Quiet Streets

The ride in today was nice...quiet streets for most of the commute. Why? The K-12 public schools finished up the school year yesterday! My ride in to work takes me near the elementary and high schools. What a difference in the amount of traffic with no school. Hard to imagine how may parents there were driving their kids to school! Oh well, I will enjoy the summer commuting while I can.

Financial Woes Trump the Cycling Whimsy

Financial woes have forced corporate to pool all money together, so the cycling whimsies will be put on hold. It is time to go extreme ghetto. Instead of an Xtracycle, we're now going to have a go at bucket panniers. It's a far cry from the load carrying capacity of the Xtracycle, plus you cannot give other people a ride on buckets, but at least it should allow for trips to the grocery store. There are plenty of ideas and designs on the internet about converting buckets into panniers. Here are a few...
IBIKETO - http://www.ibiketo.ca/guide/how-tos/how-make-panniers-out-buckets
Crazy Guy on a Bike - http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/Buckets
Instructables - http://www.instructables.com/id/Best_Cat_Litter_Bike_Buckets/
Wheel Revolution - http://wheelrevolution.blogspot.com/2007/05/bike-bucket-diy.html

Carrying the Load - The Answer

Just checking on the Xtracycle site, and I believe this confirms the answer - the Xtracycle is the way to go to haul musical equipment.
Ben Sollee is on a 330 mile tour through Kentucky and Tennessee to raise awareness for poverty, carrying his cello on an Xtracycle. The tour is documented with some great video, complete with some of his performance at each stop. If he can carry that huge cello for 330 miles, I think one can carry just about anything on an Xtracycle. Way to go Ben! Best of luck to you.

Carrying the Load

Musicians, how do you carry your instruments if you cycle? Do you strap it onto your back? Strap it to your bike? Use a trailer? Use an Xtracycle? I am looking into carrying an electric guitar (in its hard shell case) and a practice amp (weighs about 30 pounds). I'm thinking this would be a good reason to get the Xtracycle (one of these days...), or rig up a trailer. Any musicians got a cool solution?

Shoes That Are Sweet for Hot Feet

We all know that for practical bike riding, normal shoes are the rule, not the exception. No need to change into special cycling shoes for a short trip or commute. Until today I had not tried a very normal shoe for hot weather, the sandal. I have read about them for a while from cyclists who love them. Some ride them in hot and cold weather. It has been plenty hot the last few days here in SoCal, so this morning I put on some plain old sandals and rode in to work. They did great, and the feet stayed cool. Not sure how they would do on a long ride, but for the commute they were fine. After riding for a few years in clipless pedals with special shoes, I am finding that riding with regular pedals and regular shoes to be quite refreshing. I must admit that I got passed up by a racer type biker, but I think that was more to do with me riding an old Trek mountain bike-turned-commuter setup with a trunk rack and back pack. Anyways, speed ain't the concern when riding in to work!

An Almost Perfect Commute

The ride in to work this morning was nearly perfect. I had a slight tailwind with cloudy skies and cool temperature. It was just cool enough to be comfortable riding, but not sweating too much by the time I arrived at work. I guess the only thing that would have made it better was if I could have kept on riding, instead of having to end the ride at the office.

We Have It Good Here

If you live in a city like San Diego, consider yourself lucky in respects to bicycle riding. I just returned from a trip to a city near the east coast, a small city, and it really made me appreciate what we have here. I saw absolutely no bike lanes, none. The roads have NO shoulder whatsoever. One simply cannot ride safely on the roads. These are roads where people regularly drive 45 to 60 MPH, and no one is looking out for cyclists. They are just not expected around the area. There was one really nice bike path running along a river, which would be great for leisurely recreation cycling. It is of no use for practical transportation. So, with our many, many miles of bike lanes and roads with nice, wide shoulders, be thankful.