Making Sure It Doesn't Get Worse

 After nearly half a century of cycling without a serious accident, last year I suffered through two mishaps--a crash and getting "doored"--that resulted in a two-night stay at a trauma center and a visit to an emergency room, respectively.  Oh, and the crash ended my journey with Arielle, my Mercian Audax (the first Mercian I acquired).  

I suppose things could have been worse, though:

From Teepublic

I mean, if I'd had a Strava (or any electronic measuring device), it would have shown an average speed of O.O5 mph or something by the time I got home.

You Can't Sell Snow To The Eskimos Or Buy This In England

 Last week, the United Kingdom's "divorce" from the European Union, commonly called "Brexit," took effect.  Not surprisingly, this has affected the country's bicycle business--though, in some instances, in unintended ways.

Anyone who has ever reported on business and finance will tell you, "The markets don't like uncertainty."  The stock exchanges, whether in New York or London or Tokyo, usually fall when traders don't know who will be in offices or what policies will or won't be in place.  And businesspeople don't like to make investments when a change in a law could adversely affect them.

So it's no surprise that, for the time being, Canyon, based in Germany, stopped shipping bikes to the UK on 19 December.  A message on the company's website says that this stoppage will continue at least until Monday the 11th and is a result of "changes in tariffs and logistics in clearing points of entry into the UK."  

In other words, Canyon wants more clarity--more certainty--about the UK's new policies on imports from the EU.   So does Campagnolo, which has suspended all deliveries to the UK as the Italian component and wheel maker is "awaiting for EU dispositions in regards to the Brexit situation."

Now, it makes sense that because Italy is part of the EU, Campagnolo would want more certainty about Brexit-induced shipping and tariff regulations before sending its derailleurs and brakes to Derby or Birmingham.  But an Italian wish for clarity about policies is also delaying or halting deliveries of at least one British company's products--including what might be the most iconic English bike part of all.

Brooks leather saddles, including the B-17, Professional and Swift, are still made in England.  They are, however, shipped to a distribution center in Italy--where Brooks' parent company, Selle Royal, is based.  (SR purchased Brooks in 2002.)  From there, orders are shipped worldwide--including to UK customers.

You can buy this--as long as you don't want it delivered to you in England!

That is, at least, how things work in normal (whatever that means anymore) times.  But for the time being, "ongoing changes in the Brexit situation have made it necessary to suspend all new orders from brooksengland.com to the UK."  The company's website doesn't give a timeline as to when shipments to UK customers might resume.

From The Heights To The Cutoff—And Joe

Sometimes, when I ride through the industrial areas of Queens and Brooklyn, I feel like an archaeologist.

Tuesday afternoon I took Negrosa, my vintage Mercian Olympic, for a spin along some landmarked blocks in central Brooklyn.  I hadn’t planned to ride anywhere in particular; I just found myself spinning my pedals out that way.  

Brooklyn has, probably, the greatest concentration—and some of the best examples—of brownstone houses. Long-since-gentrified (and bleached, if you know what I mean) neighborhoods like Park Slope and Carroll Gardens regularly (during non-pandemic times) witness throngs of architecture students and tourists savoring the details of those buildings.  But some equally-beautiful areas like Stuyvesant Heights are less known because they are “off the beaten path. Stuyvesant Heights is still mainly an African- and Caribbean-American neighborhood.  Hmm...Could that be a reason why tourists (or White New Yorkers, except for those in the know) don’t beat a path to it?

These houses on Decatur Street have details even more intricate than what I saw every day when I was living in “the Slope.” 

I would love to see this neighborhood to keep the characteristics—including some interesting shops and cafes—that make it worth seeing.  But I hope it doesn’t turn into a masoleum, I mean museum or, worse, a Brownstone Theme Park.

Likewise, I could see this railroad underpass—under which I passed on my way home—turning into what many of us hoped the High Line would become.  The Montauk Cutoff, as it’s called, bears striking resemblances to The High Line before it became  catwalk for the well-heeled high-heeled:  Like the HL about 20 years ago, the MC is a weed-grown railroad right-of-way previously used by freight trains making deliveries to and from an old industrial area that’s starting to de-industrialize.

As I understand, the MC belongs to the Long Island Rail Road. (Yes, the LIRR still spells “Rail Road” as two words, just as they did in 1834!) Some reports say the Rail Road wants to add some trackage and connect it to their recently-expanded Sunnyside Yards.  Others say it’s structurally unsound and will be torn down.  Then there are stories that some city or state agency or investors want to acquire it and create a High Line, especially since some of the industrial sites could become upscale residential and commercial areas.

Me, I’d love for it to become a High Line for the people. It would include a bike lane (of course!), green spaces and art studios, galleries, craft shops, educational centers and cafes that could represent the many communities of Queens, the most culturally and linguistically diverse county in the United States, if not the world.

(Examples of the diversity include members of Central American indigenous groups who may or may not speak Spanish and Africans who might speak Wolof or some other native language and practice a religion far older than Christianity or Islam.)

Hmm...If someone takes me up on my idea, there might be a plaque or something with my name and likeness. Perhaps someone would look at it and wonder who, exactly, Justine was

just as I wonder what happened to Joe, or whether Marty and Janet stayed together. I mentioned these bits of graffiti on the Review Avenue wall of the Calvary Cemetery eight years ago.  I first saw it many years ago—if I recall correctly, with my family, on our way to visit relatives who were living in Queens.

I never know what I’ll unearth on a ride!

It's Come Here, It's Come To This

Every country I have visited, with the possible exception of Canada, has experienced a revolution, uprising, coup d'etat or other violent attempt to unseat a sitting government or prevent a new government from seating itself.  In some of those countries, like Cambodia and Laos, people are still living with the aftermath--which is sometimes quite visible--of those uphevals.  And, for a time, I lived in a country that had one of the most famous coups of all:  The first time I walked around the Place de la Concorde in Paris, I tried to imagine it covered in blood spilled from the guillotines set up where the famous obelisks stand.

Now, I have participated in a few demonstrations in my time.  We were agitating for change that, we felt, wasn't coming from elected leaders or institutions.  But I never, at any time, threw my lot in with any person or group who tried to violently overthrow a duly-elected government or inflict harm on any person.  I am, I guess, a product of a country where things haven't been done that way.

Until yesterday, that is.  Most people, including the actual and self-appointed pundits in the media, believe that the mobs who stormed the Capitol won't succeed in their efforts to keep the results of the election from being ratified and President-elect Joe Biden from being inaugurated.  My guess is that they're right, but I don't think we should see such an outcome as guaranteed.  

The thing is, while their actions may have been an inevitable outcome of what President Trump and his supporters have done--and, worse, condoned--they weren't normal, at least in one sense.  Most other uprisings and revolutions are a result of deprivation:  as one of Bob Marley's reminds us in Them Belly Full , "A hungry mob is an angry mob."  More precisely, the violence is a reaction to someone in power saying, whether with their words or actions, "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche."

One thing that makes yesterday's riot--and, more accurately, rioters--different is that they're not revolting against a government that's in power.  They are trying to prevent a newly-elected government from taking power.  At least, that's their ostensible purpose. But their real anger rages against what they perceive to be the real power:  a left-liberal conspiracy in the media, academic world, governments and the world economy (globalism).  And they see, however inaccurately, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as its proxies.

Photo by Erin Schaff, from The New York Times blog

The other difference between them and earlier revolutionaries is that they're not hungry, at least not in the physical sense.  At least, my guess is that most of them aren't:  The really hungry people are too overworked or too beaten down to do what yesterday's protesters did.  Rather, they are resentful (which, it can be argued, is a kind of spiritual starvation) of people who are blacker, browner, gayer or in any other way different--and therefore, in their eyes, the beneficiaries of unfairly acquired privilege.  The guy won't wear a mask believes that his job is in jeopardy because of a woman in a hijab and that his safety is in danger from another woman who wrapped herself and her children in a shawl after a coyote left them in the desert night.  

The assault in the Capitol is a developing story and I realize that by the time you read this, new details will have emerged and some parts of this post might be out of date.  But I felt the need to say something about it because my cycling journeys have taken me to places that experienced what I never thought--until recently--would happen here in the US.  

Reflecting Phantoms and Sting Rays

Some Christians celebrate today, the 6th of January, as the Epiphany.  It's the day after the Twelfth Night of Christmas, so this day is often regarded as the end of the Christmas season.

While some folks take down their Christmas trees and decorations the day after the holiday, or on New Year's Day, I've known many others who put away their holiday decorations on this date.  Also, many decorations in public places like shopping malls and town squares are removed on or around this date.

Such places include the Atlas Park, about 10 kilometers from my apartment.  It's an open-air mall very similar in design to European Village of Palm Coast, Florida.  Both opened around the same time:  just in time for the financial crisis of 2007-2008.  But while EV was built on previously undeveloped land, AP was constructed on the site of Atlas Terminal Industrial Park, which once housed General Electric, Kraft, Westinghouse and New York Telephone as well as other manufacturers.

I don't know whether any Christmas decorations were ever made there.  In the confines of ATIP, however, a company made functional objects that could have served as tree or window ornaments:

If you're of, ahem, a certain age, you might have ridden a bike equipped with those reflectors.  You might still have them, or these:

Gulco "6 pie" reflector, above and below.

6

Schwinns and other bikes from the 1940s through the 1970s came with Gulco reflectors.  Sometimes the company's information was engraved on the metal backing:  Charles Gulotta Company (hence Gulco) of Glendale, New York.  

We all know that modern reflectors and lights do their jobs better than their earlier counterparts.  But you have to admit, those old lights and reflectors had style, or at least character, you just don't find in the new stuff.

Bikes from the 1940s and 1950s used the "bubble" or "jewel" reflectors, while Sting Rays and "muscle" bikes from the 1960s and 1970s came with "2 pie" or "6 pie" reflectors.   All fetch premium prices on eBay.  So does the special bracket that attached "6 pie" reflectors to "banana" seats on Sting Rays.

The small "jewel" reflectors were sometimes attached to the end of leather strips wrapped around hub shafts.  Hipsters and other urban fixed-gear riders sometimes replicate those "hub shiners" on their new machines.

Gulotta/Gulco didn't make reflectors only for bicycles.  The smaller ones were often used to attach license plates to cars and motorcycles; other "shiners" were also found on boats, trucks and other vehicles.

During the 1970s, Japanese bicycles found popularity among American cyclists.  Much about them was equal or superior to their American and European counterparts:  the lug work was often cleaner (at least on the lower- and middle-priced bikes), the SunTour and Shimano derailleurs were easier to shift and more precise and the bikes  represented better overall values for the money.  The Cateye reflectors that came with Fujis, Nishikis, Miyatas and other Japanese bikes were brighter, lighter in weight and sturdier (or at least less delicate).

I tried to obtain information on how long Gulotta/Gulco continued to manufacture.  All I could find were reports that "Charles Gulotta Co Inc" was first registered as a business name in 1925; a trademark application was filed in 1960, approved the following year and renewed in 1981 and "dead/cancelled" in 2002.  So, my guess is that Gulotta/Gulco was making reflectors--though, possibly, not bike-specific ones--into the 1980s, and possibly the 1990s.  By 2000, Atlas was no longer functioning as an industrial facility.

If you're restoring a Schwinn Phantom or Sting Ray, it simply wouldn't be complete without the right reflector--made in my neighborhood, more or less!

A Girl Scout Makes Her Town Safe(r) For Cycling

 It's funny to think that I, a transgender woman, was once a Boy Scout (and altar boy).  I joined the Scouts, in part, to try to quell the nagging doubts  about my gender identity.  Although that part of the plan didn't work out, there were things I liked about Scouting.  Among them were the fact that it recognize, and even reward (via merit badges) for doing things I would have done anyway.  So I earned merit badges for reading (!) and cycling.

The requirements for the badge weren't terribly rigorous: a few rides of increasing length, knowledge of hand signals and the ability to fix a flat tire.  I certainly didn't have to do anything as original as Jordan Brown has done.

Jordan Brown

In addition to cycling and scouting (in her case, Girl Scouts), she and I have this in common: Middletown, and its high school, where she is a ninth-grader.

Her Middletown, though, is in Rhode Island. Mine  was in New Jersey. (What US state doesn't have a Middletown?) Oh, and hers is still called Middletown High, whereas mine became Middletown North when a second high school opened just after I graduated.

But I digress.  To earn the Silver Award, a Girl Scout must complete an in-depth project in which she identifies a need or issue in her community (whether local, state, national or international), researches it and plans a project to address the issue or need at its root cause.  It requires a minimum of 50 leadership hours to implement and includes requirements that the project can be sustained beyond the girl who creates it.  The project has to be proposed to, and approved by, an awards committee at the regional organization: in Jordan's case, the Girl Scouts of Southeastern New England (GSSNE).

As often as not, a need is identified through personal experience.  Ms. Brown's discerned the need to educate members of her community about bicycle safety after seeing a friend, who wasn't wearing a helmet, take a major fall on a bicycle.  As a result, she had planned to conduct six weeks of after-school programs, in partnership with Bike Newport, about bike safety and knowledge in Middletown's two elementary schools.

Those programs were to take place in March and April.  Brown had also planned to conduct a community event during the summer.  The COVID-19 pandemic, however, rendered those plans undoable as all of Rhode Island's schools closed from March onward and restrictions were still in place during the summer.

The initiative she took should be reason enough to give her the Silver, and Gold Awards, as well as any number of other accolades.  She embarked on an alternative project that she divided in two parts. The first involved the purchase and installation of two bike repair stations in Middletown:  one at the public library, the other at the Gaudet Middle School.  To fund the $2600 cost of those stations, she held two car washes (which netted $1200), requested and received funds from the Middletown Town Council and received private community donations.

To see this part of her project to completion, she worked with the Town Council,  facilities departments of the schools, superintendent of Middletown Public Schools, principal of Gaudet, town administrator and library director--in addition to Girl Scout representatives and local mentors and advisors.

The second part of Brown's project was educational.  Reaching out to her local community wasn't possible during the pandemic.  So, she created a Girl Scout Patch program based on safety and the history and social implications of the bicycle.  The patch program has been offered through GSSNE and Girl Scout Facebook groups throughout the country.  

On top of everything, Jordan designed the patch, of which 300 were originally produced and given, free of charge, to the first 300 girls who completed the program.  So successful was the program that Brown had to have another 500 patches made. 

Everything she did would have been impressive if an adult experienced in teaching, business or community organizing had done it.  That it was accomplished by a first-year high school student means that we'll hear more from, and about Jordan Brown.  I hope she gets to tout her accomplishments from the saddle of her bicycle!

Trexit: Another Consequence of COVID-19

 Just before Christmas, I wrote about an irony of the COVID-19 pandemic:  The dramatic increase in bike-related sales has actually forced some small shops, like Larsen's Bicycles of Powell, Wyoming, out of business.  The same surge in demand that has filled the coffers of bike companies and larger shops has left smaller shops like Larsen's--usually the last to be supplied--without inventory.  

It seems, though, that some other shops are closing, or their owners are shifting their focus to related businesses, by choice. 

People often look at the price tags on bikes and assume that the bike industry is lucrative.  The reality is that margins on bikes are new bikes are smaller--and, the more expensive the bike, the smaller the margin.  Prior to the pandemic, the bike could stand on the showroom floor for months, or even years.  In the meantime, the shop's owner or manager had to pay all the overhead of running the business, not to mention the mechanic who assembled the bike.

In addition, most bike shop owners, like their counterparts in other industries, carry long-term debt, whether for the business itself or in mortgages for their business buildings or homes.  That is often a deterrent to any would-be buyer of a bike shop, or any other small business, and a reason why shop proprietors are running their enterprises long after their peers have retired from salaried jobs.

I have just described some of the reasons why I have no regrets over not opening a bike shop or a book store, even though I was offered opportunities to do both in my youth.  One retailer described the situation well:  "It just did start to feel like we were in the store-running business instead of the bicycle business."  Having worked in both bike shops and book stores, I realized that I love books and bikes, but had absolutely no love for "the store-running business."  That, in essence, is why Chris Kulczyki sold the business he started--Velo Orange--almost four years ago.

Unfortunately, according to that retailer, "the store-running business is where this industry is going."  That is one reason, I think, why some are leaving the industry. The retailer in question admits that he, and other shop owners, have benefitted from the current "boom." Their "store running" has allowed them to pay off old debts and put some money in the bank.  It's also allowed them to get out from under a pile of old inventory.  For the first time, many who opened bike shops during the 1970s and 1980s, can leave with a "clean slate."  

As sad as it will be to see some of those shops go, I really can't blame their owners for selling out or closing down.  You really can't blame anybody for quitting while he or she is ahead, especially if it's taken decades to get to that point.  Also, as more than bicycle entrepreneur has said, "I'm tired; it's time to retire."

Some of those shops were Trek dealers. In recent years, the Wisconsin-based company called in some of its debts by taking over stores, essentially leaving the proprietor with nothing.  Some shop owners were on the verge of such a fate early in 2020.  But the COVID-induced surge in demand allowed them to pay down their debts and allowed negotiate more more favorable terms to their Trexits.

From the Financial Times

What Will They Dig Up?

Four and a half years ago, a gold miner used a water cannon to blast through a wall of permafrost in Canada's Yukon Territory.  That day, Neil Loveless didn't find any precious metal.  Instead, he chanced upon something far rarer:  an almost perfectly-mummified wolf pup who died 57,000 years ago.  Her body was so well-preserved that scientists could tell what she ate (salmon!) for her last meal.

That leads me to wonder what some miner or forager will find 57,000 years from now.

From marquettemagazine.com

  

Enforcement, For A Day

Nevada law stipulates that motorists must give cyclists a berth of three feet (a bit less than a meter) when passing.  Other states have similar laws but they are seldom enforced.  One reason is that police officers can't be, and surveillance cameras aren't, everywhere.  

While some motorists deliberately ignore such a rule because they feel entitled to a road "my taxes paid for" (well, so did mine and those of every other cyclist!), others don't realize such regulations exist.  For that matter, many law enforcement officials aren't cognizant of them as well.

On Wednesday morning, a Las Vegas police officer rode a bicycle equipped with a laser device that measured the distance between bicycles and passing cars along a popular loop. He called out violations to  more than a dozen other officers staged  along that route. By that afternoon, 170 cars were stopped for violations or warnings, 184 citations were handed out and about 30 warnings were given to drivers.

Sgt. Michael Campbell rides bicycle as part of enforcement effort on West Charleston Boulevard in Las Vegas. (Photo by K.M. Cannon for the Las Vegas Journal-Review

Of course, roads and other bike routes are almost never as heavily-patrolled as that Las Vegas loop was on Wednesday.  I am all but certain that the nearby road where a truck ran down Gerard Suarez Nieva, Thomas Chamberlin Trauger, Erin Michelle Ray, Aksoy Ahmet and Michael Todd Murray on 10 December didn't have the kind of police presence--or a video surveillance camera. 

Moving Forward To 2021

Happy New Year!

The past year was difficult for many of us, for all sorts of reasons.  I have no idea of what this year will bring--well, all right, I think the first few months, at least, will be difficult as the COVID-19 pandemic rages. However and whenever the pandemic ebbs, all we can do is to move forward.

That is what we, as cyclists, know how to do. Even--actually, I would say "especially"-- those of us who like vintage or "retro" bikes are forward-looking:  We are riding toward a landscape free of the encumbrances of fossil fuels, social and economic hiérarchies and the tyranny of companies that dictate what we can and can't use. 

Pioneering female cyclists Violet Ward and Daisy Elliot, 1895.  (Alice Austen, collection of Historic Richmond Town.)

One thing I can't help but to notice is that social progress--which is to say, equal access to dignity--comes as more women and girls ride bicycles.  (Why do you think I underwent a gender transition? ;-)) Think of the bike booms of the 1890s and 1970s:  Those are, perhaps not coincidentally, when the first and second waves of feminism washed over American society.  I would like to think that we are in another boom and that it will result, current setbacks notwithstanding, long-term gains for women.

Women cycling in Davis, California, 1967

If nothing else, if we see more women (and people of all other gender identities) on bikes in 2021, things have to get better.  I hope so.