A look at our bikes (and how dirtbags create singlespeeds)
Biking is an Awesome Way to Get Around!
I think that the bicycle is perhaps the most perfect form of transportation in the world.
Bikes combine a number of simple devices to form
an object that rivals almost even walking in its simplicity and efficiency. Physics enthusiasts
will marvel at the balance skill and body movement need to negotiate through tough trail
terrain, and everyone, young and old, can enjoy the benefits of the exercises.
Sure, it isn't always the most convienient form of transportation...you get wet when it rains, you
get cold in the winter, and you have to deal with moronic drivers who just don't want
to see you sometimes. However, if you live in a small town, and have a relatively short
commute to work and/or school, weigh the pluses and minuses of bicycle transporation
versus a car, and you may be surprised. Maintenance on bicycles is almost free, once
you learn to do it yourself, and it's great zipping past cars deadlocked in a traffic jam.
Try it sometime...it's a great alternative to cars!
This is not, however, a page dedicated to bike commuting...there are plenty of those pages
out there (for example, this one,
this one, this one, and this one). Try these, if you like. This is a
page dedicated to the awesomeness of the bicycle, and, however you ride, be it trails,
trials, downhill, road, velo,
freeride, uni, muni, or dual slalom, the important thing is...that you ride!
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Jim on South Park at Fair Hill, MD.
Markus on Pinball at Fair Hill, MD.
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How Great Bikes Art...
"Man on a bicycle can go three or four times faster than the pedestrian, but uses five times less energy in the process. He carries one gram of his weight over a kilometer of flat road at an expense of only 0.15 calories... Equipped with this tool, man outstrips the efficiency of all machines... The bicycle has extended man's radius without shunting him onto roads he cannot walk. Where he cannot ride his bike, he can usually push it...
The bicycle also uses little space. Eighteen bikes can be parked in the place of one car, thirty of them can move along in the space devoured by a single automobile. It takes three lanes of a given size to move 40,000 people across a bridge in one hour by using automated trains, four to move them on buses, twelve to move them in their cars, and only two lanes for them to pedal across on bicycles.The cyclist can reach new destinations of his choice without his tool creating new locations from which he is barred...Bicycles let people move with greater speed without taking up significant amounts of scarce space, energy, or time. They can spend fewer hours on each mile and still travel more miles in a year. They can get the benefit of technological breakthroughs without putting undue claims on the schedules, energy, or space of others...Every increase in motorized speed creates new demands on space and time. The use of the bicycle is self-limiting. It allows people to create a new relationship between their life-space and their life-time, between their territory and the pulse of their being, without destroying their inherited balance. The advantages of modern self-powered traffic are obvious, and ignored. That better traffic runs faster is asserted, but never proved. Before they ask people to pay for it, those who propose acceleration should try to display the evidence for their claim."
- Ivan Illych, from Energy and Equity
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What's in your CamelBak?
If you bike, you'd better carry some extra things in case stuff goes wrong (which it will):
· pump
· extra tubes
(at least 2)
· tube patch kit
(if you blow more than your spares)
· a small toolkit (Topeak's Alien is great)
· water
(I carry about a gallon, but you might not need that much)
· maps (getting lost in DE might not
be a big deal, but if you get lost in a really big state, it might take days to get out)
· quick carbohydrates
(forget the Adkins diet...if you bonk on a trail ride, you need sugar, and you need it fast. Raisins, fruit bars, whatever...keep some in your pack)
· seasonal stuff
(gloves save fingers, a fleece keeps you warm, etc.)
· first aid
(keep sterile bandages and first aid tape in there. Forget band-aids...they don't stick to dirty skin. |
Why we ride...Justin and Freeman at the top of the Switchback Railroad Trail in Jim Thorpe, PA.
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Helpful Linkage...
Here are some awesome web pages with great information...
· Hutch's...my new LBS
· WebCyclery (local...well, for me)
·The CO trail crew...
· MTBR Review Forum *****...check out other people's opinions of stuff before you buy it. Also lists trail reviews and has a classified section. This site is great!
· Park Tool's Help Page bike repair/maintenance info
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