PathLessPedaled – Ft Worth – Wed

Hi there Bike Denton,
We are two people who have sold all our belongings to travel the US by bicycle.  Currently we’re in Texas and are giving a presentation at Trinity Bicycles next Wed.

We’re big fans of these folks, and we started reading Russ Roca’s writing back when he was a carfree photographer in LA.  Yeah, that’s right, CARFREE IN LA.  Carpool to Ft Worth on Wed for this, Denton folks.  If you want to learn about bike-camping, these are great folks to ask about it.  They’ll be sharing lessons from the road and photos, great photos since Russ is a professional photographer.

RSVP to the Facebook Event!

Bikelstar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica actress, Kandyse McClure (Dualla, to my fellow nerds), shows off her vintage Raleigh townie bike and talks about her history of biking.  She bought the bike form her local community bike shop, and she talks about her choice to be car-free.

I love the idea of a vintage bike that has been given new life and the folks at Our Community Bikes do an awesome job – new tires, brakes, gears and chain so that she’s safe and road ready but nothing to take away from her original charm. Since I am still without a vehicle these days (by choice of course) my bike has to be practical – so the basket up front, the rack in the back and a bell where necessary elements but also help restore her to her former glory. I can see it now – flowers, fruit and a baguette piled up in the basket and purchases from a day at the used bookstore secured to the rack.

Joys of Hauling

I love riding with big stuff.  I feel a sublime satisfaction when moving big things via bike instead of by car.

I sold a mountain bike frame and a tube amplifier head on ebay, and both things went in big boxes for shipping.  Then I needed to get the stuff to the shipping store a mile away.  The shipping store is on my way to work, and I don’t have a parking pass, so I loaded everything up on my Burley trailer.

The vacuum tubes, separately packed, are on top of the tube amplifier head.  The tall box holds the bicycle frame.

Riding with this much weight requires more effort, but not as much as I’d have thought.  In retrospect, disc brakes would’ve tamed my descent of the Denton St hill, but I managed to stop before the stop sign at the bottom.

Having reached the shipping place (on University), I sent my stuff off and rode to work with the empty trailer.

And of course, not wanting to make an empty trip back home from work, I stopped by a coworker’s house and retrieved some fence posts that he didn’t need.

100 lbs, 100 degree heat, it’s easier than you think.

Car-Free Mayor

Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

LA Times Maria L. La Ganga reports today that Berkeley mayor Tom Bates sold his beloved Volvo (his 26th car), and now takes the bus, walks, and uses the city’s car-share program.  His typical commute weaves together different modes of public transit, although he doesn’t mention using a bicycle.

Bates picks up his canvas briefcase (there’s a reusable shopping sack inside) and hoofs it to the station. His khaki-clad stride is long and swift. A panama hat sits jauntily on his balding head. He is off on the first leg of a 13-hour workday that began with a brief shower — never more than three minutes — and will include a train ride, a bus trip, a short hop in a City CarShare rental and four or so miles on foot.

Bates describes the beauty that he sees while walking, and he explains how he sees the city in a different way.

Walking “opens up a whole new vista in seeing the city in a different way,” he enthuses. “The city is beautiful. I’ve fallen in love with spring again, and the flowers.”

And finally, he talks about the health benefits of going car-free and using a pedometer to measure his walks.

About 16 months ago, Bates strapped on a pedometer and started walking at least 10,000 steps a day — for his health and the planet’s. Round trip from home to office is 4,400 steps.

By the beginning of this year, he’d dropped 20 pounds and realized his car was sitting in the driveway. The device, he says, “changed my life.