Note to self: Buy Outlier lady bike pants. They are waterproof and look amazing.
Biking In Heels: Cycling For Women
Biking In Heels: Cycling For WomenI took an awesome (and free!)bike classat the Brooklyn Brainery last month taught by Emily Scott, an avid cyclist with enthusiasm and smarts to boot. We covered everything from proper gear (Isle Jacobse’s great raincoats and a white helmet for increased visibility, for instance) to highest risk situations (like cars making left turns while you’re in a protected bike lane). With Emily’s permission, and in honor ofNational Bike Month, I share below some of the notes I took and tips that I found most interesting:
For purchasing a bike:
- What kind of cyclist are you? Commuter? Errands? Recreational?
- What do you want in a bike? Speed? Lightweight? Ability to carry things? Ability to stay dry? Type of frame (stepthrough or not)? How many gears?
- No hand breaks = dangerous!
- To determine the proper frame size, use achart. Inseam is a more important factor than height. My inseam is 27”, so for my next bike purchase, I should get a 48-50cm frame.
- You can often “trade up” on craigslist, meaning that when you’re ready for something new, go for it! Your old one will sell.
Be lawfully safe and satisfactorily dry:
- Wear a helmet.
- NYC law says that you must have a white light in the front and a red light in the rear.
- Test brakes before going out.
- Keep things off your body as much as possible, because it makes you less sweaty. Racks/baskets on the back of the bike or side baskets that fold can help with this.
- Good temperature management means that you wear 1/3 less clothing than you normally would walking around in that weather. Strip down then you feel yourself getting warm
- There are solutions out there forbutt sweat.
Miscellaneous tips:
- Think like a car and act like a car, but have the awareness of a pedestrian.
- Be aware of cyclists behind you. If you’re going to go slower, hang to the right.
- Draw attention to yourself when needed. Ring a bells. Use your voice. Make eye contact.
- The best bike shops are where the bike delivery men go. They’re honest and no frills.
- Keep your purse where you can see it; if you stop at a light, someone can swipe it out of a back basket.
- 97% of people who died on bike were not wearing a helmet.
Great tips!
New bike lights/rings.
“I’m pumped!”
Biked like a champion this morning, 1 hour door to door. Unfortunately, I discovered that the huge bike rack outside my office building has been removed. Parked inside for today, but an investigation is in order.
This sounds great. I love this gal’s lady bike blog.
- Ian: New kicks?
- Me: These are my bike safety sneakers...they are all reflective.
- Ian: Well they certainly caught my eye!
“I’m proud of myself, but I was thinking this should be on one of those joke blogs where it says, ‘A bike is not a pickup truck you stupid hipster.’ ” -CRLet’s say you have to move the floor of a shed two miles, and you can’t bear the thought of taking a taxi. So you take your trusty fold-up, wedge the floorboard between a pedal and your seat, and roll on home.
On Vashon Island, Washington there is a bike that has grown into a tree. As the story goes, a boy left his bike chained there when he went off to war in 1914. He never returned. The bike remained where he had left it, either forgotten by time or as a tribute to his memory.
I seem to remember reading a Christmas book when I was a kid that had a photo like this at the end to prove the the far-fetched story was real. Mom—any thoughts about which book this was?
Bike Locking Series
I found this series of informative, yet funny and entertaining videos from Streetfilms basically following Hal Ruzal around NYC grading people’s ways of locking their bikes. Now that I’ve been biking to work, bike theft and bike locks are all I can think about!!Hal Grades Your Bike Locking from Streetfilms on Vimeo.
Hal (and Kerri) Grade Your Bike Locking from Streetfilms on Vimeo.
A good review as bike season kicks into high gear this week.
This makes me feel good about my multi-layer bike locking regimen, which I always feel awkward about when I’m doing all of the different parts for 10 minutes. I think I’d get an A by these standards with my U-lock connected to an auxiliary cord for both wheels, and my seat/lights pulled out/off and taken with me.
I laughed.
