Monday, March 01, 2010

 

Happiness Is a Warm Bike Ride

I had my first bike ride of the year in short pants last Thursday (25FEB10). I followed up again the next two days. Yesterday I took a break from cycling but I will be back out again today in shorts. The spring in this part of Spain is a cycling paradise and I plan to take full advantage with my new stable of bikes. I hope to have my racing bike fixed and ready for the road by the weekend. We’ve had temperatures up to 20 degrees (68°f). I think we can officially declare that winter is dead. I can’t say that it was nice knowing you, winter.

Not only is it warm but finally everything is dry. The Turia Park bike trail has been such a quagmire in places that I even opted on a few occasions to ride up on the street—that’s like choosing to run with the bulls instead of watching the spectacle from behind iron bars. Now all of the puddles have dried up and riding through Valencia’s best place is once again one of the best things about living here. I think it is worth it to visit Valencia just to take a bike ride through this park that stretches from one side of the city almost all the way to the beach.

Today is the beginning of the beginning of Fallas here in Valencia. The true craziness begins March 15th but there is a lot going on before the official start. Another great reason to ride a bike is that you can get around the city to see all of the different Fallas. The is also the daily Mascletá downtown but if you ride a bike there don’t expect to get too near the Plaza de Ayuntamiento as there are a hell of a lot of spectators every day. Lock your bike up a couple blocks away. When it is over you can head back to your bike and beat the crowds to the best restaurants for a big comida.

*The video is a promotion for Hungarians to ride their bikes to work.

Labels: bikes

7:50 AM

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Monday, February 22, 2010

 

Another Day, Another Bicycle

After the theft of my bicycle about three weeks ago I am now the owner of four bikes. I just picked up this cool city bike at a pawn shop (casa de empeños) for 60€. I have to say that I am extremely happy with this purchase. This bike is exactly what I have wanted ever since I moved here. It is perfect except that I have to get a basket for the handle bars. I wanted this type of bike for my shorter trips around Valencia. I needed a bike to use as my workhorse, so to speak, something not too expensive and easy to get around on. It’s kind of clumsy riding it; sort of like switching for a rally car to a station wagon. It is heavy as hell so I’m glad that Valencia is completely flat. Even humping up out of the river park will be interesting on this hog.

Now all that I have to do is fix up the racing bike that was given to me and my stable of bikes will be complete.

P.S. After actually riding my new bike around I would have to say that it is a bit like navigating an oil tanker (not that I have ever navigated an oil tanker, I can only imagine). As far as I am concerned it isn't the most ergonomic riding position but I still think it's a cool bike. The step-in (i.e. girl's bike) frame is nice if you happen to be wearing real clothes instead of athletic atire. A front basket is going to cost me another 15€.

Labels: bikes

11:25 AM

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Sunday, February 07, 2010

 

You Can’t Keep a Good Man Walking


**

After the theft of my hybrid Orbea bike that I bought upon arriving in Spain I have gone from bikeless to having three bikes in a matter of two weeks. In a previous post I talked about the first two bikes—a crappy folding bike and an old racing bike in need of some TLC and a few euros in repairs. The latest addition to my new bike stable is this Trek mountain bike with street slicks. It is great to have something nice to ride and if the truth be told it is a better bike than my old one. The frame is better, as are the gears, brakes, and suspension. It is not quite as fleet as my old bike as the tires are a bit bigger but it is more stable on the off-road stuff that I have to negotiate on a daily basis, such as humping through the mud flats of Turia Park.

I have a few things to do to this bike to get it up to speed, as they say. I need to get clip-in pedals and a few other vital options but it is a pleasure to ride. It should be completely the way I want it by the end of this week. As far as keeping it safe I have decided that I will just hoist it up the three flights of stairs in my building and keep it in my room. I don’t want to waste any more time worrying about it getting stolen, at least when it is at home. As much of a pain in the ass that it will be to bring it up and down the stairs, that is preferable to suffering another theft. Since my bike was stolen two weeks ago I have spent a lot of time examining how other people secure their bikes. It is absolutely fucking ridiculous how much people here in Valencia spend on bike locks. I see lots of bikes that have locks that cost more than the bikes themselves. It’s like the police in Spain can’t even be bothered to deal with bike theft. Being a bike thief most be a pretty good vocation here with almost no consequences.

**I like this bit of graffiti I came across in Rocafort, a little village a few miles outside of Valencia. Ni Latin Kings Ni Burger King is a call to oust both Burger King and the Mexican gang The Latin Kings from Rocafort or Spain.

Labels: bikes

9:27 AM

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Wednesday, February 03, 2010

 

RIP old bike.

Bike, Trains, Buses, and Walking

My bike was stolen last week. I have never lived without a bike before. Back in Seattle I had three bicycles: a city bike, a lovely Bianchi racing bike, and a top-of-the-line K2 mountain bike with full suspension and disc brakes. I bought my Orbea Eibar hybrid bike only a couple weeks after arriving in Spain a bit over three years ago. I forget what I paid for it new but if you were to calculate how much it cost me per kilometer I rode it then the price would be infinitesimally small. I rode the living shit out of that thing. I think what pains me the most about the theft is that someone probably bought it from the thief and won’t ride it.

Bike theft in Spain is an absolute curse. The police don’t seem to care a bit about this issue and bike theft seems to be a pretty safe way to make a decent living here as there don’t seem to be any legal consequences for this crime—if it even is a crime here. I think that the authorities really need to do something about this if they want to encourage more people to ride bikes.

Only a couple days after the heist I bought a real piece-of-shit little semi-folding bike from an ad I saw on louquo (Spain’s answer to craigslist). My new clown bike wouldn’t be too bad except I can’t raise the seat because the former owner pounded a pipe into where the seat post should go instead of replacing the seat post. Besides the utter lack of dignity of riding around town on this pipsqueak of a bike, it probably isn’t even safe. I ride it like I am in a breakaway in the Tour de France. It has little tires and the brakes barely work yet I fly around on it like I’m being chased by an Al Qaeda assassination squad. In engineering speak the speed at which I subject this bike to is called “terminal velocity”…literally. The aerodynamics of this bike are also hampered by the big orange wig I wear and my huge clown shoes.

A friend gave me one of his old racing bikes that needs a bit of fixing up and I hope to have that working by this weekend. It’s not exactly what I am looking for but it could be a good bike with a little care. I hope I don’t have to invest much money in this experiment. It needs new tires and inner tubes at least and I don’t know what else. I am still looking for another bike, something similar to the old one as thin racing tires aren’t a good match for the bike trails around town, especially on a rainy day. Here in Valencia they insist on using these small tiles for the bike trails and the ruts between the tiles can be treacherous in wet conditions, even for fatter tires.

I have never walked so much in my life. I have taken several metro trips around town and into the outlying areas. I have also chased down a few buses. I carry bus and metro cards on my wallet. They bus system in Valencia is excellent and would be even better if I was more familiar with the routes. It seems that you can get just about anywhere in town by only walking a couple of blocks. Public transportation is inexpensive here as well as highly efficient, something I consider to be the hallmark of a progressive society.

The walking part has been the hardest for me. I really hate walking mainly because it is just so damn slow. Something that has taken a bit of the sting out of my walks has been listening to audio books. I just finished listening to Jon Krakauer’s new book, Where Men Win Glory: The Pat Tilman Odyssey. I also listened to this while standing on trains that were too crowded to pull out a book. I am thoroughly hooked on audio books for any situation in which reading isn’t possible. I think my audio book days are about over because I should have enough time tomorrow to get the racing bike fixed up well enough to ride.

Labels: bikes, Valencia Spain

11:11 AM

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Monday, November 30, 2009

 

Perhaps this is a bit of over-kill but we need to do whatever it takes to make cycling more popular in Valencia.

Simple Solutions for Big Problems
Valencia has everything that you would want in a town if you ride a bike: great weather, no hills (I happen to love steep climbs but I’m probably in the minority), and there is a great system of bike paths. With all this going for it the city only manages to attract 1.6% of commuters to travel by bicycle. What Valencia lacks to make cycling more popular are two things: bicycle safety and a positive image of cycling among the local populace. It seems to me that changing these two negatives is the easy and inexpensive part of the bike commuter equation. Improving bicycle safety—and by this I mean protection from automobiles—and upgrading the image of cycling could also be done fairly quickly.

The first thing that is required if you wish to foster a favorable cycling community is to ensure safety. Valencia has a great system of bike trails that separate cyclists from motorists but the system is hardly all-encompassing. If you know the system well it is possible to go just about anywhere in town on a trail but you will still be left to fend for yourself in the street for at least part of your ride. Riding on sidewalks is no longer permitted and police seem more anxious to enforce this law than they are about making car drivers act like part of the human race. Even if you take the bike path from one end of the city to the next you must interact with automobiles at every intersection.

Just last week a cyclist was killed while crossing a street at a green light for pedestrians. At many intersections the green light for pedestrians is mirrored by a yellow caution light for cars entering the crosswalk area. We all know that for many drivers a yellow caution light means hurry up because the light will change to red soon. I have had dozens of close calls with assholes in cars who are going in excess of 60kph through a pedestrian crossing while people on foot and bikes have a green light. In the States many cities have incredibly heavy fines for motorists entering a crosswalk while people are crossing. This needs to be enforced here in Valencia. Maybe the cops who are hassling bikers for being on the sidewalk could help out to calm brutish drivers. My life-long experience as a cyclist has made me an incredibly aggressive biker and I’m always eyeing oncoming traffic—especially when I have the right-of-way.

Drivers here basically do whatever the fuck they want, at least that’s the way it seems to me. I don’t see much in the way of traffic enforcement. People regularly run red lights and absolutely fly through yellow caution lights. Zebra crossings are ignored and I think that they only reason I garner any respect at all as a cyclist is that drivers don’t want to mess with a healthy adult male on a bike. Better enforcement along with a television ad campaign cold make life a lot better for cyclists in Valencia. The fines that are levied for infractions could pay for the TV spots.

As far as the image of cyclists here, I think most people view cycling as something only suited for children or people too poor to buy a new BMW. Cycling certainly isn’t seen as anything even remotely sexy. Once again, I think an effective TV ad campaign could change this attitude in a very short period of time. If marketing people can get people to believe that the brand of dishwashing soap they use will make them sexier, I think that they can make the same sort of sell for biking to work.

Labels: bikes, Valencia Spain

12:22 PM

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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

 

View from my bike.

Confessions of a Valencia Bike Commuter

I have been doing a lot of bike commuting these past two months in and around Valencia. Because of the fantastic weather we have been enjoying and the spectacular scenery, I have to say that my commuting rides are an absolute joy. One thing that I love about cycle commuting is how you can manipulate your arrival time by simply moving your legs faster or slower. If you are running a little late you can stand up on the pedals and hump for all you are worth and adjust the speed-to-distance ratio until you have reached a favorable formula. If you find yourself a bit ahead of schedule you can slow down and relish the sights along the way. This might mean gazing at the beautiful Torres de Serrano while cruising the path through Turia Park, or checking out a sidewalk café in a village outside of town. One way means more exercise and the other a greater appreciation for the local sights; I think you call this a “win-win” situation.

Labels: bikes, Valencia Spain

8:09 AM

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Monday, September 07, 2009

 

Going to Godella

This was one of those days on my bike when I should have received a free t-shirt that said I spent 4 hours on my bike and all I have to show for it is this picture of a tower. I didn’t get a t-shirt but at least it wasn’t as hot as it has been lately. I didn’t even bring water along as I left my bottle on a park bench a couple days ago. It's not like you can't find water everywhere along the route. I was exploring the area to the west of Valencia along the metro line that goes to Burjassot and Godella. What I really need here is a handlebar-mounted GPS like the one a friend of mine had on his mountain bike in Seattle (otherwise known as tech geek capital of the world). To my credit I did spend about ten seconds trying to find a map before I left the house. Maps are for wimps with less of a sense of direction than the uncanny knack I have for finding my way around.

I made it on the bike trail as far as the station at Empalme and then I couldn’t find another bike path. I started to go along the tram tracks until I thought better of it. Just as I was climbing over a railing with my bike a tram came by at about 60 kph that would have made riding along the rail line interesting, to put it mildly. There should be warning signs along the tracks saying something like, “Don’t ride along the tracks unless you want to die.” It just seems logical that they should have built a bike lane right alongside the tram lines. I’m guessing that there is a bike trail that goes further west from Empalme; I just wasn’t able to sniff it out.

I finally made it as far as Paterna where I came across this wonderful tower measuring 19 meters tall. It is a typical defensive tower built by the Arabs of which there are dozens of examples around the Community of Valencia. The exact date of its construction is unknown but probably from the 13th century (but rebuilt in 1967). While I was taking pictures of the tower I asked a passerby how I would go about getting to Godella. If I could just find the metro stop at Godella I would know my way around from there, more or less. He tried as best as he could to explain but it was obvious that it would e difficult to get there from Paterna on a bike. After humping up and down a couple of sizable hills I aborted the mission to Godella and started looking for a way back to Valencia.

I will probably try again next Sunday but this time I’ll bring my hydro-pack and a map.

Labels: bikes, Valencia Spain

10:53 AM

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Saturday, July 25, 2009

 

¡Mark Cavendish racking up stage win número cinco!

More Thoughts on the Tour de France 2009

I have thoroughly enjoyed this year’s Tour de France after suffering through three years of drug scandals. I have to admit that being able to watch Lance Armstrong again was definitely a big reason for me to tune in this year. Ever since he was matched up with former Tour winner Alberto Contador on the Astana team sparks have been flying as to just who would be the leader of the team and who would take on the grunt work of being a domestique. Both Contador and Armstrong aren’t the kind of athletes who are used to taking a backseat to anyone and the conflict between them seemed to be about the only thing the press here in Spain really cared to cover during these first two weeks of racing.

For the most part the Spanish press treated Armstrong like a foreign invader or an unwanted houseguest. On the other hand, I just don’t think that Astana team director, Johan Bruyneel, really has Alberto Contador’s best interests at heart. He is, after all, Lance Armstrong’s longtime associate and friend. I think that both Armstrong and Bruyneel just expected Contador to take a back seat on the team. Contador isn’t just some young upstart; he’s a past Tour de France champion so why the hell should he even be on a team that has another rider vying for the top spot? Contador took an inordinate amount of shit from his teammates for an attack he made late in the day on stage 17 in which he left Andres Klöden behind. This left both Klöden and Armstrong off the podium at the end of the day and put in their place the two Schleck brothers who were riding with Contador in the breakaway. There is no doubt that Contador made a tactical error in his ill-planned effort to drop the two Schleck brothers but I think he more than made up for this in the next day’s individual time trial.

I wanted to see one of two things in this decisive time trial: either I wanted Lance to come from behind to take the stage and assure himself a comfortable position on the podium, or I wanted Contador to blow everyone else off the course and prove, once and for all, that he is the best rider in the race. I got option number two and a bit of option one. Contador won the stage by beating the world’s best time trialist, Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara, by three huge seconds. All of Contador’s detractors can now politely shut the fuck up. He just about sealed his victory in the general classification and should breeze into Paris with no problem. Armstrong ended up overall at number 3. Now there is the problem of keeping Armstrong in the running.

Lance helped himself out in the time trial even though he came I 16th overall—not a very Armstrong performance. As I said, he did well enough to fight his way over Frank Schleck for third position. Whether he can keep that today in the grueling Mount Ventoux stage on the eve of the ride into Paris is another matter. It will make for a very interesting fight for third position and possibly even second if Andy Schleck has any problems. Andy Schleck is an excellent climber so I don’t see him unraveling today.

Lance was able to pick up four seconds in Friday’s race over his next rival, Bradley Wiggins, because organizers said that the peloton was split up enough at the end to give separate times. Lance will need every second he can get to begin Saturday’s tortuous climb up Mount Ventoux. It has been great to see Wiggins, an ex-Olympic pursuit rider—adapt his style to road racing. He has done an excellent job. He is a good time trailer and a great climber as well. He has all of the necessary elements to win the Tour some day.

The green jersey is still in contention as Mark Cavendish pulled off a surprise victory on Friday—if you can say that a rider who has won four previous stages is a surprise. It’s just that few people were predicting a sprint finish expecting there to be a successful breakaway leaving the sprinters somewhere back on the steep climb of the day. Cavendish gutted it out over the mountain and had a tremendous finish to give him five stages this year. Not a bad Tour for the kid from the Isle of Man.

Labels: bikes

12:54 PM

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

 

Tour de France 2009

We are well into this year’s Tour de France with two members of the Astana team sitting high in the standings. Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong are teammates and seem to be at each other’s throats if you believe the press coverage, especially here in Spain where Armstrong is seen as a sort of unwanted stowaway on the Astana express. Which rider will come out as the overall leader after 21 stages? All I have to say is that there aren’t too many folks who have made money betting against Lance Armstrong.

I think that Armstrong’s relative lack of cycle training in the past couple of years is going to work to his favor as the race grinds on. He is going to find himself in better and better form as the kilometers pile up. He will use the early stages like a training regimen and when the race turns once again to the grueling mountain stages in the Alps he will give Contador the fight of his life—or vice versa.

As much as I would love to see Lance win another Tour, what I most want to see is an exciting race. This is what the Tour desperately needs after the last three years of doping scandals. This was what the Tour needed when Armstrong won his first Tour which came in the wake of a drug scandal. He ushered in a lot of great publicity for the Tour by winning after his successful fight with cancer. His subsequent victories created an interest in the Tour in the vast and theretofore untapped American public. Many Americans followed the Tour on a day-to-day basis for the first time—at least in Seattle. I’m sure that many Americans have tuned in again this summer.

I think Lance will win it on the penultimate stage of this year’s Tour on Mount Ventoux, with a final climb of 21.1 kilometers (13.1 miles) at average grade of 7.6%. That last uphill should be a desperate struggle between the two teammates and one that I hope will go down as one of the finest moments in Tour de France history.

(If you are a bike fan and have important things to do today, things more important than watching video clips of past Tour de France moments, then do yourself a huge favor and don’t follow the link I provided.)

Labels: bikes

9:43 AM

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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

 

Local Good News

My neighborhood is undergoing a massive facelift. It is a city project instigating to create jobs during the current economic collapse here in Valencia where we are experiencing incredibly high unemployment—some say as high as 20%. There are a couple of big billboards boasting about the project right next to my apartment building. The billboards were the first thing they began and at first I thought that the billboards represented the entire building project as it took four men a couple of days to put them up. The true project is has been a big mess as they have torn up several streets in Ruzafa. They tear up streets all the time here but on this occasion they are actually making improvements and not just fixing a broken pipe beneath the street.

I have been complaining since I moved to this neighborhood about the narrow sidewalks and the streets littered with cars parked end-to-end often blocking pedestrian crossings. The new project is widening the sidewalks and removing parking from one side of the street on several blocks in Ruzafa. There is also a new bike path being built along one of the neighborhood’s major thoroughfares which was a very hostile street for cyclists. This new initiative is going to make the neighborhood a lot more pedestrian –friendly and should calm the traffic a bit—if that is possible in Valencia. Just where all of those people are going to park now is a bit of a mystery but I don’t drive and I don’t care. Perhaps a few of the drivers will give up and sell their vehicles.

This will make it a lot easier to bike around the neighborhood. With fewer parked vehicles it will be easier to be seen by drivers and to see cars approaching. The new sidewalks will also allow more restaurants to have outdoor seating—always a good thing in my opinion. I applaud any project that takes back what the automobile has robbed from city life and returns to pedestrians.

Labels: bikes, Valencia Spain

10:07 AM

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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

 

Bike Day in Bogotá



Why can't more cities be like Bogotá, Colombia?

Labels: bikes

7:35 PM

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Thursday, May 21, 2009

 

Traffic Jam

I have been paying rather close attention to the manner in which traffic is managed here in Valencia. As a cyclist I am also very interested in how bicycles are being integrated into the urban transportation model. As a sort of by-product of these two interests I also recognize ways in which pedestrian traffic could be encouraged. I am also a consumer of mass transit as I frequently use the Valencia metro (and now and then I hop on a bus). I have made no secret of my hatred of the automobile but I am also enough of a realist to understand that the car will probably be with us for many years to come. I just don’t understand why Valencia spends so much money to encourage people to drive their cars instead of opting for mass transit, walking or cycling.

Something that drives me crazy is when I notice how the city has widened streets for automobiles when the current traffic patterns simply don’t warrant this extravagance. Why make more lanes than are necessary? All this does is send the message that driving is the most favored method of getting from one point in the city to another. These three and four lane streets come at the expanse of adequate sidewalks and bike paths. There are so many streets in Valencia that could use one less lane for cars in order to put in a bike path, widen the sidewalks, or both.

I should have started off by stating that I think that Valencia has an excellent mass transit system. The metro is fast and efficient and ever growing. Buses are everywhere, easy to use, and inexpensive. The city also has great bike paths that crisscross the city as well as venture out into the neighboring countryside. The new bike path to El Saler beach is getting more and more popular on weekends. On some Sundays there are actually traffic jams on the bike path. The trail is less than two years old so a lot of locals don’t even know about it yet. I can’t understand why anyone would drive to the beach when it is so easy to get there on a bike.

I just think that it is unfortunate and short-sighted to place so much emphasis on automobiles in the urban transportation model. Every time a street is widened to make more room for cars, pedestrians and cyclists lose something in the deal. Every kilometer-per-hour increase in the speed of automobile traffic is an added danger for people on foot or on bicycles. Every dollar spent to expand public parking is money that could have been spent to encourage people to leave their cars at home.

The way I see it, a lot of the automobile traffic here in Valencia is just so completely unnecessary. People have very short distances to travel. They probably take more time looking for a place to park than they did driving to wherever they are going. There are other, much more efficient options open to people. Bicycles should be encouraged throughout the city. For people to feel safe on bikes there needs to be more dedicated bike paths everywhere. I am an extremely experienced and aggressive cyclist yet there are many streets in Valencia where I refuse to ride for fear of being flattened by cars. Drivers need to be forced to respect pedestrians and cyclist, something the police here are very loath to do. At many intersections drivers only have a yellow caution light at the crosswalks which means that as a pedestrian you are taking your life in your hands just to cross the street on the green “walk” signal.

Valencia has a lot of things in its favor to encourage bike traffic. They city is on level ground (nothing here like the hills in Seattle), the weather is favorable for cycling almost year-round, and distances between points in the city are not very great. Reasons not to drive a car are innumerable with lack of parking topping the list. I think that with just a bit of encouragement from the local government Valencia could improve on the dismal amount of bike commuters it has now (1.6%). They need to work on ways to glamorize bike commuting.

Labels: bikes, politics, Valencia Spain

12:13 PM

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Friday, January 30, 2009

 

My Favorite Thing

If I had to say what it is I most like about living here, I would have to say the bike trail leading out of Valencia to the beaches directly south of the city. I ride this trail almost every day that I ride, and I get out about 5-6 days a week, weather permitting—and it usually does. It takes me about an hour and a half to go from my front door to the end of the trail at El Saler beach and back. I can pick up the bike trail about a block from my apartment. After only about ten minutes of riding I am out of the city and pedaling past farm land. The only interaction I have with automobiles is at a few intersections leaving town. For the rest of the ride it's uninterrupted bliss.

Labels: bikes, Valencia Spain

9:47 AM

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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

 

Cars and Bikes

It's been a bit over two years since I have driven an automobile. I rarely even ride in a car. About 99% of my personal transportation is effected on my bicycle—one of the greatest inventions in human history (although under-utilized in many societies). The personal automobile certainly has a place in modern transportation models but to base our entire scheme on cars seems completely insane. Even if we could make cars that run on air, we would still be strapped with all of the other massive failings of the automobile such as the high cost of building roads, safety issues, and parking, to name only three. Airplanes are another highly flawed means of transportation but they are still the best means to travel great distances. America almost completely gave up on trains many years ago and it may be too late to create the infrastructure necessary for this to be a major player in the country's future. But the cheapest, safest, and easiest solution for many of society’s transportation demands is still the bicycle.

Just about the entire infrastructure necessary to include bicycles in urban transportation models is already in place. Sometimes the only thing required to make a bike line is a line of paint in the street. If a city wishes to be a bit more aggressive in incorporating the use of bikes, they could remove an automobile lane or on-street parking and hand this over to cyclists. If cities are looking to go way overboard on the inclusion of bikes, they can look to Amsterdam as their model. Starting in 1992 Amsterdam has been working to minimize car traffic in its historic center. Over the years the city has drastically reduced parking in the center while continually widening bike lanes and sidewalks. This certainly makes sense when you consider that the historic center of Amsterdam was designed before cars were around.

Valencia has to rate somewhere near the top of the list for bike-friendly cities—at least as far as I am concerned. For its population, Valencia is very small in area, at least compared to an American city of the same size. You can bike from one end of Valencia to the other in about a half an hour—I doubt there are many American cities where you could make that claim driving. The network of bike paths in and around Valencia is a dream come true for cyclists. The fine weather here also helps to encourage cycling. Another advantage for cycling in Valencia is that the city is very flat. In Eduardo Mendoza's hilarious farce, Sin Noticias de Gurb, the space alien visiting the very hilly Barcelona proposes a bike exchange program where citizens of that city can grab a bike at the top of the hill, coast down to the city's center, and then leave the bike. Trucks would then come along and drive the bikes back up the hill. People would have to make their own arrangements for getting back up the hill. As it turns out, Barcelona has a bicycle exchange program called Bicing and they do in fact find an inordinate amount of bikes at the bottom of the city and must transport them back to the top of the hill every day. I thought about the same thing in Seattle which has many heart-shatteringly steep hills. Valencia, as I said, is as flat as a tortilla (Mexican or Spanish versions both work for this simile).

There is almost nothing in the way of urban sprawl in Valencia; the apartment buildings of the city abruptly end where the agricultural fields begin. There are neighboring towns but they all look pretty much like Valencia: apartment buildings that are between four and six floors. I have never heard or seen any traffic reports here. Although Valencia doesn't have the nightmarish gridlock of American cities it has its own share of problems with the automobile. Traffic in the city itself is pretty much a nightmare, at least on weekdays. You won't run into huge delays. More than anything it is just annoying to drive around town. As I write this I look down on the street in front of the Ruzafa Market which, during working hours, is backed up for several blocks.

It amazes me that so many people here still choose to rely heavily on the automobile to get around day-to-day. I could understand this if it were all families choking up the streets in their cars, but most of the traffic is the same sort you see in just about every city in America: single drivers. I don't even take cabs in Valencia because the traffic is maddeningly slow. Once you arrive at your destination, parking is even more horrendous than the drive to get there. I can't see how driving in this environment can be any sort of convenience.

Automobiles in Valencia seem to be more of a status thing than a necessity. People drive because they have cars and can afford the gas. Public transportation is inexpensive and very efficient yet many people opt out of it and drive. I'm sure that many have practical reasons for making this decision but I am equally sure that many other people drive for reasons other than necessity. I would guess that a great majority of the people who now drive cars in Valencia could easily choose to ride the bus or bike to their destinations. I am surprised that the city hasn't made a greater effort to convince these people to make the change. Instead, Valencia keeps building wider roads on the outer ends of the city and erecting public parking garages at different points around town, all with the purpose of encouraging automobile traffic. It seems this money would be better spent on mass transit projects.

It's remarkable the degree to which societies subsidize the automobile while practically ignoring other means of transportation. In the United States people scream bloody murder when public funds go to fund mass transportation projects like Amtrak (America's passenger rail system) but nothing is said when tax dollars pay for airports and the incredible infrastructure necessary for automobiles. Even a city that is purported to be as “bike friendly” as Seattle seems to only grudgingly add bike lanes to the urban transportation model—and in Seattle this usually means merely slapping down a line of paint in the street to designate the bike lane (which works rather well, I might add).

What I can't understand about bike transportation is why it isn't more popular. Why aren't as many people riding bikes in Seattle or Valencia as in Amsterdam? How can we get more people out of their cars and on bikes? I have an idea, try asking. I have seen a couple of posters around Valencia on the metro routes encouraging citizens to ride bikes but I think the movement needs a little more of a push. How about a few television commercials of attractive people choosing to ride their bikes instead of dealing with the hassles inherent in automobiles?

Labels: bikes, Valencia Spain

9:22 AM

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Monday, July 09, 2007

 

Riding with the peleton and running with the bulls

I go along, day after day, living my life here pretty much taking many things for granted. I’m in another country and the language is different but the mundane aspects of daily life are pretty much the same everywhere. You eat, drink coffee, exercise, read, watch television, or whatever. I go for weeks at a time barely recognizing the fact that I am living in a culture that is markedly different than my own. I try to blend in as much as I can. I know my way around Valencia better than most and I am killing myself trying to hammer Spanish into my head. As my Spanish improves and I become more familiar with how things are done here, my life becomes more normal. And then every once in a while something hits me and I realize than things are very unusual in my new home.

Sometimes it’s something really insignificant that leads me to this thought. Just this weekend I couldn’t stop thinking about how odd it is to see the Tour de France live and in the late afternoon. In Seattle there is something like a ten hour time difference so on some days I would go to my gym at six in the morning to watch the live broadcast of the day’s race, but most of the time I would watch the rebroadcast that starts at eleven in the morning.

For a Tour de France kook like me it’s pretty cool to see it on TV live, although I miss Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwin, the great announcers on the Outdoor Life Network. It is also great to have two entire pages of the newspaper dedicated to the Tour every day. They have their priorities straight here. I am thinking about heading up to the Pyrenees in a couple weeks with my bike to catch one of the great mountain stages when the race passes through Spain. I have climbed bigger mountains in Washington than anything they do in the Tour. Granted, I never climb three or four big passes in one day but still, we got big mountains in Washington. Climbing up Mount Rainier would make a great finish for a Tour stage.

July 7th was also the beginning of the festival of San Fermín in Pamplona, or the running of the bulls. Every day at 8 a.m. they show all of the crazy drunks running through the street being chased by huge bulls. If you aren’t up at 8 you can see the rebroadcasts all day long. Yesterday nine people got gored. Just good, clean fun as far as the Spanish are concerned. I have never had any desire to go to this festival and I definitely wouldn’t care to take my chances in a sprinting match with a 500 kilo bull. As I told a Spanish friend, this is one aspect of Spanish life that I don’t mind experiencing on television. Getting gored by a bull isn’t on my “to do” list while I make this place my home.

One thing that is very easy to get used to here is the weather. It is just about perfect. It is sunny and hot during the day and then when the sun goes down it cools off considerably. The humidity is rather low which is common in the Mediterranean basin. It is exactly how I remembered it from the years that I lived in Greece.

Labels: bikes

9:57 PM

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Monday, June 04, 2007

 

Castillo de Sagunt with the Mediterranean in the background.

Castles and Towers in the Community of Valencia

Sometimes our expectations get the better of us, especially if you suffer from an overly-romanticized idea of how some things, like life, should be. It’s kind of like cooking a dish that doesn’t turn out too well. I have had plenty days when I went out in search of some idea that I had in my head, only to find everything from minor disappointment to full-blown disasters. Today was one of those days that went much better than the idea I had in my head. I suppose that when you go out in search of Spanish castles you just may over-shoot the mark of what you had anticipated.

I found a book in my apartment called Castillos, Torres y Fortalezas de la Comunidad Valencia that lists all of the major and minor fortifications in the Valencia province, or community as it is called here. Some of them date back to the pre-roman, bronze age but most are from the bellicose era when Christians and Moors were battling for this part of Spain. I love the book and I want to see as many of these places as possible but a lot of the sites seemed a little too distant to reach on a day trip from Valencia on a bicycle. I haven’t really pushed my limits so far on bike rides; my longest rides are about two hours out before I turn around. In the next couple of weeks I plan on getting new street tires for my cycle-cross bike that will make it a lot quicker which means I can cover more ground in a day.

The directions to the various fortifications, in all states of repair and disrepair, are extremely vague in the book so I had little hope of actually being able to track down very many of these historic landmarks. I had an even vaguer plan when I rode away from my building in the heart of Valencia this morning at 10 a.m. I had a lot of water, a bit of money, and my camera, as I skirted my way out of town to the north. I haven’t done a lot of exploring out this way and had been thwarted on a previous excursion when I couldn’t find a way around the autovía that runs to Barcelona. I was able to dodge the traffic and pick my way to the next little city outside of Valencia. I didn’t have a destination in mind when I left but I was hoping to accidentally run into an old fortification or two at some point on my ride.

As I coasted down a quiet street in this quiet town I saw the spire of an old cathedral in front of me. I figure that if something is old enough I should probably stop in for a visit. As I approached I could hear little kids romping around and screaming. I pulled into the square in front of the cathedral and saw the kids running around in church clothes chasing a soccer ball. Just another joyous Sunday morning in a small Spanish town. At least that’s what I thought until I saw that there was a funeral in progress. Kids really don’t know shit about appropriate behavior at funerals. I felt a little guilty taking a picture but I thought that tourism can’t be put on hold just because someone decides to check out. If it means anything to the deceased, I didn’t get a very good picture.

My next landmark was a mountain farther north. As a former resident of Washington State, I miss the mountains. I haven’t climbed a hill, a real hill, since I got here in Spain. With just a big pile of rocks to guide me I was able to run into a few bike trails out this way. I later discovered that the network of trails is fairly extensive and I can’t wait learn this area as well as I know the southern flank of Valencia. I found a trail on my return trip that takes me from these outer regions to within four or five blocks from my house, and I saw new trails being built all over. Valencia is completely committed to bike trails. It can’t cost much to build bike trails and once they are in place the upkeep is next to nothing. Wherever you live, you should demand that they build bike trails.

I was just getting my legs warmed up when I spotted my first tower. I was riding out of a little hamlet when I noticed the small structure on a lonely hilltop. These little towers were a defensive structure for local residents if they were attacked. This tower has a commanding view of the entire countryside for miles around. I couldn’t find a way to get close to the tower because there was a fence around it for some sort of construction company. Usually .I wouldn’t let a fence stop me but there were people working inside. Who works on Sunday in Spain? I think this tower is called Torre de Puzol and is of Muslim origin. This was a modest discovery for the day and I would have been happy with this one find.

I continued north from here along a quiet road past old country estates and through vast expanses of orange groves. I crested a small hill and I could see the vague outline of a huge fort on top of a mountaintop farther to the north. I had already been riding for over an hour and the fort looked to be at least six miles away. It was only 11:20 a.m. and I knew that I had another ten hours of daylight to make it back to Valencia. If I could find a way to this castle I was going to ride there today.

It turns out that the path there was very self-explanatory and a beautiful piece of road. Not a single car passed me on this stretch except a guy driving slowly while his dog got a workout along side and a support car for a bike club. Damn, I need to find a bike club that has a support car. That’s what I call living.

On the way I passed a beautiful old country estate called Hort el Rabosero. I think that I need to live there some day. This old country mansion has a commanding view of the Mediterranean as well as the castle I was on my way to visit. I don’t have an odometer on my bike; I have a watch and I was under two hours out on this excursion. In the past few weeks I have ridden five hours or more in a day so I wasn’t worried about dragging my ass back home—at least not yet.

I didn’t even know where I was going until I got there today. It turns out it was Sagunt: a destination I thought was too far for a day trip. I guess that it’s time for me to revise my estimates for day trips. Now that I was beneath the castle I needed to find how I was supposed to ride up into it. They built this thing to be impregnable so I wasn’t about to scale the walls on a bicycle. I needed to find a way up so I rode through the city. By chance I found the tourism office and was given directions and a map to the fortress entrance.

As I pedaled up the miserably steep approach to the castle, I got a lot of looks from other tourists on foot probably thinking, “I can’t believe you are riding a bike up this hill. I can barely walk up it.” I wanted to shout out, “I’m from Seattle. I used to ride up Queen Anne hill to go to my piano lessons. I used to ride 18 miles up Mount Rainer just for fun! This little bump isn’t shit.” The road really is incredibly steep, and although I was handling it well, my bike, which I have dubbed Rocinante, was groaning under the pressure. Rocinante needs some spokes tightened; I was doing just fine in the driver’s seat.

I left my bike with the curator at the museum in what is called the Plaza de Armas. of the castle. I walked around a bit before I eavesdropped on a group of locals speaking in Valenciano (although it may have been Catalan—I can’t tell the difference) who were admiring the view from the top. You can look down towards Valencia and see the major landmarks there like the Ciudad de las Ciencias. The view from up there just about takes the air out of your lungs if the ride up didn’t do that already.

Riding back down the hill to the city of Sagunt I could hardly believe the steepness of the grade. I was burning my brakes going down and I had ridden up this monster just a half hour ago. Now I knew why people were looking at me funny. There is a lot of other things to see in Sagunt. I’ll have to visit the Roman amphitheater on my next trip out this way.

This was one of the best bike rides I have ever had, and that is saying a lot. I have memories of riding the coast road from Athens to the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion; humping from Monterrey to Big Sur and back on a Saturday afternoon; grinding through North Cascades National Park; speeding along the Florida coast; winding through gorgeous southern Indiana farm country; exploring Venetian fortresses in the Peloponnesus; I’ve had my share of great cycling destinations. Today certainly rates up there with the best of them. I’ll need a lot more days like today if I am going to make it to all of the sites in the book.
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Labels: bikes, Valencia Spain

1:35 PM

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Sunday, May 06, 2007

 

By the end of this summer I may run out of new trails to discover in the sand dunes south of Valencia






This cool abandoned factory is at the end of the bike trail at Pinedo Beach.

Leg-Powered Entertainment

For about the past month or so I have been going completely ape shit with the bike riding. I pedal for over two hours a day, five and sometimes six days a week. There isn’t much rhyme or reason to my training; I just get on my bike and ride as hard as I can. I left my pulse rate monitor at home and I don’t have a computer on my bike so there is not much of a way for me to gauge my progress. I haven’t really thought about it much. I just love to ride and there are some fantastic areas to explore just south of town.

A new section of the beach bike trail has just been completed which connects to the trail from Valencia. This begins in the middle of town on the south end of the Ciencias complex. You can get on the trail here which takes you to the edge of Nazaret, an old neighborhood near the port. There is a pedestrian bridge over the highway and after you ride over this there is a new trail that goes farther south to Pinedo. There is a new bike bridge over the Turia River here that is very welcome because crossing on the vehicle side of the bridge was always a little frightening. From here the trail goes along the beach at Pinedo.

On weekends and holidays the beach is crowded and I usually forgo the bike trail for a back street where I can ride a lot faster. It’s hard to beat the scenery at the beach, however, so sometimes I sacrifice speed for bikinis. Yesterday I also broke up a dog fight. A dog that was off-leash ran up to a guy who was walking his dog. Both where medium size dogs and the off-leash pooch began to get aggressive. The guy started swinging his dog around by the neck trying to keep the two mutts from making contact. I saw it all happening as I was riding down the boardwalk. I stopped and shouted at the off-leash dog. He immediately stopped and ran away. You just have to know how to talk to dogs.

Just past Pinedo is a brand new section of beach and bike trail that is just beautiful. The bike trail is wide and completely separated from the pedestrian path. This new section is probably about three kilometers long. It ends abruptly in the sand. Past this there is a cool abandoned factory that looks like a movie location for the end of the world. I walk my bike through the sand and rode through the factory. There used to be an open gate on the other end of the factory but it was closed yesterday. I looked for another way out, but, short of climbing over a three meter wall with my bike, it looked like I would have to back-track around the factory. As I was riding back I noticed that the metal gate I passed on previous rides had a hole in it. I was able to wiggle my bike past the gap in the fence, climb through myself, and continue riding south.

Immediately south of the factory the trail continues, but only for another half kilometer or so. You need to get back on the highway and ride for maybe two kilometers until you reach El Saler where the trail picks up again along another great beach area. This is also where the sand dunes begin and the entire area is being preserved as a nature reserve. The beach trail ends at a gravel road that has a chain across it to keep cars out. I can either continue south along this road or go a little inland and take a trail that goes through the dunes and marshes.

This whole area is like a dream-come-true for anyone with a cycle-cross bike. The gravel roads are hard-packed and fast so you really don’t need a mountain bike which seems to be the overwhelming favorite among most cyclists who don’t have road bikes. There are few places that you can go on a mountain bike where I can’t follow on my cycle-cross, and my bike is loads faster on the bike paths and gravel roads. A road bike is useless on anything but the paved surfaces so my bike is a great compromise. I still bristle at getting passed on the highway by racing bikes but as my fitness improves it is getting harder and harder for the racers to get by me.

South of the El Saler public beach is a huge expanse of sand dunes, deserted beaches, lagoons, marshes, and trails. It looks that at one time they were planning to develop this area for commercial and residential use but changed their minds and made it into a wilderness sanctuary. There are abandoned roads zigzagging all through this area. There are also lots of trails for hikers and bikers. I find something new to explore almost every time I ride through. I am often asked directions down there and they definitely have asked the right person. I probably know this entire area as well as anyone.

I should probably be exploring another side of Valencia’s outskirts. I already have ridden a lot on the north end of the beach but I have yet to go inland towards the mountains.

I carry a backpack water reservoir that holds about two liters. On some days this isn’t enough and it isn’t even summer. I also carry two spare tubes and a tire patching kit. I haven’t had a flat in a long time, although my folding clown bike has a flat right now that I’m too lazy to fix. I usually carry along a bag of nuts and dried figs and dates just in case I go completely overboard and bonk-out somewhere far from home.

Labels: bikes, Valencia Spain

11:22 AM

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Saturday, April 07, 2007

 

Cities, Bikes, & the Future


I live in the heart of a major Spanish city with a population of something like 800,000. If I had to be specific I would say that my apartment is closer to the northeast side of Valencia, yet it takes me less than ten minutes to pedal to the southwest side of the city when I ride to the Albufera nature reserve. There are no suburbs amended to Spanish cities. The change from city to country is rather abrupt. You go from eight story apartment buildings to open fields. The population density of the city means that this many people take up very little room when compared to cities with a lot of single family homes. Many American cities with one tenth the population of Valencia cover a land area ten times larger.

The dense urban climate is more suitable to my tastes; it’s much like where I lived in Seattle. I love the fact that I can get on my bike, follow the bike path down to the Turia Gardens park, take that bike path to the other end of the Ciencias complex, get on yet another bike path, and I’m out of the city limits, as I said, all in about ten minutes.

It is Semana Santa so everyone else in Valencia is trying to get out of town, but most of them in automobiles. I was able to make better time on my bike yesterday than all of those people stuck in traffic on the southern flank of the city. The weather has been a little less than ideal so there wasn’t the usual horde of cyclists along this route. I was going to say that the new bike trail is complete but it is an ongoing project with a lot still in the works. I can say that the new bike bridge is complete, and a whole new section is now open that used to be one of the more perilous parts of my route south to the Albufera.

Bikes are very popular here but not as popular as they are in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Zurich, or even Barcelona, not yet, anyway. It is obvious that Valencia is rapidly making room for bicycles in their future. There is no down side to bicycles. They are clean, efficient, safe, and promote fitness. Not including bikes in your urban transportation model is not just short-sighted, it’s incredibly irresponsible.

Valencia and other metro areas in the province have begun a new program that is popular in other European cities. Bicycles are provided for commuters at kiosks around the city. They are not up-and-running yet here, but from what I have read about them you will be issued an identity card like at the library which will allow you to borrow a bicycle from a station and then return it at another station. So you can get off a bus or train, or park your car in a lot, and then complete your commute on a bike. It is a fairly simple an inexpensive solution to at least a fraction of the transportation problem all cities face.
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The density of urban areas like Valencia make bicycle commuting extremely attractive because the distances to travel are fairly modest—even from one end of the city to the other. I couldn’t imagine traveling by automobile in Valencia. I would lose my mind trying to find a parking spot. Lots of people do rely on cars to get around here, but bikes are starting to get folded into the transportation mix. You can tell that bikes are relatively new because they are used mostly by younger people. In Amsterdam you see people of all ages pedaling around town and they all look good doing it.

Labels: bikes, Valencia Spain

8:07 AM

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Friday, January 19, 2007

 

Parking and biking


Valencia is a city of about 800.000 inhabitants. That would rank it among one of America’s ten biggest cities. As is the case in most American cities, parking is a huge problem in Valencia. One thing that you don’t see here are parking lots, at least surface lots. There are underground parking facilities in almost every building—at least in the newer ones. Trying to find a parking spot on the street can be a desperate affair. In an attempt to come to terms with this problem drivers here have come up with some interesting solutions.

Double parking is an extremely common and accepted way of leaving your automobile. What people do when they double park is to leave their car in neutral with the emergency brake off. If someone that you have blocked in needs to get out they can simply push your car forward or backward to make room for their egress. When I am sitting in one of my favorite sidewalk cafes reading a book in the afternoon, watching people park almost always is more interesting than what I am reading.

Sometimes the double parker doesn’t leave enough room for another driver to get out. In this instance the blocked driver will lean on his horn to try to summon the offender. For some reason, this seems to happen a lot in the late afternoon. This must be a bad time for parking because you often hear horns glaring. This is one of my least favorite aspects of city life here in Spain. The other day I was leaving the market and a guy blasted his really loud horn right when I was walking by. I called him a “cocksucker” and a few other choice English expletives. He looked at me like a whipped puppy and didn’t understand why I was upset. Everybody does it, after all.

I have mentioned that I live a block away from Mestalla Stadium where Valencia Club de Fúbol plays their games. When they have a match my neighborhood becomes an instructional clinic in the many methods of illegal parking. It is really quite entertaining to see the places people will put their dormant automobiles. Because most of the street corners are handicap accessible, cars can easily drive up the ramp and on to the sidewalks and park anywhere. Sometimes the police will issue tickets and sometimes they won’t. A couple of days ago during the game someone had parked right in front of the exit for the stadium metro stop. I was waiting for someone to push the car into the middle of the street. The attitude here with creative (illegal) parking is, “Hey, we all do it.”

I can’t imagine why anyone would bother driving around Valencia when public transportation is so fast, inexpensive, and efficient. Bicycles are very popular here and I’m sure this form of personal transportation will explode exponentially in the next few years. It will be interesting to visit Barcelona and see how bikes have caught on there. Barcelona is considered to be the most progressive Spanish city and it leads the way in bike paths and encouraging bicycle commuting.

I am already looking to buy a folding bike. I love the bicycle I have now but it is really more for exercise and bike touring. Now I need an every day bike to use to get around town. A folding bike also makes sense when you live on the fifth floor and your building has a small elevator. I have been keeping my eye out for a used one. Folding bikes are very popular here as almost everyone else lives on the fifth fucking floor, some without an elevator. I used to think that folding bikes were silly but they sure beat the hell out of walking.

I’ll either get a folding model or a really crappy bike that I can just lock outside somewhere and not worry about it getting stolen. I have heard so many warnings about bike theft that I lock my beautiful new cycle-cross bike when I leave it on my fifth floor balcony. I don’t know, maybe thieves could rappel down from the roof and steal it? A ninja could do it.


*The photo is a metro advertisement that I think captures the essence of public transportation.

Labels: bikes, green

9:32 AM

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Saturday, January 13, 2007

 

All I have to show after a four hour bike ride south of Valencia


This little cathedral is in Nazaret, the old port neighborhood in the southern-most section of Valencia.


This is Cullera, the best looking of all the little beach towns south of Valencia. I can't wait to go skorkeling here in the summer.

Labels: bikes

3:24 PM

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Monday, August 01, 2005

 

The Tour is Dead, Long Live the Tour

When I was younger, I had a grizzled old war veteran lecture me about loss. “You don’t know nothing about losing nothing until you been to war, boy. You’ll know about loss when you stick your hand into a pile of goo that used to be your best friend’s face.” I think I finally know what he is talking about. The Tour de France is over. After three weeks of me having something to live and train for, it has finally ended. I know exactly what the tortured combat vet was saying about putting your hand into a pile of goo that used to be your best friend’s face, because I went to the gym and turned the TV to the channel that covered the Tour in the vain hope they would show some repeats of the race, or something Tour-related. Instead, I found that they were airing a hunting show.

In one sense, it is kind of refreshing to have my normal, non-Tour de France, life back. I no longer have to center my entire day around getting to the gym at a specific time to watch the race. The weather here has been positively spectacular. I can bike ride outside as nature intended, instead of pedaling an exercise bike to nowhere inside. I love riding my racing bike around Seattle. I sniff out every hill in town like a pig foraging for truffles. It doesn’t take a lot of talent to find hills in this town. There are some hills so steep that I won’t ride up them on my racing bike for fear that the torque will break a wheel, or a chain, or a frame. I leave these hills for days when I am out on my ghetto commuter bike. I really did break a chain riding up one of these cruelly steep hills.

So life was good for a while. I was riding my butt off and getting into the best shape of my life when tragedy struck again. The gears on my racing bike crapped out. It was going to cost quite a bit to fix this old Bianchi, a bike that has served me very well. I weighed the cost of repairs against investing in a brand new Bianchi San Lorenzo that costs $3,200 or so. It seemed a rather ignominious end to my old bike, but I have been thinking about replacing it. I told the guys at the repair shop in my neighborhood to pull the feeding tube. A couple bike geek dudes overheard me say that I wasn’t going to fix the old Bianchi and they immediately started drooling over the corpse.

“How much do you want for that frame, dude?” The old bike has a steel lugged frame hand-made in Italy. The new models are one-piece forged carbon fiber. The bike geeks’ envy made me reconsider my plan to scrap the classic for a new model. I decided to fix up the old bicycle and trick it out a little. It should be back on the road by next Wednesday.

I didn’t want to miss a work-out so I went out on my commuter bike. I took the opportunity to ride up 4th Avenue North, the steepest, ugliest hill in Seattle. I wouldn’t dream of even driving my car up or down this street. I don’t think that I have ever seen a car drive up the hill, and only street residents drive down it. I may never be able to articulate why this sort of behavior is fun for me. As I was grinding up 4th Avenue North, I thought that either the ride would kill me or I would live forever.

Labels: bikes

5:40 PM

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Monday, July 11, 2005

 

Hold My Calls, Please!

I am kind of busy these days and I will be for the next couple of weeks. There is a bike race going on in France that has me completely distracted. Today is a rest day in the Tour de France so I’m not missing anything by writing this short essay. To give you some idea of my level of fanaticism I will tell you about what happened to me yesterday.

Normally the Outdoor Life Network televises the Tour at 11:30 every morning. I make a point of arriving at the gym at 11:30 on the dot. I sit on one of the exercise bikes and watch the two hour coverage of the race. This is a taped delay of the race so I have to be extra careful that I don’t accidentally catch the results of the race on the other TV that is usually tuned to CNN. If I look over and they are broadcasting news of the day’s race on CNN I literally plug my ears and start singing something. It’s not very dignified but it keeps me in suspense.

When I got to the gym yesterday I politely asked the other patrons if I could switch the TV over to the Tour. When I got to the station that broadcasts the race there was a beach volleyball game going on and it wasn’t even in France. I actually screamed like a little girl whose party dress just caught fire. I like watching girls in bikinis as much as the next middle-aged pervert but where in the FUCK was my Tour de fucking France? I looked around accusingly at the other people working out, as if one of them had stolen it. My whole day was completely out of whack. It was raining (Have I mentioned that I live in Seattle?) so I decided to continue my workout sans Tour.

When I got back home I checked the TV listings and discovered that OLN had moved Sunday’s coverage to 5 p.m. Sunday’s stage was an important one so I rearranged my entire day to include a second workout at five. I know this is a really fucking boring story but it’s almost over, I promise. When I returned to the gym I switched the TV over to the race. I was tired but I figured I could tough it out for another hour or so on the bike until I saw that the riders were still well over two hours from the finish. It seems that Sundays have extended coverage. So this is the end: I rode for an hour and then went to my pub to drink beer. I watched the end of the race from the safety and security of my barstool.

I’ll admit that you have to be a total geek to watch a bicycle race on TV. I am the biggest geek imaginable when the Tour rolls around every summer. If you can imagine one of your loved ones in emergency care then you have some idea of my relation to the TV at my gym during these three weeks in July. Some friends asked me if I wanted to go see the new Batman movie yesterday. I asked them if Lance Armstrong was in it. He isn’t in it so I decided that I would have to wait until after the Tour to see Batman Begins so as not to dilute my Tour experience.

I have taught my friends who aren’t bike geeks a set of stock phrases that they can use on me so that I will think that they give a shit about a three week bike race in France. “So, do you think Lance has what it takes to do it again this year?” “This Christophe Moreau is being rather pesky, don’t you think?” And if you really want to get on my good side try this one, “I think that you should be in the Tour de France.” That one gets me hot.

Tuesday is supposed to bring good weather to Washington. It would be an ideal day to head out of town for a mountain bike ride, except for the fact that Tuesday is also the first day in the Alps for the Tour. Let’s see, either I can ride my bike through some of the most breathtakingly beautiful scenery on this planet or I can sit on a virtual bicycle in a stuffy gym next to a bunch of sweaty, smelly people and watch a bike race on TV. My hands are tied here, people. What if I went out riding in the Washington Alps and something truly epic happened in the Tour? Like when Joseba Beloki crashed two years ago. Then I’d feel like an idiot. To take a quote from Homer Simpson, “I can’t let that happen, I won’t let that happen, and I can’t let that happen.”

I pray that it rains so I won’t feel quite as dorky sitting inside on a summer day. Like the Eskimos have over 2,000 words for ‘snow,’ Seattleites have as many words for ‘rain.’ Most of them are profane. Praying for rain in Seattle is like praying for heat in Arizona. I actually have a spectacular view of the Olympic Mountains from the seat of my exercise bike at the gym which makes riding inside on beautiful days even more painful. On Tuesday I’ll draw the blinds if it’s sunny.

Labels: bikes

10:54 PM

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Tuesday, May 24, 2005

 

Mud World

This was my first trip up to Tiger Mountain so I can forgive myself for getting off on the wrong exit. I usually don’t drive myself up to this Seattle favorite mountain bike trail and as a passenger I never pay close attention. The same goes for the trail itself. I usually just hump behind friends who are familiar with the mountain. I figured that I had done Tiger Mountain enough times so I shouldn’t get lost going by myself.

There were about ten cars in the parking lot when I pulled up to the summit. That’s kind of a crowd for a week day this early in the season. I ended up passing three cyclists and one forest service truck all afternoon.

The ride begins with a pretty healthy climb up the forest service road. I locked out my front and rear suspension and started grinding up. The road is so steep in places that you can’t stand up on the pedals to crank because you will lose traction on the rear wheel. If you stop on the steeper inclines it can be a chore to regain your forward momentum so if you are going to take a breather do it on a relatively flat section. The brutal uphill section gives you lots of time to think. What I tend to think about is how much this part sucks. I think about how much easier it would have been if I had gone to a matinee.

I saw another rider about 1/8 of a mile in front of me. I didn’t feel too strong out of the gate today so I didn’t think I’d be passing anyone on this ride. This climb will never seem easy to me but I think I felt better than usual because I had done interval training the day before yesterday. I kept swearing out loud and grinding up the road that spirals around clockwise to the top of the mountain. I blew past the guy in front of me and raced up the last mile to the top.

When I got to the trailhead I lowered my seat, unlocked my shocks, put on a thermal sweatshirt and helmet, and started down the single track trail. It was a sunny day but on the trail the tree cover is so dense that it is like riding at dusk. There is not much time to be reflective on the way down because most of your thought processes involve making life-saving decisions on how to ride the course. My new bike makes the riding decisions a lot easier and I was constantly amazed at some of the obstacles I was able to negotiate with not much trouble. The trail is in pretty bad shape because of all of the rain we’ve had this past month but I was able to ride most of it at a fairly good clip. This was the first time that I didn’t have at least one wipe out coming down.

Because of the mud, most of the trail was pretty treacherous and a lot more technical than usual but there are plenty of sections where you can open up the trottle. Through the fast parts I’m laughing out loud at how much fun I’m having, but around the next switchback the trail will turn to shit and I’m picking over logs and four foot drop-offs. I passed two guys on the descent. My new bike simply outclassed what they were riding. As I get older I need all of the technical advantages I can get.

Before I began today I was planning on doing two laps of the course. The downhill was just too punishing today and by the time I was back at the bottom all I could think of was getting back to Seattle and having a nourishing pint, or a nap. My bike was so completely covered in mud that I had to stop by the self-serve carwash on the way home to make it pretty again.

Labels: bikes

9:14 AM

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Saturday, January 08, 2005

 

Cyclist's Diary

Looking at Queen Anne hill from the bottom while riding a bike you realize you are about to get a review of the harsh laws of gravity. After you reach the summit—and I chose that word very carefully—you get some idea of what it may feel like to have a heart attack. I ride up this hill all the time. It is included in every one of my training rides, so I am very familiar with every inch of this hill. When I make it to the top and ride along the mercifully flat Highland Avenue I am gasping for air—every time. Not once have I made it to the top and said to myself, “That wasn’t so bad today.” It’s always bad.

I coast two blocks down Highland Avenue until I come upon Kerry Park. It isn’t much of a park; it is more like a little shelf built into the hillside. If you have ever seen a photograph of the Seattle skyline, it was probably taken from Kerry Park. As a matter of fact, if you have ever been to Kerry Park I’m sure that you have seen at least three photographers taking more pictures of the city.

I hit the drinking fountain in the park, as I don’t carry nearly enough water on my bike. I look over my shoulder at the skyscrapers and Mount Rainier and continue along Highland. A few blocks west of Kerry Park is another small park, this one looks out across the marina at Elliot Bay to the Olympic Mountains. My bike rides are an embarrassment of riches as far as scenic views go. Automobiles drive slowly along this street and are outnumbered by dogs and their walkers by a ratio of about five to one.

I fly down the back side of Queen Anne hill practically burning my brakes before racing across to the next big hill on my ride. There are two ways to climb Magnolia hill: the direct approach is to ride up the ridiculously steep Dravus Avenue. Just when you think you have reached the top there is a cruel dog-leg in the road hiding an even steeper section. Instead of Dravus I choose the scenic route along Magnolia Boulevard. It is sort of a rollercoaster ride but none of the sections are nearly as steep as pedaling straight up Dravus.

There is a small park along Magnolia Boulevard which almost always contains a tour bus or two. I wonder how many tourists have taken pictures of me riding up the final the hill in front of the park. They probably look at their photos and wonder why I look so miserable. I know why. It's gravity. Gravity can really suck some times.

From here I corkscrew up through a residential neighborhood that leads me to the gate of Discovery Park. The bucolic setting of historic military housing and an abandoned chapel give Discovery Park the look of a rural village in the middle of the city. Discovery Park also seems to be the biggest secret in Seattle because there are never more than a handful of people wandering around the miles of trails and abandoned roads inside the park.

From here my route will change depending on how much time I have or the mood I’m in (my mood is often dictated by how much time I have). Sometimes I will cross the boat locks over to Ballard. Bike riding isn’t permitted on the locks which means I have to take off my cleated shoes and walk barefoot for a few hundred yards, dodging the scores of tourists lined up to watch as small boats and tall ships are raised and lowered to move them from Lake Union into the Puget Sound, or vice versa.

I end my rides around Seattle by toiling up the back of Queen Anne hill next to Seattle Pacific University. 3rd Avenue West isn’t the steepest hill in town but it always seems extremely long. Although only a mile long, I guess that it seems longer to me because it comes at the end of my ride. I eventually make it to the top and accelerate through the little village at the top of Queen Anne and race across to the other side where I find myself again at Kerry Park.

I love to sit in the park at dusk on a summer evening at the end of my ride when all I have to do is coast down the hill to my apartment. The light is best at this time of day and the park fills up like a movie theater before a grand opening. My heart rate begins to lower to a non life-threatening level as the sun falls between the peaks of the Olympics covered in snow. No matter how many times I have ridden this exact route I feel lucky, like someone seeing it all for the first time. If I’m lucky I’ll get to ride it again tomorrow.

Labels: bikes

1:35 AM

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Monday, January 03, 2005

 

Walking, Biking, and Driving: Part 1

I have 128,827 miles on my car as of today. It’s been about a week since I drove last which means I haven’t driven this year. I plan to document every trip I take in my car this year, every one. That isn’t likely to be a lot of trips. I once drove an entire year without exceeding the miles necessary to go over the recommended mileage for a single oil change. I’m sure that over the course of a year a lot of people use their jet skis more than I use my car. I find driving tedious and stressful.

For the most part I see our roads as rivers of death and destruction that pedestrians must cross at their peril. Even the sidewalks of our cities are cluttered with the requirements of the automobile. Parking notices, traffic signs, and parking meters crowd the already crowded walkways. Bike paths are few or nonexistent. We have one bike path in down town Seattle on 2nd Avenue which is a one way going south. To get back up north you’re on your own.

Since the advent of the automobile our cities have been built to cater to the needs of that particular inanimate object. All you ever here about is traffic flow. People flow, that’s something that is rarely discussed. We just left the century of the automobile and if we learned one thing it should be that we need another solution to personal transportation.

In 2003, the last year for which statistics were available, 38,252 Americans died in automobile related accidents and 1,925,000 people were injured. That’s like a September 11th tragedy every month of the year yet we rarely hear a public outcry against the tens of thousands of deaths caused by automobiles. We seem to think that 38,252 deaths is simply part of the transportation model we have created and that is that.

Not only do I not drive very often, when I do drive it is not in a very intense driving environment. I either drive around town where speeds rarely go above 40 mph or I drive on uncongested highways. When I do find myself driving on a crowded freeway all I can do is wonder about how people are able to do it every day. On some stretches of highway drivers are probably in graver peril than our soldiers in Iraq.

Although I must admit that I have a morbid fear of dying in an automobile accident, my main concern is the advantages of a pedestrian lifestyle. Cars take us out of contact with other humans. The other day I was in my car waiting for a family to vacate a parking spot near my apartment. The husband and wife seemed self-conscious of how slowly they were strapping down their two kids in the car seats before they could allow me my spot. I wanted to assure them that I was in no hurry, but trapped inside my steel box all I could do was smile and nod my head like an idiot.

Drivers don’t have many options for interacting with anyone else outside of their vehicle. Their communication with others is limited to honking the horn or giving someone the finger. On foot or on my bike I have the freedom to talk to other pedestrians. I can compliment the ugly pug the old woman in my neighborhood takes for a walk every evening. I can give directions to a lost tourist. In my neighborhood I often find myself explaining the intricacies of the parking situation to visitors to the Seattle Center.

There are alternatives to the way we now build cities. I came across a Dutch concept the other day that I would like to introduce to anyone who hasn’t heard of it. Woonerf translates as “living street” and refers to an urban design in which cars and pedestrians cohabit the same streets. There are no traffic signs or posted speed limits, drivers simply understand that they must share the road with pedestrians, and even children playing in the streets. Drivers voluntarily lower their speeds to around 15 kph.

These are in strictly residential areas but I have also written about the Parisian “quartiers tranquilles” which are entire neighborhoods that have excluded all but essential automobile traffic. These tranquil zones are now bustling shopping districts that have become major attractions for local residents, other Parisians, and tourists like me.

In the coming year I will think a lot more about personal transportation and how this relates to lifestyle. Most Americans don’t think much about transportation beyond what kind of car they will buy. For most Americans the automobile is their sole source of transportation. I think it’s time we all start, at the very least, to think of alternatives.

TRAFFIC SOLUTION OF THE DAY:

How about walking? Talk about a cheap solution. There are about a million ways to encourage people to walk more. Something as simple as a crosswalk may sound like a stupid thing to write about, unless you live in an urban environment and a crosswalk serves to calm drivers and reassure pedestrians. At an intersection in my neighborhood planters filled with flowers choke the traffic lanes slightly, make the crosswalk more visible over parked cars, as well as make the street look more like a place where pedestrians are welcomed—not a bad return on a couple hundred dollar investment.

Only on the internet can you get from here, to here, to this article in Wired.

How to Build a Better Intersection:
Chaos = Cooperation

1. Remove signs: The architecture of the road - not signs and signals - dictates traffic flow.
2. Install art: The height of the fountain indicates how congested the intersection is.
3. Share the spotlight: Lights illuminate not only the roadbed, but also the pedestrian areas.
4. Do it in the road: Cafés extend to the edge of the street, further emphasizing the idea of shared space.
5. See eye to eye: Right-of-way is negotiated by human interaction, rather than commonly ignored signs.
6. Eliminate curbs: Instead of a raised curb, sidewalks are denoted by texture and color.

Labels: bikes, green

11:10 PM

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Monday, November 29, 2004

 

THE “WHY CAN’T EVERYONE BE JUST LIKE ME” ESSAY

I drove my car for the first time in several weeks the other day. I didn’t go very far, the whole driving experience was brief, perhaps 8 miles total. I could barely justify putting the face-plate on my car’s mp3 player, but I did, just because I want to get my money’s worth out of that little extravagance I installed this summer when my radio died and I needed a new system to listen to baseball in the car. There is no baseball on the radio in these grim months so I quickly became bored with my new toy and turned it off. I have never really liked to listen to music while driving.

I worry about leaving my car abandoned for weeks at a time but it always starts right up and runs well after the periods of neglect. A bigger problem than anything mechanical with my car is simply remembering where I parked it the last time I drove. When I do find it I spend a minute or two removing the accumulation of club flyers and take-out menus from the windshield wipers. On this day I had to practically dig the car out of the pile of leaves and branches that fallen during the last big windstorm. A few weeks ago I had the apartment landscaper hit my vehicle with his leaf blower for a free car wash.

I had to get gas along the way which cost $2.05 a gallon—not that I give a crap how much gas costs. I wish I knew the exact date of the last time I put gas in my car but I think it must have been sometime in early September. I have never figured out my car’s gas mileage but I think a more fitting measure of fuel economy would be to calculate my weeks per gallon (WPG). Most people I know probably can’t tell you what kind of car I drive—if they are even aware that I own a car—but they can sure tell you what my bike looks like.

There is a local business that I frequent one or two times a week. It is run by an immigrant guy who is probably around my age. Every time I am at his place he is there and every time I ride by I see him working. He is open seven days a week and he works every day. The other day I saw him unloading supplies for his business out of the trunk of his brand spanking new Acura coup. Instead of the normal response of thinking “Nice car” all I could think was, “You work seven fucking days a week so you can own an expensive car? Take a day off and drive a piece of shit!” To each his own, as they say.

Maybe you wouldn’t trade your car for mine and I wouldn’t blame you. I probably wouldn’t trade my cardio-vascular system for yours, so we can call it even. I think that you are either a bike person or you aren’t. I think that it is sad that we haven’t done much in this country to convince more people to become bike people. My favorite thing about Amsterdam, what I like more than the incredible architecture, what I think is cooler than the pot bars and the red light district, is the fact that everyone rides bikes. The city is defined by bicycles.

I remember sitting out on the steps of my beautiful town home hotel late one evening in Amsterdam and watching as the late night bike commuters pedaled by. Every cyclist who passed was really cranking, these weren’t people out for a leisurely ride. Ride like that every day and you are going to be pretty fit. One of the side effects of so many people riding bikes in the Netherlands is that you quickly notice that just about every woman in that country has a great ass. Drive a car and your ass just gets bigger.

Labels: bikes

11:25 PM

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Tuesday, October 26, 2004

 

FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON WALKING, BIKING, AND LEAVING THE CAR PARKED

As I sit here looking out the window I watch someone try to parallel park an expensive German automobile. They seem rather uncomfortable with the endeavor and the solid engineering doesn’t seem to make it any easier for them. I am a great parallel parker; I’m a great parker, period. My middle name should be Urban Parker. I never pay to park--paying to park is for pansies. What I have even more talent for than parking, either parallel or otherwise, is walking and biking. I walked here this morning. It’s only about three blocks from my apartment so I don’t want a pat on the back but every once in a while I like to talk about what a great luxury it is to not have to drive a car day in, day out.

I have a great parking spot for my car in front of the restaurant by my apartment. My “Veteran for Kerry” bumper sticker has transformed my seldom-used Volkswagen into a campaign billboard. Putting a Kerry sticker on your car in Seattle is like bringing coals to Newcastle, but that’s the subject of another essay. My point is that I have been completely foot-powered for about three weeks solid. Rain or shine (This is Seattle so it has been mostly the former) I either ride a bike or walk.

My neighborhood is completely self-contained; everything I need is within about ten blocks. There are times when I would like to go out to another area of town to check out a new restaurant or club. On those occasions I either take a cab or change my plans and stay in my neighborhood. I can never seem to summon the energy these days to drive a car just to go to a restaurant. There are lots of good restaurants within walking distance without the worries of having too much wine.

A local politician here was criticized for saying that Seattle was like Mayberry, the archetypical hick town from The Andy Griffith Show. Some Seattleites think we are a chic, sophisticated city. I would split the difference and say we are a chic, sophisticated Mayberry. I don’t need a car much here in Mayberry unless I want to drive up to the country seat at Mount Pilot or wherever the non-The Andy Griffith Show equivalent of that is in Washington state.

In the October 18, 2004 issue of The New Yorker magazine David Owen states in his article entitled Green Manhattan: Everywhere should be more like New York that NY is the most environmentally friendly city in America. Most of this is due to the heavy population density and the fact that New Yorkers can actually walk places.

Every time I see a new apartment high-rise go up in Seattle I can’t help but think that a hillside east of here was spared the bulldozer’s wrath. The 150 or so new residents of that building can now walk to stores, restaurants, bars, dry cleaners, and to church I guess. Is there a church around here? What I am trying to say is that if you live in a dense urban area you don’t have to drive much which leaves more time for prayer.

Labels: bikes

1:56 AM

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Thursday, August 19, 2004

 

I Came, I whined, I quit

From the directions in my guidebook I only got lost twice on the way to the Mount Thurston/Mount Mercer Loop ride. I know the metric system is different. I have actually lived places that use it full time, places that have never heard of feet and inches. I know it’s different but I still look at meters and kilometers and think feet and miles. The good news is this loop is 34 kilometers. Kilometers are less than miles so this route was shorter than my first-glance estimate. The elevation gain is 1,220 meters, and meters are longer than feet. When you are ascending, meters are a fuck of a lot longer than feet. By psychologically misjudging feet and meters and miles and kilometers I was definitely going to lose the “Who Needs the Metric System” game.

I still had not registered 1,220 meters in my mind as I started this ride which started on a bitch of an incline. No warm up at all. No foreplay whatsoever. I had just spent the past three weekends riding mountain roads in Washington so I thought I had built up an immunity to hills. I love hills, right? This was a forest service road and not only are forest roads steeper than paved roads but they are not paved. Unpaved means you lose traction and traction isn’t something you want to lose when you are grinding up a seemingly endless and brutally steep hill. I also ride a full suspension bike so that means I lose traction. What makes the back end give when you hit bumps also gives when you apply torque to the back wheel. When you are applying torque to the back wheel for all you are worth you don’t want an ounce of this energy wasted by the suspension, but that’s the trade-off for a smooth ride down.

I don’t think about it much—perhaps for a only few minutes each time I am out by myself—but there are plenty of mountain lions and bears in these areas. I’ve seen a few bears myself while out biking. I’m sure a lot of cougars have seen me. I wasn’t too worried about being attacked on this ride because I figured that no right-minded wild animal would eat anything as old, out of breath, and as foul-mouthed as the guy on my bike today.

This road was so steep that not only was it over-taxing my cardio-vascular system, I think I spit up some blood. The road was so steep in parts that if you stopped, you had a hard time getting enough traction to get going again. And it kept going up. And then I did something I’ve never, ever done before. I got off my bike and walked for a while. I did something I haven’t done many times; for lack of a better word I ‘bonked.’ I was done, out of gas. I looked back and remembered that all I had to eat all day was one puny little taco at a taqueria somewhere back in Washington. Under-eating isn’t usually one of my vices, believe me.

Bonked or not, going downhill is always a breeze. Before leaving I meant to replace my brake pads but the shop by my house was closed on Monday, so old clapped-out brake pads would have to do it. Bombing down a rough road like this is what makes riding a full suspension bike worth the effort on the climbs. Even a chicken-shit like me can get fairly reckless on descents when every hole you hit is sucked up like a vacuum by your shocks.

One thing that kept me going—if you can call walking your bike like an old hag ‘going’—was that I knew that I was going to go swimming in the Chilliwack River when I was done for the day. If you haven’t taken a dip in a mountain river lately, take my word for it; it’s really, really COLD. You can also take my word on this: If you want to feel about as good as you possibly can feel, try humping up some lung-busting steep mountain roads on a hot August day and then go swimming in the river you’ve been listening to all afternoon. If you can do this once in your life then consider yourself a lucky person.

Labels: bikes

4:41 PM

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