08 March 2021

Audrey McElmury Made Them Possible

Today is International Women's Day.

To mark the occasion, I am going to talk about Audrey McElmury.





In one of my early posts, I wrote about Nancy Burghart. She won eight US National Championships during the 1960s. That brought her international press attention in the days before 24-hour news cycles and when the US was seen as, at best, a cycling backwater by the sports' powers in Europe and Japan.

I mention Burghart here because you might say that Audrey McElmury picked up where Burghart left off--and carried the torch to the great generation of American female cyclists that included "Miji" Reoch, Sue Novara, Sheila Young, Connie Carpenter and Rebecca Twigg.

In 1969, the year that Burghart won her final national championship, McElmury rode the World Championships in Brno, Czechoslavakia (now the Czeh Republic).  In the previous year's World Championships, held in Rome, she finished fifth in a road race that ended in a sprint.  Around the same time, the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslavakia to suppress the "Prague Spring."  The 1969 World Championships would run on the anniversary of the day the tanks barreled down the streets of the Czech capital.

That day, McElmury rode both the road and track races.  She came in seventh in the 3000-meter pursuit race.  Later that day, she rode the 62-kilometer road race on her road bike, made by Johnny Berry in Manchester, UK.  She would recall the race this way:


The pavement was somewhat chewed up from the tank treads.  The course was one that suited my riding: I was good in the hills* and time-trialed well.m On about the third lap, it started pouring buckets.  On the fourth lap, I got away on the hill by about 15 seconds, but I fell down while putting on the brakes in a corner on the descent.  The pack caught me as I got up.  The rain was chilly enough that I didn't feel the full effect of my bruised hip, and the rain exaggerated the amount of blood from a cut on my elbow.  I chased the pack with an ambulance following me to see if I was all right.

Being the tough customer she was, McElmury gained on the rest of the pack during the last lap and pulled ahead on the last hill.  She finished that race one minute and ten seconds ahead of the runner-up, Bernadette Swinnerton of the UK.


Audrey McElmury on the podium in Czechoslavakia, 1969.



McElmury's victory gave her the gold medal--and World Championship--for the road race.  In winning, she became the first American World Champion in cycling since Frank Kramer took the professional sprint race in 1912--31 years before McElmury was born.  In fact, it was the first road racing world championship victory, ever, by any American of any gender.  

To say that her triumph was unexpected was an understatement.  The awards ceremony had to be delayed by half an hour as officials searched for a recording of the Star Spangled Banner to play. She returned home to the same indifference she, and other cyclists, had previously met in the US.   A reporter, who apparently knew nothing about cycling, wanted to know more about the anniversary of the Russian invasion than her championship.

That indifference toward cyclists was compounded by the fact that she was a woman in a male-dominated sport.  She had to pay all of her own expenses--about $10,000--to compete in Brno.  The American cycling federation claimed that it didn't have enough money to pay for her, or the other two women accompanied her, because the dues they paid amounted to so little.  


Audrey McElmury's Johnny Berry bike.


On the other hand, her victory was celebrated in Europe.  For one thing, there was a culture of cycling and a fanbase for racing that simply didn't exist in the US at that time, so Europeans appreciated her determination, courage and skill.  And the Czechs, after their experiences, cheered for Americans in the races and were more than enthusiastic about McElmury.  They booed the Russians who won other events.  

She would be recruited by the Italian team, for whom she would ride and later coach.  Upon returning to the US, she still couldn't get her expenses covered, even though she showed she could hold her own with the top American men in the criterium circuit. 

After a 1974 crash, McElmury retired from racing and, with her husband Michael Levonas, coahed cyclists and tri-athletes in Southern California before working in hotel and food service management in the western US.  She died in Bozeman, Montana on 26 March 2013, at age 70.  In 1989, she was enshrined in the United States Biycling Hall of Fame.

So, for International Women's Day, I have taken the opportunity to celebrate Audrey McElmury, who helped to usher in the generation of Americans who would dominate the world of women's bicycle racing--and, I would argue, paved the way for American men like Greg LeMond, who would garner far more attention--and money.

*-Having cycled in and around Prague, I can attest that there are hills in that part of the world !

07 March 2021

Escapism

Perhaps you're on a bike--say, a Huffy or Pacific--you wouldn't want to be caught dead on.

Or you're about to crash. 

Maybe you're tired and have flatted twice in an hour.

Those are answers to a question I never asked until I saw this:




How or why would you use an "Eject" button on a bicycle?

06 March 2021

Bicycles For Everyone--In Western Michigan, Anyway!

During last year's Democratic presidential primaries, Andrew Yang floated the idea of a Universal Basic Income.  He's not the first public figure to advocate it: Jeremy Corbyn in the UK has voiced support.  So have Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk--who, perhaps, ironically share another trait with Yang:  they are tech billionaires. (I just hope they don't, like Yang, develop any political aspirations!)  And, perhaps most famously, a referendum on Universal Basic Income was put up for vote in Switzerland five years ago.  It lost, but the idea is still discussed there, and elsewhere.

Since I never, ever espouse political positions (no, really!) on this blog, I won't say any more about the idea.  I will say, however, if I were a President or Queen or Governor or some other high-level legislator or ruler, I'd decree that anyone who wants or needs a bicycle will have one.  Mind you, it wouldn't necessarily be a Specialized S-Works machine or bespoke handcrafted lugged steel beauty: a bike to get someone from point A to point B reliably, safely and with some style.

Just to prove that great minds think alike (no, really!) Elliot Rappleye and Jon Butler are doing what I propose.  They have created Lyfe Cycles, a Grand Haven, Michigan-based nonprofit organization dedicated to fixing up old bikes and giving them to people who can't afford them.  

Lyfe Cycles founders Elliot Rappleye (with bike) and Jon Butler



The impetus came from Rappleye's experience in a Holland, Michigan sober-living house.  He noticed "a lot of people not having transportation" to go wherever they needed, and wanted, to go.  

As it happened, there was a pile of rundown bikes at the house.  Rappleye fixed one, then another.  One resident rolled one out the door, then another.  Restoring the bikes soon became his project.  "They called me the bike guy," he said.

Last fall, Butler called on him to fix a bike.  They got to talking, and the idea for Lyfe Cycles was born.  "Some people just can't afford a way to get around," Butler observes.


Elliot Rappleye in the shop



The process has been straightforward:  Bikes are donated, Rappleye repairs them and they're donated. So far, most of the donations have been made to people in recovery groups along Michigan's western shore who've come to their attention by word of mouth.  They want to expand their services to give bikes to families and to promote cycling as a way to get around. Western Michigan is "the perfect little area" to promote a cycling lifestyle, according to Butler, who points to a plan to establish more bike-friendly lanes in Grand Haven. 

Lyfe Cycles is collecting old bike donations and, at the moment, is still working out of a shop in the sober-living house where Rappleye started his work.  A bike drive is scheduled for the 20th.  But his and Butler's long-term plans include starting a brick-and-mortar shop and auctioning off custom bikes to turn Lyfe Cycles into a "self-sustaining brand."

A universal basic bike for everyone:  Elliot Rappleye  and Jon Butler might make this vision come true, at least on Michigan's western shore.  

  

(Photos provided by Lyfe Cycles to Mlive.

 

05 March 2021

Obedience And Therapy

Yesterday I was such a good, healthy citizen, it was almost disgusting.

On Tuesday, my orthopedic doctor told me I'd healed enough to do anything my conditioning and endurance will allow.  And, in spite of what Governor Greg Abbott and other legislators are doing, anyone who knows more about epidemology, immunology, virology, microbiology or public health than I know is telling us to continue the practice of social distancing.

I managed to follow my doctor's, and other health professionals' orders, yesterday.  Late in the morning, I hopped on Negrosa, my vintage Mercian Olympic, and pedaled to Point Lookout.

Throughout my ride, I couldn't have violated social-distancing regulations if I tried, or wanted to.  I saw only three other cyclists and maybe half a dozen people walking along the seven kilometer stretch of the Rockaway Boardwalk.   I saw little traffic, and very few people crossing at traffic lights, as I spun through the streets of Queens, Atlantic Beach, Long Beach and Point Lookout. 




Even Point Lookout seemed as if it had never been visited by humans:  The tides had receded further than at any other time I can recall, leaving more sand, with barely any footprints, than I'd ever seen there.  The gulls and erns seemed curious at my presence.

As for the clouds that shrouded the sky throughout my ride, I was glad for those, too.  The day was cold and a strong wind blew out of the northwest:  I pedaled with it on my way out and into it on my way back. Perhaps the sun would have brought some cheer, but I'm not sure that's what I needed:  The subdued light, with no threat of rain, and the sea gave me a canvas, a slate, a stage on which to purge sadness of the past year and my hopes for what is to come. 



Call me selfish, but I was enjoying it all:  I felt as if I'd had those streets, the boardwalk, the beaches and even the ocean and sky all to myself.  So, not only did I follow the guidelines of Anthony Fauci, the CDC, the New York City Department of Health and any other real authority about the pandemic; I also did something for my mental health.  So did Marlee, who immediately curled up on me when I got home.

04 March 2021

Silver Stallion Brings Bike Repairs To A Nation In Need

I first learned of Bicycle Habitat, which would become my "go-to" shop, while pedaling the canyons of downtown Manhattan, a Globe Canvas messenger bag loaded with packages, documents and even the occasional food delivery, slung across my body.  The shop, on Lafayette Street, was strategically located for messengers like me who shuttled between the studios, galleries, professional offices and businesses of Soho and Midtown and the traders, brokers, bankers and lawyers in and around Wall Street and the World Trade Center.  

Habitat had another location in Chelsea--ironically, just two blocks from its current Chelsea shop.  But Charlie McCorkle, an owner and founding partner, once told me that even though the Lafayette shop was much smaller, it did more business than the Chelsea locale--in part, because of messengers like me.  Another factor was the American Youth Hostels headquarters, where I would work after quitting the delivery business.  People would sign up for an AYH bike tour and we'd send them to Habitat for equipment--and, sometimes, even a bicycle. (Believe it or not, some people didn't yet have a bike when they signed up for a tour!)  But after AYH moved uptown, the bulk of the Lafayette Street's location came from messengers and transportation cyclists. 

I am recalling that now because of a news item that brings to mind a phenomenon I've noticed.  In neighborhoods where people ride their bikes for fitness or recreation--or commute on two wheels when they have other options--it's not hard to find a bike shop. For example, when I lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn, four shops served an area within a one-mile radius of my apartment.  A similar ratio exists around my current residence in Astoria, Queens.  But if I venture into, say, Elmhurst, East New York or most Bronx neighborhoods, shops are fewer and farther between, if they exist at all.  And, in such neighborhoods, cyclists are as likely as not to be riding for transportation, and to be on bikes that are in more dire need of repair.

So it is in some Native American nations.  The Navajo nation encompasses an area about 50 times as large as the five boroughs of New York City and is home to about 333,000 people.  Cycling there is described as a "way of life":  While some ply the nearby terrain on mountain bikes for fun, many more depend on their bikes for transportation.  Yet, there isn't a single bike shop.  If someone needs a bike repaired, he or she has to travel as far as Gallup, New Mexico--an hours' drive away.




If Silver Stallion Bicycle & Coffee Works were near me, I'd go to it for its name alone!  But they are in Gallup. A non-profit organization, their mission is "to empower and develop youth and young adults vocational skills in the bicycle repair and specialty coffee industries."  In keeping with that, the folks of Silver Stallion are going into Dine lands and fixing Navajos' bikes for free.  

Because the work is considered a form of COVID-19 relief, the New Mexico Economic Development Department gave Silver Stallion a grant to cover expenses. In addition, the Southwest Indian Foundation donated a delivery truck and the Catena Foundation gave Stallion a grant to cover the truck's operating costs.  And Stans-Pivot Pro Team mechanic Myron Billy travelled to Gallup to outfit the truck as a mobile bike shop. Stans No Tubes, Clif Bar and other companies donated parts and equipment. 


Myron Billy. Photo by Shaun Price



Along with the donated parts, repairs were also done with parts "cannibalized" from other bikes.  The most common repairs involved freeing-up seized freehubs, replacing cables and "sliming" tubes to protect them against the abundant "goatheads." 

To continue this effort--which, in addition to providing repairs, is also imparting skills and mentorship to young people--Silver Stallion is seeking donations.  They are providing a valuable service, not only for folks who ride bikes as a way to cope with the COVID pandemic, but also to get to clinics for vaccinations and other medical care.


03 March 2021

Permission To Roam

My orthopedic doctor and the Texas governor said, basically, the same thing yesterday.

Now, I don't  know much about my doctor's politics, but he probably has never thought about Greg Abbott in his life. So how could they have echoed each other?

Well, the Governor told businesses in his state that, starting next week, restaurants and other businesses can open fully.  "People want to go back to living," he said.  He's declared that they can.  

My doctor gave me the same permission.  He confirmed what I suspected:  My injuries from getting "doored" are healed, save for two still-visible scars.  They'll take "about a year" to disappear, he said.  In the meantime, I could use a skin ointment, but if I should I should "be careful" because I have sensitive skin.  Looking at my helmet, he grinned and crooned, "Enjoy."

It's been more than a month since I did two of my regular long rides (Connecticut and Point Lookout).  The reason is not my injuries:  rather, it's the snow and ice that's covered many of the roads.  Also, Marlee seems to be guided by her animal instinct to hibernate and takes any chance she can to curl up on me and doze.  She's so cute, and calms me as much as a meditation or therapy session, that I want to stay with her.

I want to get out because, even on rides I've done dozens of times before, I notice something or another that previously escaped my attention--or wasn't there. During my ride to the doctor's office, a traffic light stop at Third Avenue and 17th Street brought this into my view:





I hadn't been inside that building in years--or looked at its exterior.  Whenever I entered, I listened to music or poetry.  I don't know whether its architectural details were covered, or perhaps I just hadn't noticed them because I always arrived at night, when throngs of people fronted and filled it.

Perhaps I will always think of that building--as long as it's still there--Fat Tuesday's, the jazz club/performance space that occupied it for years.  It closed around 15 years ago, when the changes I've witnessed in this city accelerated.  After that, it was occupied by a variety of venues, including a yoga and Pilates studio.




But, as you can see, the designers and builders of the edifice probably didn't envision any of the venues I--or most people living today--associate with it. Constructed in 1894-95, it originally served as a restaurant and beer garden.  The latter is not surprising when you realize that the surrounding neighborhood--Gramercy Park/Irving Place--was, at the time, said to be the home of more Germans than any place outside of Europe.  

The building would later host the German-American Athletic club and the German-American Rathskeller.  Given this history, it's makes sense that it's named for Joseph Viktor von Scheffel, a German poet and novelist.  




I don't know what "Allaires" refers to.  Ironically, when I first saw that name, I thought of a village in Brittany, France (through which I've biked) and a park in New Jersey where I biked, hiked and camped as a teenager.  That park was named for James Allaire, who owned an ironworks and village on the site.  The metal produced there was shipped to Allaire's factory in this city, where parts for steam ships were made.  He had a home on Cherry Street, about a mile from Scheffel Hall, so it's possible that his family owned all or part of the building or businesses that were in it.

One more thing:  Given the building's literary and artistic associations, it's not surprising that O.Henry wrote some of his stories--and set one of them, "The Halberdier of the Little Rheinschloss" in Scheffel Hall.

Anyway, as you can see, I didn't need permission from a doctor or governor to go back to doing the things I normally do:  cycling and learning about whatever I see along the way.  Marlee doesn't always approve, but, hey, nobody's perfect!



02 March 2021

Painting--And Cycling--En Plein Air

 On a recent post, Coline commented, "Cycling helps clear thinking" and "opens the mind to exploration."

It also sparks creativity.  Lewis Williams understands this as well as anybody does.  For his 60th birthday, the Montrose, Colorado-based artist wanted to "rattle the cage a bit" to "see what would his shake out."  So, he decided to combine one of his preferred methods of working--plein-air painting--with his love of being outdoors and bicycling.





Yesterday, he embarked from San Diego on a cross-continental cycling trip.  He plans to arrive in Bar Harbor, Maine during the first week of August.  Along the way, he'll ride two historic trails, he says.  And he plans to paint outdoors, in the open air (the meaning of "plein air") along the way.  After that, he plans to participate in the Plein Air painting competition of the Red Rock Arts Festival.  

His wife is accompanying him on this journey, he says.

I know how difficult it is to carry cameras and multiple lenses--not to mention other photographic equipment--on a bike, especially if you're carrying camping equipment and clothing for a multi-day tour.  I imagine that it's so much more difficult for a painter to carry supplies.  So, he outfitted a van for camping and attached a trailer to carry his art-related necessities.  


The purpose of the vehicle is not just as a "sag" wagon one sometimes sees on organized rides.  Williams says that if any of his riding or painting takes longer than he anticipated, he and his wife will "mix up the riding with the driving" as needed.

This tour is an extension of an ethos he lives by:  "Find creative outlets in your life."  He, who has worked with senior citizens, believes that people are "not too old to do what they want to do or try something new." Why else would he embark on such a journey for his 60th birthday?


01 March 2021

Mayor Pete Might Master This

Should cycling proficiency be required of anyone who would lead a transportation organization?

Most readers of this blog would answer "yes!"  My own unbiased (wink, wink) opinion would incline me to agree.  But some would disagree; not so long ago, most people would have.  I think one's answer depends on whether one sees bicycling as a form of transportation; although the number of people who see it that way is increasing, there are still many who see cyclists as young people with a sense of entitlement.  Those, I believe, are among the people who are upset whenever a bike lane "takes" "their" parking spaces.

While we're talking about definitions: If the director of a transportation organization or agency should exhibit cycling proficiency, what, exactly constitutes it?  I think most of us would agree that Pete Buttigeg, the Secretary of Transportation doesn't have it, at least judging from the video from which this still is taken:



To be fair, he even joked about his cycling skills, or lack thereof.  But we all know that time and practice makes you more proficient and savvy.

That last sentence, by the way, can apply to his political aspirations.  When he ran in last year's Democratic Party primaries, he was younger and less experienced than the other candidates.  I think that he'll run again and, possibly, win in 2028--when he'll be about the same age as Obama, Clinton and JFK were when they entered the White House.  And maybe, just maybe, Pete will ride to his inaugural--and look good doing it!

 

28 February 2021

I Deny It! I'm Not Getting Old!

 For more than a decade, I've been writing and publishing this blog under the name Midlife Cycling.

I have no plans to change.  As a very wise person told me, "As long as I don't know when I'm going to die, I'm in the middle of my life!"

No, I am not in denial about getting old!

From Displate


27 February 2021

It Isn't Easy Ridin' Green

One of the risks in making a film (all right, movie:  I am a snotty intellectual, what canitellya?)  that relies on special effects is that those effects can very quickly appear dated and primitive.  If the film doesn't have other merits--say, a compelling story, good writing, impressive cinematography or fine acting performances--then there is little reason to watch once the effects start to look clunky.

I haven't seen it in a while, but I suspect that The Muppet Movie might escape that unfortunate fate.  For one thing, I think the Muppets will always be fun to watch.  For another, four decades after the Muppets graced the silver screen, one effect in particular is still impressive because it's deceptively simple and doesn't rely on gadgetry:





How can we forget Kermit the Frog riding a bicycle?  How did he--or, rather, Muppeteer-in-Chief Jim Henson and special effects supervisor Robbie Knott--achieve the feat?

Well, they started by making a scaled-down model of a Schwinn cruiser.  Now, I don't know whether an actual frog can ride a bicycle, but I don't think a puppet can.  So, for the bike-riding scene, Henson and Knott, in essence, turned Kermit into a marionette.  


The full-bodied Kermit puppet was posed on the miniature bicycle, hands on the bars, feet on the pedals.  Then invisible wires were attached to him, which allowed Knott to maneuver him from a crane hidden from the camera's view.  For close-ups, Henson used a hand puppet of Kermit, which he operated below the camera while riding a low-rolling dolley.

Henson and Knott undoubtedly would agree with Kermit:  It isn't easy bein' green!

26 February 2021

On Thin Ice, Literally

Some years ago, I read Fooled By Randomness.  Its author, Nassim Nicholas Taleb--who is credited with coining the term "black swan"-- made his money on Wall Street before embarking on an academic career. (Hmm...Is that what I should have done?)  What I remember about the book now is that in it, Talib shared one of the lessons he learned as a trader:  People trust to chance precisely the events they shouldn't and try to control those things that are bound by fate.  

One problem, I think, is that people who work in jobs that jobs that reward caution, too often, play it safe in other areas of their lives:  They are the kind of people who will order the same dish in any restaurant of any kind anywhere in the world.  Conversely, some people who work in areas where risk-taking is rewarded, or at least expected, tend to take unnecessary and even dangerous chances with other things. 

An example of the latter kind of person might be Boston cyclist and vlogger Lucas Brunelle.  "I ride my bike the same way I trade stocks," he explained.  What's more, he documents his risky rides on videos he posts to YouTube.  To wit:




On 15 February, he departed from a parking lot in Allston and pedaled onto an frozen Charles River. At least, that's how the river probably looked to him. He transversed about 800 feet before falling through a crack in the ice.

Venturing onto any glazed body of water is risky. But ponds and lakes, which are usually stagnant and filled with fresh water, are more likely to develop a thick icy crust than a river, which has a current.  What makes a river like the Charles even more treacherous is that while it normally contains fresh water, salty currents from Boston Harbor--an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean--wash into it.  Salt water freezes at significantly lower temperatures (which is why, among the major oceans, only the Arctic and Antarctic freeze), so a river like the Charles might not develop a solid base underneath what appears to be a coat of ice.

Ever the risk-taker, Brunelle took to the ice the following week.  And, he says, he plans to continue his risky rides.  After all, what rewards him as a trader will make his rides rewarding, right?  Just ask Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

25 February 2021

Did She Or Didn't She--Vote?

 Late yesterday, I zigzagged between Brooklyn and Queens on Tosca, my Mercian fixed-gear bike.  I sometimes take rides like that with no particular destination, and turn wherever something looks interesting--or, sometimes, just to take the path of least resistance (less traffic, a better-looking road or just inertia).  Rides like the one I took yesterday inevitably lead me along streets never frequented by hipsters or the bourgeoisie and never visited by tourists.  Those streets are also among the increasingly-small number of byways not enclosed by towers built from beige Lego blocks, black metal bars and windows designed for people to look at, but not see themselves.

One such street--Borden Avenue--parallels the Long Island Railroad tracks in Hunter's Point, about five kilometers from my apartment.  It's still an industrial area, and sometimes interesting graffiti-murals (like the lamentably-gone Five Pointz) can be found.  

While pedaling along Borden, I chanced upon something I would have expected to see on Five Pointz but, surprisingly, graced a billboard.





I have to admit that I felt a bit of shame.  Sojourner Truth, Alice Paul and Ida B. Wells are familiar names to me, but until yesterday, Mabel Ping Hua-Lee wasn't.  All of them fought for human rights, specifically for women and people of racial "minorities."   The sad part is that, among them, only Ms. Paul (who died in 1977) lived long enough to fully benefit from the legislation for which she fought.  

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery and died decades before the 19th Amendment became law.  Ida B. Wells lived to see it, but not the civil rights legislation of the 1960s.  Ms. Ping Hua-Lee apparently (I'll explain) lived long enough to enjoy the right to vote and to be a benificiary of civil rights legislation--but it's not clear as to whether she could, or did, take advantage of those rights.

Ms. Lee was born in China but came to New York as a child when her father, a missionary of the Baotist church, was sent to take over a church in Chinatown.  The neighborhood--now endangered as a result of pandemic--could just as well have had a wall around it.  Back then, it was much smaller.  Some people, especially the women, almost never left their homes because of the hostility they faced and, like Lee's mother, had bound feet that made walking difficult.  And, in contrast to today (or, at least, say, a year ago, before the pandemic), tourists rarely visited, except to gawk.

Moreover, Lee's father was unusual, not only for being a minister, but because he was able to enter the United States at all.  The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed about a decade and a half before he arrived, but a few people like him--diplomats and other educated professionals--were sometimes allowed to emigrate.

Lee quickly took to the educational opportunities available to someone of her intellect and talents.  She attended Erasmus Hall Academy, whose alumni include Beverly Sills and Barbara Streisand and whose most illustrious dropout is Bobby Fischer.  After graduating Erasmus, she would attend Barnard College and become the first Chinese woman to earn a PhD in the United States--in economics, from Columbia University.

What she is best known for is her leadership in the suffragist movements, especially her role in the massive 1912 march.  Energized by these experiences, she wanted to return to China and spark a similar movement.  But those plans were thwarted when her mother fell ill and her father died.  Although she wasn't a minister, she became the director of his church and used her position as a platform to advocate for gender and racial equality.  Interestingly, she believed that Protestant theology could be used to advance causes of social justice, knowing full well that one of the goals of the Chinese Exclusion Act was to help keep a white Protestant majority in the United States.  Of course that, thankfully, failed:  Most of the mass immigrations that came from southern and eastern Europe between 1880 and 1919 wasn't Protestant. (Catholics and Jews, oh my!) 

Little is known about Mabel Ping-Hua Lee's later years.  She is believed to have died in or around 1966.  It's not clear as to whether she ever became a citizen--and, thus, whether she exercised the right to vote for which she fought!

Now, in case you were wondering:  After I got home from my ride and ate some vegetarian nachos I made for supper, I did a Google search on Mabel Ping-Hua Lee.  I often do such things after rides and, in the days before the Internet, I'd go to the library the first chance I got after riding.  You might say that bicycling has caused me to continue my education!

24 February 2021

Let's Hope They Don't Get Stranded On The Island

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a few paradoxes.  The bike business is booming, but some shops are closing because supply chain disruptions have cut off their supplies.  And more people are riding, but bike tour companies are struggling.

The latter situation is playing out in, among other places, Maui.  And two enterprises in particular embody its contradictions more than most.

"I am currently seeing more people out riding their bikes," reports Donnie Arnoult. A longtime cyclist, he owns Maui Cyclery on the island's north shore.  Sales and repairs have surged during the pandemic, and rentals increased during the holidays but slowed a bit this month.  "{M}y clients are people who can work remotely and they are staying in Maui for a longer period of time," he explains.  So, he is "busy with less numbers, but still riding just as much as before the pandemic."


Photo by Matthew Thayer, The Maui News

In contrast, Bike Maui is struggling.  They re-opened in October after halting services for a few months.  Though Bike Maui has a shop and mechanic "for locals and their repairs," the "majority of our business is tourism," says Ron Daniel, who directs operations, sales and marketing.  Visitors are the ones who rent Bike Maui's bikes and ride in the company's guided and self-rented tours, and tourism has suffered, possibly, more in Hawaii than anywhere else in the US. 

So, while many new cyclists in Maui say they plan to continue riding after the pandemic, and tourists will almost certainly return, one can only hope that Bike Maui and Maui Cyclery will still be around to serve them.

23 February 2021

Are Helmets An Issue Of Racial And Economic Justice?

 Four decades after helmet-wearing became widespread among cyclists, at least here in the US, helmet laws and regulations remain controversial.  Medical experts are all but unanimous in recommending helmets, citing their efficacy in preventing brain injury (something to which I can attest).  So, most doctors and surgeons favor requirements to wear head protection.

On the other hand, not all cyclists favor such regulations. I admit that sometimes I miss the wind through my hair, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way.  But I want to keep on riding, so I am willing to sacrifice that to keep my brain intact. And, as much as I respect this country's Constitution, with all of its flaws, I don't buy civil libertarian arguments against helmet laws--which some cyclists voiced years ago but I rarely hear anymore. (That, of course, may be a consequence of where I live and the people I normally see.)  Still, I am conflicted about helmet laws.  I certainly encourage cyclists to wear helmets, but I also understand that laws have unintended consequences.

One such outcome has played out in the Seattle area.  In a way, as upsetting as it is, it shouldn't come as a surprise because it's a result of a pernicious, pervasive problem:  the unequal enforcement of the law. 

If you are, or are perceived as, a member of any "minority" group, whether by race, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or socio-economic class, you are more likely to be cited for minor infractions--or for no infraction at all--than other people are.  (Yes, it's happened to me.)  Turns out, one such minor infraction can be riding bareheaded in places with helmet laws.   And, if you are a member of a "minority" group, that citation for a minor infraction is more likely to turn into a major fine or even a jail sentence, just as a cut is more likely to turn into an infection or something more serious if you don't have the means to treat it.

The key word here is "means."  "Folks aren't riding around without helmets because it's fun," according to Edwin Lindo.  "They're doing it because helmets aren't cheap."  Lindo, who identifies as Central American Indigenous, started the NorthStar Cycling Club to support Indigenous, Black and other cyclists of color in the Seattle area.  He was referring to Seattle Municipal Court statistics showing that while an estimated 4.7 percent of the city's cyclists are Black, they receive 17.3 percent of the summonses for not wearing helmets.  For Native American and Alaska Native cyclists, those numbers are 0.5 and 1.1 percent, respectively.


Edwin Lindo


For this reason, and others, Lindo and other activists encourage helmet-wearing but want Seattle to repeal its mandatory helmet law.  They cite the experience of Tacoma, which repealed its own helmet law, because it was, if unintentionally, reflecting the racial and other disparities in law enforcement.

One of the other disparities is economic:  Homeless and poor people are also disproportionately cited for not wearing helmets.  As often as not, they are riding bikes that were acquired for little or nothing.  So, they don't have funds to pay for buy a helmet--or pay for a ticket when they're cited for not wearing one.

So, the question of wearing helmets raises a question the COVID-19 pandemic has brought up:  How does a society promote the health and safety of the greatest number of people without exacerbating racial and economic inequities?


22 February 2021

Chocolate, Quakers and Chinatown

Over the weekend, I rode on ribbons of shoveled asphalt and sand occasionally punctuated by patches of ice and slush--or mounds of snow that inconveniently appeared in my path.  Since I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, I'll assume that shoveling snow into a bike lane is an honest mistake, not an act of aggression!

Anyway, on Saturday I pedaled out to Coney Island, again, where I saw a surprising number of people strolling (and sometimes slipping) along the boardwalk, and on the Verrazano-Narrows promenade on my way back.  I didn't take any photos, as I didn't see much of anything I didn't see when I rode there a week ago.  I did, however, make a point of stopping at William's Candy Shop.  It's a real old-school seaside sweet shop, lined with ancient glass display cases filled with almost-as-ancient glass bins full of candy apples, marshmallows on sticks and chocolate, fruit gel and other sweet substances in various shapes and sizes, as well as a popcorn maker like the ones you used to see in movie theatres. William's is a remnant of a gritty beachfront strip that's quickly being swallowed up by condo towers, chain restaurants and stores, including It'sugar. (When the old flea-market stalls along Surf Avenue--including one where I bought a Raleigh Superbe--disappeared and were replaced by Applebee's, IHOP and the like, I knew Coney Island as I knew it wasn't long for this world!).  Whenever I go to Coney I stop by, in part, to reassure myself it's still there.  I bought nonpareils (an old favorite), sour cherry balls and a hunk of dark chocolate. The old man who owns the place just happened to be there, giving his gruff-but-warm old-time Brooklyn greetings and thanks, in unison with the more effusive pleasantry of a twentyish young woman (his granddaughter?) who was working there.




I brought some of those nonpareils and cherry balls with me yesterday, as I pedaled up and down the Steinway Manor hill half a dozen times on my way out to the World's Fair Marina, Fort Totten and the coves along the north shore of Queens.  I ventured a bit into one of New York's "other" Chinatowns, in Flushing.  On my way back to the World's Fair Marina, I spun along Bowne Street, named for the man who occupied this house:





It's one of the oldest still-standing habitations in this city.  But it's not just a place where John Bowne sipped his cup of tea at the end of a long day--and sometimes they were long!  There, he and the other Quakers living in Flushing worshipped.  

At that time, most of Queens was still wood- or marsh-land, and reaching the few settlements (like Flushing) could take a day, or longer, from Manhattan.  That, probably, is the reason why Bowne and the Quakers settled there:  They could live self-sufficient lives as farmers, fishers, artisans or tradespeople, "under the radar," so to speak, of the Dutch colonial government.

Here in America, one of the ways we're inculcated with the notion that winners win (i.e., get rich or otherwise "succeed") because they deserve to and losers deserve their fate for being naïve or worse is through  the way we're taught about Peter Stuyvesant.  According to the story we're taught, he bought an island for the equivalent of twenty-four dollars worth of trinkets.   

That island is, of course, Manhattan.  (And real estate developers today think they've gotten a good deal when they score a fifth of an acre in Washington Heights for a million dollars!)  In painting him as, essentially, America's first real estate mogul, the writers of our textbooks--and teachers who presumably don't know any better--leave out his brutality and flat-out bigotry.  He owned slaves which, as terrible as that was, wasn't so unusual for a man of his stature.  But even for his time, he bore an inordinate animus for Jews and Catholics, of whom there were very few in his or any neighboring colony, save for the French settlement of Quebec.  

His most intense hatred, however, was reserved for Quakers.  The best explanation anyone has for it can be found in the name of the denomination, which is really a nickname (officially, they're the Society of Friends) derived from their practice of praying so intensely they sometimes shook ("quaked").  So, no matter how quietly they otherwise lived, their worship practices made them conspicuous.  Other religions, on the other hand, were more able to worship "in the closet," if you will, in places like New Amsterdam that had official religions like the Dutch Reformed Church.

Anyway, Bowne was arrested and extradited back to the Netherlands where he made his case for religious freedom to the Dutch authorities, who reprimanded Stuyvesant and returned Bowne to America.

Somehow, it seems fitting that Bowne's house still stands in a neighborhood where signs are printed in Mandarin and Korean as well as English and Spanish--and where in-the-know New Yorkers (like yours truly) stop for congee and dumplings during cold-day bike rides.


21 February 2021

She Didn't Pass Me! I'm Drafting Her! Really!

Given the life I've lived, it's no surprise that I've seen "both sides" (or all sides) of many issues and situations.  For example,  I have "mansplained" and been "mansplained" to.  And I have "chicked" and been "chicked."

I'm making that last confession for the first time. (If you are chicked and no one is there to see it...) When I was living as a dude named Nick, it's something I never, ever would have wanted anybody to know.

So what does it mean to get "chicked?"

From Bikeyface.




It is perhaps the worst affront to the ego of a cyclist who's running on testosterone.  The truth is, though, that I didn't like being passed by anyone--unless, of course, I was "drafting"* them. 

Believe it or not, in my current life, I've chicked a few male cyclists.  These days, though, when I'm passed by another cyclist, it may have as much to do with an imbalance in age as in a gender difference!

*--or wanted to look at them from behind.  (Pretend you didn't read that! ;-))

20 February 2021

Spinning Music Out Of Nowhere

 Artists and sculptors have been turning bicycle parts into objets d'art since, well, bicycles have been around.  Perhaps the most famous examples are the "bull's head" Pablo Picasso fashioned from handlebars and a saddle, and Marcel Duchamp's bicycle wheel.

In those, and other works, the parts are ingredients used, like paint or clay, to create forms or evoke images.  Rarely are bike parts used as the means--think the paintbrush, pen or musical instrument-- rather than the materials or medium, for making a work.

Nicolas Bras is a Paris-based musician and tinkerer who evokes his sounds from homemade instruments.  You can see and hear some of them on his "Musiques de Nulle Part" (Music from Nowhere) series on YouTube.  Among them is this "flute" made from a bicycle wheel.





The "music" is made by blowing through a tube onto the randomly-tuned pan flutes attached to the bicycle wheel.  I put quotes around "music" because not everyone would so categorize the sound coming from it.  Bras, however, says he is working on more melodious and complex sounds from his rotary flute.  I don't doubt he's capable of such a thing:  After all, we don't know what came out when Pan, the Greek god of nature (for whom the flute is named), supposedly exhaled into it for the first time.

Ancient Greek images depict shepherds playing it. Perhaps in the future, we will follow the tunes Nicolas Bras spins on his bicycle wheel flute.

19 February 2021

To Ease The Shock

Consternation followed his victory.

There weren't any rumors of doping or other cheating.  Nor were any questionable decisions by race officials.

The fact that he was 37 years old--ancient for a European pro cyclist--or that he'd been trying to win that particular race for years didn't get tongues wagging.  Even his palmares, which included a number of wins and high places in one-day races but no such results in multi-day events, wasn't the reason why cycling fans and the media were shocked when he won the Paris-Roubaix.

When Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle ascended the podium in the Roubaix Velodrome on 12 April 1992, no one talked about the course of the annual race--dubbed "L'enfer du nord" (the Hell of the North) for its cobblestones, mud and unpredictable weather-- or his persévérance.  Rather, all of the attention was on his bike--specifically, one part.

At that time, suspension or "telescoping" (as they're called in Britain) front forks were the hot new item on mountain bikes.  Until that day, no one had seen them on road bikes.  




Gibus, as he was called, rode a LeMond road bike equipped with a specially-modified Rock Shox fork.  The funny thing is that, with all due respect to LeMond bikes, the fork was really its only unusual feature.  The rest of the frame was a typical road bike of the time, equipped with standard Campagnolo road components.

What's surprising, to me, is that there weren't more attempts to create suspended road bikes before Gibus rode his.   The great Bernard Hinault won the Tour de France five times and a number of one-day events.  But he refused to ride Paris-Roubaix until 1981 (he won) because the jarring conditions would aggravate his tendinitis, the condition that caused him to withdraw from the cold, rainy 1980 Tour.  He's not the only elite cyclist who couldn't or wouldn't ride P-R because of bone-shaking conditions.

Since then, road bikes have incorporated various forms of  front suspension.  Rear suspension, however, caught on in any major way with professionals because it's difficult to achieve a balance between weight, shock absorption when needed and stiffness when ridden on smooth surfaces.




In April 2018, Specialized applied for a patent describing a system that allows the upper portion of a bike's seat post to move and absorb shock.  To accomplish this, the seat post is clamped much further down the seat tube.  The patent application, approved in October of last year, indicates that a pivot could be placed there and that it might be adjustable to the rider's weight.






According Specialized, the system could make its appearance on, appropriately enough, the company's Roubaix model.  And it might come out next year:  the 30th anniversary of Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle's first Paris-Roubaix win. (He also won the following year.)

I can't say I'm shocked. 

Photo of Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle in 1992 Paris-Roubaix by Graham Watson.  Drawings from Specialized patent application.

18 February 2021

She Knew: Self-Care Is Not A Luxury

 Alert:  I will reveal something very personal (yes, even by the standards of this blog) in this post.  

She would be 87 years old today. But she lives on for me, and many other people.

I first encountered Audre Lorde's poetry when I was in college--right about the time the world (as I knew it, anyway) was discovering black artists and lesbians--and colleges were starting to offer courses in Women's Studies (no gender studies or queer studies) and African-American Studies.

That was during the late 1970s.  The way I came to her poems--and her work as a feminist activist--wasn't through class assignments:  She came to read on our campus.  Honestly, I knew nothing about her before then--or, to be fair, many of the poets who gave readings at our college. That, of course, is exactly the reason I went to those readings.

Some I've long since forgotten.  But I knew Audre Lorde would stick with me, even thought I was far from being "out" as a non-heterosexual, non-cisgender person and am about as white as anybody can be.  (According to a DNA test, I am 4 percent African.  Anthropology 101 tells us the human race began in Africa, so that proportion seems like some sort of baseline for everyone.)  Her poems were unlike any I'd heard or read up to that time and, in ways I wouldn't articulate until much later, she showed there were ways one could carry one's self in this world that, up to that point, I hadn't seen.

She's one of those writers that even people who've never read her quote, sometimes without realizing it.  "Poetry is not a luxury." Of course, you're not going to hear that from your parents or most of the people you know when you announce that you're changing your major from Business or Engineering to Creative Writing or English Literature (unless, of course, you tell them the latter is a preparation for teaching or law school). What she meant is that poetry is, in her conception--and mine--an attempt to say what hasn't been said and, as often as not, what others won't say.

I don't know whether she did much cycling.  But these words of hers capture the reason why many of us  ride:




She knew about self-care:  Some of her later activism was motivated by her battle with breast cancer, which claimed her at 58 years old.  Her spirit motivates my riding and writing, which are as much a part of my self-care as visiting my doctor.  

Oh, my doctor is part of the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, of which she was a co-founder.  I go to that doctor because I like him, and on principle:  That he would work for C-L when he probably could make more elsewhere says much about his motivations, of which Audre Lorde would surely approve.

17 February 2021

As Smooth As The Icycycle

 If Shakespeare's Macbeth were working today as a meteorologist, his forecast might be "Snowstorm and snowstorm and snowstorm."

At least, that's how it's seemed for the past couple of weeks.  And Texas is sending some more white stuff and ice up this way, I hear.  

So, in response to commenter "Jay from Demarest," I am outfitting one of my bikes for the weather.





Hmm, it might not make the NYC Transportation, Sanitation and Police Departments happy.  But I might've liked it last week on the Coney Island boardwalk--or even on the icy patches dotting the bike lanes.

An engineer who identifies himself as The Q (an unfortunate moniker in times like these, wouldn't you say?) wanted to ride his bike across a frozen lake. Ever the tinkerer,  he replaced the wheels with circular sawmill blades.  When he tried to cross that lake, however,  the blades cut through the ice, making it impossible for him to ride on the surface. So, he took the bike back to his workshop and fitted less-sharp metal bits to the blade's teeth.  That did the trick:  His vessel--which he dubbed the "Icycycle"--took him to the distant shore. 

While we don't know his name, some of us have seen "The Q"s work:  Two years ago, he replaced a pair of conventional bicycle wheels with ones he fashioned from multiple running shoes affixed to large spokes.  What the purpose of that was, I don't know, and he admits that the ride was bumpy.  He claims, however, that his "Icycycle" rides "as smooth as ice."