with families and connections and who the world will miss if we get smashed by a careless cab or sinister SUV or a damned door-prize.

And if/when our next cycling fatality happens, will cycling in Baltimore drop off? Because, I have to say, even with the Baltimore summer setting in, I’m seeing more people riding and more bikes on racks.

Beards and single-speeds.

Saw this dapper gent in Washington Square Park in New York last week. He looked so relaxed that I thought about getting a single-speed bike, like I was telling Dan. But then I remembered that Baltimore is much more hilly than Manhattan. Still, I liked that bike, especially that he used the mounting brackets for a metal rack for a milkcrate.

Drooling over bike shopping.

As  you can imagine, shopping for that all-important next bike has been eating up a lot of my time and consciousness over the last [nearly] nine weeks.  I bought a Novara and returned it after getting Mr. Foot crushed by that lady who thought watching where she was driving was a stupid idea.  Plus, as I mentioned, I was less than impressed with the service at the store/location I won’t name.

Last time I bought a bike on purpose, it was 2006.  Needless to say, “commuter bike” was only emerging in faint whispers as a bike category.  And hell, no one ever mentioned mounts for racks and fenders as a feature of a bike back then!  I bought that bike, a Giant Cypress DX, in 2006 from a local chain, and I was happy with the job they did putting it together.  Really happy.  Two thousand miles under my fat ass, speeding all over Baltimore’s broken streets, and the rims were true when I crashed, and I think they they a nice job adjusting everything else before they sent me on my way.  Which was good, considering I was too afraid to adjust brakes back then. That didn’t last long, but still.

Now, there are bikes with internal hubs, fenders or room for better fenders, steel frames, upright riding frames, etc.  It’s dizzying.  I won’t waste your afternoon (because you know you’ll look them all up) listing all of the bikes that have featured as my replacement bike of the day. I think I’m driving my poor wife and cycling buddies crazy with my bike ranting. “Holy shit, dude! You should see the specs on the bike I looked up today during my lunch hour!”

Really, you start seeing a lot of the same stuff.  Heavy shocks, with lock-out becoming a feature of the higher-end models.  Eyelets to mount all kinds of stuff, with clearance for fenders.  Double-walled rims and decent tires.  Better seats and riser bars as far as the eye can see. Every time I found a bike I liked, I would find three others just like it for around the same price from different manufacturers.

Then it comes down to where to actually buy your bike.  Do I go back to the store I was unhappy with when they are the only place around town to get a few of the bikes I like?  Do I go to a shop that I have never liked because they sell a certain Trek I find alluring? Or some place with a good reputation that is all the way across town from where I live and work? I know where I want to buy my bike. They only carry a few brands, but within those brands, I see some bikes I really like and some I just plain drool over. I miss having an LBS, as I’ve mentioned. I’m looking forward to getting a new bike and shopping and building it up with nice accessories.

Dan said that buying a bike from a national chain didn’t “seem like [me],” which I take as a compliment. He said he thought I’d go local or get a sweet used bike. With some of the used bikes I’ve seen at the LBS I mentioned, hell, I might just do both.

I keep remembering how disappointing it can be when you get a new bike whose specs you love and that you love when you saw it the first time, only to see it poorly assembled and beaten up before you even get to ride it — no matter how good of a deal it is.

More bikes than Bike2WorkDay.

I took some photos of the bikes at Penn Station on Bike 2 Work Day on May 15th. I felt terrible for not being able to ride myself. But I had a new bike at home and was a week or two from being back to regular commuting. (Hell, it would be good for my hands/wrists, probably. At least to get my strength back.) I was in a good mood, after getting good news from my hand doctor that week. But I never got to post photos and/or talk about Bike 2 Work Day because that crazy driver ran me over that afternoon.

In the morning that day, I noticed the usual number of cyclists as my bus made its way down University Parkway and St. Paul Street. I was late, and I think most people were already at work. I wanted to take a walk to the Jones Falls Trail that morning, since I think a lot of new cyclists opt for that route. Not that I blame them; it’s a nice calm spot for workday hauling. I thought I’d get some shots in the afternoon, of folks on their way home. But that didn’t work out, either.

I got my foot run over at like 4 pm on Charles Street and got to stay there for a while, as folks made their way home. I didn’t notice more cyclists than usual while we were there with security, the police and the fire department. It could have been the time of day. But I was there long enough on a nice enough Friday, that I think pre-5pm traffic could have been expected.  Could have been the constant construction on Charles Street, too.  Maybe folks were relaxing with beers after a nice B2WD.

I have noticed something since that Friday: a hell of a lot more bikes around town. This week, I was on Gordon Plaza at the University of Baltimore helping with a mosaic, and I was dumb-founded with the number of cyclists going everywhere. To the store. To work. To home. To school. While I wait for my bus and relax while riding it each day, I see more people all the time. I should really pay more attention and count one day.

One thing I know for sure is that there are far more cyclists riding around in traffic in Baltimore than there were pre-B2DW. And isn’t that the point? Not to get people to ride on May 15th, but more often than that?  I didn’t have my camera, but there were far more bikes this morning at Penn Station than before May 15th.  One that I never saw until that day but now see all the time, too.

Kudos to Baltimore’s cycling advocates (Barry, Nate Evans, et al). Their work is paying off for all of us.

LBS assembly ethics.

Excellent post by Citizen Rider on the ethics of how thorough of a job could/should be done to new bike assemblies. Read the post here.

The bike that I returned this week wasn’t what I would call put-together well. I had requested that they leave it in the box, which the big company said they would (they can ship them to you at home in a box, too). But the guy at the store/shop said they couldn’t, that it was too late anyway because they just put it together. Okay. I think I might have insulted him on the phone. When I met him, I told him it was because I couldn’t ride, not because I didn’t trust their mechanical skills. We laughed about it. We noticed goo on the downtube, and he offered to get it off. He hung the bike by the horn of the saddle on the repair stand, instead of using the clamp, got off the goo with something in a squirt bottle and left it swinging there. Swinging. As in, I totally thought it was going to fall. I got outside to find a large gash in the seatstay. I know; no bike comes perfect. But this was huge and really something that he shouldn’t have let me walk out with on a steel bike.

Other: rear brakes were too tight and touching the rim on both sides; front brake pads were mal-adjusted (one touched the tire, one went inside the rim); the rear fender was rattling against the tire and needed adjustment; the folks who returned it for me (thank you!) reported squeaking while they pushed it; the stem was never adjusted to be straight; they let me walk out without even mentioning the idea of adjusting seat height; reflector on rear wheel was moving around. These are things I noticed without ever getting to ride it. It seemed like a sweet bike that was hastily assembled when the truck came in.

I know. It’s probably my fault for buying my bike at a large chain store. I got spoiled by the nice shop (Phoenix Cycles!) we had a relationship with in Carbondale. We’d chat with Doug for an hour when we’d stop in to get something. He thought it was awesome that we went car-free. I thought his recumbent was awesome. They did excellent work there and carried good stuff like Planet Bike and pants clips.

If there’s anything good to come from getting my foot run over, it’s getting the chance to buy my new bike all over again. I know what to do and where to go this time, and I might not have to limit myself to the funds from the replacement of my crashed bike. Even if I go with the Xtracycle Radish, I’m hoping to get it through a cool local shop and to stop buying bike accessories off of the freakin internet all the time.

Commute company.

My wonderful wife just landed a sweet job at a university that is a few blocks from the one where I work, in the heart of Central Baltimore. We are both enormous fans of the MTA, and the #61 stops yards from our apartment building. But, as she understands and as I’m sure anyone who cycles would, once I get back on my bike after not riding [without crashing] since April 7th, there’s nothing that will stop me from cycling to work. Not that anything but bad ice did after the installation of my awesome fenders in December. Unless ElRo wants to take the bus, this means that I’ll get company for my commutes!

It used to be my “alone time”, but my wife and I happen to get along very well and enjoy each other’s company, enough to elicit gags at times from a few less happy people. But I rarely took the really long way home before because I wanted to get home to my favorite person. Rather than losing alone time that I don’t really care about, I view this more as getting to saunter-on-wheels home rather than mashing my way up Charles Street and University Parkway. The long way, the scenic way — they’re all ours for the taking.

And it’s fun to point out your favorite way to get to work and all the places to get coffee around there. A week or two before my crash, I was still in North Baltimore for a super-early meeting one Thursday. Afterward, Dan and I met up and took my relaxed way to work, parked in my office and enjoyed coffee/chocolate at Sofi’s. I talked his ear off about what’s around my job, etc.   Bob wrote a nice post about this kind of fun last year.

Anyone else get regular company for their commutes?

I gotta return my new bike.

I got my foot run over by a negligent driver and won’t be able to ride for who knows how long.  I’m in a boot and crutches and am furious.

Read part one and part two for more details and a few gross pictures.

Johnny’s new bike is in.

(Forgive the cross-post.)

But I don’t have a photo yet. This photo is of a pipe-cleaner bike I made at my VISTA training in August. It stands on the jacket dealy from a cup of coffee I was drinking at the time. It resides in my office.

I picked the Novara Buzz V for a number of reasons. It’s simple and practical. I like the low-fi looks and anti-theft aspects like locking skewers and no quick-release anything. It has custom fenders. It’s STEEL. It was in the price range of the insurance money I got for the wrecked bike. I really, therefore, paid for it in September 2005 when I bought my first bike, which was replaced with insurance money when it got stolen in fall 2006. The insurance folks paid for the lights, fenders, rack, computer, etc. Everything that got destroyed but my helmet. I was buying a new helmet anyway, so I didn’t want to go after them for that.

The biggest “fault” I’ve noticed so far is that the paint is junk. It’s matte and flakes off. Mine has several chips already from the trip from the factory to REI, and the one locked near the train station looks like it’s been through a wood chipper. I suppose this is to make it less steal-able? Or just a consequence of the matte finish? I feel like I should be annoyed that my shiny new bike is not perfect (or shiny). But you can’t get a perfect bike. I know that for sure now. And bikes get scratched up when you ride them. Even if you got a perfect bike, it would eventually get dinged up if you rode it. I was being stupid, yes. Thing is, you don’t care when you’re riding regularly. I’m not.

But screw it. I refuse to be a prisoner of my own neurotic and compulsive tendencies. I always need all my shit to be perfect. Forever. Like you can buy perfectly-crafted goods. And like you can use them without wear and tear. Nah, if I resist the urge to be a stupid jackass, I feel particularly…invited to put some stickers on now. I still have some that my cycling pal sent me in 2005 when I first got into cycling. It’s all good. In a few weeks, I’ll be riding my bike and laughing at the witty stickers on it.

We did have a bit of an adventure to get it, though.

Tuesday, I had an early appointment with my hand doctor and a big meeting all afternoon. It was already a weird day. I wanted REI to leave my bike in the box so that I would not be tempted to ride before I’m physically ready and get hurt again. But they couldn’t, and it came in Tuesday, rather than Friday. Our glasses were also ready early. So I walked from near Penn Station to Charles Village after work, met the Mrs., walked to the Rotunda, got our glasses and walked to the light rail. Took it out to Timonium, walked to Baja Fresh and ate amidst sad yuppies. Walked to REI. Picked up my bike, some spare inner tubes and an under-the-seat bag. Walked to the light rail and took my bike on it. Walked about a mile home. So my bike’s first trip was on a train and being walked. Not as cool as being ridden, but much cooler than coming home in a car or truck.

Memorable night, though. And I would be a douchebag to let such a fun-ly-gotten bike be less awesome because it wasn’t perfect when perfection wasn’t even possible.

Perhaps by airing these stupid mind-f*cks I play on myself, I can kick them?

(Uncensored.)

Bike to Work Day.

How did we forget to mention that Friday is Bike to Work Day?

Bike to Work Day 2009, sponsored by the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, will be celebrated in the Baltimore region and across the nation on Friday May 15, 2009.

Between 7:00 and 8:30 a.m. on May 15, bicycle commuters will gather at locations throughout the Baltimore region, including:

* Anne Arundel Co/Annapolis – City Dock, Annapolis
* Baltimore City – War Memorial Plaza at City Hall (100 N. Holliday St.)
* Baltimore County – Courthouse Square (400 Washington Ave, Towson)
* Carroll County – Westminster
* Harford County – Government Center (220 S. Main St, Bel Air)
* Howard County – The Mall in Columbia by Sears Service Center (10300 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia)

New in 2009!  Rallies will also be held at the following Baltimore area colleges:

* College of Notre Dame of Maryland
* Johns Hopkins University – Homewood campus
* Morgan State University

I can’t ride yet (few more weeks), but I’m hoping to make it to the Baltimore City and/or JHU event for pictures and the good vibes.  If anyone wants to meet for coffee around Homewood, we can maybe meet up?

Bike lanes mean nothing?

I actually know of some folks personally who made the switch to riding in traffic when the city starting putting in bike lanes and sharrows and “share the road” signs.  This made me feel great.  Folks want to ride, and it felt like Baltimore City wanted us to. I still feel this way.  The hard work of folks like Nate Evans and Barry/Baltimore Spokes makes cycling safer and more attractive all the time.  Even with gas prices that are lower than the fortune that filling up your SUV cost last summer, the number of cyclists using bikes as transportation increases constantly.  The last time I road home from work (April 7th, pre-crash, when it wasn’t all that warm/springy yet), there was considerable bike traffic on the JFT.  It was beautiful.  I still see dozens of souls pedaling up Charles Street in the five minutes or less I’m at Penn Station waiting for the #61 to go home in the afternoon.  Even in the really soupy weather we’ve been having lately.  That I can’t join them hurts more than my slowly-healing injuries.

But of course there are foes and obstacles and fear-folks.  Anyone who rides in this city knows that.  Cab drivers honk at you around the train station because you’re slowing them down from getting another fare from those two MARC trains that just came in.  Door prizes offered daily.  Contractors on Charles Street who leave their mess around Station North.  Students who don’t look out for buses, let alone cyclists.  Drivers who seem like they want to see how close they can get without actually hitting you.  Some few show-off cyclists who feel nothing for almost causing a crash with you. These aren’t things we can just fix without time and cooperation between all parties involved.  Of course.

But it seems like simple, clear-cut things like bike lanes should be easier to enforce.  Across the street from me RIGHT NOW, a moving truck has been blocking the bike lane, a lane of traffic and a whole row of parking spots (THAT HE COULD BE PARKED IN!!!!) for over two hours.  I asked them to move from my window nicely.  Again not so nicely.  Then I did the 311 thing.  Told them so (third message), to give them a chance and to alleviate my conscience in case someone gets a ticket or gets fired (though while I’d feel badly about someone paying for their own actions  is a good question).  I see families use this lane on weekends.  What if a child was hurt because of these guys?  Or an emergency vehicle stopped?  They’re even blocking people’s trash pick-up! This drives me nuts.  I’m contacting the company, since it’s been two hours since 311, with no “officer dispatched immediately”.

Keep track of Baltimore bike lane asshats in My Bike Lane — and submit your own!

A good Times article.

From a great article on the new bike culture in New York:

For biking to make it to the next level, for bikes to be completely accepted as the viable form of city transportation that they are, bikers must switch sides. They must act like people and stop acting like cars…It means getting a little personal, though not that personal. Acting like people means that we have to do things that we frankly don’t want to do and things that we want cars to do, like slow down.

There will be caveats. Perhaps your wife is about to go into labor and you take her to the hospital on your bike; then, yes, sure, go the wrong way in the one-way bike lane. We can handle caveats. We are bikers.

….when I imagine the tone of the new bike culture, I think of civility.

Read the rest here.

Riding to Ikea.

We’ve reported before that some few lucky Ikea customers can rent bikes/trailers (for free) for taking their stuff home. The closest Ikea to North Baltimore is the one in White [Flight] Marsh. I know a bus goes there. But getting there is still tricky if you don’t have a car — like me. I usually get to go when someone in my family is going and has time and room for me and the stuff I’ll bring home. I would be hard-pressed to be able to carry it on the bus. That’s not a knock on the MTA, who get me to work each morning since I can’t cycle. There’s only so much room for your gear on the bus, unless you’re one of those rude people who take aisle seats in empty rows so they never have to sit next to anyone. I can (and have) carried more with me on my bike than I could on the bus.

Read this fun tale of a cycling trip to Ikea.  This one is not exactly downtown, but that sounds like a fun and low-key trip.

Anyone ride from the city to White Marsh?  What route would you take?  Anyone up for a trip top Ikea this summer?  They do have decent food, and beer can be gotten nearby.