What Does He Call It?

 Why do some of us name our bicycles? Well, for some of us—for me, anyway—bicycles are companions in our journeys.  Thus, our bicycles have stories, and it only seems fitting that anything with a narrative, or narratives, should also have a name.

Our bicycles’ sagas include epic rides and errands, life-changing events and daily routines. Also, our bikes have, if you will, their origin stories, whether with robots in a Southeast Asian factory or a craft shop in Portland.  Or, in the case of one machine, specifically a “skyscraper” bike, its conception, if you will, took place in a Midwestern university’s engineering class.

Wynn Grame “saw an image” of a double-decker bike like the one he built “and it just stuck in my head.” Once friends donated bikes, he recalled, he “just had to do it.” And so his class project, and current mode of transportation, began.

From cutting up the frames to taking his first ride, Grame’s build took six weeks during which he squeezed in shop time while working on his summer internship and on weekends.

Sometimes, our bike stories include learning something new, whether about a custom in some place where we take a ride or a skill which may or not be related to the bike.  In Grame’s case, it was something essential to the origin of his bike:  Before he started building it, he had never welded.  Not even once.

I have seen “crane” or “giraffe” bikes like his, but have never ridden one.  So it was very interesting to learn that, aside from the “cool” factor, there are benefits to riding his creation. It “offers excellent visibility on the road,” he explained, “because cars can see you immediately” and are “very cautious around you.”  Hmm…Does that make “blinkies” and reflective clothing unnecessary?

I’ll take his word for it and give him “props” for building a bike.  But with so many interesting stories already part of its identity, I wonder whether Wynn Grame has given his bike a name.

Are All E-Bikes Created Equal?

 This year, New Jersey passed a law requiring all e-bike users to have a driver’s license, register their bikes and haven insurance by 1 July.  It may well be the most restrictive legislation regarding e-bikes in the United States:  Unlike tiered systems in other jurisdictions, in which e-bikes are regulated according to their speed, power or whether or not they have a throttle or pedal assist, the Garden State’s regulation says, in essence, that all e-bikes are created equal.

Now some folks are saying that it violates one of the Declaration of Independence’s most basic tenets:  that all men are created equal.

No, the state hasn’t declared that e-bikes are people. Rather, immigrants’-rights groups are saying that the law will unfairly burden some of the people who most depend on e-bikes: delivery workers, nearly all of whom are immigrants, and people who live in areas without mass transit but who can’t afford a car or registration—some of whom are immigrants. And most of those couriers and people who commute are riding pedal-assisted machines that have lower top speeds than the ones that are basically just electric motorcycles.

Photo by Seth Wenig

Admittedly, some of those workers and residents are undocumented.  But given the current political and social climate, even those who are here legally and people who were born here to parents who are citizens (including yours truly) would rather minimize their interactions with government authorities.  I can understand their fears; I see ICE agents during rides or while running errands and worry that even someone like me is at risk of becoming the next Alex Pretti or Renee Good if one of those agents is hung over or otherwise having a bad day.  

The Other Ice

 Yesterday I wrote about my participation in a memorial ride for Alex Pretti, the intensive care unit nurse—and cyclist—murdered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis.

Say what you will about my mental state, but I have a difficult time using the word “ice,” even in reference to a frozen liquid: the way it’s been used for its entire history in the English language.

But today I will break the ice (pun intended) and talk about what I’ve seeing during the (admittedly little) cycling I’ve done during the past two weeks: the longest spell of below-freezing temperatures we’ve had in a long time. I don’t mind the cold so much, but the freeze also included a snowstorm last week and plowing of streets has been, shall we say, episodic. And snow has turned to ice, especially in the bike lanes.

Anyway, on Monday I noticed something I hadn’t seen in years:

Technically, the Hudson River isn’t a river where it separates Manhattan from New Jersey:  the water is brackish, in contrast to the fresh flow further upstream. So the Hudson’s New York City stretch, like the misnamed East River, which is really an inlet of the ocean, rarely glazes over (unlike many of my students’ eyes).

On the other hand, I suspect this body of water freezes more frequently:

Paine Lake stands next to the Paine House, where the author of “Common Sense,” an inspirational for American Revolutionaries, lived.  How we need him now, when the political climate is even more inhospitable than this winter’s weather!