am i a zedster?

Bike!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN-j9H0nIDs

i’d love to ride my bike my places but i’d get creamed by traffic.

Good morning!

Where do you live, BFL?

We are all so disillusioned with both parties yet we still donate our voices, money and time to reelect them for decades. I mentioned yesterday the fact that Chuck Hagel has said he would run as VP for Obama and I pondered was there no one worthy is the Dem party to nominate so they have to go to the other party to get a VP? Did Hagel come out and change parties and I haven’t heard about it? It is both parties blurring the line. 4 years ago Biden said he might ask McCain to be his VP. This is an on going thing both parties have done. When/if we are left with the parties so blurred that we have essentially only one party, our children, grandchildrens and our lives will be changed forever, no going back. As a life long dem, I am sick of the dems cowering to the gop and am sick of their disjointed efforts to act united as a party. This FISA bill should NEVER have come to the floor. The GOP are smarter than any dem we have voted in. What does that say about us?

Nader is still an option. He is anti corporate. Just listen to what he says.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=c9AP2yM5sCc

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xX4DCg4zt8U

The Kid had a Trail-a-Bike when we lived in the Bay Area. He loved it, as it allowed him to “ride like the big people” — and we loved it, because it allowed the Big People to take rides in places like Angel Island that we never could have done if he had to pedal his own bike.

Very easy to attach and disconnect, and an absolute delight to ride!

Oh, and it’s a wonderful way to increase the exercise value of the ride.

Now that The Kid has his own bike, I have to take longer rides to burn the same calories!

Neato!

I’m happy to say that I rode my bike to work twice in the last week. I only did it about halfway (I have a 25 mile commute by highway), but it’s a start. I drive to the start of a really nice riverside trail that takes me to within about a mile of my work. It’s about 20 miles round-trip using the trail, and I plan to work my way up to starting at a section of the trail about 5 miles further from work (and closer to home). (I’m a wuss–I hate riding on street, especially highways, and avoid it when possible.)

I was surprised at how well I did, since my longest ride this year was only 8 miles when I tried it. I’m using panniers and a backpack (if necessary), and carrying as little as possible. I’ll be doing it again on Thursday (Bike-to-Work Day!) and Friday next week.

BTW, anybody have suggestions for how to avoid eating bugs? The downside of riding by the river…ick…

Sunshine: Nader wanted Bush to win in 2000 and 2004. That’s why much if not most of his backing and funding comes from conservatives and Republicans: The Pennsylvania Green Party was owned lock, stock and barrel by the PA GOP.

That Nomad trailer looks good for grocery shopping. Thanks for the pointers.

Bike my old pup the next phase. This stage of life where balance and sore joints makes walking painful caused me to build a trailer. Got most of it figured except the rod from the trailer to the bike, Can I get that piece that attaches to the bike axle?

Message To Ralph Nader

It does, doesn’t it?

Check with your local bike shop, or with a custom-build place like Bikes at Work. They could help you, I reckon.

I am so disgusted with what happened this week/yesterday.

Nader says if the Dems don’t landside the GOP this election, then it’s because they have become to much like the Republicans.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=l5gdzdUW_Os

The dems make nader more viable everyday.

Phoenix Woman

The GOP gave some financing to Nader to help him get on ballots so he could be a spoiler, not because they backed his policies. When GOP’s don’t tow the line & vote the bush way the GOP finance their Dem opponent in the next election. The others fall in line and vote GOP not only because they will lose their financing but their Dem opponent will be given financing from the GOP. They play dirty.

Have to disagree. Nader is not, nor has he ever been viable. He’s an ego on legs. For all who are contemplating not voting for Obama, I hope you are prepared to attend the swearing-in ceremony of President McCain. And after that I would appreciate not hearing any complaints about what goes on.

Aw, c’mon, people! Can’t I have a nice thread about biking? Why’s there Nader goo everywhere?

At least McCain will drive the country in the ground faster.

You bike with your cell phone?

In case anyone missed it, Deborrah Howell, has a piece up on WaPo about Broder & Woodwards ethics that needs some more comments.

When Speech Isn’t Free

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..inionsbox1

bad link

Good morning, PW.. Considering lots of rural dwellers like myself live 7 rugged miles (one way, half of which is rocky dirt road)) from the grocery store.. a bike is out of the question. However, a very efficient 50 to 80cc scooter might be the perfect compromise. So far my early net searches on scooters show a marvelous variety available, many at very reasonable prices. But they all seem to be designed for paved roads and have no baskets for cargo.. I hope I can find a simple rugged scooter designed for function over style sometime soon.. 80 to 100 mpg sure would make me feel much better about my footprint.

Sunshine: The end result’s the same: The GOP wins.

Why do you they back him so heavily?

Furthermore, Nader encourages this, on the idea that he wants things in America to get so bad that people will leap into the arms of the Greens. As Jacob Weisberg pointed out, that’s the same political calculation made by Lenin in the early part of the last century and the German Communists in the 1930s: Let the conservatives make a mess of things, then swoop in to take advantage of the chaos. It didn’t work in the 1930s (remember that Hitler guy?) and it didn’t work in 2000.

Scooters would be good, too, as would be electric scooter bikes — bikes with both pedal and electric power. They are a popular option in Europe, and are becoming popular in the US, too.

Does Nader ride his bike to work?

Thanks, punaise!

Gonna be 110F here today. Think my bike will have to stay in the garage.

:(

PW, Nader is no longer green. I think he started out that way, but has long since become just about himself. He could have contributed a lot if he had really worked at it but he decided that he wanted to stir things up and that’s what he does. He’s a trouble maker and knows very well that he will never be president and wouldn’t have a clue how to do the job if elected.

Sorry, try this one. For some reason my system will not allow me to use the link feature.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....inionsbox1

thx

Late to the thread. Below is a link to buy a heavy duty, no frills Chinese Bike. The kind you see those crazy loads on that dwarf the rider, 4 pigs , etc.

http://guanxi-trading.com/bikes.aspx

The guy is out of stock right this minute but is taking orders for another s.

I used to ride my bike everyday for at least ten miles. I stopped a couple of years ago and tried to start again. I have arthritis and neck issues. Does anyone know anything about recumbent bikes?

Oooh. PW, great link to the peace coffee piece. The Mr. recently attempted a 10 plus mile bike commute to work over some pretty inhospitable terrain. (Had to pick him up on the return, poor thing.)

But bicycle delivery is a great idea! Cheap, healthy, and very envirofriendly. Thanks for the brilliant idea.

For what it’s worth, marymccurnin, I was talking to a couple on the trail a couple of weeks ago who had a recumbent and a cruiser designed to minimize back issues (the pedals were set up in a push-forward design–I can’t explain it very well). Anyway, both were very happy with their bikes, and the wife had hers because of back issues. I’ll see if I can find a linky–they got theirs at a local recumbent seller.

John Thomas designed one in Eugene Oregon in late 70’s. They are a production item now. You can get 3 wheels too. Just google he will find it for you.

a little - my sister has one and loves it because of knee issues; her husband gone one after prostate surgery - as I recall the story, his surgeon was absolutely amazed at how quickly he healed up after he started riding his recumbent.

Sadly, there’s never an end to what we have to write and bitch about with the 110th in charge - so I share a compilation of thoughts:

To the story at hand: I’m so sick of all the bullshit from those primarily on the Right who’ve never actually traveled abroad or those of the Left who’s priority is not truth telling but who only seek re-election instead, throw the fact that Europe has higher gas prices than we do so we should shut the f**k up over $4.00 gas.
Europe and much of the world’s entire transportation system was built almost entirely on the most efficient energy means available, already. Their trains and public transports are incredibly safe, clean well managed and popular.
They prioritize their bike and walking paths all around their cities, and don’t believe in bulldozing their neighbors homes or open areas for concrete parking lots. And everyone has small cars because they chose small and economical over large and wasteful -all in a joint effort to preserve their lands and properties. And if these same people read all of their history books - they’d know much of the world believes in preserving their history and their resources.
They believe in restoration, not demolition.
They’ve had Nazis sitting on their lawn chairs - so damn well know how precious their little bits of property are and what it means to ’share’ and ’sacrifice’. Their kids don’t sell Grandma’s land to buy shiny new toys to keep themselves occupied since they’ve no intelligence to do otherwise.

And it’s our very government - now turned into a giant SuperpowerMart that has sold us all out.
Get a bike or take the smelly bus - and tell the 110th to go f**k themselves.
Why?
That brings me to my next point and why I came here. Libya - remember them -our new bestest friend? This headline greeted me this morning - in a British paper of course:
“OPEC MAY CUT PRODUCTION, LIBYA WARNS”

The story mentions that the Saudi’s wants to increase production. Right. You do know the Saudis have a port in Houston, don’t you?
But the rest of OPEC is split -on whether they should or not. They can do that -just say “Hey - F**k the US”.
And that’s exactly what’s going on right now.
They’re mad as hell -at us- so we’re being sanctioned - because they’re tired of our sh**.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....=worldnews

And that’s OK with Bush and Cheney, because either way -thanks to the Dems in the 109th and the 110th -they won.

It’s actually cooler if you ride. :-)

And the Bikes at Work trailers are perfect for that.

Exactly. He really viciously used the Greens in 2000.

Firstly, he didn’t align himself with the true Green Party USA, but with a recently-formed splinter group called the Association of State Green Parties, which had a somewhat watered-down version of the Green message.

Secondly, when the campaign was over, he held onto the campaign money that was donated to him as a Green candidate, instead of turning it over to the ASGP.

That makes sense, my son had knee surgery and they hooked him up to a machine that made his knee bend several hundred a times a day to speed recovery.

LOL.

Yeah, and if you venture out on your bike here today, that blisteringly hot, dry air you ride through will dehydrate you faster than you can replenish the fluids. No sale.

;)

BTW, anybody have suggestions for how to avoid eating bugs? The downside of riding by the river…ick…

Surgical mask. Lightweight, and there’s even a kind that’s good with glasses, no-fog ones.

Hurrah, bike thread!

I regularly ride in high 90’s/low hundreds during the summer here in Denver. It really isn’t as bad as you’d think. Try a Camelbak, or similar.

Think I’ll go to the gym and run some hoops instead. Did that yesterday.

Another example would be 2006 and, presumably, 2008. People are so feed up with Bush they are voting for not-bush.

On trailers, you didn’t mention Bob. As i mentioned in last week’s thread, I borrowed one of these from a friend, who has used it touring Europe on a tandem. Capacity 70lbs (although my 200lb+ buddy says he stood on his) it’s high on my shopping list. Single wheel design means it tracks your rear wheel precisely, and even loaded up it doesn’t really notice. It takes a little longer to get to cruising speed, but you’d expect that with any trailer.

http://www.bobgear.com/trailers/index.php

I have one of the Burley flatbeds, and it is great. I ride a Sun EZ3 Delta Trike, and with the behind-seat basket, an LLBean insulated bag that I hang fasten with Velcro strips to the back of the basket, and the trailer, I can haul an amazing amount of stuff. We are lucky enough to live within easy bike/walk distance of shopping, dining, groceries and entertainment, and feel very fortunate to have made that choice of location when we moved here to Tulsa 4 years ago.

now is a great time to get immersed in and invigorated by Bike Culture, for so many reasons.

the trailer vs. SUB debate was interesting - they each have good points.

one can also carry a ton of stuff with the lifetime bags from Chrome:

http://www.chromebags.com:80/p.....s/show/15/

I’ve stuffed a small shopvac in the Kremlin, it can easily carry $100 of groceries, especially with inflation the way it is.

Electoral politics, especially (D) oriented, is now more clearly revealed to be a dead end, a time and energy sump.

Bike culture is the opposite - it will provide continual rewards, especially as the automobile lifestyle becomes less and less viable.

EZ3 Trike

I hope this link works, I don’t use this feature very often.

Let me try again

o/t

a link for those still in need of venting about yesterday and a certain major party’s candidate

this one’s at the top of the page in Obamaworld for a change - may get some notice (be civil to all the starry-eyed newbies)

Obomination

back to our regularly scheduled bike ride :D

Dang. http://www.bicycleman.com/recu.....trikes.htm

That’s why we live where we do. We could have bought twice the house in the suburbs for what we paid to live in a central neighborhood, but we can both bike to work, and all the shopping and farmers markets are within a twenty minute ride, as is the nearest light-rail station.

I understand about the suburban pricing. We were wondering if we were crazy to pay more for less square feet, but we love our historic neighborhood, and we wanted to be somewhere where we would not be so dependent on gasoline. I feel very bad for people who are finding themselves in this bind.

Howie’s upstairs with a great progressive candidate: Gary Peters from Michigan. Come say hello!

I just posted this over at emptyweel:
http://emptywheel.firedoglake......ment-80183

Ummm…This has been on my mind since learning of Obama’s endorsement of John Barrow, which to me is far more egregious than the FISA issue since the first is a done deal and he has time to act on FISA. The endorsement specifically undermines us and I have to wonder if this is the shape of things to come. I want to suggest that all those who are in the mood to withhold contributions tell him they are instead giving the money here:
http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/19682

Blue America candidate Regina Thomas has only received 337.00 through us. How about we bump that up and let Obama know about it.

Thanks.

Thanks cbl2. The link is loading now.

Yes, we can discuss bicycling!

Today, I went on my first bike ride in probably 17 years. It will be a while before I can make it back up the 1.5 mile steep hill and 1/4 mile even steeper driveway without getting off and walking. I enjoyed biking while stationed in England and Germany, but have been wary of American drivers. It felt nice to go biking again.

Boy PW, you sure started something here. I had no idea how many bike enthusiasts there were at the Lake. You rock!

Thanks! Left a comment.

Cool…I think. That store’s in Austin (just up the road).
But single speed - does that mean no help going up hills?
Yes, I’m a bike dummy - bought a too-fancy one 2 yrs ago, have hardly ridden it. Before that, — 40 years before — last bike was a one-speed, brake-by-pedaling-backward Schwinn that was killer to get up a hill, and I was young and skinny then.
I need help w/ the new one - and am still not sure it fits right. I’m tall, and the fitter insisted it was right, but I have to get on a curb to get on, and that doesn’t seem right. (Last year it rained all summer and I never took it out. gotta start over, I guess)

In response to hazmaq

I spent two years in Italy. Oh man, the trains there are SO-O-O-O much nicer there then they are here in Philly! When I travel from center city to a suburban station, I have to walk a good 10 minutes to get to a restroom, which is sometimes fine, but sometimes I spent a number of minutes waiting on the platform and then about a half an hour on the train. In Italy, the restrooms were open 24/7 and they had a full bar/eating place and magazine stands. Granted, there were stations further out in the country that were less equipped, but man, what a difference!

For one of my “fun facts,” yes, bicycles can be used to haul heavy things! The Vietcong used bicycles to carry supplies down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Not riding the bikes, but pushing them. They could cart some serious weight that way.

There’s a contractor around town here in Mpls who hauls a ladder behind his bike. I don’t know for sure what rig he uses, but it is impressive to see him riding around. In Amsterdam it’s not uncommon to see two people on a bicycle at one time.

Thank you for posting this continuing bicycling series! Just back from a ride . . .

Do you have any mountains to cross?

PW, I almost never post here, but I logged in just to say ”thanks.” After your first post I hauled out my daughter’s old bike, got it tuned up and road ready and have been biking to work ever since. It’s only four miles each way, but I’m forty-five, thirty pounds overweight and a recent ex-smoker, so those four miles were murder at first. After just a few weeks, my ride is a breeze.

I had a heavy duty rack installed and bought two sets of panniers; one for normal use (change of clothes, lunch, the essential carafe of coffee) and one designed for groceries. I mention this because now I’m biking to the grocery store and for running errands as well. And I love it.

I feel good -not fit, not yet- but better than I had been, both physically and emotionally and financially. I last filled up on my car on Memorial Day; my goal is to make it through the summer without putting any more in the tank. It seems a reasonable goal these days.

So, thanks. You not only inspired me to get off my butt, but now my two children, shamed at having Mom out man them, are riding their bikes to work as well. You really made a difference. Thank you.

You might not believe this but I think you will.

Outsiede the wine store (I was inside!), a clunky old fat tired bike pulled up — with a bike on it! On closer inspection, the guy had welded a frame on the clunker upon which he had a mount. And the other bike, a decent communter, sat on top of that mount, all cantilevered behind the seat.

A real second look getter.