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Commute Stats since 8/26/2008
43.50 miles, 10.2 mph average speed
This is some of the video we have shot while working out our show format. The next episode shouldn’t take 1.8 years to finish.St. Paul Classic
The Saint Paul Bike Classic is today. You can do a 15, 30, or 45 mile ride. I’m going to try the 30 mile. I’ll send updates along the way. They will show up where the bike count usually is.
Note: My previous posts shouldn’t be construed as either for or against any particular political parties. Merely an observation of what I saw from my bike.
Where have all the Republicans gone…
…long time passing…, Ok, I don’t want to turn this into a political blog, but something is amiss. The Republican National Convention is going on in my town, and there aren’t any Republicans around. I mean you see them on the news, but not wandering around. I bike along a route where they have posted traffic police for the shuttle buses for the convention, and the buses are almost empty. In both directions. There are more traffic officers than riders. I haven’t noticed an increase in traffic either, maybe a few more expensive cars, but other than that there is no sign this convention is happening. I admit I am not a Republican, but I’m no Democrat either. I’m just noting that there should be Republicans along my bike route, and I’m not seeing them.
Maybe they are just too good for buses, but they aren’t driving themselves around either. Go figure.
What is the bike count over on the far right
You may notice that along the far right of this page there is a bunch of entries saying “35 bikes”, “17 bikes this evening”, and furthur you may be wondering what that is about. Well it is simply a count of the bicycles I see on my daily commute to work. I make a count in the morning, and one in the evening. I use Twitter to “phone in” my reports.
I only count bikes with riders. Parked bikes don’t count. If a rider is simply stopped for some reason, I count him/her. I don’t count mopeds. (I’ve only seen one anyways). I do count the 3 and 4 wheeled pedal powered vehicles that you can rent in Minnehaha falls park. Other than that, if I see ‘em, I count ‘em. Doesn’t matter if they are near or far, slow or fast, young or old.
Ride the City
I just discovered a site called Ride the City. They are doing EXACTLY what I am trying to do with Pedalmap.com, but they are way ahead (that means their site works). They have varying routes based on length, safety, etc. You can rate the route. and they have a fairly simple interface. Only Covers New York City, but it is completely cool. Worth a look.
Bicycle Safety site
I came across a pretty good bicycle safety site. It covers what I would call “defensive cycling”, ride as if you are invisible. The advice to stay off arterial roads, especially on weekend nights is pretty close to what prompted me to start work on pedalmap.com. Several years ago I was wanting to ride my bike to work, but there is a river and major railway lines, and an interstate between me and work, all of which have limited crossings, which means concentrated traffic. I spent weeks driving around with my GPS looking for a path that avoided main arteries. I found a reasonable path by trial and error, but it took a while.
Bike repair time.
I had a flat tire the yesterday, and I didn’t have time to fix it, so I drove to work. When I got home I went to the local bike shop (two and a half blocks away, very convenient.). I got twenty cents off the price, because they didn’t have the right change! I put the tube in and in the process noticed the wheel was not quite true.
Turned out to be a broken spoke. I put the bike together and rode to work this morning, I somehow managed to put a slow leak in the tube %-( and it wasn’t noticeable until I got about 3/4 mile from work. I made an emergency repair with electrical tape, and luckily our shipping department has an air compressor with the right tip. That got me home. I hoofed down to Hiawatha Cyclery again. They gave me a new tube, even though I’m sure it was my fault the new tube leaked. I bought a spoke for $1 and went home and made the repairs. Replacing the spoke seems to have trued up the wheel. so I am golden. I video taped the repair, so I hope to have that up soon. It will be a bit like watching a clown car with no one driving, but results are what matter. I guess. Thanks again to the folks at Hiawatha Cyclery. They have a pretty good little store there, they don’t pay me to say that. I just believe it to be true.
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