French President Gets Danish Treatment

When it comes to cycling, one of the first cities that comes to mind is Copenhagen.  And one of the first countries is France.

So, when French President Emanuel Macron paid a state visit to Denmark, it made perfect sense that the country's Prime Minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, would take him on a bike tour through the streets of the Danish capital.



Rasmussen is known to be a fan of cycling.  Part of Macron's delegation included Christian Prudhomme, the Director of the Tour de France.

Oh, and Macron offered his host a yellow Tour de France leader's jersey, autographed by Geraint Thomas, who won this year's edition of the race.

You can guess what comes next:  Macron revealed that the Tour would open in the city bientot.  Turns out, Copenhagen is a candidate to host le grand depart in either 2020 or 2021.

If You Want To Escape, Pack Light

The first rule of thumb for cycle touring is:  Feel guilty about carrying anything more than your maps and water bottle.

It's the sort of advice I might have given when I was younger.  But I cannot claim credit for it: The honor belongs to Doug Shidell and Phillip van Valkenberg. Their pearl of wisdom came in a book they co-authored:

Now tell me:  Does that book look like it came out of the early '70's, or what?  Well, it did, a couple of years after Shidell and van Valkenberg met.  The former was a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the latter was a recent alumnus.  They were a couple of long-haired guys with "hippie tendencies" and a recently-found passion for cycling.

Doug Shidell and Phillip van Valkenberg.  This photo was published on the inside of the back cover of Bicycle Escape Routes.

They also loved their home state of Wisconsin, and their book is as much a billet doux to the Badger State as it is a guide to cycling in it.  In addition to maps and descriptions of rides, it gave sage advice about how to deal with snarling dogs and whatever else a bicycle tourist might encounter, as well as counsel on how to live in the moment:  "Marsh hawks spend much of their time sitting on fence posts in the fields," they wrote.  "If you see a bird sitting or flying low over the fields, stop near a tree or bush to remain inconspicuous and watch him for a little while."

The book also had a sense of humor about everything, including the squeaky bearings on Shidell's bike:  "We were serenaded by this bicycle's version of 'Song of the Volga Boatman' on every upgrade.  Respite of sorts came later when a spot weld let go on one of Doug's racks, creating a squeak that completely drowned out the original noise."

Since that book was published, van Valkenberg, now 73, has written seven more about cycling in Wisconsin.  He has also been a nearly non-stop advocate for cycling in the state, having worked to bring about the Elroy-Sparta State Trail and organized tours, races other rides.  These days, he and his partner, Georgia Kaftan, ride a tandem recumbent bike.

Shidell is 67 and lives in Minneapolis.  He was the first employee of Quality Bicycle Products, from which he's retired.  He also has written about bicycling and bike advocacy for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and started a website and map-publishing effort called Bikeeverywhere.

Interestingly, he says that his cycling and  bike advocacy were motivated by environmental concerns.  He first heard about global warming in the 1970s, he said, and because the "dangers made sense to me", he thought, "I'll just start riding a bike instead of driving around."

I wonder whether either of them carries anything more than his maps and water bottle--and, if he does, whether he feels guilty about it.

To The Beach--By Bike Or Train? Why Not Combine Them?

After work, I did what a lot of other people are doing this week:  I took a trip to the beach.  It's the last "unofficial" week of summer; after Monday--Labor Day--most people will be back at work.

Of course, you know I rode my bicycle to the beach--Orchard Beach, to be exact, as it's the one nearest my job. Other people did, too, but others drove or took the bus.  Still others took the train to beaches on Long Island--or the subway to the Rockaways and Coney Island.

It's probably no surprise that during cycling's first heyday--roughly the last decade of the 19th Century and the first decade of the 21st--people cycled to the beach, especially to Coney Island.  The Ocean Parkway Bike and Bridle path--the oldest extant bike lane in the US-- was constructed during that time.  Also, during that time, construction of the subway system began.  There were, however, smaller, independent railroads that ran from Manhattan and the nearby areas of Brooklyn to the beaches. Some of those railroads later became part of the city's and region's mass transit system.

At that time, it was even possible to combine bikes and trains on a ride to the beach.  Well, sort of.

The Boynton Bicycle Railroad linked the southwestern Brooklyn neighborhood of Gravesend with Coney Island.  It ran for only two years, and inspired a few other short-lived imitations, it is commemorated with Boynton Place, at the intersection of West 7th Street and Avenue X, in Gravesend.

So, what made it a "bicycle railroad"?  Well, it ran on two wheels on a monorail.  So, you may ask, how did it keep it balance?  Well, there were rubber-faced trolley wheels on top of the trains that guided the train along a rail that ran fifteen feet above the rail on which the "bicycle" train ran.

When it debuted, the trains could achieve speeds of 80 mph.  The following years, technical improvements upped the maximum velocity to 100 mph.

The Boynton Bicycle Railroad, as shown in an 1894 issue of Scientific American

Inventor E. Moody Boynton said his intention was indeed to marry a new technology of the time to a newish one:  the bicycle and the railroad.  He was convinced that his system was more efficient than conventional railroads because there was less friction on a single than a double track.  The speeds of his trains seemed to make his case.  Still, he couldn't find investors--possibly because the automobile was on the horizon-and neither the Boynton nor the other "bicycle" railroads survived past the middle of the first decade of the 20th Century.

It could be said, however, that his idea lives on in modern monorail and light-rail systems.  Perhaps one day tourist hubs will have "pedi-trains", much as some places now have "pedi-cabs".

Enlightened Self-Interest?: Uber And Bike Sharing

During rush hour, it is very inefficient for a one-tonne hunk of metal to take one person ten blocks.

Who said that?  An urban planner?  An environmentalist?  Someone involved with a bike-share program?

That last answer would be the right one, sort of.  Dara Khosrowshahi is the CEO of the company that acquired bike-share startup Jump Bikes.

And that company is...Uber.  Yes, the ride-share company:   one of the companies responsible for clogging the streets of cities like New York with drivers who pull over, seemingly without warning or regard for pedestrians or cyclists.  (I've had a couple of near-misses with Uber drivers who were looking at their screens instead of what (or who) was outside of their windows.)  Believe it or not, they're not only getting into bike share, they will soon offer electric scooters in San Francisco and other cities.

So, what brought about Mr. Khosrowshahi's seeming apostasy?  As he told The Financial Times, "There's a $6 trillion mobility market, and no one product is going to be serving that whole market."  So, while shifting some of the company's resources from drivers to cycling or scooters may hurt profits for a little while, it will pay off in the long run by giving people more options.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi presenting Jump Bicycles in Berlin, Germany.

Interestingly, he says some Uber drivers are even embracing the idea.  The reason, he says, is that bicycles would reduce the demand for short rides and leave drivers to complete longer, more lucrative runs, such as rides to airports.

And, unlike yellow cabs, Uber drivers don't make money if they're stuck in traffic:  Usually, they are paid a fixed or agreed-upon amount of money for a trip, regardless of whether it takes 10 minutes or an hour.  Yellow cabs, on the other hand, have meters that continue to run whether the car is zipping down a side street or idling on the Long Island Expressway. (How can it be an "expressway" if the traffic isn't moving?  Its acronym, the LIE, is more apt.)

So, as Khosrowshahi says, driving a tonne of metal ten blocks isn't a very efficient way to transport one passenger--from a transportation, environmental or economic standpoint. Ultimately, it doesn't even help the drivers' bottom lines.  More bikes, fewer cars, less congestion and pollution...because of Uber?  Who knew?

Which Do You Lock First?

During my recent trip to Cambodia and Laos, I saw some heartbreaking poverty.  Still, there seemed to be little or no theft:  People left all sorts of items, including bicycles, out in the open, unsecured.  

And, as in other parts of the world, people leave their shoes at the door before entering their homes or, sometimes, even places of work or business.  That makes sense when so many streets, even in the middle of a city like Siem Reap, are wholly or partially dirt--which, of course, becomes mud when it rains--and dogs, cats and sometimes other animals roam freely on them.

Still, I had to wonder whether anyone had ever lost his or her shoes after leaving them by the door. (That didn't stop me, though, from following the local custom.)  Or a bicycle, for that matter.

This photo wasn't taken in any place I visited, as far as I know.  Having seen it, though, I have to wonder:  Is there a place where you're more likely to have your shoes than your bike stolen?

Officer, I Was Just Helping A Friend Clean Up!

I once moved my possessions from one apartment to another--on my bicycle.

Granted, I didn't have much at the time.  Still, I take pride in having changed residences without the aid of trucks, vans or moving companies.  For me, the experience affirms what someone--an old riding buddy, if I recall correctly--once told me:  You can carry anything on a bicycle.  It's just a matter of loading and packing it.

A fellow in Oxford, Ohio apparently followed that advice.  He transported a mini-refrigerator and full-length mirror aboard a pink Mongoose bicycle.  

Of course, Stephen Moster didn't have those items on his back or shoulders, or strapped to a Blackburn rear carrier, as he pedaled along. For that matter, he wasn't hauling a modern bike trailer or even a vintage Cannondale bugger.  Instead, he was pushing a shopping cart loaded with the refrigerator and mirror.

I would have respect and even admiration for him:  After all, it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to conceive of such a system, and a certain level of skill to ride while pushing a cart.  And, yes, he showed that something could be done without a motor vehicle when most people would have assumed that one was necessary.

I would have respect for him...if the refrigerator and mirror were his, or he were transporting them for a friend--or even if someone was paying him to move them.   Or if his story--that two men invited him to "take whatever I want" from a house they were cleaning up--were true.

You know where this is going:  He burgled that house.  In fact, the two men were cleaning up from a previous burglary and talking with an insurance representative when they were startled by sounds.  They went to a neighbor's porch, where they watched Moster take the refrigerator and mirror.  Realizing he couldn't carry them on his bike, he left and then returned with a Kroger's grocery cart.


(This is how he should have done it!)

Hmm...The refrigerator and mirror were burgled and the cart was "appropriated".  It makes me wonder how he acquired the bicycle.

I still must say that I sort of admire his ingenuity.  But I would offer him this bit of advice: If you're going to abscond with other people's property, don't do it on a pink bike!

Oh, Deer--In The Bronx!

Yesterday, I took another ride to Connecticut.  The day could hardly have been better:  neither the warmth nor sunlight were oppressive, and only a few high, wispy clouds floated across the sky.  I pedaled into a fairly brisk wind most of the way up--which meant, of course, it blew me back to Astoria.

And nearly into the path of a deer.  I was gliding through a turn on the Pelham Bay Park path, just before it crosses an entrance to the New England Thruway.  Trees cover one side of the path and line the other; just beyond that line is a marsh, with the hulking structures of Co-op City in sight.

I missed that deer by about five meters or so.  But I think I was more surprised than startled:  After all, I was in The Bronx.  Yes, you read that right.  It's one thing to see Bambi's wild cousin dart in front of you when you're barreling down a road in rural Pennsylvania, or a mountain goat bolt across the road you're thumping along with a flat tire at 90 KPH in the Alps.  You can talk about such things and, whatever judgments people are making, they believe you.

But a deer in the Bronx?  I'm still having trouble believing it--even though I saw it.  If only I could have taken a photo!

What If?: SunTour "Click Shift" And Freehubs?

Captain Ahab had Moby Dick.  Others have spent years, decades, even lifetimes hunting down one obsession or another.

Now, the "target" I'm about to discuss didn't do anything to harm me.  In fact, other products made by the company that manufactured my Loch Ness monster, or whatever you want to call it, have actually brought me pleasure, at least while cycling.

The company in question is SunTour.  For a time, I didn't want to use derailleurs or freewheels made by any other company.  And I once dreamed of building a track bike from Superbe Pro components, which I thought were even better (or at least more beautiful) than even Campagnolo's fixed-gear offerings.

The object of my obsession are really objects, plural.  They are parts of a system SunTour introduced in 1969 and, apparently, manufactured only during that year.  I have seen references to them in a number of sources, but have never seen the parts in person.  In fact, I had never seen images of them--until yesterday.

Well, I came across one component, anyway, on--where else!--eBay:

These "click shift" levers were part of an indexed shifting system SunTour made that year.  From the accounts I've read, it worked well, though it didn't sell well and no manufacturer outfitted a new bike with it as original equipment.  Although SunTour had patented its slant-pantogram derailleur five years earlier, it did not begin to export its wares until the year before the "click shift" system came out.

Interestingly, SunTour also introduced an hub with an integrated freewheel mechanism--much like today's cassette freehubs--in that same year.  It, too, worked well and,like other SunTour products, was well-made.  Like the click-shift system, it seems not to have been produced after 1969.

The simple explanation for the "freehub"s or "click shift"s lack of commercial success is that the market wasn't ready to depart from traditional screw-on freewheels or friction shifters.  But another reason why those items didn't make much headway is that they predated the '70's North American Bike Boom by a couple of years.  As Frank Berto has pointed out in "Sunset for SunTour," Shimano entered the American market in the late 1960s when low-priced American bikes like  AMF, Huffy and Murray (which were sold mainly in department stores) were outfitted with Lark and Eagle derailleurs.   On the other hand, Sun Tour derailleurs had to wait a few more years,  until Japanese bicycle manufacturers like Fuji, Bridgestone and Miyata--adorned with SunTour components--developed an export market in the US and, later, in other countries.  By the time those bikes, and lightweight bicycles in general, caught on with American adults, "Click shift" and the intergrated hub were several years out of production.

Ironically, Shimano's appropriation of those innovations--and SunTour's slant parallelogram design (for which the patent expired in 1984)-- would lead to SunTour's demise a decade later.  SunTour, in desperation, tried to develop competing systems.  But the indexed systems SunTour introduced in 1986 did not work as well as Shimano's and, worse, companies like Schwinn used their old stocks of freewheels, chains and cables, which didn't work very well with SunTour's indexed systems.

One can only wonder how things might be different had all of those Fujis, Miyatas, Nishikis, Panasonics, Centurions and other Japanese bikes  had been equipped with SunTour's "Click Shift" and integrated hubs.  Or, for that matter,what about those Schwinns, Raleighs, Motobecanes and other bikes that, a few years later, would be sold in the US with SunTour derailleurs and freewheels as original equipment.  What if they had "click shift" and integrated hubs?  Would those parts have become the de facto standards?   Would SunTour have come to dominate the components market the way Shimano has for the past three decades?  

(At the time Shimano introduced its SIS and freehub systems, the company was an afterthought in all but the lower price ranges, and their stuff was rarely, if ever, bought as replacement equipment, let alone after-market upgrades.)

Finally, I have to wonder what "retro" and "L'eroica" would mean today. After all, they are both defined, at least in part, by non-indexed shifting systems and screw-on freewheels.  Would the concepts of "retro" and "L'eroica" even exist?

Well, I know one thing:  I wouldn't have this obsession over parts SunTour made for only one year, in 1969.

Not The Way Across!

I have pedaled through lanes of traffic with motorized vehicles practically against my shoulders.  I have also ridden through hairpin turns with nothing where a gust at my side, a rock against my tire could have sent me tumbling a few hundred meters down.

Still, there are some places I would never, ever ride.  Among them are the vehicle lanes of most bridges, especially if they are long, high bridges--like the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge:



I recall reading, some time ago, that more people have committed suicide on the nearby Golden Gate Bridge than anyplace else in the world.  (It seems that Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge in China has "overtaken" the Golden Gate in that category.)  One can only wonder if the woman in the video was trying to end her life on the Bay's "other" bridge.

What's In Your Support Van?

In a post I wrote last week, a rabbi and native American guide gave Abigail Pogrebin the same advice a Zen master probably would give to cyclists:  Look ahead.  Of course, they are as likely to be giving that advice about living as about riding.

In response, Leo--a frequent and favorite commenter--pointed out that the surest way to hit a piece of glass on the road is to be nervous about it and stare at it.

They are all correct:  Whatever journey you take--on a bicycle or by some other means--you should keep your sight focused in front of you.  The only way to reach your destination is to look ahead to it, not under you at the road (or path) you're traveling.

One group of cyclists has had their sights set on San Diego, which they hope to reach during the first week of September, since setting out from Seattle three weeks ago. They have not been deterred by the usual obstacles--weather, terrain and, in a few cases, lack of previous experience with long rides.  But they can be forgiven for looking over their shoulders every now and again--especially as they near San Diego.

You see, they came to the US as children--with parents who entered this country illegally.  At least one member of the group has Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status and is a graduate student.  Most of the others, however, do not and could be subject to being stopped--especially on the roads approaching San Diego, which are full of immigration checkpoints.

The purpose of their ride, known as the Journey to Justice, is, not surprisingly, to call attention to people with plights like theirs and to persuade Congress to pass--and the President to sign--the so-called DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act, which has been introduced and reintroduced in Congress since 2001.  Some of the riders had previously participated in a weeks-long vigil in front of the White House.  If nothing else, the riders said, pedaling 1300 miles is better exercise than hunkering down on the sidewalk.

The Journey to Justice is notable for one other reason. Other rides like it have support vans, which are stocked with energy bars, fruit, water and first aid items.  On the other hand, JtJ's vehicle has bears something else its riders may need:  a lawyer.