Bicycle Diaries

Walter Cronkite, biker

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:06:00 +0000

1916-2009

As a boy, he used his bike as a drugstore delivery boy and enjoyed

[t]he usual boyhood/early teen activities...: the Boy Scouts and DeMolay (the junior Masonic order), roller hockey and bicycle polo (except on those hot summer days when our wheels sunk in the goo of Houston's Tarvia streets)...

That got me thinking about Pimp My Mallet, the website for Oxford University bike polo enthusiasts. There's also the article on North American bike polo by Rhiannon Coppin. She's a reporter for The Tyee who played a match in VC/BC (Vancouver) in 2006. Her article, Polo Goes Populist, describes the sport and a bit of its history.

Vancouver-based chopper-cycle builder, bicycle aficionado, and artist RedSara invited this writer to a weekly 11 a.m. bicycle polo match, held every Sunday in good weather on the gravel turf at Vancouver ’s Britannia Community Centre.

Played three or four players per side, cyclists – or rather members of Vancouver ’s cycling community and repair centres – mount their steeds and proceed to whack a street-hockey ball across the field and between one of two hastily-constructed upright goal posts.

The mallets are homemade, constructed from either sawed-off golf clubs or ski poles with hard-plastic tubing or cutting-board cut-outs pinned and duct-taped to the ends. Sometimes frustrating, always challenging, often fun, players finished two games to ten points before they wrapped up another Sunday on the pitch.

There used to be the International Bicycle Polo Federation based in Jaipur, India and Richland, WA. It hosted seven world championships, the last in 2004. Although India dominated most the USA finally won the 7th in VC/BC. Member countries also include Canada, France, Germany, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the UK.

Over at the Pimp My Mallet blog, which hasn't been updated in a while, there's a link Mad Bike Polo. It's got a YouTube vid of the 2006 Midwest Bike Polo Championships held in Madison, WI. Chicago hosted it the next year.

Ode to cigarettes redux

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:01:00 +0000

if only he
had a bike

Fixie prix & elegant chix

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:12:00 +0000

at least
they roll!

Something weird is going on with the Vélotariat. The well-trod debates over bike lanes, critical mass etiquette, and proper frame-sizing have given way to a growing rancor towards bike fashions. I'm not talking here about whether you should cover your ride with guerrilla stickers or colorful electrical tape. Rather there's been a fascinating reaction to the clothes in which folks choose to roll. Over at Manolith, a UK-based men's lifestyle site, Yosef Solomon posted 13 Reasons Why the Fixies Fad Should End Now! The usual criticisms of obnoxious attitudes and dicey braking practices take a backseat to fashion posers. As Yusef states:

It seems to be a sad fact that every “underground” fashion scene will inevitably be taken over by pretentious wannabes. The most recent victim of this trend is that of the once-edgy bike messengers. Actual bike messengers are now faced with the decision to either just suck it up and be confused with mobs of posers, or simply change careers ... Since the whole Fixed Gear trend has finally been maxed out on douche, we thought it fitting to call this fad out for what it is.

Meanwhile critics are setting their sights on the fixie prix's more well-heeled colleagues. The Pipeline, for example, recently took aim at The Sartorialist. Created by Scott Schuman, this blog documents high-end street fashionistas in New York, Milan, and Paris. Many of the posts show incredibly elegant chics and gents. In contrast to Manolith, Pipeline seems particularly cranked up over Schuman's choice of purportedly upper middle-class subjects. It even provides a helpful flowchart explaining how you can get Shot by Scot. If you're a man, it helps to be old, rich and European. If you're a woman, be model pretty or wear a quirky hat. Either way a vintage bike will pretty much guarantee you a spot. Slate's Julia Turner, who first mentioned this critique, defends Scott even though ...

Gathered together, his subjects often seem rich and pampered, too many fashionistas wearing the same expensive and unwieldy shoes.

She can't help loving his work because his focus on facial expressions goes behind the togs. Even though his subjects form a limited spectrum, his photos expose joy, wit, and candor. She feels as if she's met these folks before.

If I was a bicycle seat...

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:08:00 +0000

life could be
oh so sweet

When I was a little boy
My momma, she said to me
Son, When you get big grow up
What you wanna be
I said to my momma
Don't wanna be no doctorman
A politician, a movie star
All those things I can
There's one job I'd like to have,
You can never beat
To be bolted to a chrome frame and be a bicycle seat

Life could be oh so sweet
If I was a bicycle seat
Ride, ride limbo treat
sit on me, I'm a bicycle seat
No more hustles, no more deals
No more trying to sneak those wheels
No more cruisin' or cosmic raps
No more staring at ladies laps
No more eyeing little worms
No more chasing after bumms
No more would you like to dance
No more getting in their pants
Everything i really mean
Is riding right to the bumper seat
No more smelling good to waste
With you pressed against my face

Lords of the Ring

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:07:00 +0000

sword swinging,
bike pedaling warriors
avenge the destruction
of their friends bike

Sierra Club gears up

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:44:00 +0000

to hike, bike,
and paddle

The venerable enviro-org has launched a new website, Sierra Club Trails. It's up and running in a beta test now, and they're planning to launch it soon. As far as I know, the site is the first-ever comprehensive hiking wiki where anyone can post their favorite trails for hiking, biking, even water trails for kayaking. Anyone else then can edit the So if I post a route to Milwaukee, anyone who rode it recently can update road conditions, construction, traffic, etc.

It's also an online community where users can create profiles and meet other bikers, hikers, surfers, you name it, and join discussion forums with topics like the best trail mix recipe or whether guns should be allowed in national parks. Community members can form groups around a particular outdoor interest or place. So it features tips for outdoor adventurers alike, a birding blog, photo contests, and Nature Notes, a series of audio features based on interviews with naturalists and Sierra Club Outings leaders.

Tonight's Northside Mass...

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:51:00 +0000

Jason's last
%-{(>

Jason, biking stalwart and all around great guy, is leaving The City of Big Shoulders for the greener, if not more humid, pastures of The Big Easy. He's got a pretty good job offer down there in his hometown. All of us who've got to know him on the Northside Mass, FBC Full Moon Fiasco, Chicago Mass, and Winston's Tweed Ride are going to be sad tonight. Hopefully with cash in his pockets now he'll get some sister rides up and rolling down there. So although he's soon to be gone, he certainly won't be forgotten!

Speed demons

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:20:00 +0000

or how to
kill a biker

Speed Kills is about as obvious as it gets for anyone who commutes daily in big metro areas like our City of Big Shoulders. Last year, The Spokesman posted about Delaware's then new Neighborhood Speeding Campaign. Its central message is brutally honest: if a cager hits you at 20 mph you have a 5% chance of dying. Up the speed to 30 mph and your chance of death goes up to 45%. Pulling no punches, this rather stark mathematics explains why the state sets the speed limit in residential areas at 25 mph. Of course, part of the problem is that the faster cagers go the more distance they need to stop. So I've put the two sets of sobering statistics together.

Cagers going...
20 mph, need 69 feet to stop

If not, bikers have a...
5% chance dying

30 mph, need 123 feet to stop
45% chance of dying

40 mph, need 189 feet to stop
85% chance of dying

North by ...

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:53:00 +0000

by northwest

Vic McDaniel and Ray Francisco, just out of high school, set out from Santa Rosa, CA on second-hand bikes, bound for the great Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle. Travelling on dusty roads, roads of logs, of planks, even of corn stalks, and often no roads at all, they pedaled, pushed, and walked a thousand miles north for fifty-four days.

They started out with only $5.65 between them. Camp was wherever, whenever the sun was gone; food was an occasional meal from a kindly farm wife and what they could fish, hunt, or glean. But they learned that all strangers were not kind, not even close. Vic and Ray reported their adventures to their home-town newspaper. And what adventures they had. They traveled paths beside railroad tracks, fought their way around boulders and up brushy hillsides, and crossed rivers layered with salmon.

Evelyn Gibb, daughter of one of the cyclists, has drawn on her father's recollections to tell this incredible adventure in his voice. Winner of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Nonfiction Book Award, Two Wheels North is a fascinating account of a journey that today we can only dream about--one that finds two boys on the road not only to Seattle, but also to manhood.

Full Moon Fiasco VII

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:43:00 +0000

the FBC
presents...

Tuesday, 7 July 2009 Leaving from The Gingerman
3740 N. Clark St. @8PM

Windy City Wool

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:52:00 +0000

Winston's Tweed
hits the Big Time!

Ode to cigarettes

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:29:00 +0000

Orwell’s obsession
with tobacco

Cigarette smoke so permeates George Orwell's stories it almost leaves stains on one’s fingers when reading his books.

So writes Josh Indar in Bumming Smokes in Paris and London. I was fascinated to read this last week in PopMatters' retrospective on the 60th anniversary of 1984. Anyone who's rolled with me knows that I'm a smoker ... an enthusiastic smoker! What started as the youthful urge to be cool has become a 2-pack a day habit. Having tried to quit cold-turkey several times, I certainly understand the power nicotine must've had over Orwell.

Skulking about smoke-free Eton College with a cigarette dangling provocatively from his lip gave Orwell that particular Bohemian air. Later, the ritual of rolling your own probably appealed to his machismo. Smoking also had its practical side. He writes in both Homage to Catalonia and Down and Out in Paris and London that appetite-suppressing nicotine helped him survive when food was scarce or too expensive.

I certainly can concur. My habit definitely took off when I was working in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the war. While UN food convoys were often blocked by the warlords, Drina cigarettes always seemed to get through. And now, being woefully under-employed, I find myself subsisting on Winston Ultra Lights. There's nothing like war and poverty for reinforcing your existential view of life.

Indar points out that cigarettes were most often associated with the working class characters in Orwell's books. This should come as no surprise since much of his work championed the commoners. And perhaps by identifying with their daily struggles, smoking helped him to camouflage his middle class origins.

This is especially apparent in Homage to Catalonia, Orwell's memoir of the Spanish Civil War. Tobacco is listed as one of the five basic necessities of soldiers in combat. The other four are firewood, food, candles and the enemy. Sharing them at the front also built trust and camaraderie. Describing street fighting in Barcelona, he gratefully acknowledges the small act of heroism performed by a fellow militiaman, who finds two packs of Lucky Strikes under terrible gunfire.

Hill climbing

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:14:00 +0000

with
Mr. Punch Awheel!

The Squire:

But I tell you, sir,
this road is private, and you shall not pass except over my prostrate body!

The Biker:

All right, guv'nor, I'll go back.
I've done enough hill climbing already!

Hints for beginners

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:25:00 +0000

from Punch

Most folks, today, forget that back of the turn of the 20th Century cages and bikes were BOTH considered the epitome of modern transportation. As each became equally ubiquitous on the highways and byways of Merry Ole' England, the venerable Punch magazine humorously observed their impact. Then in 1910, J. A. Hammerton compiled these observations in Mr. Punch Awheel: The Humours of Motoring and Cycling. What strikes me most are the similarities in the not-so subtle humor of this work and that of Yehuda Moon or Andy Singer. As the French would say, plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose. Although it's unfortunate that the book is out of print, you can get a peek over at Project Gutenberg. Below is one brief example, Hints for Bike Beginners.

1. Insure your life and limbs. The former will benefit your relations, the latter yourself.

2. Learn on a hired machine. The best plan is to borrow a machine from a friend. It saves hiring. Should the tyre become punctured, the brake be broken, the bell cracked, the lamp missing, and the gear out of gear, you will return it as soon as possible, advising your friend to provide himself with a stronger one next time.

3. Practise on some soft and smooth ground. For example, on a lawn; the one next door for choice. A muddy road, although sufficiently soft, is not recommended—the drawbacks are obvious.

4. Choose a secluded place for practising. It may at first sight appear somewhat selfish to deprive your neighbours of a gratuitous performance which would be certain to amuse them. Nevertheless, be firm.

5. Get someone to hold you on. Engage a friend in an interesting conversation while you mount your bicycle. Do you remember Mr. Winkle's dialogue with Sam Weller when he attempted skating? You can model your conversation on this idea. Friend will support you while you ride and talk. Keep him at it. It will be excellent exercise for him, physically and morally. Also economical for you; as, otherwise, you would have to pay a runner.

6. Don't bike; trike.

When I was a child...

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:53:00 +0000

I biked as a child

Last Saturday, Rob O'Flanagan, a columnist for Canada's GuelphMercury, wrote Why bike laws fail so abysmally. It poses the theory that they way we bike as kids is the way we bike as adults. Although I agree with his conclusion I think there's more than childhood nostalgia at work here. Biking, like caging in the US, is suffused with a passionate sense of freedom. Below is his piece with more of my reactions.

I have a theory on why it's so hard to enforce bicycle laws, and why it seems nearly impossible to change cycling habits. The theory may extend to all manner of things related to what we learn as children and find hard to unlearn as adults.

Certainly, the ultimate success of bikes as a popular form of alternative form of transportation will depend on getting folks on bikes when they're young.

Every now and then police officers make an effort to crack down on cyclists who pedal on sidewalks or break other bike laws. But there is a futility to the effort because of the embedded cultural reality of the bicycle in Canada.

I've always wondered if the often sporadic enforcement of bike offenses by Chicago's Finest is due mostly to the the large number of bikers compared to the relatively small number of officers. Also, as many of my bike buds like to say, "Don't they have more serious offenses to cite?"

It looks kind of silly for anyone other than a child to ride their bike on the sidewalk, or to fluidly flow from street to sidewalk as though they were one seamless two-wheel thoroughfare. But you see big people do it often. I'll admit I sometimes get the impulse to bodycheck sidewalk riders, but I resist the urge.

I totally agree, especially since in my neighborhood most pedestrians are older folks.

The reason this fluidity exists is because most of us learn to ride bikes when we are kids -- when the sidewalk, the park, the train tracks, the parking lot, the riverbank and all other accessible pathways were travelled at will. Biking was strictly a form of recreation, with very little utility attached, unlike in other cultures where the bike is an indispensable means of transportation, even a means of livelihood. That was the beauty of riding a bike as a kid -- your route was unlimited. A bike was a tool of the imagination more than an object of practicality. That was the beauty of riding a bike as a kid -- your route was unlimited. A bike was a tool of the imagination more than an object of practicality.

This childhood nostalgia is certainly reinforced by the Bikes Are Toys marketing major US manufacturers introduced after WWII. Besides, anyone who's regularly participated in a Critical Mass, or observed one, would've noticed the widespread attitude that you can bike anywhere anytime.

I grew up on a farm, so most of my biking was restricted to dirt roads and fields. But taking my banana bike to town was a massive adventure because so much more territory could be covered on two wheels than two feet, and the energy and excitement of that exploration had a way of expanding the scope of possible routes and destinations. My gang of friends and I biked everywhere -- graveyard, schoolyard, gravel pit, hospital grounds and playgrounds -- up onto sidewalks, blasting across streets, riding on the wrong side of the road, bobbing and weaving through traffic. All at the highest possible speeds our legs could take us.

I too grew up in mostly rural areas where traffic was at a minimum. In fact, I didn't own a helmet until I move here to The Windy City over a decade ago when I was in my mid-40s.

A bike wasn't a bike after all. It was a motorcycle, a racing car or a spacecraft. The rider was Evel Knievel, popping wheelies, jumping gorges. Or Mario Andretti competing in the Indianapolis 500. Or a space traveller hovering over the surface of the moon. Then the controlling hands of civil society reached in to reshape the imagination and impose order. All those biking habits we learned as kids were to be abandoned. Riding on the sidewalk was branded a perilous thing, injurious, even life-threatening. And, most importantly, it is disorderly and therefore must be stopped.

Now, young and older adult bikers are divided into playful sub-cultures: freakbikers, tweedriders, full moon cruisers, midnight marauders, etc. This, I think, is a serious response to our dominant WASPY culture that scolds adults with I Corinthians, Chapter III, Verse 11: When I was a child I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things.

If we actually rode bikes for utility -- as a carrier of market vegetables or hauler of scrap metal, as they do in a nation like China -- we might take the laws of the road more seriously. We might see the bike as more than a plaything. But a bike is largely a tool of fun, and it just isn't much fun sticking to bike lanes, hugging the curb hoping a car doesn't side-swipe you. The child inside wants unconstrained riding, wants to find his or her own path.

Having biked in Beijing several years back, I would say that utility, though a big one, isn't the one reason why the Chinese take bike laws more seriously. The number of bikers there probably dwarfs that of all the Western countries combined. If our our free-wheelin' style were to be adopted it would surely lead to chaos. Besides, bikers are more prone to follow the law because way more cops ride bikes there than in the US and being representatives of an authoritarian, one-party state, they definitely get more respect.

If you can do the Bart

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 10:33:00 +0000

you're bad like
Michael Jackson

RIP

Live a little...

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:52:00 +0000

bike a lot

Google streeview rocks

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:52:00 +0000

...and rolls!

One of the amazing things we saw on our inaugural Winston's Tweed Ride was the Google Car. I wish I had noted the location. Then I could see if we made it on Google Streetview. Be that as it may, I was fascinating to read that they've been experimenting with a human-powered alternative. This Google Bike prowls pedestrian-only areas, mostly on university campuses, as well as public parks, theme parks, and hiking/biking trails. The 250-pound vehicle, which resembles the pedicabs that carry tourists around The City of Big Shoulders and other cities.

The would-be mapmaker pumps the pedals up front, with the camera mounted on a tower in the back. On the rear is a red generator along with a large white chest that looks like it might dispense ice cream but actually contains the computer recording the digital images. Riding for Google maps must a pretty sweet job. Though you do have to pedal heavy photography equipment around.

The strangling of Iran...

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:16:00 +0000

empowered women
in an historical perspective

To anyone who thinks that the local and widespread demonstrations against the recent Iranian presidential elections are starting to fail, I have one word: WOMEN! Certainly, much has been made of Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and a host of other web-based, social networking tools being used by the Iranian protesters. It reminds me of the students in Tienanmen Square who, 20 years ago, communicated by fax with the rest of the world and the young Bosnians who did the same thing in the early 90s using email and web-pages. But tools they only are. It's who wields them that really matters. As Anne Applebaum wrote yesterday in The Washington Post,

Not Obama, not Bush and not Twitter ... but years of work and effort lie behind the public display of defiance and, in particular, the number of women on the streets -- and their presence matters. Their presence could strike the deepest blow against the regime ... Its leadership is legitimate, as is its harsh repression of women, because God has decreed that it is so. The outright rejection of this creed by tens of thousands of women, not just over the past weekend but over the past decade, has to weaken the Islamic Republic's claim to invincibility, in Iran and across the Middle East.

I can't agree more. To understand this, you should be reading W. Morgan Shuster's The Strangling of Persia. Published in 1912, it recounts his 8 month assignment as the Treasurer-General of the Persian Empire. He and a small group of American treasury experts had been invited by the new constitutional government in 1910 to strengthen the country's finances. It was hoped this would help resist the 1907 Anglo-Russian Entent that effectively divided Persia into two spheres of influence. Needless to say, neither Great Power was happy with Shuster's work. They supported a royalist insurgency against the popular constitutional government that successfully brought it down in 1911. Several months later, Shuster resigned and left Persia. After his return to the US, he wrote his damning indictment of Russian and British meddling in Persia affairs, stating:

[I]t was obvious that the people of Persia deserve much better than what they are getting, that they wanted us to succeed, but it was the British and the Russians who were determined not to let us succeed.

If you've ever wondered why Iranians are particularly paranoid about the Great Power influence over them, this book will give you great insights. What is especially tragic is that at the beginning of the 2oth Century Iranians strongly supported their constitutional democracy and fervently hoped the US would protect it against Russian and British encroachment. What is most surprising, though, is that Shuster's book includes a small section (pp. 191-199) on the significant role played by Iranian women during and after the 1905-11 Constitutional Revolution. Except for its antique language (as well as attitudes) and the different personalities, it could easily describe the political role Iranian women are playing today.

The Persian women since 1907 had become at a bound the most progressive, not to say radical, in the world. That this statement upsets the ideas of centuries makes no difference. It is the fact.

You can read this section as well as the rest of The Strangling of Persian over at Google Books. I highly recommend that you do so!

For what is liberty
but the unhampered translation of will into act?

Cyril Connolly

Summer babes & elegant bachelors

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:08:00 +0000

there's a ride
for you!

John Greenfield, of Vote With Your Feet fame, will be hosting a Tweed-inspired ride this Saturday. It'll be a stylish bicycle tour of Chicago's retro cocktail patios to a soundtrack of classic jazz played on our rolling sound system. For the gents necktie and/or sports jacket are required. And beautiful city bikes and vintage cruisers are recommended. All are welcome; no registration fee!

The Itinerary:

1. Wicker Park Fountain, 1425 N. Damen. Depart around 6:15 pm.
2. Motel Bar, 600 W. Chicago. Dinner? Depart around 7:45 pm.
3. Nomi, 800 N. Michigan, on the 7th floor of Park Hyatt. Depart around 8:45 pm.
4. Uncommon Ground, 3800 N. Clark. Depart around 10:00 pm.
5. BYOB cocktail party near Albany and Kedzie. We’ll stop to pick up libations on the way. If you’d rather call it a night, from Uncommon Ground head south on Southport, west on Diversey and south on Damen back to Wicker Park

What happend in Iran...

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:58:00 +0000

Sunday Bloody Sunday

2:52 in: Her name was Neda Agha Soltan. She was 27 years old and a philosophy student. She was shot last Saturday, for no apparent reason, as she and her friend, Panahi, were observing the demonstrations in Tehran. The shot will be heard around the world. Will Iran's Joan of Arc embolden the opposition?

When they kill an innocent child, this is not justice. This is not religion. In no way is this acceptable and I'm certain that the one who shot her will not get a pass from God.
- Panahi

Granny pedal power

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:04:00 +0000

yes, she can!

Reuters reports that neither age nor gender ... nor chasing down purse snatchers is a barrier to biking! Over in Buerstadt, Germany an 80-year old woman put the pedal to the meddle after her handbag was stolen from her bike basket by a passing biker. Before she could overtake him on her bike, a sympathetic cager stopped the thief and held him for the authorities.

A surprised police spokesman in nearby Darmstadt stated, The woman had the guts to say, 'I'm not taking that'. With the return of her bag, granny is contemplating better ways to secure her bike basket. Now all she needs to find is someone to pedal!

What's going on in Iran?

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:48:00 +0000

in Iran?

CHICAGOANS TO RALLY IN SOLIDARITY WITH IRANIAN PROTESTERS EVENT SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY JUNE 20, 2009, 4-6PM AT DALEY CENTER PLAZA

Supporters in Chicago have secured permission to stage a peaceful rally at Daley Plaza, where a crowd of approximately two-hundred is expected to gather. Rally participants will attempt to amplify the stifled voices of Iranian protesters who struggle to be heard amid a media clampdown in Iran.
The rally, which will take place on Saturday, June 20, 2009 from 4-6pm, is organized by a group of young Iranians who have become acutely aware of the power and value of their civil rights as U.S. citizens and residents. They understand that electoral fairness and freedom of assembly are precisely what the Iranian protesters are pursuing in the face of tear gas, police batons, and gunfire. Planned and carried out almost entirely through social networking sites, e-mail, and text messaging, the rally itself seeks to mirror the activities of Iranian protesters whose use of technology in furtherance of democratic ideals has captured the attention of the world.
More info here.

Ghost bikes...

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:24:00 +0000

now haunting the Brits

The BBC UK Magazine reports on the haunting trend inspired by the Brit's American Cousins.

Ghost bikes don't just commemorate the dead, they also aim to draw attention to the dangers on the UK's roads. They first appeared in the US in 2003, but the idea has spread around the world and they are now becoming a familiar sight. In the past year, ghost bikes have been spotted in Oxford, Brighton, York and across London. They often appear overnight Cyclist David Pippin has left more than a dozen of the white bikes around the capital.

"They are both a tribute and warning," he says. "They are memorials for a fallen rider. The main point of them is to remember fellow riders who sadly died and also to highlight to other road-users the risks on the roads.

"The white bikes stand out, it makes the drivers aware of cyclists and if it makes one van driver stop and think and not jump the lights or check their mirror and it saves someone's life - it's worth the effort."

An old bike is stripped down so it's left with no pedals, chain or brake cables. This skeleton is then spray-painted white and chained to railings or a lamp post. Often they appear overnight, under the cover of darkness. Latest figures from the National Audit Office show the number of cyclists killed or seriously injured on British roads rose by 11% between 2004 and 2007, despite the amount of cycling staying broadly constant. In 2007 alone over 16,000 cyclists were injured in the UK and 136 were killed.

In May 2009 Adrianna Skrzypiec, 31, was killed in Greenwich while cycling home from work. A ghost bike, adorned with flowers, was placed at the junction where she died. Anthony Austin from Greenwich Cyclists put up the tribute and says her family and friends were very appreciative.

"I'm a cycling instructor and I believe cycling is safe," he says. "I certainly wouldn't want to deter anyone from cycling. But when there's a collision between a vehicle and a cyclist - it's usually the cyclist that comes off worse. It's a temporary reminder of how dangerous it can be."

Giles Carlin is appealing for witnesses to the accident which killed his girlfriend Eilidh Cairns, 30, in west London in February. He says Eilidh was travelling the same route she had done every day for nearly three years and on that particular day she collided with a lorry.

"I knew she thought ghost bikes were a good idea, because we'd discussed it and we'd seen them dotted around London," he says. "Ghost bikes should be there to warn other road users about the vulnerability of cyclists. If that's all they do that's a great thing, but they're also a memorial to someone who's been killed."

Most ghost bikes are temporary - they soon get removed by the authorities, are vandalised or are stolen. But some friends and families of accident victims think the symbols should become permanent memorials. Giles Carlin says:

"A ghost bike as a permanent reminder would be great. As far as I know not many are kept up past six months. If the councils were involved and the Mayor, making them permanent would be a great thing. "

A ghost bike will soon appear at the spot where Eilidh was killed, another haunting reminder of the dangers on our roads.

Forever 2 wheels

noreply@blogger.com (Da' Square Wheelman,) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:30:00 +0000

F.T.W.
by the
Smut Peddlers

I realize this little punk ditty is actually about motorcycles. But it does capture the frustrations of the velotariat as well! Enjoy.

I’m not encased in metal
And I do not watch TV
I like my motorcycle
Because it helps me to feel free
The highways and byways are overrun
With Acura gangster clones
And soccer moms in S.U.V.’s
Who are talking on the phone
Fuck the world!
Forever two wheels!
To all the crazy drivers
whipping in and out of lanes
start using your turn signals
or suck my lock and chain
Your car’s all over the road
You’ve got alcohol on your breath
It gets me homicidal
Because for me it’s life and death
Fuck the world!
Forever two wheels!

You drive like a simp
And you think you’re a pimp
In your climate controlled cage
I’ve got hostile envy and it sets me in a rage
You’d better hope I don’t survive
If you get me in a crash
Cuz I’m looking to kill you
And they call me scooter trash
Fuck the world!
Forever two wheels!