Why are you biking?

At my current part-time job as a case worker, my co-workers are having a hard time understanding why it is that I bike to work. I am constantly entertained by the commentary... so I thought I would share some of the dialogue...quotes are from co-workers, italics are my sarcastic thoughts, and all others are my actual responses.

" Did you ride that here?? "
Haha. Nope. I carried it.

" Who's bike is this?"
Me: Mine.
" Oh, how cute. "
Yep. That's what I was going for. I want to make a statement, and I want that statement to be "Cute!"

" Do you have a ride?"
Me: Yes, I ride my bike.
" Well, do you want a REAL ride?"
Me: No, I am fine with my fake ride.
- She had to laugh at this because she realized how ridiculous it sounded.

" Its so cold, how are you biking?"
Me: With a coat, hat, and gloves
" Well, I still don't know how you do it."
First, I sit on the bike, then I use my feet to push the bike forward, and then I pedal. It gets tricky, because I also have to steer AND brake.

" Why don't you just buy a car?"
Me: Why don't you just ride a bike?
" Haha, but seriously, why don't you buy a car."

The answer to this last question is two-fold.
1. My attempt at being car-free would be pretty much over.
2. I can't afford to buy and maintain a car.

Despite the constant questioning of my bike riding, this position has made it much easier to be car-free because I only live about 1.5 miles from my office. The biggest challenges are finding clothes to wear that are work AND biking appropriate, dealing with the rain, and getting off work late at night (not the best neighborhood). I carpool when necessary, especially since I hurt my knee, but I try to bike when possible. Here's to the constant struggle to live car-free...

Biking from A to Z

On my most recent adventure, I headed to Phoenix, AZ with 28,000 others for the Greenbuild Conference and Expo. As soon I arrived, I was greeted by a plethora of public transporation options. I hopped onto an airport shuttle and caught the light rail, which was easier than I expected. With ticket in hand (unecessary I later realized), I settled in with my pack and watched as the warm golden and brassy colors of the desert blurred past, with metal roofs, and cactii providing breaks in the dusty landscape. Soon I found myself in the heart of Phoenix, a city that has blossumed in the sun and slowly crept further out into the hills, sprawling like a weed.

The conference was a blur of classes, workshops, and a variety of green building products. I learned a few new things and met new people, but I have to admit, the conference was not the best part of the trip. I had chosen to stay at the local hostel instead of one of the hotels next to the convention center. It was a cute house nestled on the outskirts of the city in a mixed use neighborhood that had been taken over by young couples and artists. On my walk home one night I noticed a sign for vegan donuts that caught my eye and I before I knew it, I was standing on the front porch of Derrick Pancheco talking about his biking store/shop/co-op called Hood Ride. Located inside of a house, surrounded by a bike wheel fence, the space came complete with a bike shop and ramps out back. Check out the pics below:

When I returned home that night, I settled in and told some of my new hostel mates about my discovery. As it turns out, I was not the only avid biker present. Also crashing at the hostel was Jason Williams originally from Baltimore. He was on a cross country ride from Atlanta to San Diego on his single speed road bike. The idea for the trip had been one he had considered before, but when he realized his lease was ending on September 30th and he had no intentions of going back the life of an accountant to pay bills, he hit the road. After a bike wreck, discovering the mysterious hills of Alabama, and earning a serious tan he managed to get in the grove. He spends his days thinking about his friends, missing the coffee from San Francisco Coffee Roasters in Atlanta, and eating fluff & nutter sandwiches. When I asked him for some advice for other bikers he said "Don't do this" and laughed and then told me that you have to be able to handle it physically but more important is the mental aspect of being in your own head everyday. He obviously is able to handle the physical part with his peak days coming in at 134 miles. I just checked his blog and it sounds like he has made it the whole way! Right on :-)And finally, on the last night, I ended up at a street festival that included a shopping cart float parade, a drum line, a night bike ride, and street wide dance party. Needless to say, I had a good time.

Halloween Scare

As my scarce blog posts indicate, life has been pretty busy lately. I have been working hard to adjust to my second job and apparent lack of free time. So when my mom asked me if she could come in town for Halloween weekend I looked forward to having an excuse to take some time off to hang out with family. When she arrived, she had brought a surprise early birthday present! A new bike!

We pulled it out of the car, but alas, we had no time to test ride because as soon as she arrived she had to come to work with me then joined me on a babysitting adventure, went with me to turn in a job application, took me shopping and for her birthday we spent an hour playing with clay on a wheel at Spark studios. Finally on Friday night we got all decked out for the monthly Midnight Mystery Ride (she was a gypsy and I was cookie monster) and I got to take my maiden voyage on my new (used) custom Cannondale road bike. You can check out a few sweet pics below:

Mom the gypsy and me as cookie monster.

A few of the riders including "Elliot" w/ET on the right :-)
Mom holding my old bike on the left and my new bike on the right

The ride was going gloriously… the weather was perfect, my mom was socializing with my friends, and there was a spark of excitement in the air. Bystanders cheered us on, gave us high fives, and honked their horns. Then, just as the ride was winding down, we passed by a group of drunken guys, one of which was standing in the street. As I approached him, he put up his hand for a high-five and I went for it. Before I knew it, he had grabbed a hold of my hand and I was thrown off of my bike. I heard him curse an apology before he faded into the crowd. I landed on my left side, sliding with my bike. Of course, the first time I fall of my bike, my mom is there to see it.

I had hit my elbow, head, hip, and both knees. I was not wearing a helmet but luckily I went down sideways and did not get knocked out. The funny part was that my guy friends adamantly wanted to know which guy had done it and were irritatedly pacing back and forth …dressed as a pregnant man and max from where the wild things are :-). But the last thing I wanted was for a fight to break out so I asked them to just keep going. My mom and I broke off from the group and went home to inventory and treat my injuries. And of course, I wanted to make sure my bike was okay ;-).

I got lucky that I did not break or tear anything… my biggest injury was a contusion on my right knee which is currently making it hard for me to walk, but I got an okay from the doctor. Looking back, I obviously should have been wearing a helmet, especially on an unfamiliar bike. And of course, even though I had done it three or four times already that night, I should not have of high fived that guy because he was waaaay too wobbly to be trusted and I was definitely too unsure on my new ride. Lesson learned. My punishment is that I cannot ride for at least a week and will not be able to participate in the Pedal Art Parade this weekend, but I consider myself very luck to walk away from this.

Stolen Bike

Dear borrower of my bike,

You left in such a hurry that I was unable to introduce myself last week! I am sure you had could reason to kick down my garden door in the process of trying to steal, oops, I meant “borrow” my mountain bike. I guess you had trouble finding the spare key I leave out for friends that need to use any of my things…I guess I shouldn’t hide it so well! It was very thoughtful of you to leave one bike behind for me, but I guess riding away with both bikes would have been a challenge.

Since you did not leave a note, I was forced to assume that my beloved blue vehicle was stolen and had to file a police report. But alas! I did not have my bike registered, so you are probably safe from the long arm of the law. You may want to peel off the stickers that denote my interest in activism and local non-profits, because that may be a red flag to others that it does in fact belong to me. If someone I know should happen to see you, I would brace yourself for a solid body check off the bike, because they may not realize that you are in fact just taking it out for a joy-ride.

While you are out on the town riding my 2006 Diamondback Outlook, light blue with a ladies sloping top tube, please make sure to ring my prized clear jelly-bell with enthusiasm! If you should find yourself getting bored of using my trusty steed, please feel free to give me a call at work and I will be happy to pick it up from you: (843) 768-0998. If you are the shy type and want to be more discrete, you can always drop it back by my house, since you already know where I live!

If you decide that you want to borrow it on a long term basis, then I might start harboring some negative feelings about this transaction and be forced to hunt you down. Although the police officer handling the file said that you were probably going to be hard to find, I ride all over town and know plenty of fellow bikers that would be more than happy tackle you off the two-wheels you so abrasively stole. But again, I don’t want to assume the worst, my friend!

Your gracious neighborhood bike lender,

Nikki

Intermodal

After having caught a lot of negative feedback from local residents, CARTA has been making headlines lately in a good way. Their newest adventure is the proposed North Charleston Regional Intermodal Center which will expand existing services and could potentially serve as a one stop shop for Amtrak, Greyhound, local buses, and even light rail! If you have thoughts on this project, CARTA will be hosting a public information meeting regarding the proposed Center at the North Charleston City Hall, 3rd Floor Buist Room, 2500 City Hall Lane, N. Charleston, SC on Thursday, 10/08/09 from 6PM to 8PM. My first suggestion... pick a sexier name.

For a full article click HERE.

In other bus news...those of you that have not heard, CARTA, Charlestons Bus company, has started a trial line from Downtown to Folly Beach. Click HERE for the map. For now, the route is only runs on weekends and will be ending in two weeks on the 18th.

And last but definitely not least- one bus service that I have left out of my blog is the Tri-County Link. This bus runs to all of the places that are beyond the reach of the CARTA system in Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester Counties. I have never used this system, but I think it might be time to try and ride it to work!

http://www.ridetricountylink.com/index.html

Red Light PSA

World Car-free Day

Bike + Beer

What could be better than bikes? Bikes and Beers? Only if they are gluten free beers for me :-) This picture above is from Amsterdam... if you want something on our continent, just check out this one in Portland by clicking HERE.

the new kids.

This one is for all of the College Freshmen out there…

Welcome to Charleston. I am glad that you have chosen to join my alma mater in your pursuit for higher education. Since you are new here, I figured I would share a few things to help make your four years easier on us both.

My first piece of advice: Get a bike. Yes, there is a good chance that you grew up in the suburbs where you had to have that gas guzzling four wheeled vehicle to get you from your isolated neighborhoods and to the closest amenities, but now that you are here, you can get almost everywhere with a bike. You can contact the Holy City Bike Co-op and get yourself a good used one: http://holycitybikecoop.org/. (While you are at it, check out there events and meetings as well...because biking it fun!!)

This pic is from our last Midnight Mystery Ride...

Now that you have a bike, you should probably know the SC Bike laws: http://www.mybikelaw.com/ Please do me a favor and follow the traffic laws, which include NOT riding the wrong way up St. Phillip, staying off the sidewalks, and having head/tail lights on your bike at night. If you are breaking these rules, you will lose your rights as a biker and you will also lose some of my respect. And I will use this on you:

Yes, that is an air-horn for your bike that holds 30 blasts which can be recharged with a bike pump AND you can hear it from inside a car. For those of you out there that want one...

http://www.deltacycle.com/product.php?g=1

So let’s say you need to venture off the peninsula to run errands that are not bike-worthy? Well that brings me to my second little gem….Luckily for you, we have a bus system here called CARTA. First you need to go to card services and pick up a bus pass and then you should check out the RideCarta.com website to find out the routes, times, and other info. If the front rack scares you, just watch this sweet bike rack rap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoFFg0W9UME

But Nikki, you say, what about visiting my parents? Not to worry. There are so many options at your disposal. First, there is the old fashion ride share. The best way to go is with someone that you know, but otherwise check out Craiglist or Ridester Or even better, start a ride share program at the college!!

Next up, the train and finally, the good old fashion bus: http://www.greyhound.com/home/

Now that I have gotten you from A to B, check out this website for just about everything else green in Charleston: http://www.gogreencharleston.org/

I hope this helps you all make the most of Charleston with the least amount of impact :-)

And after all of that... I just found this blog post: http://carfreeamerica.org/2009/02/28/steves-car-free-journey-february-2009/

Life is....

"Life is like riding a bicycle - in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving."
~Albert Einstein

With my traveling adventures behind me and epic amounts of debt ahead of me, I have officially come back to reality and it is not as peachy as I had hoped. With the decrease in jobs offers and an increase in student loans, I had to make some decisions quick. Do I stay in Charleston and fight for a job or do I move somewhere else and do the same? Should I return to food and beverage to make some extra money or continue to be over worked and underpaid? In the end I did not have choose because my tendency to chat up strangers resulted in a job offer.

When I received the position requirements, it said that I must have "reliable transportation." I considered the fact that the organization most likely assumed that this meant a car, but I figured that I could just blow them away at my interview and then casually mention that my idea of transportation was a bike. This little detail has managed to become a big one for so many people. One of the first questions people ask me when I mention that I am car-free is "Well... how do you get to work?"

So when the time came for my interview, I hopped on my trusty Specialized steed, dressed in business bike-friendly casual (thankfully leggings are in style right now) and made my way down King Street for my meeting. Had I been in a car I probably would have missed the building and been late but instead I was early enough to have a little cool down period pre-interview. The meeting was going fantastic, so I decided to drop my little transportation bomb and see what happened when the smoke cleared. Here is how it went:

Me: "I saw on the requirements that I would need reliable transportation. I just want to let you know that I do not own a car, but instead I bike everywhere."
Her: "Well, is it reliable?"
Me: "Yes, I have never missed a meeting, even when I lived in West Ashley."
Her: "Then I don't see any problem."

And without hesitation she moved to the next question. And yes, I got the job.

For all those people that told me not owning a vehicle would stop me from being able to get a job, well, I just burst your bubble.

To celebrate my new job (yes, now I have two jobs) here are two fun bike things:

Really, this whole website is fantastic: http://www.instructables.com/id/Bikes/

Here is a video sent to me by Mr. Kelley:

Going the distance

As mentioned in my previous post, I am working my way across the US with my friend Geoff and we are now in Yellowstone National Park. There really are not words to describe how unbelievable every inch of the park is, so I will not even begin to try. Even pictures cannot capture the captivating and often bizarre formations within the borders of this place. Unfortunately we have only had two days to see it all which means we did almost all of it by car (which does not do it justice). Along the way, I caught myself passing cyclists with a longing in my eye, wishing I could join them as they took in the scenery on two wheels. I had originally hoped to bike across the country this summer but the amount of planning, training, and money required were just too much to mix into my thesis, graduation, conference agenda. Since then I have met a number of people that have managed to get themselves together and make the journey. I happen to meet three such people biking through Yellowstone.


When I stopped these guys, I had a feeling that they would have a story because of all of their gear... little did I know they were on a serious cross country journey for the environment. After passing out tangerines and cookies, Dave, Steve, and Nick (if I remember correctly) told me about their trip. Their goal is to bike from Florida to Washington while sharing their knowledge about the environment and inspiring people to get involved. Over the last two months and 9 days, they have traveled almost 3,000 miles.

When I asked for advice on biking they said "Get a good pair of sunglasses" and "You don't have to pay to camp". As far as gear, they had all the basics of traveling like extra tires, tubes, water and tents but also some extras like a hatchet, machete, and superhero... all obvious necessities when on the open road. Just talking to them makes me want to start training to do some road trips- maybe not across the United States quite yet :-) Check out their blog for the details: http://bikingforbalance.org/

On the road...

I have to apologize because my blog seems to have fallen by the wayside while I am exploring the US. Not to fear! But pictures have been taken all along and I have found that no matter where you go, bikes are there :-) Since there is little time for me to write out all of my thoughts about transportation, traveling, and biking I will just tell a story with pictures. The take away message is that biking is back now more than ever so it time for planners to make room for these two wheel travelers in every city, state, and country...

A dedicated bike lane that even gets some sign love in Hawaii!

Hawaii Bike Lanes

Backpacking Biker in Kona, Hawaii

Safety First for the Presidents while biking!

Scenic Highways like this would be ideal for a cross country bike trip!

Minneapolis Greenway

Greenway Map, Minneapolis

(I asked them to look bikery, yes that's a word.)

My trip is not even half way through... so look forward to more in the next two weeks :-)

"Holy Spokes"

It appears as though biking culture is becoming a hot topic in Charleston... so much so that the Post and Courier can't get enough of the two wheeled action. The recent stories include: the Suicide King Alleycat race, the Charleston Chic Ride, and sizable spread about the Holy City Bike Co-op in the Preview.

It seems that where ever you go, there are people on bikes these days. I was recently heading riding the bus up to the airport when I spotted these two bikers, trailers in tow, making their way through North Charleston. (yes, these are low quality phone pics).

As far as biking outside of Charleston, I just got back from a trip up to Blowing Rock, NC for the fourth of July and was pleasantly surprised with the amount of bikers on the road. Here are the three that I caught on my phone:

Then after a full weekend of watching bikers, I ended up back at the airport, waiting for the bus. It struck me as ridiculous that the bus stop at the airport is marked by a tiny sign all the way at the end of the terminal exit with no bench, no cover, and a solid 50 feet from all other ground transportation. The only reason I knew it was there and what time the bus came was because I looked it up ahead of time. When I got on the bus (after being soaked in the rain waiting), I made a comment to the bus driver who proceeded to explained to me that the airport gets a cut of the profit from all of the vans and taxis that do pick ups there, so they are not exactly hanging banners about the $1.50 bus rides into town. From that point on, the driver and I discussed the politics of public transportation and how Charleston is just not planned and developed like a city. When I started talking about programs and ideas from other cities, she just laughed and told me I needed to get over the idea that Charleston will ever run like "a city". All of the same ideas and changes that I have hoped to see in the bus routes are the same ones suggested by drivers, riders, and citizens that have been ignored for years. That being said, I am still going to push the airport to move one of the dozens of benches from the front over to the bus stop because that is one battle I stand a chance of winning.

AND one last thing. For those of you that are interested in supporting bikers that are riding to make a difference, check out my friends website who is riding 165 miles to raise funds to help educate about HIV/AIDS (she is number 113) : https://www.thesmartride.org/3/pledge/

Click HERE for more pics of the Midnight Mystery Ride!

Bikes=Fun

You there... the one with the bike. You currently have in your possession a vehicle that will gain you access to adventures, new friends, exercise, and a healthier planet. If you don't believe me, then check out the pictures below that prove it.

Suicide King Alleycat

Trick Competition (longest skid, above).

Cycle Chic Ride


For those of you that did not make it out to these events... no worries! There are more to come. Tonight there will be a Midnight Mystery Ride starting at the Recovery Room (meet at 11pm, ride out at 12pm) and Sunday, July 5th is the Tour de Taco will leave from Hampton Park at 6:30 and make round to Santi's, Taco Boy, Juanita's and Yo Burrito in a random order.

This week brings a random assortment of products and videos to entertain you:

Here are some things made from recycled bike parts:

Creative clothing to help make the commute easier:

Here is a product that I want so I can bring Sadie with me on bike safely:

Here is a new type of bike that would make my life easier:

For those of you that couldn't make it to the screening of VEER, here is a peek at the documentary:

And finally, thanks to my friend Joel, a sweet link to tall bikes rocking out on ramps:

http://freecaster.tv/bmx/1007514/sheas-big-bike-session?page=2