A Quick Tip

It's like that whole Best of San Diego business was a death knell for both my blogging and bike commuting. I must admit that I'm still a bit confused by it. San Diego Magazine never even notified me of my inclusion in the issue. That's weird, right? If not for Paul from sdurban.com, I would never have known about it. At. All. (so thanks, again, Paul!)


Anyway...

I haven't biked to work since October, I think, and I still have not done a bike commute in 2012. I did, however, get on the saddle the other day for a nice little 20 miler. Now that spring is upon us, and I'm seeing more and more cyclists out on the road, I just wanted to share this link that I saw on Twitter last week.

Michael Bluejay's "How Not To Get Hit By Cars" bicyclesafe.com contains a lot of good, practical advice.
— Kent Peterson (@kentsbike) March 27, 2012

Also, I just saw that Bike Snob NYC has a new book out...

Follow Friday

Recap: I began the week by finding out this very blog had been listed among the Best of San Diego 2011 according to San Diego Magazine. They deemed Bike 21 as Best Cycling Porn, which is crazy, and I pledged to 1) post a new photo each day this week, and 2) propose other deserving sources of cycling-related visual media.

























Finally the week has finished, so I figured I would feature four fantastic photogs from the Twitterverse, ala #FollowFriday. Check out the timelines of these folks for some top notch cycling porn pics.

• @BikeCrave: read the tweets of local cyclist and wordsmith Jeff Bean and you'll be treated to scenic vistas from the coast to Palomar. This guy clocks the miles and he's got the photos to prove it. His bikes often are featured in the pics, too, so don't worry about that. One word: Moots. Oh yeah, his blog is (usually mostly writing) really good, too.
• @TimJackson: the former Masi Guy is a self-proclaimed bike nerd, marketing nerd, and social media wonk. Another San Diegan, Tim now shills for Pivot/BH Cycles. You could always count on Tim to tweet sneak peek pics at what was in the works at Masi and it seems to be no different at his new gig. Also: pics of his cute kids.
• @pathlesspedaled: now I'm stretching beyond San Diego. The couple behind The Path Less Pedaled, Russ & Laura, were based in Long Beach for a time, but they've ventured out on a bike tour all over the map. Russ is actually a professional photographer. More than just bikes, they tell stories of the people & places they visit. It's real photojournalism.
• @copenhagenize and @_Cycle_Chic: moving over to the Old World, we've got Mikael Colville-Andersen from the cycling paradise in Copenhagen, Denmark. He's got the trademark on "Cycle Chic" and is a renowned expert on urban mobility, so what more do you need to know? Beautiful people on bikes. But also just regular people on bikes, where it is actually regular to be on a bike. Still, the regular people manage to look hip & stylish all the same. Nary a helmet to be seen.
• Don't forget: All the sites I mentioned the other day are also on the Twitter, too.. @velocult, @ecovelo, and @bikehugger

To close out, I did an impromptu night shoot, as seen above and below.

























Thanks to everyone who has checked out the blog for the first time this week. And if you've been coming back throughout the week, thanks again for that, too. I don't think I can keep this pace up, but maybe I can get in the habit of more regular posts. Maybe.

You can usually find me on Twitter, so follow me @juanrcm

Car-free for a Day Challenge

Kathleen, who blogs as TechnoEarthMama, put out a call last week for people to sign up for her Car-Free for a Day Challenge. For anyone who committed to one car-free day this week she would match by going car-free herself. She's well underway. Check her site for her progress.

Since I just started doing my once weekly bike commute car-free, she said to go ahead and sign up. So sign up I did.

Well, today is my bike commute day, the day I was committing to be car-free. Did all go as planned? Not exactly.

Update in the next an upcoming post.

Bike 21: Official!

This is sort of anti-climatic, but on April 14, 2010 I finally reached Bike Commute #21! Hooray!

At the outset of my venture into bike commuting, my goal was to ride to work 21 times. The reasoning being that it generally takes doing something for 21 days to really make it a habit. I'm stretching a bit since I knew I wouldn't be able to bike commute every work day for 21 days in a row. Still, 21 bike commutes seemed like a worthy goal. I started off in July 2009, and it was a rough start. I averaged one bike commute per month through the end of the year. Though my wife initially suggested that I could get a new bike upon reaching my goal, she let me get a new bike early on my birthday in December. You can see pics of my Masi Speciale CX here.

The new bike proved to be a jump starter, though, and as of today, I am averaging one bike commute per week for 2010. Another small motivator has been the friendly competition I've dubbed the Bike Commute Mileage Challenge that a co-worker started between us (or rather between fictional representations of ourselves, lest it get too personal, perhaps?). Initially I was hesitant to get into any kind of contest, friendly or not, since I was struggling to get started and my co-worker had been frequently riding his bike to work for awhile. Funny what a new bike and a new baby will do. Now the tables have turned. For me the new bike has been an effective stimulus for riding more, and getting the Wednesday commute routine down was also key. On the flip side, the joys and realities of fatherhood (and arranging day care) have slowed down my compadre substantially.

I've got close to 290 miles on my Masi now. That's great, but in terms of offsetting my automobile use, that 's not quite equivalent to a full tank of gas in my 2003 Saab 9-5 wagon, which averages about 22 mpg. That's a little disappointing to look at it that way, but it's better than if I was not bike commuting at all, right? You have to start somewhere.

So, what's next? If I stick to the once per week bike commute, I should be able to rack up at least 500 miles total for the year. Maybe my next goal will be to ride twice a week. I want to test the waters on some longer distance riding, but I also want to do a lot more utility cycling. I want to ride with my kids and get them excited about riding bikes. I need to get them off training wheels!

Part of my Twitter bio says: "(aspiring) part-time bike commuter." I think I'll take off the "aspiring" part now! I'm a full-fledged part-time bike commuter. Look out!

(Oh, by the way, today was Bike Commute #22. A post summarizing Bike Commutes #16-21 should be coming soon.)

1 Less Car

Cole from 1lesscar.com was giving away some t-shirts on Twitter a little while back and I was lucky enough to be picked as one of the winners. I got my shirt in the mail today, and I gotta say it is one of my favorites of their designs. Go check out his web site www.1lesscar.com for more shirts and the blog with a lot of useful reviews of bike related products. You also have to see the wood "porter crates" that he makes. The crate is featured in the 2010 Trek Lifestyle/Urban bikes printed catalog on the new Belleville. If I had the money right now, I would seriously get another bike just so I could put this crate on it.

photo: Trek Bikes

Speaking of bike t-shirts, my collection has quickly grown in the past few months. My ratio of bicycle-related t-shirts to actual number of miles cycled is a bit disproportionate. I'm working on that. On the actual cycling I mean. I'm not getting rid of any of my shirts.

Disclaimer: I really did win the 1lesscar.com shirt for free. There was no expressed or implied agreement to mention the website on this blog.