SUBSCRIBE TO THE I.C. RSS 2.0 FEED.     CONTACT THE INDUSTRIALIZED CYCLIST: ROBERT AT INDUSTRIALIZEDCYCLIST DOT COM. CHECK OUT SOME VIGOROUSLY UTILIZED TOOLS-OF-THE-TRADE IN THIS  PHOTO SPREAD OF DENVER MESSENGER BIKES. WE GOTS INFORMATIONS: BICYCLING STUDIES, SURVEYS, AND STATISTICS ON THE I.C. RESEARCH PAGE. MORE THAN YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW, AND LESS. NEW! THE I.C. ENERGY PAGE. STILL IN THE DEVELOPMENT STAGES. MY 2007 WEBLOG ENTRIES ON FALCON.COM HERE. MOOSE, MOUNTAINS, MUNIS AND MORE.

Match the photos above with the best choice from the different surfaces listed below. Some photos may be described by two or more on the list but there will be only one best match for each. 1. PCC 2. Hotel sidewalk 3. Plate 4. Patch 5. Light rail 6. Crosswalk 7. Asphalt cement concrete 8. Joint 9. Map crazing 10. Plaza 11. Grate 12. Alley

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I'll go ahead and nominate this one. Like many young men of Denver, Louis Riethmann loves to ride bikes. When his cousin came to town from Indianapolis, Louis took him out daily on long rides in the country to enjoy the Colorado springtime. He found that his cousin was a pretty fast rider on his borrowed machine, and Louis was often straining to keep up. One day, coming back from a ride, the two were approaching a train crossing, and of course there was a train approaching. Cousin is up the road and makes the crossing easily. Louis is lagging but decides to go for it, even though his cousin is stopped on the other side of the tracks waving him off like a third base coach. As many of you know, when riding a fixed wheel bike without handbrakes as Louis was that day, such a commitment is more, how you say, serious than it would be on a freewheel bike with handbrakes. Here's what happened next ... I should mention that this was 1897. Mr. Riethmann admits that he heard the cry of warning, but did not heed it. He is something of a rider himself, and he did not propose just at that time to be outstripped by a visitor whose health was alleged to be somewhat impaired. Instead of waiting for the train to pass he took an extra hump, threw all his leg power into the pedals and figured on crossing the track with a Hachenberger spurt that would take any conceit out of his cousin. [Typical.] Then came the clash. The passenger was making for Denver at the rate of thirty miles an hour, and just as Mr. Riethmann reached the crossing the train struck him. Nobody knows just what happened then. The engineer of the train had his head out of the window as usual and saw the smash. The engine was instantly reversed and the train stopped as quickly as possible, but not until after it had gone about a hundred feet. When the engineer and fireman leaped from the cab their first look was under the engine wheels, which they expected to find covered with blood and mangled remains of the reckless rider. As they did not find their man under the engine they started back looking under the other cars of the train, but failed to find any hands or feet hanging out any place on detached duty. As yet neither of the men had thought to look on the pilot of the engine. Mr. Philbeck had been a horrified witness of the accident, however, and had expected to see his cousin killed. Not seeing him fall, he kept watch of the engine and was the first to observe the rear wheel of the bicycle sticking over the pilot and making a million revolutions, more or less, a second. He communicated his information to the engineer and fireman, and the three men made a rush for the engine. There was Riethmann lying on the bumper above the pilot, grasping the flagstaff with one hand and holding the prized wheel from falling under the engine. Even the discovery of the man on the pilot did not relieve the fears of the engineer, who supposed that Riethmann had been killed and that the wheel was held by a hand cold in death. He was too badly excited to speak, but his fears were soon relieved. Riethmann took in the situation at a glance and turning to the engineer, said, good naturedly and as naturally as possible: "Hello! Can I ride into town with you?" Mr. Riethmann assured his friends that he was not hurt in the least, and insisted upon giving his first attention to an examination of his wheel, which was also found to have escaped injury. He said that he really had no very clear idea of what had happened. He had made a spurt to cross the track ahead of the engine and realized when too late that a collision could not be avoided. He had felt no crash, but had been apparently lifted up and thrown on the bumper above the pilot. He had caught his wheel by the saddle and had grasped the flagstaff of the engine without knowing how. It was all over in a second and he felt the engine slowing up rapidly and knew that he was all right, although he thought he could have maintained his position until Denver was reached without any serious inconvenience. The two wheelmen were taken aboard the train and brought to the city, and rode home from the depot. Yesterday Mr. Riethmann was around as well as ever, barring a slightly bruised hip and the loss of a generous patch of cuticle from his right knee. From the Denver News, reprinted in the Castle Rock Journal, May 7, 1897. A 'pilot' is the large fan-like device on the front of the locomotive, commonly known as a 'cow-catcher.' As for 'Hachenberger spurt,' that refers to the speed of the dominant racer in Colorado at that time. Typical that the first thing Riethmann wants to do after eating train is check his bike for damage. Typical wheelman. Let's hope he learned his lesson.

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		Reid photos.

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'Dirtrider' wondered: "Where are y'all riding in those pictures that looks like some kind of post-apocalyptic warzone or third level of Hell?" That's the Burn Area, as we call it, in the Pike National Forest, caused by one of three huge wildland fire events that ravaged the forest in the past ten years or so. The Buffalo Creek Fire I believe was started by a group of Boy Scouts failing to extinguish their campfire in the late '90s. Dousing a campfire with finality is trickier than many people realize. Far from hellish, the Burn Area is green and peaceful, blooming with wildflowers and wild trails.   Pat from Denver is exasperated to be called a 'fakenger' just because he might use a messenger bag, etc. and wonders if there's any way to avoid giving the ever-decreasing number of real messengers a bad name while still using some of the equipment commonly associated with messengers. I'm not too worried about you giving anybody a bad name, Pat, but I certainly appreciate the concern. Many of the messenger-look-alikes I see out there don't seem to care a bit what kind of psychological destruction they leave in their S-shaped wakes. I would say to anybody out there getting around via bicycle, fakenger or otherwise -- just ride smooth. When in doubt, ride smooth. Stop with the herky-jerky madness. Cease the crazy weaving, the head-bobbing, the furious thrashing, the pothole-bashing, and the wacky swerving. Economy of movement. Relaxation of all your muscles except those needed for propelling the bike. Relaxation is key. Head up, eyes forward. Think ahead. Breathe in, breathe out, and roll smooth. Every day there are fifty more hipsters downtown in archetypal messenger get-ups of the 1990s, swerving around illogically. There is no sex in their swerving. Meanwhile, the type of riding that real veteran messengers consider ideal -- ghostly quiet, patient, swift and silky smooth -- is a lost art. Smooth riding is good riding, efficient and comfortable. Smooth riding is also safe(r) riding. Besides that, smooth riding looks good. Every city cyclist is riding in front of an audience, like it or not. Give 'em something to admire. Make it look good, make it look easy. Ride smooth and build in your audience respect and confidence in you, people who might accidentally look like you and bicycling in general. Ride smooth and bring glory to the human race.

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No, the voice of experience doesn't always tell us what we want to hear. The ones who have been there and done that come back and say it's not all biscuits and sweet-smelling lotions up there. Today the P-I C gets serious: ... read more ...

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NOTE: The following is a guest message from someone snappily named the Post-Industrialized Cyclist. I asked the P-I C to give all the new commuters out there -- and I think there are a lot more of you this year -- some good tips, because I'm not really tuned in to the commuter lifestyle, and the P-I C is the most experienced and dedicated commuter I've ever known. And now is the time when all the commuters come out with their dusty bicycles and fill up the bike racks. So listen good, new commuters. This is part one of two. Today, route-finding. ... read more ...

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The "Tom" Eck remedy for keeping the chain free from grit and dirt throughout the season is very simple. His idea, and he always uses it with Johnson's wheels, is to make [sic] the chain from the wheel and give it a good scrubbing with benzine or some similar fluid. After the chain has been dried thoroughly, it is inserted in boiling tallow and allowed to remain several minutes, when it is taken and dropped heavily on the floor to cleanse it. ... ... read more ...

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David from Pennsylvania, where the American oil boom started about 150 years ago, commented: "I think people are just very confused when they see that demand within the United States is actually down, but the price of gasoline continues to rise. It looks like price fixing." Compared to the various Senators and CNBC anchors who have been dominating the discussion of the energy issue since the price of oil started to climb like Danielson, I start to sound like somebody who might actually know something about oil. That's sad. Tons of bad information out there. Lots of wild fantasies. People being gullible as can be. Professional spinners going like tops, trying to capitalize on that gullibility. Of course such a PR blitz is to be expected as there is so much at stake, and oil companies have an unlimited supply of cash with which to buy spinning tops. ... read more ...

 

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In response to CROOKED TALK ON ENERGY Theresa R. asked: "Isn't it obvious that pumping more of our own oil and thus producing more supply will bring down the price of oil?" Theresa, thanks for reading. You are one of my six loyal readers. The answer to your question is: No. There are some obvious things here but that is not one of them. Developing new fields in the US -- anywhere -- will exert downward pressure on the price of oil and gasoline. But increasing domestic production has virtually no chance of actually causing the price of oil to drop, because the effect of domestic drilling will be small in comparison to the mountain of factors that are causing the price to rise.. ... read more ...

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Photos by R. Hurst, C. Hurst, R. Reid

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Typical mountain bikes these days have morphed into something very different than what most folks rode 15 years ago. Now they're built primarily for going fast downhill, and jumping off of things. That's great fun -- highly evolved for some applications -- but these bikes don't do their riders many favors when pointed uphill or when carving smooth flat turns. Since my favorite trail rides contain quite a bit of that, my favorite bike is built to capitalize on it: a lightweight steel bike with no suspension other than a pair of fat tires, a noticeably supple steel fork, and a couple knee and elbow joints. Maximized for climbing and twisting on Pikes Peak granite singletrack. ... read more ...

 

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Out on a mountain bike ride, my friend and I were just commenting on the fact that we'd seen just about every type of animal there is to see in Colorado, including moose, which don't even belong here in a strict ecological sense (they were introduced)[1], but neither of us had ever laid eyes on a puma, even though their 'sign' was all over the place. Just then we looked down and, right on cue, noticed a deer arm next to the road. ... read more ...

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A lot of interesting things come wafting in through the open window here at I.C. headquarters. Among them, the sound of trains bashing together and blowing their tremendous air horns in the yard just a mile or so away. In the age of steam locomotives a conductor could apply some personal style to those whistle blasts. Woot wooo-ee-ooot! Operators of modern locomotives have a button on a console. They're limited to long horn blasts or short. With variations on this theme today's conductors communicate in surprisingly nuanced signals broadcast at hellacious volume -- government researchers found locomotive horns are louder inside the homes in the vicinity of the train yards than within the sound-proofed cabs of the locomotives themselves. Two long horn blasts in a row -- so common it must be some kind of acknowledgment, not unlike the courier's ten-four. Two longs, a short, and a long: approaching an intersection. A series of short sharp ones. You hear this occasionally, some kind of warning, trouble. Hobos on the track. But that's not what I came here to talk about tonight. I'm here to talk about something else that has been known to barge through the window here, the noxious cloud from Denver's Suncor oil refinery. ... read more ...

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One of the silliest arguments in the bike universe -- bike lanes, pro or con -- has flared up again. As is typical for this day and age, the current flare-up involves Portland, Oregon, the poster child among cities for implementation of bike lanes and the favorite target of facilities-averse 'vehicular cyclists.' Last fall two Portland riders were crushed by right-turning trucks. Both riders had been positioned in Portland's ubiquitous bike lanes before the incidents. People who spend a lot of time and energy hating bike lanes immediately incorporated the tragedies into their diatribes. Deaths that were already relatively high-profile locally-- in most other cities the victims would have passed without much notice at all, while in Portland their deaths were the focus of cyclists and non-cyclists alike -- became fodder for rabid anti-facilities refuseniks thousands of miles away. Such silliness has recently been pushed to a new level by John Schubert in his column in Adventure Cyclist magazine.Adventure Cyclist is not available on-line, but you can download the article by visiting BikePortland's commentary about it. In a column titled "Portland's Agony," Schubert's main thrust is given in the subtitle: "Two cyclists died as a result of poorly-designed traffic control devices." In other words, blame the bike lanes. In this view, all the problems of bicycling traffic safety can be solved with paint thinner. ... read more ...

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Today oil pops up near $120/barrel -- floating on a strike and pipeline shutdown in Scotland, rampaging rebels in Nigeria, saber-rattling over Iran, an influx of novice traders into the market, a sinking dollar and, most important, the realization that if supply is struggling to match demand today things could get really nutty when production actually begins to fall off noticeably in the not distant future. Gas prices are lagging months behind the oil spike, but even so have become the most important issue to Americans, even ahead of the war in Iraq. Indeed, all three of the remaining candidates have seized on the issue of gas prices in their attempts to grab voter attention. Unfortunately, none is making any sense whatsoever. ... read more ...

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What has the city council in your town been up to? Maybe you don't want to know. State and municipal traffic laws are essentially arbitrary creations at the mercy of wacky local legislators, but they tend to be based on a generic template called the Uniform Vehicle Code. As such there is a great deal of consistency in traffic laws from state to state or city to city. Boring. Thankfully, as variety is the garlic powder of life, every state or city code has a few zingers that set it apart from the laws elsewhere. I've been gathering links (and some pdf's) to municipal and state codes around the country for the RESEARCH PAGE and was reminded of some interesting ordinances, some perhaps that should not be un-buried. ... read more ...

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