Helping Refugees Settle In--And Get Around

Putain's, I mean Puto's, I mean Putin's invasion of Ukraine has sent a tide of refugees across Europe.  It won't be long, I think, before the waves reach American shores.

Traditionally, refugees, like other arrivals from faraway lands, land in large cities like New York, San Francisco and Chicago that may already have communities of the new arrivals' compatriots.  But more recently, people who've fled wars and other disasters, manmade and otherwise, have been resettled, at least for the time being, in smaller communities away from the major metropoli. One major reason is housing costs, especially for families.  But, I think it might be easier for some folks, especially if they come from small towns or rural areas, to find their way in such communities.

Also, in a smaller city or town, people are more likely to come into contact with new arrivals.  While there might be resistance at first, it might also be easier for longtime residents and emigres to get to know each other--and be willing to help them.

So I was happy, but not surprised, to learn that folks in Owensboro, Kentucky have been collecting, repairing and distributing gently-used bikes to their new neighbors.  

Holly Johnson, a Physical Education teacher in Apollo High School, is also a member of Bicycle Owensboro.  Her organization solicited the donated bikes, and Be Real Sports Cycling & Fitness repaired them.  Owensboro Health donated helmets, lights and locks that will be distributed with the bikes.

Johnson said that recipients will get a safety demonstration, along with information about the Greenbelt and other places to ride in town, with their bikes.  Also, they will fit their bikes and helmets and be sure "they know how the gears on each bike work, and that they understand the local bike signage," she pledged.

Larry Myles, owner of Be Real Sports Cycling & Fitness and a member of Bicycle Owensboro, with a bicycle that will be given to a refugee student.  Photo by Alan Warren, for the Messenger-Inquirer.

She hopes that the bikes will help the students and their families in their everyday lives.  Some of those bikes will be used by more than one person in the family.  So, while the bikes are being distributed as spring break is about to begin, she hopes to do a second round of donations "for younger kids" before the summer.

She understands that the bikes not only provide a means of transportation and recreation, but are also a way for new arrivals to get to know their new surroundings.  That's why, whenever I go to a place where I've never been before, one of the first things I want to do is take a bike ride.

Not The "Right" Setup

If you buy a new bicycle with hand-operated brakes in the United States, it will most likely be set up so that the left lever operates the front brake, and the rear is activated by the right lever.  That setup is that is mandated by the Consumer Products Safety Commission.  My own bikes are set up that way because, even though I am a "minority" in some senses, in another, very important area, I'm very much in the majority: I'm right-handed. (Please don't infer anything about my politics, or any other preference of mine, from that!)

So, I suppose, was whoever made that CPSC regulation.  It makes perfect sense if you're right-handed, because the rear brake is inherently less powerful, in part because of its longer cable, than the front.  Therefore, it takes more hand force to achieve a given level of braking force, or even to modulate, the brake.  

I might also assume that Carol Penkert is right-handed.  She is suing Costco Wholesaler and San Diego e-bike company Phantom because, she says, her machine was set up in violation of CPSC mandates.  But she isn't merely playing a "gotcha!" game.  Rather, she claims, the setup caused her to flip over the handlebars when she hit the brakes.  As a result, she lost her right eye and suffered a number of facial fractures.

She wasn't aware of the setup until the mechanic servicing the damaged bike spotted it.  The suit alleges that Phantom knowingly shipped, and Costco knowingly sold, her the bike, which she bought fully assembled,  without any warning that it had an irregular setup.  

A True World Tour?

The Paris-Roubaix race is often called "L'enfer du Nord":  the Hell of the North. This "classic," a long one-day road race, is held early in the Spring and has run through all kinds of weather, from snowstorms to heat waves.  It also includes mud and some of the roughest cobblestone roads in Europe.  Many riders who excelled in other kinds of races avoided Paris-Roubaix, or didn't fare well in it:  Bernard Hinault, arguably the most dominant racer not named Eddy Mercx (and, like Mercx, a five-time Tour de France winner) entered P-R only once.  He won, but vowed never to ride it again, in part because the tendinitis that afflicted his knees was aggravated by the vibration of the cobblestones and the weather

If P-R is the "Hell" of the North, Belgium's Ghent-Wevelgem might be its Purgatory.  The annual race winds through Flandrian towns anc countryside and includes those notorious those notorious  Belgian cobblestones that challenge the best dental work as well as other parts of riders' bodies.

The Paris-Roubaix and Ghent-Wevelgem are, like other classics including  Milan-San Remo,  considered Tour-level (elite) races.  For decades, they were dominated by riders from  northern and western European countries like Belgium, France and Italy.  Since the fall of the Soviet Union, riders from former Bloc countries have made their mark, as they have in the Grand Tours (Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, Vuelta a Espana).  So have cyclists from the Americas, mainly the US, Canada, Mexico and Colombia.

For a long time, observers believed that the first non-European or American riders to establish a presence in the European racing circuit would come from Japan, which has long had a strong tradition of cycling.  Also, China looked ready to become a cycling powerhouse because they have done so in other sports and it, like Japan, has a long tradition of cycling.

Perhaps they, or some other Asian country, will infiltrate the ranks of Tour-level riders.  But, perhaps not surprisingly, the latest cyclist to interrupt the European hegemony has come from a place that, however quietly, has been turning out other world-class athletes.

Yesterday, Biniam Girmay defeated favorites Christophe Laporte of France and Belgian Dries van Gestel in the latest edition of Ghent-Wevelgem.  The 21-year-old hails from Eritrea, an East African country across the Red Sea from Yemen.  He rode with a mastery and discipline that belied his youth:  Although he mastered the cobblestones, he left enough in the tank for a perfect sprint finish.

Biniam Girmay (l) celebrates his victory.  Photo by Kurt Desplenter, for Agence France- Presse.

Perhaps this is a sign that the World Championship will one day live up to its name--in cycling as well as other sports.