30 Days of Biking April 2013: Almost Halfway Ride Report
April has not worked well for me in past attempts to complete 30 Days of Biking for various reasons–some of them good ones. I got a running start on April 2013 by riding my bike every day March 17-March 30 (I didn’t ride March 31–gave myself permission to take a day off before heading into [...]
Getting Started Bike Commuting: A Blogspedition inside Bike Style
The blog now stands at over 170 posts after a year of writing. Lots of advice is sprinkled throughout every post, along with my ponderings and miscellany on bike policy, infrastructure creation, and other aspects of becoming a bike-friendlier world. This post serves as a categorized round-up of many of the posts you may find helpful [...]
They’re Coming Back! Spring and Health
Reasonably good indicators on both fronts: returning health, and returning spring. Biking keeps me attuned to both conditions–my physical well-being and the turning of the seasons–in ways that driving could never provide. Health: My uphill ride home is a real indicator of whether I’ve shaken off whatever crud has attacked. Not good: I sound like [...]
Winter Ride Report: Sunshine and Splatter
As I’ve written several times throughout this weird, weird winter: Yep, still riding! Mind you, the deep snows of last week would have stopped me, if I’d been in town. Instead I was in Olympia, where if anything it was even worse because everything was encased in ice. Limbs shattered off trees from the weight, [...]
Starting the New Year off Right: On my Bike!
This has been an amazing year for riding through the winter, at least so far! I rode the bus two days in November right before Thanksgiving because the snow looked like a little bit more than I’m comfortable riding in when the drivers are still remembering how to stop in snow. (Hint: Locking up your [...]
A Solstice Post: Gifts I Give Myself by Riding in the Winter
Zero worries about whether the car will start in the cold and no windshield scraping–my motor doesn’t freeze up and I don’t have windows. Permission to eat my sweetheart’s delicious hand-grated hashbrowns for breakfast because I’ll be burning potatoes on the way to work. The sound of my skinny tires hissing through a light frosting [...]
Still Riding!
In case you wondered, yes, it’s still riding weather! Cold, sure, but the roads have been bare and dry. Sometimes the road is lightly frosted in the early morning so I allow for more braking time and don’t really lean into the corners, but other than that riding now is like riding in September or [...]
Keep Your Weather Eye Open
weather eye. n. An ability to recognize quickly signs of changes in the weather. Idiom: keep a/one’s weather eye open. To keep watch; stay alert. Having a weather eye is apropos for biking no matter which meaning you use. We need to stay alert and we need to pay attention to the weather. My skill at both [...]
Baby, It’s Cold Outside!
#1 most common phrase I’ve heard in the past few days as the temperatures dropped and the skies darkened: “You’re still riding?!” The answer so far: Yes, and I’m not the only bike I see on the streets. One of the ways I track the change of seasons is my layering: on for winter, off [...]
Beautiful Fall Riding
A simple post to celebrate the joys of autumn biking What an utterly beautiful morning yesterday! Wednesday I left my little side street around 8:30 a.m., headed for a meeting on the north side of the river in downtown. The temperature hovered around 37 degrees, according to weather.com, but I wasn’t cold. The sun lit [...]
Shoulder Season: The Blogspedition Stays Toasty
We’re in what the tourism industry calls a shoulder season. I think of it as “cover your shoulders” season when I’m getting dressed for the morning departure on my bike. Cover your legs, for that matter. Last Thursday the forecast was pretty good—lower 60s—and the sun was in the sky so I took off at [...]
